The Science Fiction Book of Lists is both historical and hysterical. It has been a staple of my reading for a few decades now. Chock full of information on EVERYTHING SF, I rely on it as a resource to guide me towards other books, and movie rentals, and even music.

Even though my copy is dog-eared and outdated, it's still a treasure. (In fact, I had initally come to Amazon.com to see if there was a newer version).

The book is both inventive and useful. It lists all nominees and winners of the major SF awards, as well as sillier groupings. "The Color out of Space" (a list of stories and books divided by color), for instance.

If you're a fan of kinky sex, bathroom fun, S & M, and humiliating sex, this is YOUR book. Not my idea of "erotic" stories. Little romance offered for my wife, and not much for me either. Found 2 stories interesting, most was not to our liking. Mostly leans toward S & M activities, so if thats ur bag, this is your book.

...but sadly it didn't keep my interest. There were perhaps two stories out of the considerably sized book that even perked my interest. It may be because I didn't feel the stories got along well enough and the sex, well, left me flat more times than not. Erotica should sizzle, not be a limp noodle...

Novellas are an art form that needs to be explored more. There are many fine examples of this form inside this nifty chunk of a book.

This book is in need of some editing help (the term "weigh station" is way off and I was looking for a diet or a trucker story, and that's just the beginning), and "Butt Hutt" may be one of the dumbest & most offensive erotica stories I've ever read. A couple of great stories from big writers (Queen, Indigo, Christian) does not make up for the rest of this dreck. It's a close runner-up to "Aqua Erotica" for the worst erotica anthology around, but at least you can read the print!

I can't complain about the price for what you get with this book - there are a ton of stories. Lots I couldn't read though, and some that weren't sexy at all. I love Isabelle Caruther's story, and Susanna Indigo's too, but I always like womens' stories the best. The overall quality isn't as high as Susie Bright's or Marcy Sheiner's books, but what's good in it is really good!

I think this book has some really fun, sexy stories by some of the top erotica authors in the US, as well as authors from other parts of the globe who I was unfamiliar with until now. I think the stories show a lot of imagination and are well-crafted. Some are incredibly hot. All of these stories were deemed good enough to have been published elsewhere during the year. A few of them have even appeared in some of Sheiner's anthologies,....

A retread title to go with a lot of retread writing. Nothing new or exciting here, move on down the road - there's a lot of great travel writing to be found out there.

I'm not much of a road book fan but while staying with a friend who *is*, I picked up this book from his coffee table and started reading. The writing was good and after a couple of stories, I really began to appreciate the theme of the book and the way the editors combined old, classic road stories (Kerouac, etc.) with new tales that speak of the same movement, wanderlust and basic curiosity. I couldn't help but notice an earlier reviewer who referred to this book as "travel writing," which it clearly is not. It's pure fiction but with all the elements of realism that travel entails. I'm still making my way through it but so far, I think it's quite entertaining.

Lots of edgy writing focusing on the journey, not the destination. Not meant to be a travel writing collection at all, but rather a collection of new and classic road tales from well-known writers and newcomers.

I found it interesting to see the theme of road tales interpreted by so many different kinds of writers. If you love the road and have a sense of awe, admiration, and fear for the darkened highways, check it out. If you want travel writing like Retread, yeah, you'll do better with Sunset Magazine.

I looked forward to this collection and was disappointed with it. The stories had a nasty, bizzare bent. There were three stories I liked, but the rest were strange. That said, if stories that end darkly and leave you with a feeling of despair are what you're looking for--you've found it.

This collection of fifteen crime stories was commissioned with the notion of capturing the dark side of the city in some manner. This attempt is largely successful, but the book also works as a sampler of modern British crime writers. Among the better stories are: "Perfect Casting" by Christopher Fowler, "Brand New Dead" by Derek Raymond, "A Deep Hole" by Ian Rankin (cf. Knots and Crosses), and "Angel's Day" by Molly Brown. For some reason, other than the Molly Brown story, I found the other female contributions (by Liza Cody, Denise Danks, Jessica Palmer and Liz Holliday) to be rather sub-par. Actually one of the stories that does the best job of showing the underbelly of London is by John Harvey, who has his Nottingham policeman Charlie Resnick (cf. Lonely Hearts and subsequent novels) down in London for a funeral.

One of my best friends and I agree that a book of short stories is as good as a sampler at a great restaurant. Who wants to risk good money on something one doesn't know if s/he will like?

