Rating: 3/5 Robert Silverberg (ed.), Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929–1964 (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1970). I typically really enjoy historic science fiction, and I was really looking forward to reading this collection. I wasn’t totally disappointed. About half the stories were really enjoyable,...

Rating: 4/5 Alastair Reynolds, Zima Blue (London: Gollancz, 2009). I had forgotten how much I enjoy Alastair Reynolds’s writing. He is an expert in the “space opera” genre. Short stories give authors a great opportunity to distill a story down to its very essence. Reynolds does not waste words. I really enjoyed this...

Rating: 5/5 S. Joshi (ed.), The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics, 1999). I just finished The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories containing stories of H. P. Lovecraft edited by S. T. Joshi. It does not contain the entirety of Lovecraft’s stories, but it apparently includes the major ones...

Rating: 4/5 Alastair Reynolds, The Six Directions of Space (Subterranean Press, 2008). There is a special art to writing a short story, a particular balance you have to maintain between giving the reader too much information about topics you’ll never have room to fully explore, and making sure they have enough to get...