Other Worlds Than These is a collection of short stories dealing with the concept of alternate and parallel universes. Of course with such a broad topic, the stories range from everything including science fiction to magic to physics. With such a wide range of authors, no two stories are similar, and the reader is sure to find a gem or two among this collection.
Other Worlds Than These
Edited by John Joseph Adams
Night Shade Books
June 26, 2012
Since this book is basically a collection of stories that have no bearing on one another it would be impossible to give out details about any one story without writing a book myself.
That said, I found the book as a whole to be a grab bag in terms of quality. There was, of course, the good, the bad, and the ugly, but also the why is this even in here? Which in regards to the last, given that the overall concept of the book is supposed to be about alternate universes, I found it surprising that there were at least one or two stories that didn't seem to fit the theme by even the loosest of definitions.
There are of course some great stories that stand out, but they unfortunately suffer from the fate that all short stories do, which is that they are, to put it simply, too short. In fact, the limitations brought on by the format actually cause some of the tales to be rather mediocre when they instead could have been great as fleshed out novels.
On the other hand, there were others that dragged on so long with pointless filler that I was tempted to skip them altogether.
Overall, I have to give the book as a whole an average rating. The book does, however, serve well in its purpose as a springboard to explore various different authors. In fact, many of the authors within have their own full length works which will hopefully curb the disappointment at their rather limited contribution.
So if you're searching for something new, I do recommend picking the book up and least giving it a cursory read. Just be forewarned that sometimes you have to take the bad with the good.
