Breaking Windows: A Fantastic Metropolis Sampler

Rating:
Summary: Windows that needed to be broken
Review: Breaking Windows contains an article by Michael Moorcock discussing Mervyn Peake and his influence on fantastic fiction, and on Moorcock personally. It contains a list of fifty books in the SF and Fantasy tradition that China Mieville thinks any socialist should read. It contains 'Gauntlet of Gorgons', which in of itself means you should read it. I could try and dazzle you with verbosity here, but I won't: just consider that these are but three of the manifold delights the book offers. This is a whirlwind assault on the tedious, the trite and the painfully pedantic. You need to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Not one hundred percent convinced...
Review: Fantastic Metropolis is a fantastic idea, and I am sure it will help science fiction much in the years to come. Science Fiction, as I see it, is in desperate need of some new ideas. These are people that are more inspired by Merwyn Peake than by Tolkien. They want more intelligent and stylistically advanced science fiction. Now, that is difficult, since it must also be readable. In this sampler I much preferred the editorials and non-fiction over the short stories! I feel that in their creative joy, some authors have missed out on plots or interesting stories. Science Fiction is, at the heart of it, based on plot, not characterization or style. On the other hand, modern scince fiction is deperately lacking in both. I hope that in the future the editors of Fantastic Metropolis will manage to create a viable fusion. So, my verdict is that buy it to read the interesting editorials, and to suport the work of the Fantastic Metropolis website.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This book is an excuse to re-read the best stuff from the Fantastic Metropolis Web site.

Read Moorcock's editorial, which is sort of a second introduction after Luís' exploration of the city in speculative fiction and the genesis of the site, to get a sense of what Fantastic Metropolis is all about. There's no manifesto, just a committment to creativity, diversity, and originality. Luís did an excellent job culling the best of the best from the site, and keeping the reading interesting with essays, interviews, lists, and of course fiction. And the book even *looks* good.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This book is an excuse to re-read the best stuff from the Fantastic Metropolis Web site.

Read Moorcock's editorial, which is sort of a second introduction after Luís' exploration of the city in speculative fiction and the genesis of the site, to get a sense of what Fantastic Metropolis is all about. There's no manifesto, just a committment to creativity, diversity, and originality. Luís did an excellent job culling the best of the best from the site, and keeping the reading interesting with essays, interviews, lists, and of course fiction. And the book even *looks* good.