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Reading 5X5: Writers' Edition
Five stories, five times
Five science fiction and fantasy themes, each explored five times by five different authors.
Twenty-five great authors demonstrating just how varied and interesting SF&F can be, and how each author's style and approach make all the difference.
Five science fiction and fantasy themes, each explored five times by five different authors.
Twenty-five great authors demonstrating just how varied and interesting SF&F can be, and how each author's style and approach make all the difference.
440 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2018
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
B. Morris Allen
163 books25 followersB. Morris Allen is a biochemist turned activist turned lawyer turned foreign aid consultant, and frequently wonders whether it's time for a new career. He's been traveling since birth, and has lived on five continents. When he can, he makes his home on the Oregon coast. In between journeys, he edits Metaphorosis magazine, and works on his own speculative stories of love and disaster. His dark fantasy novel Susurrus came out in 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 9, 2018
I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This anthology hooked me in with its premise: five genres and story briefs, with five authors writing each one. The genres included were contemporary fantasy, soft science fiction, other, hard science fiction, and high fantasy; all genres that I'm interested in. The book is set up so that all the stories, divided by genre, come first, and the briefs are all at the end. I loved reading the stories in one genre, playing detective to find the common elements between them, and then going to the end to see what the authors were working off of.
My favorite genre in this anthology was definitely the contemporary fantasy. I don't want to spoil too much, but the stories in that genre all with the apocalypse and the protagonist's struggle between preventing the apocalypse or leaving home and being free; basically, the brief was right up my alley. The different interpretations of the brief were really cool and a few of the endings definitely surprised me. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the hard science fiction stories, since I don't read a lot of hard science fiction and I was expecting for the stories to go over my head. They were all very accessible, though, and I loved the AI element in each story.
Overall, I thought there was a really good mix of stories in here. I thought it was fairly easy to find the similarities between the contemporary fantasy stories, since the setting was more limiting/specific than the others, but I had a slightly harder time with the other genres. Each author put their own spin on their brief and even stories within the same genre were wildly different. Just a sneak peek of some of the things in this anthology: Aliens! Egyptian noir! Blood mages! Werewolves! There was only one story I wasn't super into, but it still interested me enough to finish reading it.
Another plus was the diversity in the stories. I didn't really go into the book expecting a lot, but I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of characters represented!
Reading 5x5 is a solid anthology, and I'm definitely interested in checking out other works from the authors who contributed.
This anthology hooked me in with its premise: five genres and story briefs, with five authors writing each one. The genres included were contemporary fantasy, soft science fiction, other, hard science fiction, and high fantasy; all genres that I'm interested in. The book is set up so that all the stories, divided by genre, come first, and the briefs are all at the end. I loved reading the stories in one genre, playing detective to find the common elements between them, and then going to the end to see what the authors were working off of.
My favorite genre in this anthology was definitely the contemporary fantasy. I don't want to spoil too much, but the stories in that genre all with the apocalypse and the protagonist's struggle between preventing the apocalypse or leaving home and being free; basically, the brief was right up my alley. The different interpretations of the brief were really cool and a few of the endings definitely surprised me. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the hard science fiction stories, since I don't read a lot of hard science fiction and I was expecting for the stories to go over my head. They were all very accessible, though, and I loved the AI element in each story.
Overall, I thought there was a really good mix of stories in here. I thought it was fairly easy to find the similarities between the contemporary fantasy stories, since the setting was more limiting/specific than the others, but I had a slightly harder time with the other genres. Each author put their own spin on their brief and even stories within the same genre were wildly different. Just a sneak peek of some of the things in this anthology: Aliens! Egyptian noir! Blood mages! Werewolves! There was only one story I wasn't super into, but it still interested me enough to finish reading it.
Another plus was the diversity in the stories. I didn't really go into the book expecting a lot, but I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of characters represented!
Reading 5x5 is a solid anthology, and I'm definitely interested in checking out other works from the authors who contributed.
February 20, 2019
I read lots of this anthology in spring 2018 but then abandoned it for a long time. Finally got round to reading the rest of the stories now in February 2019.
As with all anthologies, it's a mixed bag. But as a writer, I loved the concept of having different people write their own takes on the same basic story idea, and it was interesting to see how, well, different all the stories were. I always read all the stories in a genre, and then read the brief: it was fun to try to figure out what the common elements were.
My favourite stories in the antho (in the order they appear):
- L Chan, "The Fourth Pillar Says No" (contemporary fantasy)
- Vanessa Fogg, "Kitchen" (contemporary fantasy)
- Karl Dandenell, "The Long View" (hard science fiction)
- Sean Robinson, "Child of Flowers" (high fantasy)
- Karolina Fedyk, "The Gentlest River" (high fantasy)
The problem, of course, with having basically the same premise written many times, is that if I didn't care much for the premise, I wouldn't care much for the stories in that genre. So it's not too surprising that my favourites cluster a bit in terms of genre.
As with all anthologies, it's a mixed bag. But as a writer, I loved the concept of having different people write their own takes on the same basic story idea, and it was interesting to see how, well, different all the stories were. I always read all the stories in a genre, and then read the brief: it was fun to try to figure out what the common elements were.
My favourite stories in the antho (in the order they appear):
- L Chan, "The Fourth Pillar Says No" (contemporary fantasy)
- Vanessa Fogg, "Kitchen" (contemporary fantasy)
- Karl Dandenell, "The Long View" (hard science fiction)
- Sean Robinson, "Child of Flowers" (high fantasy)
- Karolina Fedyk, "The Gentlest River" (high fantasy)
The problem, of course, with having basically the same premise written many times, is that if I didn't care much for the premise, I wouldn't care much for the stories in that genre. So it's not too surprising that my favourites cluster a bit in terms of genre.
June 18, 2018
Intriguing concept. I like to read the brief first and then the stories. I love the wide variety of styles and concepts within each brief.
April 15, 2018
Originally reviewed at West Coast Book Reviews.
To put a fine point on it, I requested Reading 5x5 purely out of curiosity as a writer. As a reader, my initial thought was "who on earth would want to read the same story five times? Then do it four times more?" I was interested in looking at the mechanics of how such a collaboration might come together. What would a brief look like?
Part way through the first story, I zipped to the end to skim the first brief. By the end of the second story, I found myself enjoying the stories and had mostly forgotten about the briefs! Eventually I found each group of five sufficiently varied that I had little send of reading the same story several times. All in all, a nicely rounded collection of short stories. The similarities are there for one who might want to dissect the briefs and analyze the writing.
Other than one story which felt forced, the rest were four and five stars shorts, rich in description and world and satisfying in spite of limits of their length. Recommended for anyone who enjoys SF and Fantasy short stories.
I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
To put a fine point on it, I requested Reading 5x5 purely out of curiosity as a writer. As a reader, my initial thought was "who on earth would want to read the same story five times? Then do it four times more?" I was interested in looking at the mechanics of how such a collaboration might come together. What would a brief look like?
Part way through the first story, I zipped to the end to skim the first brief. By the end of the second story, I found myself enjoying the stories and had mostly forgotten about the briefs! Eventually I found each group of five sufficiently varied that I had little send of reading the same story several times. All in all, a nicely rounded collection of short stories. The similarities are there for one who might want to dissect the briefs and analyze the writing.
Other than one story which felt forced, the rest were four and five stars shorts, rich in description and world and satisfying in spite of limits of their length. Recommended for anyone who enjoys SF and Fantasy short stories.
I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews