Book Review - Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi

I've been on a John Scalzi kick lately. Some of his stories I've loved, and others have left me a little disappointed. Being the avid fan of short story anthologies, I was very curious to read his.

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is a science fiction anthology by John Scalzi (not that you couldn't figure that out). It's available in all formats: eBooks, Audiobooks, and those paper things your grandparents used to read.

The Good

Humor. Most of the stories are pretty funny and present jokes I haven't heard before.

Unexpected Perspectives. The author definitely is a sociologist and humorist first and science fiction writer second. His approach to the genre is very different from the hard scifi writers or classic scifi masters I usually read. I especially like how he applied basic economics to superheroes and super villains. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?

The Bad

Too Little Variety. Most of the stories in this collection are very similar in the subjects they deal with and the way they are dealt with. Just a few stories in they start to sound very repetitive.

Same Jokes. The author has a very particular sense of humor and writes to a very specific audience telling a very specific type of joke. This is fine if you only read one work at a time with a break in between, but when you read several together like this, they get a little tired.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish there had been more variety in the types of stories and the type of humor. Most of the stories tell the same kind of jokes, and some tell the same jokes.

Overall

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi has some humorous stories with very unique perspectives that I haven't heard before, but too many of them have very similar jokes and deal with too similar situations. I give it 3.5 out of 5 eReaders.