Helpful Score: 1
This collection of short stories has nothing to do with magic school, despite the title. Don't expect any Harry Potter type stories here. In fact, quite a few of the stories seem experimental and, as a result, incomprehensible. Some, however, are worth reading. You probably won't want to keep the book, though. The stories worth reading are:
"Condillac's Statue": A man puts memory-less mature brain tissue into a statue and through sensory inputs gives it smell, hearing, and sight in an effort to see what decisions it makes about the things it sees/etc. An unexpected result ensues.
"Big Sam": She marries a man who eats a lot more as winter gets nearer, and gets increasingly difficult to wake up. Cute story.
"The Man Who Could Not See Devils": If everyone around you could see the supernatural and you couldn't, would you be at a disadvantage ... or not?
"Ringing the Changes": scifi. People have learned how to move consciousness from one body to the other and do so as a "vacation". Only this time it goes wrong and they're having quite a time getting people back into the correct bodies.
"Morning Glory": An exploration into the intelligence (or possibility of such) for plants, and tantalizing hints about how plant intelligence may mimic the collective human society's intelligence.
"The Devil You Don't": Posits beings from another plane of existence who 'eat' the energy that provides luck/unluck. Throw in a concerned Lucifer and you get a funny, but thoughtful story.
"Condillac's Statue": A man puts memory-less mature brain tissue into a statue and through sensory inputs gives it smell, hearing, and sight in an effort to see what decisions it makes about the things it sees/etc. An unexpected result ensues.
"Big Sam": She marries a man who eats a lot more as winter gets nearer, and gets increasingly difficult to wake up. Cute story.
"The Man Who Could Not See Devils": If everyone around you could see the supernatural and you couldn't, would you be at a disadvantage ... or not?
"Ringing the Changes": scifi. People have learned how to move consciousness from one body to the other and do so as a "vacation". Only this time it goes wrong and they're having quite a time getting people back into the correct bodies.
"Morning Glory": An exploration into the intelligence (or possibility of such) for plants, and tantalizing hints about how plant intelligence may mimic the collective human society's intelligence.
"The Devil You Don't": Posits beings from another plane of existence who 'eat' the energy that provides luck/unluck. Throw in a concerned Lucifer and you get a funny, but thoughtful story.
Several different stories in one-very good read!
Good stories
Night and The Loves of Joe Dicostanzo by Samuel R. Delany...
When a young man living in an abandoned castle discovers he has strange and wonderful powers, he's delighted...until he begins to think about it!
Ringing The Changes by Robert Silverberg...
Losing one's head is bad enough...but losing an entire body is quite another matter!
The Devil You Don't by Keith Laumer...
When Lucifer himself turns up in Professor Dimpleby's living room, Dimpleby isn't quite sure what he wants...then he finds out!
Plus more wonderful magical and mystical stories & poems by Norman Spinrad, L. Sprague De Cap, James Blish, Avram Davidson, Joanna Russ, R.A. Lafferty, Sonya Dorman, and others...
When a young man living in an abandoned castle discovers he has strange and wonderful powers, he's delighted...until he begins to think about it!
Ringing The Changes by Robert Silverberg...
Losing one's head is bad enough...but losing an entire body is quite another matter!
The Devil You Don't by Keith Laumer...
When Lucifer himself turns up in Professor Dimpleby's living room, Dimpleby isn't quite sure what he wants...then he finds out!
Plus more wonderful magical and mystical stories & poems by Norman Spinrad, L. Sprague De Cap, James Blish, Avram Davidson, Joanna Russ, R.A. Lafferty, Sonya Dorman, and others...
