Worlds Enough & Time consists of 5 medium length science fiction stories (although, I suppose if you were pedantic you could describe them as novellas or novelettes on the word count). Each story features a short introduction by the author.

This is the first book I’ve read by Dan Simmons and though I didn’t think the author introductions added any value, his stories are nicely written and he has a clever imagination. I’m inclined to read some of his other material (the Hyperion novels are supposed to be quite good).

I read all of the stories, and am a huge fan of Simmons. However, this gets the highest ranking for Kelly Dahl. For those of us who have been lucky enough to have had a Kelly enter our lives...regardless of the outcome...we should be grateful that Worlds reminds us of it. Kelly...and Worlds...easily a 5.

Slow, anecdotal, only rarely inspiring.

Five short-ish stories. Details below:

Looking for Kelly Dahl - 4/5 (Short story about a teacher and his student)
Orphans of the Helix - 5/5 (Hyperion universe)
The Ninth of Av - 3/5 (May have a connection to another Simmons story. Strange speculative story about the far future)
On K2 with Kanakaredes - 5/5 (Short story about hiking with an alien)
The End of Gravity - 3/5 (Short story about Russian space travel and the cultural aspects behind it)

A collection of sci-fi novellas by Simmons. All are pretty good, and Dan does some lengthy introductions for each novella. And this was where I had a small problem. I always enjoy reading author introductions into stories, as they are informative. But Dan went as long as 12 pages with some of these, and these are just novellas. So, for me, these got boring. But the stories themselves were top notch.

There was one "Hyperion" novella called "Orphans of the Helix", which was a fun read. As was the opening story "Looking for Kelly Dahl", which was an original idea. Really, all the stories were really good, and they were all varied. One was a pure sci-fi story set in space, whereas another was a fictional take on the Russian space program. There was a good variety of sci-fi stories that kept me entertained, in this collection. I give it a thumbs up!

I read it. I re-read it. I always get something out of it.

Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors. This collection of five short stories demonstrate the depth of Simmons talent, presenting 5 different premises each related to time and the future with a look at what could be....

I only read three of the stories in this book, because within a sentence or two I could see that a couple of them just weren't going to be for me. Most of the ones I read I really enjoyed, with the exception of the final story in the book, The End of Gravity. It wasn't bad, I mostly just found it a little dull.

Worlds Enough and Time is my first exposure to the short fiction of Dan Simmons.

I started here due to the story set in the Hyperion Universe.

Looking for Kelly Dahl - A bizarre story about a teacher's former student who can create reality. I really enjoyed it.

Orphans of the Helix - Loosely based on teh Hyperion cantos. This story involves a ship full of settlers that come upon a random distress signal. Fun enough, but not as connected as I hoped.

Ninth of Av - I have no idea what this was about. I have heard this connected to the Illium and Olympos books. That kind of scares me to start those books.

On K2 with Kanakaredes - This was a great story. Mountain Climbing and Aliens, what more could you ask for.

The End of Gravity - I place this one in the same category as "Phases of Gravity". Not what I expected. It started out okay and then was totally screwy by the end.

All in all, I liked three stories and disliked 2. The lengthy introductions were a nice touch.

Zu blöd, dass das Buch bereits 2004 unter dem Namen "Welten und Zeit genug" in einem anderen Verlag erschienen ist... und ich es damals bereits gekauft habe. Ich hatte auf eine neue Sammlung von Geschichten gehofft.

Dan Simmons is argueably one of the best American writers of speculative fiction today. In Worlds Enough & Time he presents 5 very different novellas, along with lengthy introductions to each individual entry. In all of them he creates a stunning collision of ideas and compelling human introspection. Suprisingly, his Orphans of the Helix, set in the future of his Hyperion world, ends up being the weakest of the entries. Perhaps, more accurately, the other 4 tales are so much more "human" in their emotion and poignacy that they stand above as the more satisfying tales.

I am always amazed at Simmon's craft, and Worlds Enough & Time holds an honored space on my bookshelf.

I suppose I got the notion that Dan Simmons would be good at short stories because he approaches levels of supernova brilliance in Hyperion where the whole thing is a series of interconnected novellas, and short stories are just shorter novellas right? Well, no. And this collection highlights that well. However, his introductions to each of the stories are worth the slog.