Headline Review Stories Paperback – Import, 14 April 2011

A diverse collection of short stories with a common theme; "what happened next?".Well, not strictly true, as some of them just leave you feeling pensive, uneasy, or even just plain "warm", such as "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon", which is one of the most beautiful stories I think I've ever read.Start at the beginning and work your way through, or pluck out a story to fit the time you have in your busy life.

I've always had very high expectations from Amazon.in and they've been fulfilled too, until this time. I do agree with the fact that they often give huge discounts on several items (and it makes me extremely happy) but it doesn't imply that I need to compromise with the quality and the condition of the book sold to me. The copy of Stories which I've received appeared to be at least 20 years old with severely yellowed pages, ugly yellowish spots all over them and had to rub off the lose dirt with an eraser before gift wrapping it. If this is the case, then I feel that Amazon should clearly mention about any oddities to be expected along with the discounted items. Hope not to be disappointed by Amazon again.P.S.: This review and rating is NOT based on the contents of the book.

Hi!You read the reviews to decide on whether or not you should buy the book? Look no further. Buy it.Not all stories will match your taste, not all are good, but that is the nature of anthologies. For very little money you get a big book with a lot of stories that are brilliantly arranged to form a chain of linked tales. Despite the broad variety, each story shares a theme, topic, element or idea with the stories before and after. Looking for those links made the few stories that I didn't like more fun.Conclusion: One can't go wrong with this book.

An excellent collection of interesting and quirky stories, ideal for, say, travelling when stop-start reading is required, the usual benefit of short stories.

I rarely read anthologies, and if I do, I only pick them up because one or more authors are among my roster of favorites. So with this one: I bought it for the new stories by Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and Jeffrey Ford. And while Wolfe never disappoints me (his story made me instantly long for a new short story collection) and Swanwick had me immediately picking up my Grimmelshausen and rereading "Simplicissimus", there were many other stories that were very gratifying, making the reader ask, "And then what happened?", as editor Neil Gaiman intended with this book.Gaiman's own story is superb; Michael Moorcock's "Stories" is a moving eulogy for the late Thomas Disch (and his partner, Charley Naylor); Jonathan Carroll's story is eerie but its ending was not quite satisfying. Kurt Andersen presents a droll story and Elizabeth Hand a simply magnificent new novella (but she's Elizabeth hand, so you'd expect nothing less).Some stories were well written but, for me, led nowhere. Ford's story was not up to par with other stories of his I've read. I was a bit annoyed by the "experimental" form of Joe Hill's otherwise very good "The Devil on the Staircase". And there were even a few stinkers, like Palahniuk's story about a frat kid on acid in a game show.All in all, it was very good read, and it made me hunt down the books of authors I hadn't heard of so far, or had heard of but never read.