Review: Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A collection of the very short fiction written by John Scalzi. Some of the stories have been published before, and some are new to this collection. John Scalzi always has an interesting take on aliens and technology. As he himself says, rather than focusing on first contact (because it's been done to death) he likes to focus on interactions that have become an everyday thing. For instance, "New Directives for Employee-Manxtse Interactions" is a memo sent out to the employees of a grocery store explaining how to interact with Manxtse customers.

My favorite story was "The Other Large Thing". I caught on immediately, and can absolutely see this happening in my own household. And that's all I'm going to say because - spoilers.

"Alien Animal Encounters" also tickled me. Especially the final alien encounter. Again, can totally picture it happening.

"Important Holidays on Gronghu", who knew that aliens could be so enamored with cheese. I have a relative who would fit in perfectly on this planet.

By no means is this all the stories, there's intelligent yogurt that takes over the world. There are superheroes and supervillains, there are adorable children selling lemonade, and there is artificial intelligence that isn't going to take over the world and more.

Reading these stories reminds me that I really need to finish listening to the Old Man's War series. I've been delaying because I really don't want to finish and lose my Scalzi fix. On the other hand, I really want to see where it's going. So there's that. Fans of Scalzi, Christopher Moore, A. Lee Martinez, Futurama and any other comic sci-fi shouldn't miss this one.

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