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Piers Anthony
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Alien Plot: A Short Story Collection Kindle Edition

by Piers Anthony (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 23 ratings
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A collection of sixteen science fiction and fantasy short stories from the New York Times–bestselling author of the Xanth series.

Here for the pleasure of his millions of fans is a collection of short fiction by bestselling writer Piers Anthony. This collection of sixteen stories includes four that have been published only overseas or in small magazines. Each story is introduced by Piers Anthony. “Alien Plot,” the title story, is a brand-new long story that tells of an alien plot of ground that becomes home to a man from our world; “Nonent” is about another kind of alien plot, this one a plot to conquer Earth. “20 Years,” another brand-new story, is a fable of life and death in the future. 

Other stories included are “December Dates;” “Ship of Mustard,” a spicy SF adventure tale; “Imp to Nymph,” which was originally published in the World Fantasy Convention program book in 1987; “E Van S,” a story that reveals the truth about who, or what, controls television programming; “Vignettes,” three short-shorts written for a fan publication; “Hearts,” a lovely story written for the Christmas edition of Books and Bookmen, a British magazine; “Revise and Invent,” a very funny satire on the business of being a writer; and “Love 40,” also published only in Britain, which gives new meaning to a traditional tennis term.
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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  4. Publication date
    July 1, 2014
  5. File size
    4.3 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Known primarily for his novels, Anthony ( Macroscope ) here collects short stories written over a span of 35 years; many are previously unpublished, and original to this volume. For the most part, they are top-notch efforts. "December Dates" is a touching love story; "Imp to Nymph" and "E Van S" demonstrate Anthony's predilection for puns. While both "Soft Like a Woman" and "Ship of Mustard" feature female protagonists, they will not dispel Anthony's reputation for male chauvinism. He introduces each of the 20 stories with a commentary in which he recalls how he wrote the story and, frequently it how it was rejected by hostile or indifferent editors. Indeed, the collection's title refers to a plot on the part of editors to alien ate writers. Going a step further, both "Revise and Invent" and "Nonent" concern a writer whose stories are rejected. Overall this is an entertaining assemblage that Anthony's many fans will surely welcome.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Cogent, sharply worded...Anthony is certainly right in saying that critics have gone on dismissing him too long and too loudly."--Booklist
-- Review

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00KLOXZCK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (July 1, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 1, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.3 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

About the author

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Piers Anthony

Piers Anthony

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Piers Anthony is one of the world's most popular fantasy authors, and a New York Times bestseller twenty-one times over. His Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and he daily receives hundreds of letters from his devoted fans.In addition to the Xanth series, Anthony is the author of many other best-selling works. Piers Anthony lives in Inverness, Florida.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
23 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Daniel H Dixon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Writers can learn too!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is about the tribulations of being a writer. It is about being unsuccessfully successful too. If you have any such notions that lean towards writing in any genre then you will love this book!
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  • 2theD
    1.0 out of 5 stars Pulp content and camp delivery; pure chaff
    Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2010
    Alien Plot - 2/5 - A scientist/soldier, Duff, of future earth is sent to a parallel universe where magic has manifested itself in the way of conjuring spells, talking statues and a dragon who can look into your heart. Will Duff be sucked into the fantasy world like the prior researchers or will he be able to separate his true self from the fantasy self? 42 pages

    Nonent - 3/5 - A dastardly-minded alien composes a short story to earth's editors to make them numb skulled in order that the populous be starved of the printed medium, but you know how editors are. 5 pages

    Twenty Years - 3/5 - A man defeats a stylized dragon and wins a prize from the stylized nymph; a twenty-year reduction in his age through the deletion of any period of his life, thereby subverting the mandatory euthanasia at eighty years of age. 8 pages

    December Dates - 3/5 - A man in his December-years allows himself the occasional splurge of reverting to his youthful May-years. His correspondence with another elderly lady has him interested in seeing her in her true form. 9 pages

    Ship of Mustard - 3/5 - The space station is full of oversexed females around the planet Athena and the luring of a young technician is within one of their grasps if they could just figure out the crossword clue for a mustard plant. 9 pages

    Soft Like a Woman - 2/5 - Along with a totally implausible story line scattered with inconsistencies, the sole woman on an eight-man mission and she's being discriminated and harassed. When the party lands, she finds she must deal with a predatory spy and complete the mission alone. 32 pages

