Says the author of the title: "It also happens to be the name of a very successful Australian band about which I know nothing at all, except that it exists and is liked by a lot of people." I happen to be one of the latter, so was wondering about the title.
This introduction says this is a collection of 'best stories' from the 60 odd he has published. Seems to do a pretty good job, There's also a new story (or vignette) to go along with the title, but is more of a 3.25, to me.
Each story gets some background info, and one particular note: "Some writers get a lot of mileage out of taking excerpts from novels and releasing them as short stories or novellas. I’ve only successfully managed it with two pieces, and both are in this book." Talking about Night of the Dolls here, for one, which is a piece that is a Geodesica: Ascent prequel of sorts.
Magic Dirt is an eclectic mix of genres, and even includes a story that he was apparently asked to write for a mainstream anthology - but delivered them something creepy, anyway. As a book, I would rate New Adventures in Sci-Fi more highly. In fact, as far as genres go, two of my favorite Williams horror stories 'Going Nowhere' and 'Hunting Ground' are missing from this collection, as is the Perfect Gun, sf-wise.
Magic Dirt averages over 3.50 though, so still a collection of superior quality.
Magic Dirt : A Map of the Mines of Barnath - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Ghosts of the Fall - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : The Soap Bubble - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : The Magic Dirt Experiment - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Night of the Dolls - Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Magic Dirt : Atrax - Sean Williams and Simon Brown
Magic Dirt : The End of the World Begins At Home - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : The Seventh Letter - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Evermore - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : The Butterfly Merchant - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Reluctant Misty and the House on Burden Street - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : The Girl-Thing - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Entre les Beaux Morts en Vie - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Passing the Bone - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : A View Before Dying - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : Team Sharon - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : White Christmas - Sean Williams
Magic Dirt : The Masque of Agamemnon - Sean Williams and Simon Brown
A man goes looking for his brother, but all is definitely nowhere even close to being remotely anything like it seems in a really large, very strange underground structure.
3.5 out of 5
Adelaide asteroid leftovers.
4 out of 5
Starship reality tv first contact special episode.
4.5 out of 5
Clodpodders.
3.5 out of 5
Posthuman puberty.
3.5 out of 5
Lunar arachnophobia mission.
3.5 out of 5
No soul diversity.
3.5 out of 5
After a stroke, a man finds help for the alphabetically challenged.
"The card said: "Treasurer, Royal Society for the Semantically Impaired."
Sean, too, is a pixel-stained technopeasant wretch.
3.5 out of 5
Lost in slow motion software personality translation.
3.5 out of 5
Database search match murderer bugged.
3 out of 5
Old ghost replacement.
3 out of 5
A burglary at a porn shop and serial killings are perhaps linked.
2.5 out of 5
Really old people can be dull and boring, or, zombies and vampires, not such a great idea.
4 out of 5
Really rotten family.
4 out of 5
A man and team investigate an alien ship sighting, and what happened to an earlier group that went to look into it. Throw in some risky teleportation.
3.5 out of 5
Perv group.
3.5 out of 5
A comet brings what seems like really bad weather, but with no Stargate program or Asgard to help, replicators are much, much worse than that.
4 out of 5
Trojan analogue with spacefleets, AI and Von Neumann probes.
3 out of 5
4 out of 5
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