A Better Way to Die: The Collected Short Stories

I first became acquainted with Paul Cornell when he wrote the episode “Father’s Day” for the 2005 return of Doctor Who. His episode had everything I could possibly want - time travel, pathos, hubris, deep human longing, and big scary monsters with gnashing teeth. Oh, and the end of the world.

If you too are a fan of those things, then Cornell’s story collection A BETTER WAY TO DIE will not disappoint. The stories from very early in his career show fascinating glimpses of the writer he would become, while also standing on their own. And Cornell’s personal notes after each one give you a glimpse of the man himself - smart, caring, self-aware and very, very British. If you’re not already a fan, this is a wonderful gateway book show more in the the weird worlds of Paul Cornell. And if you’re already familiar, open it up and enjoy. show less

I was familiar with Paul Cornell's work on Doctor Who and a big fan of Shadow Police series, London Falling and The Severed Streets, but not at all familiar with his short fiction. The stories in this anthology range from early early works written in 1992 through stories published in the Rogues anthology in 2014. Through the decades Cornell doesn't shy away from experimenting in tone and style and character and genre. Some of the experiments are, perhaps, less successful, but they are always interesting.

"The Occurrence of Slocombe Priory" was a fun take on Scooby Do written in a 19th century style, a mashup of genre that made me chuckle. Unexpected and clever. Also unexpected in the point of view in "The Sensible Folly", a story that show more shouldn't work but was I enjoyed a great deal.

I have enjoyed the Wild Cards universe but never read Cornell's contributions to that world. Both "More" and "The Elephant in the Room" are excellent additions to Wild Cards and were, perhaps my favorite in this collection. show less

This collection of 22 short stories come from across Cornell’s career, and really show his breadth of ability as a writer. I’ve enjoyed his other work – for example, the Shadow Police series, the Lychford series, and of course his work on Doctor Who - but most of these are quite different. There wasn’t a lot of humour in them and I can’t say I liked all the stories (one I found completely incomprehensible) but they were all interesting. I also liked the author’s notes, which helped put the stories in context.
Reviewed from an eBook copy received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in return for an honest review.

I wasn't familiar with Paul Cornell's work until I read this collection of his short stories. He's obviously an experienced, competent writer and I enjoyed many of the stories quite a bit. A few of them were too experimental or otherwise not to my taste, but most of them were quite good.

Each story is followed by an author's note, which I appreciated. The exception is the last four stories - my favorite of the set - for which I would have been particularly interested in the author's comments. Those four shorts are connected (same world, same protagonist), which sets them apart from the standalone stories in rest of the collection.

The other exception to the standalone nature of the collection was a pair set in the shared "Wild Cards" show more universe. I found both excellent, and one of them truly hilarious.

Those six were the only stories that drew me back and made me eager to pick up the book. The rest were less memorable, but interesting, well-written, and quite enjoyable. show less

As with most short story collections there are some that you don't like as the others, but I liked most of these. Some of these were written on a theme to join other stories on the same theme in an anthology so may do better when read in the context of those other stories.

I'm getting the negatives out the way, because I enjoyed many of these. Paul is quite capable of writing in different styles within the SFF genre to a very high standard. There are a couple of clutches of stories that belong together - the Wild Cards series and the Jonathan Hamilton, which is a treat because you get more of the same good stuff.

After each (or sometimes before) story there is a bit of background which I found useful.

I disliked some of the stories in this collection (namely the first few in the book, and the Hamilton stories at the end). There were, however, some in the middle which I found enjoyable. I liked the Wild Card stories, as they were the most fun.

I doubt I'd pick up another book by this author though, as his style isn't the kind I enjoy-a little too complicated for me to get into easily.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Some of the stories were interesting, some just ok an and some were too confusing for me - I got lost at to what is happening. Maybe too experimental for me? I don't know if I would read anything by this author again