Writers of the Future {Book Review}

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Before I get to the review, I want to apologize. This post was supposed to come out two weeks ago, but due to illness, I've gotten quite behind on a number of projects (and school!) that I am working on. This is the reason that the contest at the bottom closes so soon.

When I got a copy of the Writer's of the Future book this year, I was a little excited, since I have heard good things about the stories in these collections, and also a little skeptical about the program and contest in general. In this post, I'm going to talk only about the individual stories and their particular merits, as well as the organization and readability of the collection as a whole.

I'm going to be honest: I don't really think I'd want to read this book in public, and a few things that I had read online about the contest did weird me out a little, but on the whole, the individual stories were quite good. I'll let you do your own research about the rest of it. In my review, I'm going to focus on a two of the stories (though there are many more great ones than that), and give more in depth reviews of them. I will also talk about how I thought the book was organized and the quality of the stories as a collection.

My Review
First of all, my review of the collection as a whole. I was impressed by the variety of stories and the quality of them. There are stories ranging all parts of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genres, and it is fun to read. The illustrations were also quite good, though there were times where the illustration almost didn't seem to fit with the story it accompanied. The book itself was very readable, and good quality. Now, I am going to briefly review two of the stories I read. I had a hard time choosing the stories to review, but in the end I chose the two which most stood out to me as I read them, for various reasons.

Another Range of Mountains by Megan E. O'Keefe is the first story I am reviewing. I enjoyed the story and plot, but there were moments where I felt a little overwhelmed by it. There was a lot of plot in those 25 pages, more, maybe, then made sense. I was intrigued by the premise, and I liked the ending, but it felt a little abrupt. I would have liked a little more backstory, and a much slower plot. I actually would love to read this same story in a novella format. I think that with maybe 150 pages to work within, this story would be really great.

The second story I'm reviewing is Giants at the End of the World by Leena Likitalo. I'm going start by saying that I loved this story. The plot was subtle, the writing was absolutely beautiful, and the ending was perfectly set up. This is the kind of story that makes me want to find everything this author has ever written. The short story is, in my reading and writing experience, a difficult medium to master, since you are limited in space, but still trying to tell a full story. The plot in the story was subtle: there wasn't a lot to it at first glance, but it was still substantial. I felt satisfied at the end, but also curious as what might happen next.

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