There's something really exciting about some of these stories and seeing how certain storytelling devices or tropes can get refreshed through a different cultural perspective than the one I've lived my life in. Some very cool authors to dig more into.

Another winner! Full review soon at Skiffy and Fanty.

I've been meaning to get into this anthology series just based on the retro-cool covers, and I'll definitely read more of them!The opening stories blew me away so much I ended up reading the first six in one big gluttonous binge when I had intended to just read one before bed!My favorite is definitely the first story, "A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. It's got art and science and compelling characters and complex problems with logical resolutions that feel both inevitable and surprisi...

A number of years ago, I got interested in Japanese horror, primarily Koji Suzuki. I wanted to see what The Ring was like in its original incarnation. Awesome, if I may say so myself. I found Suzuki’s work to have a more subtle feel than a lot of traditional American horror. It was a breath of fresh air after blood, gore, and violence of our native horror stories.None of the works in The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5 would be classified as horror, but that doesn’t mean that subtlety and sense

A collection of short stories from various countries around the world, often translated to English from another language. Short story collections are always mixed bags, so there's not really much to say beyond what I liked. In this one... only a couple stand out on the positive side, and on the negative, nothing jumps out at me save the occasional disappointment that a story that seemed like it might be starting okay just went nowhere interesting. Mostly it was just stories that were okay but di...

This is such a solid collection of stories, without any qualifiers. I did feel that there were diverse perspectives that showed up and that was great. I never felt like a translation was clumsy. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and was sad when I got to the end.

Skimmed the horror or disturbing pieces. The ones I liked were Vina Jie-Min Prasad's "A Series of Steaks"; Darcie Little Badger's "Nkásht íí"; Giovanni De Feo's "Ugo"; and especially T.L. Huchu's "Ghostalker". Here's a choice morsel of it:I’m not really supposed to use my powers for my own benefit. To be fair, most of the time I’m more Peter Parker than Tony Stark, still, I Bruce Banner out sometimes. My dad went all Sauron and left us, so I live with my mum and little sis in Chiwaridzo Township...

A wonderful collection of speculative fiction from around the world. Ranging from Asia to Africa, Europe to the Americas, you will find much to like in many of the stories featured. My favourites include those by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, T.L. Huchu, Taiyo Fujii, Vandana Singh, Bo-young Kim, Chi Hui, Karla Schmidt and Giovanni De Feo.- "A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Singapore): an entertaining story set in China where one person makes a living by printing out imitation meat to look like...

So you say you want new science-fiction authors to read.Here is a book jammed full of them, with authors from all over the world. You will find new authors that you will love here, guaranteed. The collection includes authors from Singapore, Spain, Lebanon, Nigeria, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and more. My personal favorite is "An Evolutionary Myth," by Bo-Young Kim, a fantasy and allegory that seems like "The Lion King," at first, but then turns into a story about transformation that would make "Manimal" pr...

THE APEX BOOK OF WORLD SF 5 IS RATED 69%18 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 7 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 2 DNF One of the most interesting characteristics of 21st century science fiction is the embrace of diverse authors from around the world. Science fiction is no longer a niche hobby, but a wide ranging fandom with authors of every language and culture.Sadly, this isn’t the anthology to tell that story. 2 of the stories were so unreadable that I had to DNF them and 7 were only average. Average - in my con...

** Full disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review** It’s always fascinating to read stories from other cultures and this series has always done a great job finding new and interesting stories from around the world, and from cultures you wouldn’t normally expect. Collections like this are often a mixed bag with some stories appealing more than others though for me this was one of the few where even the stories I didn’t like as much still really interested me and I was gla

Apex is always great when you need to read a really good book and get something that's a little outside your comfort zone. Volume 5 has some amazing stories in it and I'm so excited to look up these authors' other works. Hopefully I can find them in English. "A series of Steaks""Ambiguity Machines"and "An Evolutionary Myth" were probably my favorites. "Scenes from the life of an Autocrat" seemed the most contemporary and important to the time we're living in, while "The Barrette Girls" was IMO t...

I don’t know what else about this wonderful series I can say that I haven’t already. If you want good prose in your science fiction, you’ll like it. If you like strong characters in your science fiction, you’ll like it. If you like diversity in your science fiction, you’ll like it.My one and only complaint is that I had already read some of the stories in Tor.com, Clarkesworld, and Strange Horizons.I hope there are plans for a volume 6.

I am immensely grateful to the editors of this anthology. I imagine having to sift through so much fiction must have been daunting, but they did a great job of pulling together a diverse collection of stories from around the world that showcases some of the best non-western centered specfic. From post-modern cyberpunk to ghouls to time travel and more, this anthology was a fun sampling of world SF. Some stories were traditional, linear tales while others were a bit more circular or ended without...

Funny with a lot of personality. Had me laughing out loud at the reading at Eastercon so I sought out the story when I came home.The voice is really great and so is the protagonist, who is so old beyond her years. It fits her perfectly. She is both very brash and quite understanding and sweet.

SFT review