This is a short story collection focusing on mad science, duh! Well, mostly.
- Professor Incognito Apologizes: An Itemized List, by Austin Grossman: How do you explain to your fiancee that you're a secret supervillain? Well...this is how. The author does a brilliant job with ah, explaining the situation and why he's welcoming our new Martian overlords and it was very fun to read.
- Father of the Groom, by Harry Turtledove: When your dad's a mad scientist, he takes the term "Bridezilla" literally. Oops. A little stereotypical, but who doesn't enjoy a Kateosaurus?
- Laughter at the Academy, by Seanan McGuire: This one focuses on an interesting lady who always seems to be working when someone else goes mad around her. Hmmmm....Suspiciously clever, that one!
- Letter to the Editor, by David D. Levine: Doctor Talon's looking to explain himself to the general public, specifically why he's against the superhero Ultimate Man. He's got reasons, you guys! And lots of evidence. And now it's up to you to save the world. I like this take on the subject.
- Instead Of A Loving Heart, by Jeremiah Tolbert: The mechanical assistant to a mad scientist does not enjoy its existence, especially given how said existence came about. A sad story.
- The Executor, by Daniel H. Wilson: Descendants of a rich dead man are eligible to get the inheritance, BUT... good luck figuring out how to jump through the hoops he left. Our narrator s desperate enough to save his daughter to try. Ouch. Interesting but painful.
- The Angel of Death Has A Business Plan, by Heather Lindsley: Our narrator counsels superheroes and supervillains while working on her future supervilliany on the side. Clever girl and good handling of this one.
- Homo Perfectus, by David Farland: In all honesty, this one is creepy to read if you're a woman, and features roofies as a plot point. It doesn't go quite to the point of super awfulness, but... ugh, creepy, disturbing, not a story meant for a woman to read or enjoy, unfortunately.
- Ancient Equations, by L.A. Banks:, Now that this former nerd has a hot bod and lots of science, it's time to finally find a woman worthy of him. How about a goddess? I'm sure this can't possibly go wrong... especially if you're summoning Kali, for god's sake. Bad idea, dude. Her reaction to this ... heh heh heh.
- Rural Singularity, by Alan Dean Foster: A reporter goes to do a story on an idiot savant inventor girl and her two-headed chickens. This also turns out to be a terrible idea. Watch out for this one...
- Captain Justice Saves the Day, by Genevieve Valentine: Brenda is the personal assistant to a supervillain. When he leaves her to be found by Captain Justice...To be honest, I'm not sure what to make of this one, particularly its ending.
- The Mad Scientist's Daughter, by Theodora Goss: A group of scientists' daughters--you've probably heard of their fathers--live together in a house...I want to make a reality show joke here, but it really doesn't fit. They manage to live together quite well despite their particular life challenges. I can't say it has much plot, but I really liked reading about these ladies.
- The Space Between, by Diana Gabaldon: This is the one story that doesn't seem to really fit with Mad Science too much. It takes place in the Outlanderverse and I haven't read anything from there in quite awhile, so I don't quite remember/feel clued into what is going on. This is the story (actually a novella given the length) of psychic Joan moving to France to become a nun in hopes that they can help her with her problem of hearing voices (irony, right), Joan being mistaken for being the daughter (rather than stepdaughter) of time-traveling Claire Fraser, and another time traveler who's up to things looking for Master Raymond and Joan. It was a bit confusing for me after all this time, but the story was still intriguing even if I didn't quite get every detail.
- Harry and Marlowe Meet the Founder of the Aetherian Revolution, by Carrie Vaughn: I wish I liked this one better than I did, given that it's about the adventures of Queen Victoria's granddaughter adventuring under a fake name in a steampunkverse. I can't for the life of me figure out why I wasn't eating this up, but it just somehow wasn't...lively enough for me? I don't know why and maybe it's just me.
- Blood and Stardust, by Laird Barron: This is the story of a female Igor-type who hates her boss and likes the circus. I...didn't feel strongly about this either for whatever reason, and it is a bit confusing.
- A More Perfect Union, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.:In a future alternate universe, a mad political scientist manages to manipulate the world to get his candidate into office. Creepy and wordy, but effective.
- Rocks Fall, by Naomi Novik: A superhero who's about to die gets to spend some last minute quality time with an empathetic supervillain. This kind of wasn't what I expected and I was a bit disappointed that we don't get to find out why the villain is acting as he does. That seemed relevant, so why bring it up and then demur? I don't get that.
- We Interrupt This Broadcast, by Mary Robinette Kowal: A dying computer expert works to bring D.C. down at the end of WW2. I'm not sure what to make of this.
- The Last Dignity of Man, by Marjorie M. Liu: Alexander Luthor feels, given what his name is, that he needs to become a supervillain. Why? So that Superman can exist too. Even if it's making him rather conflicted and weird. He makes friends with a guy named Richard that is really touching. I liked this one very much.
- The Pittsburgh Technology, by Jeffrey Ford: Beware of former buttmonkeys bearing gifts...When a cashier hears that his old coworker's had a drastic and improving change in his life, the cashier goes on his recommendation to get his life changed. This is the bit that hooked me: "You, George, are a classic loser. Your kind are everywhere, trapped like flies in the web of Fate. You're not bad people basically, but you've gone about as far as you're going with the hand you've been dealt and yet there's so much more of your static life left to creep through....No doubt you've tried to change your life in the past but your efforts evaporated into nothing. That is basically the problem from a scientific standpoint. You can't change your present life because your present is contingent on your past. Your history is always chasing you and always gaining on you. ..You've sealed your Fate and as it happens your Fate turns out to be dreadfully dull. Yet, when you try to change it, because you are the product of your past, you can't affect anything." I feel similarly IRL (this also sounds like the book Fated) and was intrigued. Too bad this one's a downer. Fair play on the part of the author, mind you, but....
- Mofongo Knows, by Grady Hendrix: Mad scientist gorilla who's been imprisoned by his nemesis is still unhappy once his nemesis dies. Whee. Downer.
- The Food Taster's Boy, by Ben H. Winters: I think I was hitting fatigue by the end of this book, because I didn't really get this one. Also, it's super creepy and involves a small boy watching horrendous torture. Can't say I liked it.
Overall, I'll give the book 3.5 stars.
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