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A review by octavia_cade
100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Joseph D. Olander
adventurous
fast-paced
2.0
This is an old collection of very short scifi stories - what would be called flash fiction if it were published today. Given that the book was published in 1978, I think, it mostly contains work from the so-called Golden Age of science fiction, which - with few exceptions - is frankly not a patch on the best scifi being produced at the moment. That may sound snobbish, but of the hundred stories here, I was impressed by three: "Sanity Clause" by Edward Wellen, "I'm Going to Get You" by F.M. Busby, and "Examination Day" by Henry Slesar. And while they were better than the rest, they didn't reach outstanding.
The rest were distinctly average, and there was rather a lot of repetition. Too many stories reliant on letters to publishers, or puns, or twist endings that can be seen a mile off. Look, I've published a couple of flash stories myself. They are hard, and I say that as an experienced short story writer. They're not my natural length, but there are some speculative writers out there who absolutely excel at them. I suppose I should be glad that the form has improved since this book was put together, but then it would have to. Most of these just aren't worth reading again, I'm afraid. And I can count the number of women included here on one hand, which is disappointing.
I don't know... I suspect the appeal of the "100 X stories" idea was such that Asimov, perhaps, grabbed at whatever he could to make up the numbers.
The rest were distinctly average, and there was rather a lot of repetition. Too many stories reliant on letters to publishers, or puns, or twist endings that can be seen a mile off. Look, I've published a couple of flash stories myself. They are hard, and I say that as an experienced short story writer. They're not my natural length, but there are some speculative writers out there who absolutely excel at them. I suppose I should be glad that the form has improved since this book was put together, but then it would have to. Most of these just aren't worth reading again, I'm afraid. And I can count the number of women included here on one hand, which is disappointing.
I don't know... I suspect the appeal of the "100 X stories" idea was such that Asimov, perhaps, grabbed at whatever he could to make up the numbers.