(Quantum Zoo, D. J. Gelner and J. M. Ney-Grimm, eds., Orion Comet, 2014, ASIN B00L0MZFVQ)

This is an anthology of similar-themed stories.  The theme can be summarized by one word—zoo.  Add to that the genre speculative fiction and you have the logic of the title, although quantum mechanics doesn’t play any role here except for making a catchy title.  Note that I said “zoo” is the theme.  Theme lurks behind plot and other writing elements in these stories as varied as the people who wrote them.  I assume the editors said, “That’s the theme—take it and run!”

Some people love anthologies.  Essays, memoir pieces, and, above all, short stories are often collected.  An anthology might have just one author; or, it can have a group of writers, solicited by editors or otherwise.  In either case, if it’s a short story anthology, the reader has the chance to read an author’s story in a minimalist context, one often emphasizing only a few aspects of the writing craft—plot, dialog, characterization, and setting, for example.  I prefer plot above all, but the point is that the reader discovers an author in a stress-free and minimalist environment.  Note that, in all this trade lingo, I haven’t mentioned that readers might like short v. long, i.e. short story over novel.  I think that’s less important—a casual reader can just as well read a chapter of a novel as a short story.

That said, I found the stories in this collection entertaining, some more than others, as is expected in any collection.  The plots are creative with enough twists and misdirects to hold my interest.  Characterization is a bit lacking at times, but that’s expected in a short story—the writer has to shorten things up somewhere.  Dialog varies from OK to A+, and some of the settings are just fantastic, in multiple senses of that word.

I loved Bridget McKenna’s T. Rex story, “A King in Exile” (that’s maybe an infinitesimal spoiler)—it has a Lost World flavor.  I found Ken Furie’s Jack-the-Ripper story, “The Most Dangerous Lies,” to be a gem too, although I would have developed that ending a bit more.  By far, the best story was “Skipdrive” by Morgan Johnson—mind you, that’s a very subjective opinion, because all the stories are good and will appeal to different people.  Johnson’s and Scott Dyson’s stories—Dyson’s is “Playing Man”—are more “hard sci-fi,” which I prefer to the fantasy, horror, and paranormal subgenres.

In fact, some of the stories are hard to categorize.  For example, J. M. Ney-Grimm’s “Serpent’s Foe” seems to be a strange mishmash of fantasy, paranormal, and horror.  It’s the only story where I felt the zoo theme was a bit forced.  It’s also the strangest story in this collection, although strangeness is a common element in many of the stories.

My personal quirks as a reviewer often lead to nitpicks other readers won’t care about, but I’ll list two: In Gelner’s story, “Echoes of Earth,” I saw the same generic problem I heard in a recent Johnny Cash song (in his last album?) where he sings about his own hanging.  Huh?  How’s the story get told then?  In a couple of stories, including Furie’s, I find problems with holograms that have substance (one of my major gripes about Star Trek: The Next Generation).  This is more semantics than anything else—with 3D printers, one can certainly imagine futuristic 3D stage plays populated by GMO androids bioengineered by computer.

Let me emphasize that my not mentioning a particular story here (there are twelve) by no means implies it’s not worth your attention.  I liked them all.  There’s also enough variety to satisfy any speculative fiction junkie.  The bottom line: you will find interesting, entertaining stories here, maybe enough for several beach runs or airplane rides.  Some will keep you scratching your head and maybe smiling for a lot longer.  Sit back and enjoy your trip to the zoological theme park known as the Quantum Zoo!

(The reviewer received a free copy of this ebook in return for an honest review.)

In libris libertas….

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