Stars: 2.5 out of 5
I honestly expected more of this anthology. I mean, stories about detectives set in the far future, solving cases using technologies we can only dream of? That’s right up my alley! The cover is gorgeous as well, and contributed to my requesting this book from NetGalley. The contents were rather disappointing, though.
I think I liked maybe three stories out of the whole anthology. Murder at the Westminster Dino Show by Rosemary Claire Smith was a fun short story that made me chuckle a couple of times. I mean, pocket-sized dinosaurs? Humanity would be crazy enough to fall for that trend. The downside of this story was that the protagonist wasn’t particularly bright. Heck, it felt like her pet dinosaur brought her all the clues she needed.
In the Shadow of the Great Days by Harry Turtledove was also fun enough to read, even if it presented a rather bleak image of the future.
The Unassembled Victims by Peter Clines was the highlight of this anthology for me. It was well-crafted, and I loved the characters. It set up the tone and the world effortlessly. It made you care about what was happening. More importantly, both detectives were actually smart people who did some detecting. I wouldn’t mind reading other stories set in this world, because there is so much to explore there.
The rest of the stories in this anthology fell rather blah to me. The biggest issue is that in many of them, there wasn’t much detecting or unraveling of clues. I also either didn’t connect with the protagonists or the writing styles. And I will admit that I don’t particularly care for poetry. Some of the stories also felt half-baked, as if the author had a word count to meet and didn’t particularly care about aspects like worldbuilding or characterization.
All in all, this is more of a miss for me, with one excellent story and two okay ones.
PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.