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lindzee's review
1.0
Not for me. I liked the premise, but the stories themselves weren't that interesting to me.
haramis's review against another edition
4.0
Not all of these stories were to my taste, but I'm glad I stuck it out. I found that the second half was much stronger than the first, with the collection really picking up with "Muse of Fire" by John Scalzi. Everything after that was really good in individual ways.
sophiaforever's review against another edition
3.0
The only story in this that was worth the read was "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal. It was done in the style of Ray Bradbury and it was an EXCELLENT tribute to the author.
theaudioauditor's review against another edition
4.0
Audio book review.
A great collection of short stories built on the backs of other famous first lines. I love the concept, and the execution was overall entertaining. Each of the stories has their own twist, their own author flavor. Hard to review a book of short stories. Would definitely recommend.
A great collection of short stories built on the backs of other famous first lines. I love the concept, and the execution was overall entertaining. Each of the stories has their own twist, their own author flavor. Hard to review a book of short stories. Would definitely recommend.
lyriclorelei's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
I had not previously read anything by most of these authors... and I will not be looking up more of their work based off of these stories.
The standout stories were: "The Red Menace" by Tidhar, "Writer's Block" by Kress, "Highland Reel" by Campbell, and my favorite and the reason I bought this collection "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Robinette Kowal. I recommend these stories, leave the rest.
The standout stories were: "The Red Menace" by Tidhar, "Writer's Block" by Kress, "Highland Reel" by Campbell, and my favorite and the reason I bought this collection "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Robinette Kowal. I recommend these stories, leave the rest.
nniskanen's review against another edition
4.0
Rip-off! is a highly entertaining short story collection giving great genre authors free reign with famous first lines from the Bible to Pride and Prejudice. They use their starting points as stepping stones to places that are not only new but sometimes completely unexpected as well.
The whole anthology is chock-full of gorgeous stories and it's incredibly hard to pick a favourite but if forced I think mine might be The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Or maybe even Karin Coxswain or Death as She Truly lived by Paul di Philippo. Or... Well just read the whole thing. It is very good.
The whole anthology is chock-full of gorgeous stories and it's incredibly hard to pick a favourite but if forced I think mine might be The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Or maybe even Karin Coxswain or Death as She Truly lived by Paul di Philippo. Or... Well just read the whole thing. It is very good.
crazytourists_books's review against another edition
fast-paced
2.5
My first science fiction book (of short stories) ever. I liked a few, I disliked a few, but I just couldn't get into the atmosphere.
It did make me want to read more of "The lady astronaut"'s stories.
It did make me want to read more of "The lady astronaut"'s stories.
everydaymagic's review against another edition
3.0
Loved about half the stories, the other half were good, but not great. Did not like that the Audible chapter markings gave no indication whose short story was which, so I had to listen "blind," as it were, and still don't have a full listing of what authors and narrators are included because of that. In short, the fiction is fine, and I liked each author's intro, but what I didn't like was how the audio book portion was not adjusted to be more "listener-friendly."