Amazon.com
This is a handsome, limited edition collection of the best work by one of the finest short fiction writers in science fiction. There are 14 stories in all, ranging from straight SF to tales that stray into the fantasy and horror genres. Of special note is the title story, which earned the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a 1996 Nebula Award nomination. But all of the stories are excellent in their own right. An insightful forward by James Patrick Kelly's friend and sometimes collaborator John Kessel (Corrupting Dr. Nice) leads off the collection and explores Kelly's somewhat underrated career.Book Description
This first major retrospective collects Kelly's finest short fiction from a 20-year career and includes a dazzling array of work, from hard science fiction and Twilight Zone-inspired fantasies to stark futuristic horror. The grim fable "Pogrom" presents a near-futuristic scenario in which internecine warfare has broken out between the aging boomer generation and a youthful dispossessed proletariat who must support them. The landmark novella "Mr. Boy" is the wildly inventive tale of a genetically stunted 12-year-old who literally lives inside his mother, who has turned herself into a three-quarter-scale model of the Statue of Liberty. "The First Law of Thermodynamics" is a remarkable evocation of the psychedelic sixties-the time of Vietnam, Kent State, and acid rock-in which, like that era itself, nothing is what it appears to be. The now-famous title story, "Think Like a Dinosaur," is a tale of a transporter beam maintained by aliens, through which humanity can visit the stars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not Free SF Reader
A definitely good collection of stories.The first, and 'title track' if you like is the clear standout in this book, no question.In fact, it is the last few that I generally didn't like as much as the rest, but on the whole this collection is well above average, and easily above 3.60, let alone 3.50.

Think Like a Dinosaur : Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Heroics - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Pogrom [Home Front] - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Faith - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Big Guy - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Dancing with the Chairs - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Rat - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : The First Law of Thermodynamics - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Breakaway Backdown - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Standing in Line with Mr. Jimmy - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Crow - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Monsters - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Itsy Bitsy Spider - James Patrick Kelly
Think Like a Dinosaur : Mr. Boy - James Patrick Kelly

Lizard people's replication errors multiply.

4.5 out of 5


Not super.

3 out of 5


Selfish elder generation.

4 out of 5


Plant man match.

4 out of 5


Way Out fast heroware operator.

4 out of 5


Drinking desperate.

3 out of 5


Spook tail left with the Dust.

4 out of 5


Many hits, space cowboy.

3 out of 5


Colony life change.

4 out of 5


Spaceman denial.

4 out of 5


Space capsule balloon bash burn.

3.5 out of 5


Mental monster man happy after finding physical monster woman.

3.5 out of 5


Girlbot minder actor's filial substitute.

3.5 out of 5


Not wanting to grow up attitude certainly isn't helped by mum's mechanical approach to parenting.

3.5 out of 5

A brilliant collection.
James Patrick Kelly is among the best there is in science fiction. There are some real classics contained in Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories, from the now-famous title story, "Think Like a Dinosaur" (which won a well-deserved Hugo Award) to his brilliant, fast-paced novella, "Mr. Boy," which had a tremendous impact on me when I first read it, and still does. There's "Rat," one of my favorite cyberpunk tales, and the psychedelic "The First Law of Thermodynamics." Buy this book, read the stories contained within, and prepare to be duly impressed.

There is, however, no real thread linking these stories together; Kelly is something of a literary chameleon, and as such has created different moods and textures for each individual story. That is one of the true joys of reading his work, the fact that when you first start reading a Kelly story, all previous experiences you've had of his fiction means very little. Kelly has not attained as large a following as I think he deserves, probably due in part to his slow production of novels (he's only written four so far), but in the end recognition isn't the issue. The art is the issue, and Kelly is a true artist.

Masterpiece
Golden Gryphon Press has been publishing a long and wide range of single author short-story collections--and I must, obviously, admit that James Patrick Kelly's (author of WILDLIFE and LOOK INTO THE SUN) THINK LIKE A DINOSAUR AND OTHER STORIES has gained a special place in my heart. One of the leading SF stylists, Kelly's stories have a perfect blend of lyricism and sheer storytelling power; recently, he has earned well-deserved attention with his Hugo-winning stories, "Think Like a Dinosaur" and "10^16 to 1," respectively. Pick up this collection at all costs.

