Not So Much, Said The Cat collects shorts stories by Michael Swanwick. And as collections go, there usually are better and worse stories also in this collection. I'm somewhat a troubled short stories reader, since I find it hard to feel invested in the characters that are only there for a short period of time. However, when done right, I do appreciate it a lot, which is why I keep giving short fiction a try.

I really enjoyed reading the collection, even as I don't think any particular stories will stay with me for a long time. It was my introduction to Michael Swanwick, and I might try some more.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was an interesting book, and was very well written! I don't know if I would give a copy to a friend or re-read it, but I did enjoy it.

Swanwick is one of my favourite fantasy authors. This book is like little dosis of his bests. He is an amazing story teller, and in this book one can see why. Funny, clever and very interesting.

Michael Swanwick is one of the best and most-prolific short story writers in the business. In fact, he's one of the few writers who is actually far better at the short form than the long one. Each collection brings new wonders (and, admittedly, a few stories that are just okay).

Notable stories include:
"The Man in Grey," where we get a glimpse of the real world behind our known one, with a twist on the usual narrator.
"The Scarecrow's Boy" is a horrific children's fairy tale.
"The Woman Who Shook the World Tree" is a beautiful story that I won't ruin.
"From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled" is a fascinating alien story.
"Goblin Lake" is another fairy tale with a twist.
"Tawny Petticoats" is a con story starring his characters Darger and Surplus--a man and an anthropomorphic dog.
In "The She-Wolf's Hidden Grin," Swanwick has the audacity to take one of Gene Wolfe's best creations (The Fifth Head of Cerberus), deconstruct it, and put it back together again. And by gum, it works.

If I loved this so much, why 4 stars instead of 5? It's because the few stories I didn't like REALLY fell flat for me. That said, this is still a terrific collection of stories written by a talented author.

This author has a very wide range. I liked all of the stories, some I loved, and rarely did I find one that didn't catch my attention or deserve a second read. Very strong collection as most anthology have some stinkers, this one not so much. Wide range of subjects and genre. Excellent collection and I'd highly recommend it!

This was an addicting and entertaining read, and I devoured it. Super well-written and well-thought out!

I don't read short stories because they are too short. My reading speed is high and my contemplation index (is there such a measure?) is low and short fiction that can be inhaled in a minute or two is too ephemeral to give much pleasure. But I knew when I asked for "Not So Much Said the Cat" by Michael Swanwick that it was likely to be something special. To slow the pace, I carried the book on an intercontinental journey that involved several breaks and several short sleeps. I tried to keep my reading to one story per break and it worked pretty well.

Mr. Stanwick, in the introduction to this collection, tells a bit of his writing history. He sounds compulsive, sometimes saying that he read all of this or all of that. He has honed his skills by mimicking the style of other writers. He has taught writing.

All of this practice has paid off handsomely. His stories and books have won or been nominated for the highest SF awards. This book is full of excellent, creative stories that a normal reader will probably enjoy without an intercontinental journey.

I received a review copy of "Not So Much, Said the Cat" by Michael Swanwick (Tachyon) through NetGalley.com.

I had never read a collection of short stories before and this definitely made me interesting in trying some more! Overall this collection had some highs and lows but all kept my attention and I look forward to finding more like this in the future!

I requested this book via NetGalley to review because the title and description sounded intriguing. When I started the book, however, the intrigue fell away a little.

Not So Much, Said The Cat starts with an introduction from the author, talking about his writing journey and how this collection of short fiction came to be. Unfortunately, the introduction read very self-aggrandizing and I’m still not sure if it was intended that way or just came across that way by accident.

But I put that aside and jumped into the world of the first story, and enjoyed it very much! I’ve seen other reviewers all say the same – the first story is a great start to this collection and definitely makes you want to read more.

However, the book is only 288 pages, which should be a very quick read, but it actually took me over 2 months to get through it. Which is a downside for me, but for anthology lovers maybe that would be a positive? Each story was a different genre to the last, jumping around between fantasy, sci-fi, fable-type fiction and more, to the point that I could only read one story at a time and needed several days (sometimes a week or more) between them to get my brain ready for the next genre switch.

I’m not sure why the author (or publisher) planned the stories in this way. There were several of each genre in the book and I think it would have been a more enjoyable read to have more fluid genre transitions, from fantasy through to sci-fi crossovers, then pure sci-fi through to the fable-style stories, etc. The way they were all intermixed felt very “bitty”, and frustrated me a few times that I couldn’t just relax and read several at once.

For example, “The Dala Horse” was such a swift change in genre and setting that it pulled me out of the story too much at first – I found myself thinking “Wait, where am I? What setting/world is this?” instead of just enjoying the story. And “3am In The Mesozoic Bar” was a flop for me because it took too long for the story to show you what was going on. I think it (and many others) would have read differently if I’d known upfront which genre I should be expecting.

You could definitely tell the same author wrote each story, even with the different settings and protagonists the language and writing style was much the same. But that alone wasn’t enough to tie the collection together for me to read more than one at a time.

The stories themselves are mostly good – a couple are very good, then they become “ok” the further into the collection you go, with one or two not grabbing me at all. But you have to expect a mixed bag with a short fiction collection that crosses so many different worlds, genres and characters.

The ones I enjoyed (such as “The Man In Grey”, and “The Woman Who Shook The World Tree”) had strong plots, characters, and I mostly enjoyed the author’s writing style – very accurately described in the book blurb as sesquipedalian.

“An Empty House With Many Doors” was a surprising treat later in the collection. The world building was interesting and it was great to have an emotional rollercoaster through such a short story.

Overall I think the collection is an OK read, very middle of the road. I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone personally, but if you enjoy mixed-genre anthologies you might feel differently about it than I did.