{"id":43612,"date":"2018-03-13T11:12:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T15:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=43612"},"modified":"2018-03-06T17:27:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T22:27:50","slug":"miniatures-short-fiction-john-scalzi-john-scalzi-library-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/miniatures-short-fiction-john-scalzi-john-scalzi-library-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi by John Scalzi [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-43268\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/12\/Miniatures-by-John-Scalzi-on-BookDragon-533x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/12\/Miniatures-by-John-Scalzi-on-BookDragon-533x800.jpg 533w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/12\/Miniatures-by-John-Scalzi-on-BookDragon.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/>John Scalzi (<em>Redshirts<\/em>) explains in his snappy introduction, which he reads, that he has &#8220;two natural [writing] speeds&#8221;: novel-long and &#8220;really short.&#8221; This 18-piece collection showcases his &#8220;fast, punchy, and to the point&#8221;-shortest. For such a &#8220;miniature&#8221; book, it&#8217;s got quite a full cast: Allyson Johnson, Dina Pearlman, Oliver Wyman, Fred Berman, Greg Cope White, Khristine Hvam, Peter Ganim, Luke Daniels, and the author, as well.<\/p>\n<p>At just under three hours, the short-shorts move so quickly that identifying who&#8217;s reading what is frustrating. Listeners will wonder why each story couldn&#8217;t have included the title followed by &#8220;read by.&#8221; Between shorts, Scalzi shares tidbits about narrative origins, being lazy, and his writing goal of creating worlds in which alien and human encounters are part of everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>To that end, his narrators are superbly fluent in alien-speak. Standouts include the multi-voiced confessionals &#8220;Alien Animal Encounters&#8221; and &#8220;Your Smart Appliances Talk About You Behind Your Back.&#8221; His interviews-as-stories are uproariously funny: &#8220;Denise Jones, Superbooker&#8221; (she trots out superheroes to save the world \u2013 or save a kiddie birthday party) and &#8220;The State of Super Villainy&#8221; (starring an asset management analyst for the worst-of-the-worst).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Who doesn&#8217;t need a few hours of giggling and guffawing, especially now?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/bookverdict.com\/details.xqy?uri=Product2018-03-01-8309923.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cAudio,\u201d <em>Library Journal<\/em>, March 1, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Scalzi (Redshirts) explains in his snappy introduction, which he reads, that he has &#8220;two natural [writing] speeds&#8221;: novel-long and &#8220;really short.&#8221; This 18-piece collection showcases his &#8220;fast, punchy, and to the point&#8221;-shortest. For such a &#8220;miniature&#8221; book, it&#8217;s got quite a full cast: Allyson&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,60,6535,7],"tags":[7775,89,6608,7776,10,3180,11,7777,7779,1791,70,13,7778,7780,1857,6937,35],"class_list":["post-43612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-nonethnic-specific","category-repost","category-short-stories","tag-allyson-johnson","tag-anthology-collection","tag-bookdragon","tag-dina-pearlman","tag-family","tag-fred-berman","tag-friendship","tag-greg-cope-white","tag-john-scalzi","tag-khristine-hvam","tag-library-journal","tag-love","tag-luke-daniels","tag-miniatures","tag-oliver-wyman","tag-peter-ganim","tag-speculative-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi by John Scalzi [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/miniatures-short-fiction-john-scalzi-john-scalzi-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi by John Scalzi [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Scalzi (Redshirts) explains in his snappy introduction, which he reads, that he has &#8220;two natural [writing] speeds&#8221;: novel-long and &#8220;really short.&#8221; This 18-piece collection showcases his &#8220;fast, punchy, and to the point&#8221;-shortest. 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