Wonderful story collection
James Patrick Kelly is a wonderful secret.If you polled a representative sampling of readers who call themselves SF fans, I would bet that not 50% are familiar with James Patrick Kelly.This is a shame because Mr. Kelly's work are of the very highest quality.This collection of short fiction shows off the very best of Kelly's stories and not one of them should be missed.

My favorite story of the collection is 'Mr. Boy', a wonderful novella about a 25-year-old who has re-engineered himself to remain in a 12-year-old body.This is Mr. Boy.Throughout the story Mr. Boy begins to mature, and he's not quite sure how to handle this.This 60+ page novella makes the entire collection worth purchasing, but there's so much more.

The wonderful stories "Rat", "Monsters", "Think Like a Dinosaur", and many more make this one of the most outstanding collections that I've had the good fortune to come across.Like all Golden Gryphon press books, this is an extraordinary collection from a very talented author.The Golden Gryphon imprint on a book is enough to make me open the wallet, even if it's an author that I am totally unfamiliar with.They put out excellent quality books filled with very good fiction.Highly recommended.

Handsome volume of the best work of a major SF author
This volume contains fourteen of Kelly's best stories,including twoHugo nominees and four Nebula nominees.The title story is the best known, and the most discussed, of all of them, seen by many as a response or follow-up to Tom Godwin's classic, "The Cold Equations."The other stories represent the best of Kelley's work, and make it available in a permanent form.This is the first volume from a new publisher, Golden Gryphon, and is a very well-produced volume.(I hope someone is bringing single-author collections such as these to the attention of libraries, since they provide the only way for most libraries to get some of the best work of today's leading authors.) ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
The 16 stories in this collection run the gamut from cyber adventure and a ghostly haunting to chemically modified romance and a time travel mission to save the world. The Hugo Award winner, "10(to the 16th) to 1," tells the story of a boy in the 1960s who gets caught up in a spirited adventure that becomes a desperate attempt to prevent a nuclear holocaust. In "The Cruelest Month," a grieving mother is haunted both by the past and a ghost. "The Prisoner of Chillon" presents a radioactive Lake Geneva overrun with cyberpunks seeking fame and fortune through software piracy. By turns humorous and harrowing, this collection highlights the short fiction of a lauded author at his best. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not Free SF Reader
This is definitely a good collection of stories, having no less than three with a 4.5 rating, and a 3.60 average overall.Golden Gryphon have a pretty nifty logo, too.It has an intro by Connie Willis, and a reasonably detailed afterword where Kelly describes the genesis of each of the stories.

Strange But Not a Stranger : 1016 to 1 - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Lovestory - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Feel the Zaz - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Unique Visitors - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Prisoner of Chillon - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Candy Art - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Hubris - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Glass Cloud - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Proof of the Existence of God - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Cruelest Month - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Chemistry - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Pyramid of Amirah - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Fruitcake Theory - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Undone - James Patrick Kelly


Time traveler wants kid to save the world, at least with Galaxy and Green Lantern preparation he has a decent shot at it

4.5 out of 5


Alien baby changes.

3.5 out of 5


Schizo CAT woman has old time star turns Down.

4.5 out of 5


Upload immortality, longtime.

3.5 out of 5


Spook journalist thinks spiders and snakes is WILDLIFE overload.

4 out of 5


Ancestral timeshare problems.

3 out of 5


Lightspeed not at all lucid loopy love.

3 out of 5


History never repeats, I tell myself before I read a heap.

3.5 out of 5


Alien architecture requirements are quite whacky.

3.5 out of 5


Multiversal self-belief can be shocking.

3.5 out of 5


Ghost phone release.

3.5 out of 5


Lack of hormones gambler.

3.5 out of 5


Structural belief is slow.

3 out of 5


Alien bloody xmas incident.

3 out of 5


Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5

One of the Best Single-Author-Collections of the Year.
James Patrick Kelly's second collection of stories (published by Golden Gryphon, a fine publisher) is a treasury of superbly crafted gems. 15 of them, actually, with a foreword by Connie Willis and an afterword by the author himself.

Highlights are 1016 to 1 (Hugo Winner, novelette category), Undone (Nebula nominee, Novelette category), and Glass Cloud. But nearly each story is insightful.

Contents follow:

Lovestory, Feel the Zaz, Unique Visitors, The Prisoner of Chillon, Candy Art, The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum, Hubris, Proof of the Existence of God, The Cruelest Month, Chemistry, The Pyramid of Amirah, Fruitcake Theory, and the above 3 mentioned.

