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Actions and Reactions (Hardcover, 1909, Charles Scribner's Sons) 1 star

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet, born in India, and best …

It's bad

1 star

I got this collection because it contained "With the Night mail" that I had been wanting to read for quite some time. To say I was unfulfilled would be an understatement. Allegedly one of the first science fiction stories, it's so filled with made up techno babble it was practically unreadable. Basically treating a blimp as it it where a ship and needing all the same parts, bilge pumps etc., described in detail, with a story that had no plot to speak of. The addition of letters to the editor and advertisements was interesting but detracted from the story.

The other stories I read from the collection weren't any better, making no sense and barley readable. It was only after reading a bit that I realized Kipling was the same guy who wrote the Jungle Book, which if it wasn't for LibraryThing I wouldn't have even remembered I'd read before, as it was equally poor. Unlike Jungle Book though, this one ended in my 1 star so bad I didn't finish it pile.