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The Lowest Heaven
The Lowest Heaven is a new anthology of contemporary science fiction published in partnership with the Royal Observatory Greenwich to coincide with Visions of the Universe, a major exhibition of space imagery.
Each story in The Lowest Heaven is themed around a body in the Solar System, from the Sun to Halley's Comet. The stories are illustrated with photographs and artwork selected from the archives of the Royal Observatory, while the book's cover and overall design are the work of award-winning South African illustrator Joey Hi-Fi.
Includes:
Introduction by Dr. Marek Kukula (Royal Observatory Greenwich)
"Golden Apple" by Sophia McDougall (The Sun)
"A Map of Mercury" by Alastair Reynolds (Mercury)
"Ashen Light" by Archie Black (Venus)
"The Krakatoan" by Maria Dahvana Headley (Earth)
"An account of a voyage from World to World again, by way of the Moon, 1726" by Adam Roberts (The Moon)
"WWBD" by Simon Morden (Mars)
"Saga's Children" by E. J. Swift (Ceres)
"The Jupiter Files" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Jupiter)
"Magnus Lucretius" by Mark Charan Newton (Europa)
"Air, Water and the Grove" by Kaaron Warren (Saturn)
"Only Human" by Lavie Tidhar (Titan)
"Uranus" by Esther Saxey (Uranus)
"From This Day Forward" by David Bryher (Neptune)
"We'll Always Be Here" by S. L. Grey (Pluto & Charon)
"Enyo-Enyo" by Kameron Hurley (Eris)
"The Comet's Tale" by Matt Jones (Halley's Comet)
"The Grand Tour" by James Smythe (Voyager I)
Each story in The Lowest Heaven is themed around a body in the Solar System, from the Sun to Halley's Comet. The stories are illustrated with photographs and artwork selected from the archives of the Royal Observatory, while the book's cover and overall design are the work of award-winning South African illustrator Joey Hi-Fi.
Includes:
Introduction by Dr. Marek Kukula (Royal Observatory Greenwich)
"Golden Apple" by Sophia McDougall (The Sun)
"A Map of Mercury" by Alastair Reynolds (Mercury)
"Ashen Light" by Archie Black (Venus)
"The Krakatoan" by Maria Dahvana Headley (Earth)
"An account of a voyage from World to World again, by way of the Moon, 1726" by Adam Roberts (The Moon)
"WWBD" by Simon Morden (Mars)
"Saga's Children" by E. J. Swift (Ceres)
"The Jupiter Files" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Jupiter)
"Magnus Lucretius" by Mark Charan Newton (Europa)
"Air, Water and the Grove" by Kaaron Warren (Saturn)
"Only Human" by Lavie Tidhar (Titan)
"Uranus" by Esther Saxey (Uranus)
"From This Day Forward" by David Bryher (Neptune)
"We'll Always Be Here" by S. L. Grey (Pluto & Charon)
"Enyo-Enyo" by Kameron Hurley (Eris)
"The Comet's Tale" by Matt Jones (Halley's Comet)
"The Grand Tour" by James Smythe (Voyager I)
342 pages, Paperback
First published June 13, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 12, 2013
The Lowest Heaven is the fifth Jurassic London anthology and the first to concentrate on a specific corner of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Of course, as it's been inspired by bodies in the Solar System, this isn't surprising and the stories included in this anthology show the breadth and depth of SF stories. There are some stories that are hard SF, some alternate history SF, some stories that could almost be considered mainstream, and everything in between. What results is a collection of stories that as a whole work very well, but which has a larger amount of stories that didn't work for me than previous Jurassic London anthologies did.