A marvelous book
Why has James Patrick Kelly not reached a mass-market audience? Why have his two short story collections been published by small print houses? "Why" has always been a difficult question to answer, but I believe there are two reasons for this. The first, of course, is his relatively slow writing pace. American audiences demand things that are NEW; new films, new books, new television shows. As Charles Dickens said, any book you haven't read before is new. If you've never read The Pearl by John Steinbeck, or Animal Farm by George Orwell, why aren't they considered new?

And so, ranting aside, I present unto you my review of James Patrick Kelly's wonderful collection of short stories, Strange but Not a Stranger. By turns witty, funny, insightful, frightening, and intense, the word that practically springs to mind that describes the collection is entertaining. Your attention quotient, as Connie Willis duly noted in the introduction, will be at a constant peak. Thus, I present as evidence for my cause: "Hubris," "The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum," "10^16 to 1," "Undone."

But where is the description of these aforementioned stories, you ask? Where are the cleverly placed lines of wit, the insightful comments? As with all James Patrick Kelly stories, you have to read it to believe it. But be forewarned: reading these stories is merely half of the journey, for the stories have hidden meanings that will haunt you until you're sure you've figured them out, sure that you've gotten your full money's worth out of them, and suddenly, without warning, they come at you again with another viewpoint or idea for consideration. To put it succinctly, and to practically make the rest of this review obsolete, this book is worthy of a spot on your bookshelf. Enough said. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Like a breath of fresh air
Great characterization, well written.Explores what it means to be alive and human, particularly in terms of artificial intelligence. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 1053. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not Free SF Reader
Look into the Sun is an expansion of an earlier short story.

A human architect who does rather ambitious work is desired by a group of aliens to do a job for them.

This involves leaving his family, and a lot of physical and mental changes, along with getting stuck in the middle of at times incomprehensible alien politics.

A decent book, overall.


3.5 out of 5

Wonderful Descriptiveness, Flat Characters
Overall, I found I disliked and could not identify with the majority of the characters.I could not relate to their emotional states, nor did I find the picture painted of civilization(s) at all coherent.

Two things rescued the novel for me:the inspiring descriptions of the Phillip Wing's two master works -- the Tomb of the Goddess and the Glass Cloud, and one passage.

This is the distilled and brilliant passage from p238:

"Immortality was simple... Essence consisted of viewpoint and structural memory. Viewpoint was each individual's unique style of processing experience; structural memories were those that composed viewpoint.All other memories were trivial, extraneous to existence....Only structural memory, overwhelmingly the result of genetics and environment, was essential."

Never before I had I thought of self redux in such a fashion, though I found the author's embrace of behavioralism over free will annoying.It made the characters less real.

An earnest muddle
I really like Kelly's short stories, and I badly wanted to like this novel, but it just doesn't work. Two main problems: first, the protagonist is far too passive and mealy-mouthed, and an utterly unconvincing portrayal of a supposedly brilliant artist. And second, the alien civilization that he visits is very confusing, and facts about it are revelaed piecemeal and without enough context for the reader to be able to tell what really makes these creatures tick. Overall it reads like the first effort of a guy who might one day produce something really good - read Kelly's other stuff and ask for yourself if that promise has been fulfilled.

Great book
This is a great book. I loved it. James Patrick Kelly has written a book that's facinating. How do I know this? I met James Patrick Kelly and had him autograph my copies of Look Into The Sun and Planet of Whispers. This is the story
of Philip Wing, an architect who'd built the New Wonder of the World. However, the aliens who'd provided the technology, the Messengers, have returned to Earth with a
new message of "religious" significance. It saps the human
aggressiveness and Philip loses his wife, Daisy, to the Messengers. In the process, he meets Haruman, a Chani,
from a planet around 82 Eridani. When he loses Daisy to the Messengers, he turns to Harumen.

