Excellent short story collection highly recommended!

Bit of a mixes bag as you might expect. A couple of stinkers, some good ones, but nothing that really moves me. The best are Barbara Lund's Sixers, exciting and dramatic and set in a world I want to know more about; The Skin of My Mother, by Erik Lynd, spooky and unexpected; the Battle of Donasi by Elaine Midcoh, which is elegant and sensible; and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's The Museum of Modern Warfare, which is well paced and set against a background of a fascinating future. The worst were Emma Washburn's Hemingway and Brittany Rainsdon's Half-Breed, neither of which I could finish because they were verbose and juvenile The rest were fairly nondescript but made me feel like maybe I could enter this competition because I'm not a great writer but I'm as good as these guys. So that's worth half a star at least! ( )

This is the second volume of Writers of the Future I have read. While the art and the writing of the winners is amazing, I feel these books would be far better without the essays and Hubbard's writings. I adore Orson Scott Card's Ender universe, but couldn't stand his fawning over Hubbard - it was a major disappointment. Please support the individual winners and not Scientology. ( )

I haven't caught the annual Writers of the Future collection in a few years, but the format is unchanged: Stories written by winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest, illustrated by winners of the Illustrators of the Future contest. There are also a few stories and essays by more established authors associated with the contest.

The latter disappointed me this time around, especially the essays. Self-congratulating to the point of smug, and too much fawning over Hubbard in my opinion.

The illustrations, on the other hand, were fantastic. This is my first electronic version of the collection, and the first time I've seen illustrations in _any_ ebook pop like this. I was amazed and impressed.

The contest winner stories follow the usual gamut from "ok" to "very good." The best-written stories were mostly not to my taste, and the stories I really liked showed some rough edges. But the promise shown is what a contest like this is for, so (aside from the essays) it was a read well worth my time. ( )

L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 37 is an exceptional collection of speculative sci-fi short fiction from new writers, as well as a couple of gems from big names like Hubbard and Card. Bonus - you get some fantastic art from new illustrators as well. I love short stories, and the skill it takes to get me to think and feel so much with so few words. Definitely a great collection here! All were quite good, but if I had to choose a favorite it may be The Widow's Might by Elizabeth Chatsworth. The accompanying art by Madolyn Locke may also be my favorite illustration in the book.
I received an ARC through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program ( )