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Alastair Reynolds, China Miéville, Neil Gaiman: 2001: An Odyssey In Words: Honouring the Centenary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Birth (2018, NewCon Press) 3 stars

Produced to honour the centenary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s birth, this anthology acts as …

Review of "2001: An Odyssey In Words: Honouring the Centenary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Birth" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program]
To honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of sir Arthur Clarke, Newcon Press asked many SF authors to contribute to this anthology with a short story. The only constraint was that the story should have been exactly 2001 words long. As Oulipo studied, a constraint too weak does not help people write interesting works, even if many authors decided to stick with Clarkean themes to narrow the possibilities. Among the stories I only found a handful I really appreciate: Ouroburos by Ian R. McLeod, The Escape Hatch by Matthew De Abaitua, Dancers by Allen Stroud, The Ontologist by Liz Williams, Roads of Silver, Paths of Gold by Emmi Itäranta, Last Contact by Becky Chambers, Providence by Alastair Reynolds. In a nutshell, the book is interesting and it is a nice tribute, also thanks to the three short essays at the end (I did not check their lenghts, but Neil Gaiman definitely wrote much less than 2001 words); but is could have been a bit better.