The Cosmic Comedy Collection by Phillip Carter

Bjørn reviews The Cosmic Comedy Collection, a sci-fi comedy anthology featuring 5 authors, arranged by Phillip Carter.

A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Featuring five brand new Sci-Fi Comedy stories from five brilliant authors, the Cosmic Comedy Collection is a book that will have you laughing at everything from shapeshifting aliens, superintelligent AI, to flying cats. It’s weird, it’s wacky, and every single story in the book can’t be found anywhere else.

This book contains talented, hilarious writing

A.J. Pagan
Aaron Frale
John Coon
Phillip Carter
Robin Drown

Arranged by Author-Comedian hybrid and bigfoot lookalike Phillip Carter, this book is a wild adventure into comedy that proves that Science Fiction can be a lot more than sulky protagonists and miserable weather. It can be silly, twisted, and downright ridiculous too.

If you like your Sci-Fi with a comedic edge, you’re in the right place.

The Cosmic Comedy Collection is a short anthology – five stories, five authors. It left me with mixed feelings, which is generally what anthologies do, giving you a chance to find new favourite writers and new not-so-much. Since it’s only five stories, though, skimming one meant losing 20% of the content. And yes, I skimmed one.

Out of the remaining four stories, two made me laugh uncontrollably, the sort of laughter that makes my husband concerned I might require the Heimlich manoeuvre. One is exquisite satire; it’s not ha-ha funny, it’s absurd, and it’s also real – just as satire should be. One does not contain any humour I could detect, which was very confusing. Can lack of jokes be the joke? The one I skimmed highlights what isn’t really a problem, just a fact of life: humour is subjective.

Obviously, my personal sense of humour is the best, except everybody else thinks exactly the same about theirs. Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, has written books I have re-read more times than I could count. Sometimes, when I was in the deepest pits of depression, they literally saved my life, especially Furiously Happy. Which has an average of 3.90 on Goodreads. Same as Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. I absolutely love those books, I wish I could be half as funny, and they fail to even hit four stars from, apparently, quite a lot of people.

So… how do I rate The Cosmic Comedy Collection anthology? I laughed my socks off at two stories. The satire is painfully real and still funny. The one that wasn’t for me… it’s going to make someone laugh. It might be very good. Just not for me. Seeing as it is me, however, reviewing the book, I declare the result to be 6/10 and two new authors to investigate. Which is the best thing about anthologies.