I’m curious to know if anybody here has read McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales or
McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories?
If so, which did you like better? What stories did you really like? What stories did you not like?
Thanks
Old established family.
Oh wait, I’m reading interesting times. Cancel that, I’m on DiscWorld hyperdrive.
I read Mammoth Treasury - some of the stories were great and some were kinda meh (for instance I like “Heartbreaking Work” but Eggers’ contribution to this book? Not so good. FYI He is the publisher of McSweeney’s). If you know some of the authors, you can get a good sense of whether it would be to your taste - they tend to do what they do best, with one or two minor exceptions.
If you don’t know the authors - it would be a good way to learn about their styles…
I thought Eggars’ piece was one of the best stories in Mammoth Treasury, although it wasn’t in any way pulp or related to the purpose of the book.
And I thought that few of the pieces truly captured the authors’ styles, so we disagree on that as well.
Elmore Leonard did a brilliant piece and there were a few other good ones, but mostly the anthology was deeply disappointing given the level of the names. It convinced me not to bother to read the second one.
We agree with Eggers - but it had little/nothing to do with the theme so was disappointing.
I enjoyed Leonard’s piece - but I love Leonard so no surprise and I look forward to reading the book that just came out that the piece was an excerpt from. As for the others, I would have to review the authors…