Tag: Short Story

Agatha Christie – Surprise! Surprise! | Review

Title: Surprise! Surprise!

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 224

Rating: 3.5/5

This book is something of an oddity, and in fact I hadn’t even heard of it until I spotted it going as part of an Agatha Christie job lot on eBay. Essentially, because different publishers released different books in different regions, there are some unique USA titles that never came out in the UK, and vice versa.

That mostly applies to short story collections, of which this is the perfect example. In fact, to say that I read this is almost cheating because I only bothered to read the stories that I hadn’t read before, and so there were only four of the twelve or thirteen in here that I actually read. I remember the ones that I skipped, though.

In fact, this is actually a pretty decent little read, if only because it features a bunch of Christie’s most well-known characters, from Parker Pyne to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. It also includes the title story of The Witness for the Prosecution, which I’ve seen performed as a play before. I think the play was a little better than the short story, but both of them are very much worth consuming. All in all then, I’d have to say that this one is worth reading.

Learn more about Surprise! Surprise!.


Isaac Asimov – The Science Fictional Solar System | Review

Title: The Science Fictional Solar System

Author: Isaac Asimov

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 324

Rating: 3.75/5

This book made me feel kind of old, purely due to the nature of it. It’s essentially a short story collection that’s themed around the solar system, with a short story for each of the planets as well as the sun. The reason I feel old is that it was published when Pluto was still a full planet, and I remember those days. I’m literally so old that the planets have changed.

I’ve got used to enjoying Asimov’s little introductory essays, and they’re just as fascinating here as they are elsewhere. He also prefaces each story with a few notes on how scientific research has changed since the stories were written and to analyse whether the short stories still held up with the latest scientific thinking.

There are some cracking authors here too, including a piece by Arthur C. Clarke. Asimov has a story in there himself, too. All of the stories had something different to offer, and in fact what was quite interesting was that they covered such a wide variety of topics while still retaining an overall cohesive feel. It’s difficult to do that, and Asimov was pretty harsh on himself when it came to his abilities as an editor, but I think he did a pretty solid job.

It’s also kind of cool because this was published in 1982, and a bunch of the stories were 30+ years old. That meant that the introductory essays were written pretty much in between when the stories were written and the modern day, making them a nice little bridge.

So overall then, I’d definitely recommend giving this book a go, especially if you’re into science fiction and you want to read a bunch of new authors. I certainly enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to reading more of Asimov’s stuff.

Learn  more about The Science Fictional Solar System.