Unfettered
Before I dive into the content of this book, I need to talk about the book itself. Because I have this whole complicated relationship with it outside of the stories it contains. And it's worth bringing up in light of recent political shenanigans.
Once upon a time a man got cancer. Treatment worked and he went into remission and went on with his life. But a few years later he got cancer again. A different kind of cancer this time. However, since he'd already had cancer once before, health insurance wouldn't cover him this time around. Pre-existing conditions and all that. So he reached out to his writer friends and asked if they'd be willing to donate stories that he could put together into a book that he could sell to pay for his treatment. His friends came through, the book sold well, the man beat cancer again and didn't have to declare bankruptcy. As plans go it's a better solution than selling meth. Of course, the best solution would be health care that actually works to help sick people.
So. This book exists because health insurance isn't what it ought to be. It's good that the editor, Shawn Speakman, found a way to pay for his treatment. It's nice that a bunch of people were able to buy a book of short stories and feel good doing so because all that money went directly to cancer treatment. But there ought to be a better system. We were moving in that direction. But it seems that this country can't take a step forward without also taking a step back. On any issue.
Anyway, on to the content. Since these stories were donated by the author's involved, they're almost all related to those authors' existing series. I was only familiar with a handful of those author/series going in to this book (Pat Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Lev Grossman), but most of the stories do a good job of standing on their own. Unfortunately the three stories I was excited for were the three shortest in the book. And Grossman's ended up being an early draft of a chapter in The Magician's Land. So I wasn't all the interested in most of the content, and I was a bit lost in the rest of the content, missing references and in-jokes that would have made the stories richer.
This book is probably worth it if you don't want some behind-the-scenes content for your favorite series, and they're represented here. If I was looking for a new epic fantasy series to dive into, this certainly sparked my interest in a few. But I was ultimately disappointed by the stories I read, which just added to my discomfort about the series of events that led to this book's existence.
Once upon a time a man got cancer. Treatment worked and he went into remission and went on with his life. But a few years later he got cancer again. A different kind of cancer this time. However, since he'd already had cancer once before, health insurance wouldn't cover him this time around. Pre-existing conditions and all that. So he reached out to his writer friends and asked if they'd be willing to donate stories that he could put together into a book that he could sell to pay for his treatment. His friends came through, the book sold well, the man beat cancer again and didn't have to declare bankruptcy. As plans go it's a better solution than selling meth. Of course, the best solution would be health care that actually works to help sick people.
So. This book exists because health insurance isn't what it ought to be. It's good that the editor, Shawn Speakman, found a way to pay for his treatment. It's nice that a bunch of people were able to buy a book of short stories and feel good doing so because all that money went directly to cancer treatment. But there ought to be a better system. We were moving in that direction. But it seems that this country can't take a step forward without also taking a step back. On any issue.
Anyway, on to the content. Since these stories were donated by the author's involved, they're almost all related to those authors' existing series. I was only familiar with a handful of those author/series going in to this book (Pat Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Lev Grossman), but most of the stories do a good job of standing on their own. Unfortunately the three stories I was excited for were the three shortest in the book. And Grossman's ended up being an early draft of a chapter in The Magician's Land. So I wasn't all the interested in most of the content, and I was a bit lost in the rest of the content, missing references and in-jokes that would have made the stories richer.
This book is probably worth it if you don't want some behind-the-scenes content for your favorite series, and they're represented here. If I was looking for a new epic fantasy series to dive into, this certainly sparked my interest in a few. But I was ultimately disappointed by the stories I read, which just added to my discomfort about the series of events that led to this book's existence.
Comments
Post a Comment