Unidentified Funny Objects 8 by Various authors (editor: Alex Shvartsman)
Published: 2020
Genre: Humorous science fiction and fantasy anthology
My rating: 3/5 stars
Those of you who have been following my monthly short story recommendations probably won’t be too surprised that I’m reviewing the UFO 8 anthology. I finished the book some weeks ago and have recommended several of the stories here and here. So, it’s been on my mind a lot lately.
First of all, I want to make clear just how difficult humor is to write. Not only do you have to be able to pull of joke after joke on top of having all the other skills a writer of fiction needs to have. But of all the genres out there, it’s also the one where you’ll most easily chase readers away if you don’t hit smack down the middle of their taste. With, say, fantasy or science fiction, you can strike off a little and still leave the reader fairly entertained. Not so with comedy.
So I wasn’t surprised at all that there was a big difference in how much I enjoyed the individual stories of the UFO 8 anthology, and I don’t think there will be a lot of readers out there who’ll be a fan of every story. I actually think this speaks of the quality of the editing/story selection process, that Alex Shvartsman (the editor) have chosen to include such a wide array of comedic styles.
That said, there did seem to be a fair deal of the stories which only relied on one type of humor to carry the reader through, and that, to me, is a weak spot. The best comedic writers, as for example Terry Pratchett, might have their favorite styles, but they often include jokes of different kinds, making their stories accessible to a wider array of readers.
Too many of the stories in UFO 8 relied on that the reader would find it funny to read several pages of slapstick comedy or satire on the science fiction genre’s tendency to include long, un-pronouncable names of aliens.
Still, there is a bit of everything in the anthology, and the eigth instalment definitely haven’t put me off buying other books in the series. If you enjoy speculative fiction and comedic stories, UFO 8 is well worth the money.
My only suggestion is that you don’t linger too long on stories that intially don’t seem to hit the mark for you. Skip them and move onto something you’ll enjoy more.
Aside from the stories I’ve mentioned in my monthly short story recommendation posts, there were also a couple of stories that were close but just fell short. Stories like Soul Trade by Galen Westlake or A.I, M.D by Kurt Pankau. Overall, I’d say around half the stories in the anthology left me smiling and/or chuckling most of the time.
Toby Backman 