‘m kinda cheating here. I’m in the middle of an Ark Royal book and I had to give Art of War a break (interesting, but they are milking it through explanations to justify a bookish length). So really, I began The Year’s Best Science Fiction (Vol 1) , by Jonathan Strahan, after last Christmas (when my who-knows-me-best wife gifted it to me). And she got it off the old books graveyard shelf, given that it was Yule 2021 and the year in Year, here, is 2019.

But collections of short stories can be the bomb. You can read them in any order, at any speed, and generally get a reward for a reading session or two. Perfect for airplanes and doctor’s officers, and at lunches when nobody is around.

But this collection I’ve been data-mining for reviews all year long. The stories are vibrant and thoughtful, some funny some sad, some disturbing. I recently wrote about Thoughts and Prayers, which was disturbing in the things it conveyed. Other stories were just as good. So if you want a good collection, this thick volume is perfect, and you can use it to prop open doors or squash roaches when you are done (just joking – this one goes on the shelf where it will likely be sold by an estate sale vulture in some distant year (God, depressing to even consider).

But yes, I’m giving this collection a high recommendation. And guess what? There is a volume 2, which I also have! Yay! So given my rate of speed, look for a review of that one sometime next year.

Oh, but I’ll be sneaking stories out of it for quick reviews when I’m against deadline between now and then. I have white space to fill, you know?

>>>AND IF YOU WANT TO SEE HOW I FILL WHITE SPACE, CHECK OUT MY NOVELS HERE!<<<