The Mission: A brilliant collection of science fiction shorts

by Tara Basi

Is the future coming to kiss you on the cheek or kick you in the head? Find out in this brilliant collection of SF shorts.

The tales are scary, romantic, epic, and strange. From a million-year love story set in a zoo for humans; the tale of a machine that wants to be its own master; an old couple seeking a youthful renewal and finding it comes with a catch. And many more.

Extracts featured in the award-winning Verbal Discharge collections, and Singularity 50.

206 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 16, 2023

Reviews

[Amber J W · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Mission: Collection" by Tara Basi is a collection of futuristic mysteries that keep you enticed every minute. Each tale takes you through torrents of emotion. Riddled with underlying meanings and messages, every installment encourages critical thinking. 

Tara Basi is a master of dialogue; he really understands how people interact and it’s shown in how his characters communicate. The dynamics between the love birds in their stories were fairly realistic. I admire how Anthony followed Alice’s lead, regardless of his own instincts or fears. I’m proud of how hard Barry and Jenny fought for each other and their family. I cheered on Kevin and Mandy’s cuckoo and wild relationship.

The mystery and suspense in this collection was outstanding. Every-time I thought I had an inkling of how things would turn out, it went beyond my expectations. Reading Reena’s story I couldn’t anticipated where the tale was going. I thought maybe she’ll blow a gasket, when I got to the end I wanted more. I could tell Norma was feisty from the first page, but I didn’t know how strong she was until the last page.

Such imagination went into these stories. The special details were the environments such as: planets with freezing atmosphere and massive storms, dusty caves, pink and lavender clouds, and mundane creatures on alien planets. I can imagine everything about Lucy, from her it’s my way or the highway attitude to her bulky robust metal body.

This was truly enjoyable to read. I'm rating this psychological sci-fi collection is a 5 out of 5. After reading each story I pondered the true meanings and morals for hours afterwards. This book is a work of art.

I highly recommend this book for adults that enjoy psychological fiction that invoke critical thinking. Due to the adult content and mature subject matter, I don’t recommend this for children or immature readers. If you are a Black Mirror or Doctor Who fan, I think this book is right up your alley.

[Kara (Books.and.salt) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mission by Tara Basi is a collection of SciFi flash fiction and short stories that starts off on the strangest tone and proceeds to get weirder as it goes on. Whether you're looking for sketchy medical procedures or human zoos, you'll find all things dystopian in this one.

This collection kicks off with its title story, The Mission, in which we meet a strange man in the vents of a mental hospital. This 30~ page short story is as crass as it is engaging. While I saw where the story was headed, I thought Kevin was a fascinating character.

The second story is The New Me, a dystopian story in which an elderly couple undergoes treatment to restore their youth. I truly got a kick out of this one - the characters are well written and the ending gave my heartstrings a tug. I can't say I didn't see where the plot was going, but I enjoyed watching it unfold.

Reboot is another one of the longer pieces of fiction is this collection. This short story follows a chaotic AI and its even more chaotic creator and, I believe, asks the question of "should we?" Though I must admit I had a hard time following this story in particular.

Moodiest was a strange piece of flash fiction, but so incredibly relatable in some strange way. "We most protect the mood of the many" is a phrase that is going to stick with me for awhile!!

While I will not pick apart each one, I must say that I thought the imagery throughout this collection was phenomenal. I was uncomfortable and grossed out the entire time while also being scared for the future of humanity - qualities that I always look for in dystopian science fiction! With six short stories ranging from unruly AI to aliens, The Mission has a little something for everyone. I gave this collection four out of five stars on my review page!! I can't wait to see what else Basi comes up with in the future.

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mission: Collection by Tara Basi, a novel compiled of short sci-fi-themed stories. I was pleasantly surprised to find each story had an interesting and unique resolution. I rated this novel 4 out of 5 stars, the reason I didn't give it 5 stars was the overall formatting of the novel. I did enjoy the stories, however I feel if the book was formatted differently I would have enjoyed it more. I found the first story to be less entertaining than some of the other stories, which almost led to me dropping the novel. I was confused to see that the first story was on the cover when it didn't feel like it was the main ‘important’ story to take place. I wish some of the smaller stories had more to them, I do enjoy an abrupt mundane ending, but some of the stories' endings were unsatisfying. However, pushing through I found some of the romantic stories and the last story to be the most captivating. The last story I feel had the best structure and ending. Perhaps if the last story was in the middle and the smaller stories placed before and after, it would have made it more conclusive and possibly kept me more interested throughout the novel. I only found a few errors in the book (such as periods being too close to the words in the next sentence), However, it was not distracting and could have just been an error on my Kindle font format. I overall enjoyed the book, I found the author's sci-fi aspect to be fascinating. It was fun that some stories were quite serious and yet there were comedic moments that complimented the overall anxiety of each adventure. I enjoyed the humanistic point of view through multiple ‘impossible’ scenarios, and even though I may never experience such sci-fi-level problems, It was interesting to see how the character would react.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Mission - Collection by Tara Basi is an anthology of Science Fiction short stories that range from a few pages to several chapters. Stories like “The New Me” and “Moodiest” explored how much we should be controlling the human experience while “The Mission” and “ReBoot” were fun, fast-paced stories of alien interference and angry robots. While I enjoyed the collection, I have to admit that a majority of them fell a little flat for me. Specifically, “The New Me” and “Moodiest” felt like stories that had been told before in some capacity and I was hoping for a fresher or darker twist to make them more impactful. As they were, they seemed to fizzle out and didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

While I found some of the stories to be less impactful than I had hoped, there were a few that stood out to me. For example, “Reboot” was an entertaining tale about a rogue, murderous robot searching for answers and uncovering dark secrets about the corporation that made it. Lucy’s bluntness and relationship with their human accomplice were quite entertaining. Another story I enjoyed was “Captain Norma Flynn”, which features geriatric, intergalactic space soldiers. What’s not to love?!

The final story, “Sally and the Sixty-Four”, raised some interesting philosophical questions such as, “If we got to meet our creator would we trust them?” I enjoyed the themes explored around human evolution and behavior. Although I did not find any of the characters particularly likable, the plot was engaging enough to keep me interested.

While the themes examined in the book are somewhat heavy, the stories are not as intense as those in shows like Black Mirror, and most end with a feeling of contentedness or hopefulness. I would recommend this collection to fans of Doctor Who, Love.Sex.Robots, and Jurassic Park.