    Imp to Nymph - 3/5 - A magical police man goes to a magical castle incognito in order to purchase a nymph, as a ruse, and investigate what happened to a man who never came back from the castle. 25 pages

    E van S - 1/5 - A literally cursed TV set strews endless absurdity and terrible puns, which is Anthony's excuse for a sense of humor. Just unbearably terrible. 14 pages

    Vignettes - 3/5 - Three short, short stories each comprised of a mere fifty words: To the Death (battle to the death with a recluse - 4/5), Transmogrification (brownies invade and loot a house - 3/5) and Deadline (2/5 - something about buying a fantasy novel, dunno). 2 pages

    Hearts - 3/5 - On the eve of Christmas, a man walks down the road and selflessly incurs the negative emotions and pains of others. But the spirit and origin of Christmas will see his accumulated pain dissolved. 4 pages

    Revise and Invent - 3/5 - Anthony's exposé of his very short stories in a form which also includes the letters from the editors who rejected each correspondence and each altered story...all an idea which has been printed before. 17 pages

    Baby - 3/5 - A snippet of a story intended to be finished by teenaged competitors: Taking on a rather dull story of adoption, a reporter soon discovers three separately adopted babies which share birthdates and characteristics. 3 pages

    Cloister - 2/5 - Another pun party by Anthony, who pursues the reader ragged and dares them to skip the ridiculous tale of abbots on the isle of York who are preparing to be besieged by kings, queens and broncs to steal their manuscripts to make hats. 7 pages

    Love 40 - 2/5 - Anthony's excuse for science fiction is this tale of insensitive cultural approach and a doodad device which adjustably alters peoples' emotional state and is installed in a tennis ball-thrower by a mechanic. Two people `fall in love,' both of whom have come to investigate the phenomenon at the resort and who both will investigate the creator so that a Japanese company can reproduce it. 12 pages

    Kylo - 2/5 - A man discovers his neighbor is caretaking for a dinosaur while its' owner is preoccupied. He takes it for a walk and discovers everyone else knows of its' existence. Anthony says he has done research for this sorry but it reads like common knowledge to a 12-year old. 6 pages

    Plague of Allos - 1/5 - Elves, wolves, telepathy, dinosaurs... fantasy for people who like fantasy, I guess. I'm not one of those people. 26 pages

    Think of the Reader - 1/5 - Anthony's ideas of what the reader wants is viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of what editors want: an easy plot to follow, simple language and themes which are tried and true. He pretty much says, `The readers aren't too bright so give everything to them on a silver plate.'

    Like above, this is evident throughout the collection as I predicted the ending to nearly every single story. The level of concentration for the reader is basically set at the 12-14 year level. The science is non-existent for the purported science fiction stories and the fantasy bits (usually un-stomach-able for me) became chokingly unbearable at the extent of its' cheesiness along with the plethora of stupid, stupid, stupid puns. Perhaps this is what Anthony fans LIKE to read but it's definitely not something a literally science fiction fan would ever indulge in. The entire collection screams of pulp, pulp, pulp- mostly cringing follow-through, mostly eye-rolling passages and conclusions where the reader is left with a `humph' as satisfaction.

    And why is Anthony so focused on including women and sex in the short stories? It's distracting to the content and delivery. He even mentions a fairly taboo subject of rape three times, and even makes a rape joke. A rape joke, I tell you. Juvenile minded from beginning to end for a juvenile audience who has the intention of producing pulp fiction on their own. Sorry Anthony has such a chip on his shoulder about editors, but the stuff this guy produces leads me to wonder how any of his stories have passed a single editor. If this is the wheat of Anthony's chaff, I'd hate to see the latter.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Peter D. Buckman
    3.0 out of 5 stars Quite weak and indulgent.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I found this book to be fine and the stories were In the main okay, none particularly outstanding.
    Mr Anthony continually bring to the readers awareness that he doesn't like critics, publishers or any reviewer that doesn't like his work or a particular story or a word. so not only does be bang on about how they are always wrong. But then he goes on to publish this book which includes many of his rejects. Unfortunately in many cases the rejections seem to be justified. Many of the rejects aren't very good.
    Much of this book is devoted to correspondence between him and publishers and at the end a lesson to his readers about how to construct a story. Fine in the right place, such as a book on becoming a writer and what to expect. But not in a book of short stories.
    Having said all this many of the stories were readable and the book is worth a purchase.
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