I liked this book for so many different reasons. I liked the one or two stories I didn't enjoy at all (possibly especially the one I couldn't even finish) because they showed me no one is perfect and no matter how great a writer someone is, they are going to have stories someone (in this case me) won't like. I loved several of the stories which, despite being the first professional sale for someone, were freaking amazing, deep, well-written and enjoyable. I also liked the author interviews which came after each story. I think this was a fantastic idea for an anthology and very well-executed and if you like science fiction you should totally give it a go. ( )

Before They Were Giants, is an anthology of works from some of today’s contemporary masters of Science Fiction, but these were all works that were either break-out short stories or obscure early works. Some of the authors were well known to me before reading this volume (William Gibson, China Mieville and Kim Stanley Robinson, for example) and others, I think, will become new favorites of mine (Nicola Griffith, for one). Sadly, I felt some offerings detracted from the rest of the stories: they just did not measure up.

One notable story that I had almost forgotten about was from the mind of Spider Robinson and marks the birth of Callahan’s Place and Callahan’s Cross Time Saloon, that legendary place that you will find, if you really need to find it. If you’ve never read any of the Callahan stories, you owe it to yourself to read The Guy with the Eyes. It does not get much more original than that.

Anthologies are always hard to rate. For every great beginning story, there are others that deserve to be forgotten and disassociated from their author’s pantheon. For this reason, I’m going just above middle of the road and calling this only three and a half stars. Make no mistake, though, those great stories make up for the bad and if I can find one potential new author to read in an anthology, the read is certainly worthwhile. ( )