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Title: Universe 2
Series: Universe Anthology #2
Author: Terry Carr (ed)
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 231
Words: 70K
Marginally better than the previous volume, but with some of the names involved, I expected a LOT better. Here’s the TOC:
RETROACTIVE
by Bob Shaw
WHEN WE WENT TO SEE THE END OF THE WORLD
by Robert Silverberg
FUNERAL SERVICE
by Gerard F. Conway
A SPECIAL CONDITION IN SUMMIT CITY
by R. A. Lafferty
PATRON OF THE ARTS
by William Rotsler
USEFUL PHRASES FOR THE TOURIST
by Joanna Russ
ON THE DOWNHILL SIDE
by Harlan Ellison
THE OTHER PERCEIVER
by Pamela Sargent
MY HEAD’S IN A DIFFERENT PLACE, NOW
by Grania Davis
STALKING THE SUN
by Gordon Eklund
THE MAN WHO WAVED HELLO
by Gardner R. Dozois
THE HEADLESS MAN
by Gene Wolfe
TIGER BOY
by Edgar Pangborn
The weirdest, out there, completely bonzo’d gourd story was without a doubt the one by Grania Davis. A couple of druggies go to Mexico or South America, or some place south of California and get stoned out of their gourd and eventually turn into monsters. It was very disturbing, mainly because they had a young daughter (toddler age).
However, I still am not sold on this series. I’ll give it one more book to try to actually interest me but if it doesn’t, I’m going to have to call it quits. I’d probably be better off quitting now but I don’t have another anthology series lined up and I want that. Now that I just wrote that, that is absolutely silly. I would be better served simply not reading something than something that is sub-par, like this Universes series. So I’m done.
And this is one reason WHY I write reviews as well as rate the books I read. Being introspective sometimes takes time to allow my thoughts to stop swirling and to settle and that is when I have moments of clarity like the above paragraph.
★★★☆☆
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