Yes, six stars. With shades of Ender’s Game and Gemini Man this was the best science fiction short I’ve ever read. A full story and good glimpse into an imperial world on knife’s edge. Riveted!
Best First Contact story! Nestvold has you fully engaged in figuring out the intricacies of the Mejan culture. It is so hard to look at another culture and not make immediate parallels to your own - potentially blinding you to the truth. “Like looking through lace - the view isn’t clear, the patterns get in the way.”
Combining laugh-out-loud humor, whimsy, and brutal truths Barnes gets all the stars. I had a great time reading this story.
Loved this story, it was densely packed with tasty tropes: living ships, toroidal colonies, future primitive, energy vampires, and the cherry-on-top, the chosen one (ok, she chooses herself, but you would too, lol)! I liked Star Trek’s Tin Man, but this was better.
All the Painted Stars by Gwendolyn Clare ★★★★½
“Since when were you more afraid of dying than of not having a purpose?” Liu’s lips curl in an expression I now know to indicate amusement. “How human of you.”
I loved this story of an outcast alien policeman saving a little band of intergalactic humans and finding a new purpose in life.
“Since when were you more afraid of dying than of not having a purpose?” Liu’s lips curl in an expression I now know to indicate amusement. “How human of you.”
I loved this story of an outcast alien policeman saving a little band of intergalactic humans and finding a new purpose in life.
★★★★☆
Solarpunk society with teeth. A diplomat/anthropologist from a powerful Muslim(ish) confederacy of planets embeds herself with a sustainable eco friendly genetically altered native society. She is sad, but resigned, to their being wiped out by capitalist forces. Well the natives are not benign, and they will not let themselves be wiped out. The wet blanket narrator did not approve -but f*ck her. I would have stayed.
Solarpunk society with teeth. A diplomat/anthropologist from a powerful Muslim(ish) confederacy of planets embeds herself with a sustainable eco friendly genetically altered native society. She is sad, but resigned, to their being wiped out by capitalist forces. Well the natives are not benign, and they will not let themselves be wiped out. The wet blanket narrator did not approve -but f*ck her. I would have stayed.
This slow burn intergalactic romance was about fighting for life, for survival, for the joy of living and discovering the wonders of tomorrow!
Winning Peace by Paul J. McAuley ★★★★☆
“Humans were at the mercy of species more powerful than them, pawns in games whose rules they didn’t know, and aims they didn’t understand.”
It’s a difficult and complicated galaxy yet humans are still divided. Two pilots, on different sides, have to decide to work together to survive their debts and dangers.
“Humans were at the mercy of species more powerful than them, pawns in games whose rules they didn’t know, and aims they didn’t understand.”
It’s a difficult and complicated galaxy yet humans are still divided. Two pilots, on different sides, have to decide to work together to survive their debts and dangers.
Even gods deserve to choose death. It was a sad strange thing to feel the wrench of a society going from a true religion to a fictional one. I don’t see it working better.
The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard ★★★½☆
Ah the drama of do-gooders making culture gaffs. Save us from the bleeding hearts! This short story was not enough for me to understand biologically birthed starships but I liked the idea.
Ah the drama of do-gooders making culture gaffs. Save us from the bleeding hearts! This short story was not enough for me to understand biologically birthed starships but I liked the idea.
★★★☆☆
Well now, that was a lot. I enjoyed the vicious Prador, and the mystery of the willfully paleo ancient advanced species, but I was left with more questions than answers.
Well now, that was a lot. I enjoyed the vicious Prador, and the mystery of the willfully paleo ancient advanced species, but I was left with more questions than answers.
The Impossibles by Kristine Katherine Rusch ★★★☆☆
An intergalactic lawyer wins her first case then quits.
An intergalactic lawyer wins her first case then quits.
The Man with the Golden Balloon by Robert Reed ★★★☆☆
I enjoy stories with fabulously long time scales and a bit of romance, that’s why I’ve given this story some slack. For its lengthy and breadth there should have been an impactful mysteries-of-the-universe denouement. This felt off-piste and irrelevant to the main story never received.
I enjoy stories with fabulously long time scales and a bit of romance, that’s why I’ve given this story some slack. For its lengthy and breadth there should have been an impactful mysteries-of-the-universe denouement. This felt off-piste and irrelevant to the main story never received.
Some stories feel true and not for the better. The way Alien made spaceships look like flying corporate dump trucks instead of Star Trek’s noble sleek explorers. Here instead of the friendly cosmopolitan diverse happening universe space is depicted as the lonely far flung place it is.
The Colonel Returns to the Stars by Robert Silverberg ★★½☆☆
That was a long undramatic story about an Imperial fixer who goes native on his last assignment.
That was a long undramatic story about an Imperial fixer who goes native on his last assignment.
Riding the Crocodile by Greg Egan ★★½☆☆
An epic galactic exploration weighed down mightily by a suicidal partner; the ending a wilted white flag.
An epic galactic exploration weighed down mightily by a suicidal partner; the ending a wilted white flag.
Night’s Slow Poison by Ann Leckie ★★☆☆☆
This is a short story from Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, which I have not read. Perhaps if I had this would have been enjoyable.
This is a short story from Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, which I have not read. Perhaps if I had this would have been enjoyable.
Section Seven by John G. Hemry ★½☆☆☆
That was a story about quiet sabotage to aid in conformity and peace. Fine. But it was impressively boring.
That was a story about quiet sabotage to aid in conformity and peace. Fine. But it was impressively boring.
Ghostweight by Yoon Ha Lee DNF
There is some lovely writing here, and I was a big fan of Ninefox Gambit, but I was bored and lost early on. This may or may not be part of the Machineries of Empire universe.
There is some lovely writing here, and I was a big fan of Ninefox Gambit, but I was bored and lost early on. This may or may not be part of the Machineries of Empire universe.
A Cold Heart by Tobias S. Buckell DNF
It’s written in the second person. You like this not.
It’s written in the second person. You like this not.
The Wayfarer’s Advice by Melinda Snodgrass DNF
Dislikable people in a love story with too many characters.
Dislikable people in a love story with too many characters.
Verthandi’s Ring by Ian McDonald DNF
”The Chamber of Ever-Renewing Waters, the military council, together with the Deep Blue Something, the gestalt übermind that was the Heart-world’s participatory democracy...”
Dude, you’re trying too hard to be weird.
”The Chamber of Ever-Renewing Waters, the military council, together with the Deep Blue Something, the gestalt übermind that was the Heart-world’s participatory democracy...”
Dude, you’re trying too hard to be weird.
Some of the best of SciFi and some that was unreadable, the highest highs and the lowest lows. Just counting the 18 stories I finished it’s 3.6 stars, but if I add the four DNFs it’s 2.9 stars. In the end I will round the former to four stars because the great stories, and there were nine of them!, were memorable.
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