The stories that didn't work for me, were ones for which I really had to work to even comprehend what was happening in the story, without getting a satisfactory return for that work. For his story Only Human, Lavie Tidhar worked with a concept of networked humans, who are connected much like a computer network, but I just couldn't make sense of the concept en the explanation for it came late in the story, which led to endless frustration for me. Maria Dahvana Headley's The Krakatoan just went over my head. I found it hard to find my feet with the story and once I did, I almost immediately lost it again in the volcanic imagery and visions. It might be a combination of the story not fitting the reader (i.e. me) comfortably and me being rather exhausted at the time of reading, but both of these stories just left me feeling more frustrated than entertained and I found myself struggling to get through them.
What ties most of my favourites in this anthology together is their focus on human relationships, emotions, and endings. Sophia McDougall's Golden Apple not just is a tale of what lengths a parent will go through to save their sick child, but also a tale of knowing when to let go and give them peace. I love McDougall's clear style and her deft prose. David Bryher's From This Day Forward deals with the strain of saying goodbye and leaving things behind, even if you're happy to go. It was a poignant story and was easy to relate to. I loved S.L. Grey's We'll Always Be Here not just for the complicated love/hate relationship between Pluto and Sharon, but also the strange almost religious devotion Sharon has developed for Tyra Banks and her America's Next Top Model. This both made me laugh and made the story extra tragic, as I'm quite familiar with ANTM – it's my guilty pleasure – and I found it tragic and quite a deft social commentary how much Sharon had internalised the ideals of beauty shown on the show. I loved the resolution of the story, since I hadn't seen it coming at all and it was a fantastic twist. Matt Jones' The Comet's Tale could almost pass as mainstream and was again quite dark and sad, dealing as it does with two teens struggling to find their place in the world either due to their sexuality or their outsider status. The ending put tears in my eyes and the final sentence was just beautiful. In WWBD by Simon Morden the acronym stands for What Would Bradbury Do, which doesn't quite manifest as you'd expect it to. Morden manages to write a story that is at once humorous and sorrowful as a space commander works through his moral qualms about his mission to Mars with the aid of genre great Ray Bradbury. James Smythe's The Grand Tour was fabulous, set in a fascinating post-apocalyptic world, of which I wish we'd had more detail because it would have to be awesome and its plot was very cool with a great ending.
Despite some stories not working for me and having some really strong favourites, that doesn't mean the others left me indifferent. They were good, but didn't affect me as forcefully as the stories mentioned. Then again, with the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and Mark Charan Newton, to name but a few, what else could one expect? The Lowest Heaven is an excellent anthology, one that contains stories that almost demand several rereads to unpack all of their meaning. Packaged with some lovely photographs with items from the collection of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and a gorgeous Joey HiFi cover, this book is not just a lovely read but also a lovely object.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
The stories that didn't work for me, were ones for which I really had to work to even comprehend what was happening in the story, without getting a satisfactory return for that work. For his story Only Human, Lavie Tidhar worked with a concept of networked humans, who are connected much like a computer network, but I just couldn't make sense of the concept en the explanation for it came late in the story, which led to endless frustration for me. Maria Dahvana Headley's The Krakatoan just went over my head. I found it hard to find my feet with the story and once I did, I almost immediately lost it again in the volcanic imagery and visions. It might be a combination of the story not fitting the reader (i.e. me) comfortably and me being rather exhausted at the time of reading, but both of these stories just left me feeling more frustrated than entertained and I found myself struggling to get through them.