Books are as expensive as a decent dinner (not so much so with Amazon! but not like the good ol' days when paperbacks were a quarter). There are twenty-three authors in this book. Rather than risk the price of twenty-three books, I sampled all these authors for the price of one book.

Some of the stories were amazing. Some were not-so-amazing. This book was a great investment of both money and time.

THE ZAP GUN reminded me a lot of another PKD novel published in the same year 1965 : DR. BLOODMONEY. In both novels, one can find material for at least four or five other books but infortunately the different themes don't get along very well in the same novel.

In THE ZAP GUN, the main theme is political and has already been treated the year before in THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH : humanity is clearly separated in two fractions, people who know the Truth and people who don't know it. If you happen to know it, you will be extracted from the common masses and belong to the ruling class. Another themes treated are a treacherous alien invasion, Empathy that will maybe save the world and cause the alien to depart, tragic romances and pharmaceutics. In fact, nothing very new for the PKD faithful fan. But remember ! an under-average book from Philip K. Dick is still better than the majority of today SF production and always offers 4 or 5 hours of sheer intellectual pleasure.

A book for ultra-hard PKD fans. Like me.

Phil Dick is something of a guilty pleasure for me. While he's got a few great books, a lot of his work is mediocre or worse. I like his weird sensibility, though, and I've tried to real all of his works.

That's why I read The Zap Gun -- to complete my assignment. Otherwise, it's not really worth the read. While there are some good moments and some interested MacGuffins, the story itself is weak. The characters are far more two-dimensional than usual. The ending is so predictable as to be tiresome.

I enjoyed seeing some allusions to previous works -- there are several wub-references, for example. This is certainly not essential Dick. I'm glad it's in print, but I wouldn't recommend it to the casual reader.

Of all PKD's books this may be the most misunderstood. Misunderstood because it is only a book about world politics on the surface. It represents one of his more imaginative books on his own creativity (plowshares, toys, inventions) and also a story of great longong both personally in love and professionally in his abilities. There is the usual self-doubt, the unexpected twists and, unlike many of his books, the ending his his optimistic and personally most fulfilled.

I have read near all of his novels, and the extended version of this book (not the short 1965 edition) is one of the best novels he ever wrote.

I gave this book a one star rating since half the stories were from the USA not making this an INTERNATIONAL book to be sold in the USA by any means. Missing from the anthology were any stories from India (considering its one of the only countries with temples dedicated to the erotica) and only one story from Japan (a dumb story I might add that included scenes of girls rubbing bacon on their bodies)

Most of the stories are from what I would consider unpublished writers with the exception of Anne Rice's 'Beuty's Release' ... The stories are also a real eclectic mix and altough some of the are good its hard to have to search for 100 good pages in an almost 600 page book.

Most of the stories in this volume are clever, well-written, and fashionably postmodern. But that doesn't make them sexy! Story after story, I kept feeling that many of these authors just plain don't like sex. A few stories are fun and sexy, but these are very rare. The book has sex galore, but very little of it is what I'd call erotic.

This is a definite read. A collection of truly beautiful treasures from acclaimed international writers including Anne Rice, J.G. Ballard, Regine Deforges, and Michael Perkins (just to name a few). Due to the explicit content, however, perhaps the suggested reading age is 17. Otherwise, this is a fortunate find.

What can I say, this book was NOT erotic. It was dark and depressing for the most part. Rather than stimulating ones interest, it made me want to become celebate. Definately a waste of time and money!

What a cheat. "Erotica" is supposed to refer to writing that is sexually stimulating. With about two exceptions, the stories in this book are enough to put you off sex for life.

Some of them are quite good in their own right, to be sure; they just aren't erotic. At least not to any even borderline normal person.

Jakubowski has assembled here a compendium of the most morbid, depressing, thoroughly unpleasant stories I've ever seen. I don't even want to meet anyone who gets turned on by this sort of thing. (And I am a man of broad and even kinky tastes, with no problem at all with reading about non-Euclidean sex; anyone who is familiar with my own recent work can attest to that.)

And this isn't just my opinion. As it happens, I know a couple of the authors included in this book; one in particular is a friend of mine - and he himself admitted that he was amazed that anyone would consider his story in any way erotic.

In addition, the book itself is of terrible quality: flimsy, grayish paper, too-tiny type.

Don't waste your money on this one.

I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. No, this is not.... letters, not for the faint of heart, not if you're looking for run of the mill erotica, not one bang after another. The stories were very well written and well developed. Very interesting. Not always a turn on, but extremely well done.