Ghosts, Spirits, Computers, and World Machines

Rating:
Summary: Starts slow, ends with a flourish
Review: Only 127 pages and 8 stories, I found O'Neill's collection to be a bit thin. Not only that, I felt the title was misleading because there were no hard sci-fi computer or world machine stories. And the book started out weakly with a couple of ok stories. But give it time, give it time.

Like swimming in shallow water at first, you will find yourself suddenly plunging into some excellent tales, starting the warm up with The Burden Of Indigo and finishing with four more excellent stories, The City Never Sleeps is a surreal story of a man's life unfolding, Undercover brings in a very specialized robot on a galactic chase for a villain, The Beautiful Stranger is a haunting tale of a husbands decline into uselessness to his family, and Shadow Of The Mountain is a beautiful and strangely dreamlike look into a young soldier's past as he lay dying.

If you are an anthology lover like I am, this is a worthwhile purchase for your collection. If you are not sure, I strongly recommend checking it out from your local library. I think you will find a pleasant surprise in this author's first collection of shorts. Perfect book for travel or beach, or to keep in your pocket to peruse when waiting on appointments. Enjoy!