There were maybe six stories in here that I really liked, about six that I skimmed completely, and the rest were just...ok. I actually almost stopped reading until I came to the Rusch story, which was excellent. I'm not sure why so many of them weren't great; could be that they tried too hard to be epic? Or send a message? Or explain some unknown historical conundrum? Whatever the reason, this is one book for which to be sneaky and read the good stories at the bookstore. Or, you know, get it from the library. Whichever. ( )