One of the most underrated recent sf novels
The conventional wisdom about Jim Kelly is that he's first and foremost a master of short fiction, but this terrific novel argues otherwise.One of the rare novels about a creative artist in which we are actually shown, notjust told about, the work of art being created -- not just Kelly'scharacter but Kelly himself has solved the problem of devising a suitabletomb for a goddess! I read the first half of this a bit at a time, findingit engaging and thought-provoking but not compelling.Little did I knowthat Kelly was just putting his many plot pieces on the chessboard; I readthe second half in one sitting. ... Read more

Book Description
A small boy struggling in the thick of the Cold War is thrown into the middle of the struggle to preserve humanity. Hugo Award Winner ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

More Literary Than Science Fiction
This book has a very literary feel about it.James Patrick Kelly has some quite wonderful, evocative passages, some intricate, subtle, and flawed characters, and a topic that resonates both with current events and with lovers of Thoreau.As an exercise in science fiction world-building (both political and geographical), however, there is a lack of complexity and reality that I think many scifi readers will find disappointing.Add in a few jumpy plot conveniences and a fairly silly and non-credible major character (The High Gregory) and you end up being vaguely dissatisfied.You may have gotten some extremely rich and tasty literary calories, but at the end you are still hungry.Donald J. Bingle, Author of Forced Conversion.

I think I was missing 100 pages
Well, it looks like I am in the minority here.I read this book in an evening and wasn't impressed.I understand what the author was trying to do, but when I read Sci Fi I want SCI FI.I want to know more!It seems like I was missing a ton of pages that explained or at least described things more.I'd like to hear back from anyone that feels the same.

Painfully Good
Mr. Kelly's descriptions of burning and being burned, and the interactions between all his characters are really well done.And some are really painful.Spur and his relationship with his soon-to-be ex-wife Comfort, the pain of his memories of the death of Comfort's brother in a self-immolation that did so much destruction, I felt them all.

The relationship of Walden with The Thousand Worlds is intricate and interestingly flawed.And the characters of Spur, High Gregory and the others of his band, and the various villagers and "government" people are very well done.

"Burn" is a very fine multilayered book that reads quickly, like a simple adventure, but will cause you to come back and think about the many philosophical questions that JPK raises.

Read this book.You'll like it!

A personal Walden is threatened by defensive fires
James Patrick Kelly's BURNtells of a small planet whose new owner has his dreams of building his personal Walden from scratch - where voluntary simplicity is the rule. Unfortunately its existing inhabitants have other ideas - and they are capable of using fire to defend their own freedoms. Compromises, conflicts, and conflagrations evolve in a satisfying, changing plot that never fails to surprise.

A terrorist war fought with forest fires
I read this short novel on a long AMTRAK trip and imagine my surprise when part of the story took place on. . . a train! The setting is a planet that has been turned into a social experiment where the residents live in the sort of simple, utopian, agrarian society advocated by Henry David Thoreau. Unfortunately, their ideal world has displaced the planet's original residents, the Pukpuks, who retaliate by setting fires in the forests planted by the utopians.

The science fiction element of the novel felt subtle and as a reader I was instead drawn in by the character of Spur, a firefighter wounded while battling the fires, and the rural community that could be anyone's hometown. This is very much a novel about a damaged man trying to do the right thing, with a good mix of humor, action and thought-provoking moral questions that mirror those of our own 21st century world.

Good stuff. And who knew Thoreau was so fascinated by fire?
... Read more

Book Description
A street-smart lifelong welfare-receiving twentysomething finds himself standingin a strange line awaiting ... what? Nebula Award Nominee ... Read more

Book Description
Marja and Lily are young women enslaved in medical school. Bored and lonely, they decide to take a night off. But the singles' joints of their era are more intricate than the loud-music-watery-drinks-bad-pickup-lines emporiums of the past. Part of the deal is medication that duplicates the stimuli of love at first sight. Under its influence, a bald and stammering insurance salesman can look like George Clooney. Both women are smitten with men who aren't their usual types. For one couple, it's just the drugs; for the other--well, they'll find out in an hour, when the dose wears off. ... Read more

Book Description
While waiting for his girlfriend at their favorite restaurant, a middle-aged man on the verge of deserting his wife receives a mysterious warning from a ghostly acquaintance. ... Read more

Book Description
Middle school kids cheer for 'Johnny America' in a future war against Mexico, and struggle to cope on the home front. Year's Best Science Fiction Pick ... Read more

Book Description
In a highly cyberspace age, a network security jockey seeks love through his odd persona, the "big guy." ... Read more

Book Description
Perhaps the aliens who resemble overgrown roosters aren't as dumb as they look.... Very funny first contact story. ... Read more

Book Description
On a distant world, a family of furry natives is torn apart when the mother chooses to live with the alien humans. Sturgeon Award Nominee ... Read more