{"id":1380,"date":"2009-09-29T10:50:22","date_gmt":"2009-09-29T15:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=1380"},"modified":"2021-06-02T19:20:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T23:20:46","slug":"better-off-undead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1380","title":{"rendered":"Better Off Undead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Better Off Undead<\/a><\/em> (2008) edited by Martin H. Greenberg<\/a> and Daniel M. Hoyt<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anthologies edited by Martin H. Greenberg are usually ones I can pick up knowing that I’ll like the majority of stories within.<\/p>\n

This volume? Not so much. There were a handful of stories I thought were good, but for the most part? Meh.<\/p>\n

“A Grain of Salt”–the first story in the book–was one I did like. It reminded me of Liz Williams<\/a>‘ Detective Inspector Chen stories, not just because it was Chinese in flavor, but the underworld was in many ways like Liz Williams’ hell. <\/p>\n

Alan Dean Foster’s story “Ah, Yehz” was one that I particularly liked. Lots of the stories in this anthology had twists at the end, but for the most part that was the whole of the story–working up to the punchline in the end. But “Ah, Yehz” was interesting in and of itself, and for the brevity of the story, had some nice world building. Archie is caught stealing from a fountain in the cemetery by one of the ghosts. While trying to escape he meets an unusual fellow who is willing to help him. <\/p>\n

Irene Radford’s “Museum Hauntings” was another story that was well done from start to finish. I liked the main characters, and the focus wasn’t on the twist at the end, but upon the development of the two characters. Cute and fun.<\/p>\n

As always, I liked the story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman<\/a>, “My Tears Have Been My Meat.” Sometimes dead isn’t always dead, and your friends and enemies are hard to tell.<\/p>\n

I loved the idea of Jay Lake’s Unrapture in his story “Two All Beef Patties.” I’m generally not fond of zombies, but for a zombie story, this was quite good.<\/p>\n

And… that was about it. Like I said, most of the stories were meh, and some I actually disliked, but if you come across any of the above in another anthology, I highly recommend them.
\nRating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Better Off Undead (2008) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Daniel M. Hoyt Anthologies edited by Martin H. Greenberg are usually ones I can pick up knowing that I’ll like the majority of stories within. This volume? Not so much. There were a handful of stories I thought were good, but for the most part? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,2,291,16],"tags":[126,357,80],"class_list":["post-1380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthology","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-liz-williams","tag-martin-h-greenberg","tag-nina-kiriki-hoffman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-mg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3247,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3247","url_meta":{"origin":1380,"position":0},"title":"Between the Dark and the Daylight","author":"Michelle","date":"November 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Between the Dark and the Daylight: And 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (2009) edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg I generally love mystery anthologies, but I had a hard time with this one. First and foremost, the collection is full of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Between-the-Dark-and-the-Daylight.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/424","url_meta":{"origin":1380,"position":1},"title":"Children of Magic","author":"Michelle","date":"August 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Children of Magic (2006) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes As I have mentioned on many previous occasions, I am a huge fan of short stories. Occasionally I have been disappointed, but for the most part the anthologies I have read have good, especially the one edited by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/Children-of-Magic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/436","url_meta":{"origin":1380,"position":2},"title":"Places to Be, People to Kill","author":"Michelle","date":"September 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Places to Be, People to Kill (2007) Edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Brittany A. Koren I really like short stories, so I'm a sucker for anthologies. I've been burned a couple of times, but for the most part, anything that Martin H Greenberg has a hand in will most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Place-to-Be-People-to-Kill.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/377","url_meta":{"origin":1380,"position":3},"title":"The Repentant","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Repentant (2003) edited by Brian M. Thomsen and Martin H. Greenberg I love short stories, so I tend to pick up anthologies when I come across them--assuming they look even remotely interesting. The Repentant looked particularly interesting, since it had several authors I particularly like: Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Repentant.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":122,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/122","url_meta":{"origin":1380,"position":4},"title":"Assassin Fantastic","author":"Michelle","date":"September 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Assassin Fantastic (2001) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Alexander Potter I know that Martin Greenberg puts together good anthologies, however there's something about the \"Fantastic\" that gets tacked onto the end of each anthology theme title that puts me off for some reason. However, I've always been fond of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Assassin-Fantastic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2328","url_meta":{"origin":1380,"position":5},"title":"Full Moon City","author":"Michelle","date":"April 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Moon City (2010) edited by Darrell Schweitzer and Martin H Greenberg I love anthologies. Though I have to admit that with the way paranormal romance has taken off, the ratio of wheat to chaff has been unfavorable for me. However, Carrie Vaughn and Peter S. Beagle were pretty compelling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Full-Moon-City.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}