101 Writing Prompts for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers, vol 1 (Volume 1) Paperback – June 1, 2012

I've purchased quite a few writing prompt books on Amazon, and this is the only one where I had strong enough feelings that I felt like I really needed to leave a review.If you only looked at the free preview section, you'd think the prompts were going to be pretty good. The 2-3 reviews that show up in the preview are fairly long and thought-out. However, once you get the book, you realize that most of the prompts are shorter, and some are nothing more than a word and its dictionary definition. If dictionary words are writing prompts, you might as well just grab your dictionary - because at 100k+ words in a standard dictionary, you'll get a much better value there. Also, this book was a little bit cheesy. If you don't like sci-fi/fantasy stuff that's a little on the cheesy side, you won't like this book.There were a few decent prompts in this book, but overall, it's not worth the purchase. There are at least half a dozen better prompt books on Amazon, and even the ones that aren't sci-fi specific have tons of topics that could very easily apply to science fiction or fantasy.

This book is a great tool - even the prompts I haven't used are intriguing, puzzling, useful. Some of them are so entertaining I just read and re-read them for amusement. As a fan of writers like Jeff VanderMeer and Octavia Butler, I particularly liked the "biological" prompts that ask the reader to re-think basic assumptions about human and non-human life (what it is, how it works, etc).

I really enjoyed this book. Like most writing prompt books, what you get out of it depends entirely on what you put into it (ie- you have to be willing to do the exercises), but if you are willing to work, the results are brilliant. The book offers a variety of different prompts to appeal to writers of every style. I found it especially beneficial to do the prompts from the perspective of the characters I am creating for other stories. Sure, my scifi heroine might not ever battle a vampire, but by putting her in that situation (just for fun) and seeing how she responds, I learned a lot about her. It really helped me flush out things about her character and her motivations that I might never have discovered if I had left her in 'her world'. I strongly recommend this book to writers who are looking to write scifi, or for writers who just want to flex those muscles and see where it takes them.

I found many of the prompts useful the first time I went through the collection and I plan to use it again. I especially like the prompts that are revisited from different viewpoints. Well written and just what I needed.

I was disappointed in the size. Some of the prompts gave me ideas for my writing. Overall, I found some of it useful, but not that great.

I had a such good time with this book. It challenged me to think outside the box and get my writing mojo going full steam ahead!One of my favorites was the one about vampire oranges - since I've been hooked on the Walking Dead I had a ton of fun writing through this prompt.There's really something for everyone in this book. You don't even have to be a fantasy or scifi writers to enjoy all the great prompts. In fact, it's probably better if you're not - as it pushes you even further outside of your comfort zone.Great stuff here - really enjoyed.

Even if you come away with only a handful of ideas, the inexpensive price was worth it. Remember, you can also combine the individual ideas, so that helps, too.

You get a very thin book, with very few worthwhile ideas. Enough said from my point of view. Hope others get more out of it.