Wizards Of Odd [Paperback]

I ordered Wizards of Odd because I like Fantasy and Science Fiction, and I needed something to read on vacation. The book is divided into three parts: Wizards and Wotsits, Stories of Comic Absurdity; Swords and Sorcery, Tales of Heroic Fantasy; Astonauts and Aliens, Space Opera Yarns. Each part has eight stories by renowned Fantasy and Science Fiction authors, names like Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, C.S. Lewis, and H.G. Wells, as well as many others, tweny-four in all.

I found many of the stories to be amusing and fairly intriguing, covering a range of topics from time travel to aliens to dragons and mythical beasts. My only complaint is that it was not as funny as I had expected. The book claims to be a "delightful collection of comic science fiction and fantasy", but I only found half (if that) of the stories to even make me smile.

It is a good read nonetheless. Entertaining, great for an afternoon by the pool. The stories read quickly, and you can easily finish three or more in a sitting, without realizing you've done so. I would recommend it to lovers of fantasy and science fiction, particularly if you are familiar with the authors featured.

One last note: I really appreciated the short bio on each of the authors at the beginning of their stories. You get to know a bit about them before reading their work, and it makes it all that much more interesting.

This is a collection of humorous science fiction and fantasy stories, written by authors like Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Isic Asimov, Aursula Le-Guin, and more famous authors in the janre. It is full of laughs and great stories, like Playboy And The Slime God, Theater Of Cruelty, Young Zaphod Plays It Safe, and more hilarious stories. Read it now.

This anthology, when the editor means fantasy, he is speaking rather broadly, as in he means 'science fiction and fantasy', as quite a bit of the former in this collection. Presumably the title is to tie in with Pratchett and the Pratchett cover. However, Asimov, Clarke and Vonnegut are in this book as well, so a bit hard to disguise them.

It is divided into three sections, the middle one being a 'heroic fantasy' section, and by that he generally means here anything but horror type fantasy, from Tolkien to Leiber, and the last as 'Space Opera', when it isn't really either. So a whole bunch of creative mislabelling going on for whatever reason.

Death witness.

3.5 out of 5

Jewellery not worth it.

3 out of 5

Angels, devils, all dodgy mate.

2.5 out of 5

Radio rule.

3.5 out of 5

Argumentative overload.

3.5 out of 5

Hey, what does this thingumabob do?

4 out of 5

Outside judging inside, for once.

4 out of 5

What do you call a dragon? Well, if it isn't the right thing, it isn't like you will have to worry about it for long.

4 out of 5

Unicorn revival.

3 out of 5

Dragon, just a big rat?

3 out of 5

Conflict not actually amusing.

3 out of 5

Better than a piercing, at least.

3.5 out of 5

Diamonds, short chick and tall fiends.

4 out of 5

Need protection from quests.

4 out of 5

He's got the dino crabs.

3.5 out of 5

Archaeopteryx, more like chicken, or lizard?

3.5 out of 5

Presidential personality accident.

4 out of 5

Demon donkey drive is long.

3 out of 5

Space escort barrel scraping.

2.5 out of 5

Horsing around in aid of nudity.

4 out of 5

Interstellar contact tricky.

3.5 out of 5

Flying saucer guys not breast men.

4 out of 5

Werewolf girl following time.

3 out of 5

One in, one out. Three at a time sometimes handy.

3.5 out of 5