SF, anthology. Some very interesting twists in these stories. Very enjoyable. A couple of Flinx and Pips thrown in, also. ( )

Anthology, purchased for the single Flinx & Pip story which was very good. The rest of the stories were interesting and enjoyable. ( )

Collection of short stories.
contents:
# Lay Your Head on My Pilose
# 22 • Diesel Dream
# 34 • Lethal Perspective
# 43 • Laying Veneer
# 55 • Betcha Can't Eat Just One
# 65 • Fitting Time
# 80 • We Three Kings
# 94 • NASA Sending Addicts to Mars! Giant Government Coverup Revealed!
# 109 • Empowered
# 123 • The Kiss
# 128 • The Impossible Place
# 145 • The Boy Who Was a Sea
# 159 • Undying Iron
# 188 • The Question
# 200 • The Kindness of Strangers
# 216 • Pein bek Longpela Telimpon
# 238 • Suzy Q
# 249 • The Little Bits That Count
# 261 • Sideshow

I'd only read one of them before ("The Boy Who Was a Sea").
Overall, I thought the collection was fairly mediocre. And, apparently, Foster rather agrees (I think). In the introduction, he talks about how, in his viewpoint, short stories are like "practice" for writing longer works, and makes an analogy about how sometimes an artist's sketch in a notebook turns out to be better than the final painting; so, sometimes a short story turns out to be great.
From what I've read in the past, I'd say most authors disagree. Those who write short stories do not consider them to be "lesser," in fact, I've read those who are of the opinion that only more-accomplished writers can really succeed at the more-difficult format of the short story.
I also thought the collection was a bit heavy on the inclusion of celebrities and pop culture in general. Not my kinda thing. I found it mystifying again, in one of the story introductions, where Foster was saying how he gets tired, sometimes, of trying to make his stories "contemporary" and he longs for the "Sense of Wonder" writing that truly transports the reader to another place and time. (The story this is introducing, btw, fails in that regard ('Undying Iron'), IMO) But still, I was left wondering - so WHY "try" to be contemporary, if that's not what you actually like to write! I know Foster has published several very commercial works (movie tie-ins and such), and I guess he is attempting (and succeeding) to just be commerically marketable?

One story deals with the pure SF/fantasy-adventure characters Pip & Flinx, whom he's written several novels about. That wasn't bad - I may check more of them out sometime. ( )