I‘m a sucker for anthologies.  Sure, I always get more emotionally invested in novels or series.  You can lose yourself in that kind of longer narrative in a way you can’t with a shorter piece.  But there’s just something so exciting about a collection of short stories.  You know you’re going to get radically different ideas and viewpoints which can really make you think.  I think my interest in sci-fi short stories comes from the fact that my high school library used to subscribe to magazines like Analog or Asimov’s.  I never had any preference for one particular “brand,” I just read whatever I found.  It was always fun to wonder whether you would discover some real gems in each issue.

So if you combine that interest in short science-fiction with my general love of games and gaming, it’s not surprising that I picked up a sci-fi anthology called Dangerous Games, a paperback collection of sci-fi stories focused on games.  But even with these positive biases, I probably never would have purchased the book if I had seen the front cover first.  The design/marketing is beyond idiotic.  Problems include:

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