Worlds Enough & Time, by Dan Simmons, HarperCollins, 2002, 262pp.

Amazingly awful. Simmons's Ilium was fun, and the Hyperion series was great, but this collection of stories is unoriginal and the long introductions to each story are self-infatuated. One of the stories is in the Hyperion universe, but not worth reading nevertheless. Avoid like the Shrike.

It is possible that I just do not like SF short stories any more: I remember thinking that Banks's The State of the Art was easily his worst book. Note that I think Simmons and Banks are two of today's SF greats, otherwise.

Paul wrote: I really disliked hyperion. I told you that, right? I agree on recent short stories. I keep picking up the nebula short story collections and finding them generally poor. But the green leopard plague (available in full here ) was really worth reading. I also fondly remember Sand Kings by George R.R. martin as a short story of note from my youth. and of course, Foundation was just a set of shorts right? So maybe there is hope still.

I replied: I did not remember that you disliked Hyperion, but have to admit that I read the series over more than a decade and one's tastes change. I did not remember that Foundation was a series of shorts, yet I remember the names Hari Seldon, Trantor etc. SF is weird that way. I thought VioletBooks' essay on Sturgeon was an interesting look back on short stories one liked as a kid. I remember Sturgeon and Bradbury stories fondly, but have not attempted to reread them. I'll make a note to read Sandkings and Leopards.