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It isn't often I'm able to rate an anthology with 5 stars. "Unidentified Funny Objects" edited by Alex Shvartsman is one of them. The theme of the anthology is humorous takes on science-fiction and fantasy staples with a dash of urban fantasy. 99% of the time, when reading a collection of shorts, I find at least 2-3 works which I simply don't care for. That was NOT the case with this clever collection. The stories range from amusing to outright hilarity. But there was not a "dog" to be found in
I liked it.I did not know that there was humoristic science fiction. I mean, it is obvious when you think about it and I think I have several times read this kind of story.But, there is invariably but, not every story in this anthology was funny. Some was trying hardly, but without success.Of course, everyone enjoys own sense of humour. I like when it is intelligent and surprising.
This book is a collection of 29 humorous science fiction and fantasy stories. There were about 3 stories I didn't much like, but the rest were amusing and perfect for those between book moments or when you just want something short, amusing and frivolous to read before going to bed.
Look, humor is so completely subjective that I'm not really going to try to write an individual review for each story. Instead, think of the ratings I assign each story as a scale where 5 is "made me fall out of my chair laughing" and 0 is "I forgot it the moment I finished it." Your mileage may vary.Timber! by Scott Almes - 3/5The Alien Invasion as Seen in the Twitter Stream of @dweebless by Jake Kerr - 5/5 - Honestly laugh out loud funny.Dreaming Harry by Stephanie Burgis - 4/5 - A little cree...
3/5 - Timber!, by Scott Almes0/5 - The Alien Invasion as Seen in the Twitter Stream of @dweebless, by Jake Kerr1/5 - Dreaming Harry, by Stephanie Burgis1/5 - Fight Finale From the Near Future!, by James Beamon1/5 - Temporal Shimmies, by Jennifer Pelland2/5 - The Day they Repossessed my Zombies, by K.G. Jewell0/5 - Moon Landing, by Lavie Tidhar3/5 - The Last Dragon Slayer, by Chuck Rothman2/5 - The Venus of Willendorf, by Deborah Walker2/5 - Love Thy Neighbors, by Ken Liu2/5 - The Alchemist's Chi...
Stories range from silly to really funny to what the heck did I just read? I was going to give it four stars because a few of the stories weren't my cup of tea, but that was stated up front. Because of the wide range of humor that was covered, it's bound to happen that there would be a head-scratcher in the bunch. I enjoyed the rest of them, and despite the common theme, they weren't repetitive. With many anthologies, I find myself taking a break in the middle until I'm in the mood again. That w...
First this last night when I should have been sleeping. Very fun book of funny SF/Horror/Fantasy short stories. Stories ranged from chuckle and groan worthy to very funny and very interesting. “The Worm’s Eye View” by Jody Lynn Nye an alien and a police detective working together to solve the mystery of it's hosts death since the alien was basically an intelligent tape worm. Fun characters. “An Unchanted Sword” by Jeff Stehman and “The Day They Repossessed my Zombies” by K.G. Jewell were two oth...
not nearly as entertaining as i expected it to be.
I have a gambler's fallacy with trying out anthologies. I'll give Volume 1 the old college try, end up underwhelmed or disgruntled, and rapidly track down the continuation(s) until I never want to see the editor's name again. Onto Volume 2.
One of my goals for 2013 is to read more short fiction. This collection definitely fit the bill. I love short fiction, and I love well-done humor. This anthology is nicely balanced. The humor ranges from puns with elaborate set-ups that are a great deal of fun to more subtle humor that doesn't make you laugh out loud, but may make you chuckle. Evilly, even.I think there's definitely something in this collection for everyone, no matter what your sense of humor. The comics are a nice addition I wa...
I found most of the short-stories hilarious.Honestly there wsa some of them I didn't get, but most of them was fantastic. Just the idea that a drug could make your dreams spawn, in your parents bedroom is brilliant, though slightly worrying when you grow up...In general the quality of the stories is through the roof, but what can you expect when the anthology is handpicked from 100's of stories.Normally I don't read short-stories, but this collection has kept me caught in its net. I really liked...
Nice stories ranging between goofy and intelligent. A good read, I enjoyed it. Excellent cartoons by Mike Jacobsen.
Unidentified Funny Objects editor Alex Shvartsman got in touch with me after I reviewed IN SITU edited by Carrie Cuinn, in which his story The Field Trip was one of my favourites. He asked whether I'd be interested in reviewing his anthology of humorous SFF short stories. This gave me a bit of pause; humour is very much subjective and thus I find it hard to judge stories on whether they are funny when they are meant to be. This is different from a work that is published as SFF and as additio...
This is a solid collection of stories, but I'll admit some of them just didn't work for me. Humor is subjective, however, so my personal tastes probably didn't gel with those particular pieces. I tend to like stories that have an absurd premise or eccentric characters. I'm particularly fond of writers like Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Christopher Moore, and Jasper Fforde. That's the kind of vibe I look for in humor stories. With that in mind, my favorites in this anthology are:"Timber" by Sco...
An anthology of the improbable, the impossible made possible and more fun than you can imagine.
I'm sad it took me so long to get to this. I supported the original Kickstarter, so I've had electronic and print copies waiting to be read for some time. While on a long drive home for Thanksgiving, I finished a dark fantasy novel and really wanted to switch to something light. The UFO anthology fit my mood perfectly.Anthologies can be hit or miss for me. This one is consistently good, though only a few really made me laugh out loud. My favorite by far was "The Alien Invasion" by Jake Kerr. I u...
I enjoyed these stories and to cap it off with Mike Resnick fantasy with Einstein and Eleanor fighting nazis made it a great time. In the middle of the book there was a ton of solid stories which was great because a lot of the time editors pack the beginning and end with the best stories.
This is a one-star book for me. I hated almost every story in it. However, it gets an extra star because I liked the Lukyanenko story so much. That story was satisfying in ever so many ways.
Disclaimer: I'm in this book. But it's awesome anyway!
This was a great collection of short funny stories. I enjoyed most of them.