What ties most of my favourites in this anthology together is their focus on human relationships, emotions, and endings. Sophia McDougall's Golden Apple not just is a tale of what lengths a parent will go through to save their sick child, but also a tale of knowing when to let go and give them peace. I love McDougall's clear style and her deft prose. David Bryher's From This Day Forward deals with the strain of saying goodbye and leaving things behind, even if you're happy to go. It was a poignant story and was easy to relate to. I loved S.L. Grey's We'll Always Be Here not just for the complicated love/hate relationship between Pluto and Sharon, but also the strange almost religious devotion Sharon has developed for Tyra Banks and her America's Next Top Model. This both made me laugh and made the story extra tragic, as I'm quite familiar with ANTM – it's my guilty pleasure – and I found it tragic and quite a deft social commentary how much Sharon had internalised the ideals of beauty shown on the show. I loved the resolution of the story, since I hadn't seen it coming at all and it was a fantastic twist. Matt Jones' The Comet's Tale could almost pass as mainstream and was again quite dark and sad, dealing as it does with two teens struggling to find their place in the world either due to their sexuality or their outsider status. The ending put tears in my eyes and the final sentence was just beautiful. In WWBD by Simon Morden the acronym stands for What Would Bradbury Do, which doesn't quite manifest as you'd expect it to. Morden manages to write a story that is at once humorous and sorrowful as a space commander works through his moral qualms about his mission to Mars with the aid of genre great Ray Bradbury. James Smythe's The Grand Tour was fabulous, set in a fascinating post-apocalyptic world, of which I wish we'd had more detail because it would have to be awesome and its plot was very cool with a great ending.
Despite some stories not working for me and having some really strong favourites, that doesn't mean the others left me indifferent. They were good, but didn't affect me as forcefully as the stories mentioned. Then again, with the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and Mark Charan Newton, to name but a few, what else could one expect? The Lowest Heaven is an excellent anthology, one that contains stories that almost demand several rereads to unpack all of their meaning. Packaged with some lovely photographs with items from the collection of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and a gorgeous Joey HiFi cover, this book is not just a lovely read but also a lovely object.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
May 1, 2019
An excellent collection, with an intriguing premise. I didn't love every story, but I didn't feel that there were any duds -- every story felt like a thoughtful, imaginative response to the challenge: writing stories inspired by the elements of our solar system, major, minor and even man-made.
I was going to give this book 4 stars, out of sheer awkwardness, and the desire to resist "grade inflation," but then as I scanned the Table of Contents to remind myself of my clear favorites, I realized how many of the 17 stories made that cut -- and how strong and interesting were the ones that left me a little cold. I'm an old-fashioned girl, with old-fashioned desires of a story, and I do like something with a beginning, middle and an end (although not necessarily in that order), and perhaps a twist in the tale. I like good world-building, and a sense that there are layers to be unpeeled.
What I especially liked about The Lowest Heaven was that all of the authors neatly dodged the obvious: they all approached their assigned planet or other heavenly body with a sense of the intriguing possibilities beyond settlement, terraforming and Captain Fantastic exploration. Some of the stories were set in versions of our contemporary world, highlighting the heavens as a source of wonder, and metaphors for many aspects of our terrestrial lives. Some were set in a future in which space, and the work of man in space had become almost ordinary. Great variety.
My favorites were
Simon Morden’s 'WWBD’ (The commander of a mission to Mars with a moral quandary hallucinates the ghost of Ray Bradbury to give him advice. What's not to love?)
Maria Dahvana Headley's 'The Krakatoan' (Heartbreaking coming of age story, in which a youngster comes to terms with the faults and failings of the adults around her. Only just on the fringes of SF, but lovely.)
David Bryher's 'From This Day Forward' (Wicked, clever be careful what you wish for story)
S.L. Grey's 'We'll Always Be Here' (Crams a novels-worth of worldbuilding and drama into a small package. Killer ending.)
Matt Jones' 'The Comet's Tale' (Another one that is only on the fringes of SF, and a heart-breaker. I would suggest having a box of Kleenex close at hand. Beautiful "ripped from the headlines" story.)
Each story is accompanied by a lovely photograph from the collection of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, some very old, of the heavenly body that inspired it. And gorgeous cover art. All round, a book that is well worth having.
I was going to give this book 4 stars, out of sheer awkwardness, and the desire to resist "grade inflation," but then as I scanned the Table of Contents to remind myself of my clear favorites, I realized how many of the 17 stories made that cut -- and how strong and interesting were the ones that left me a little cold. I'm an old-fashioned girl, with old-fashioned desires of a story, and I do like something with a beginning, middle and an end (although not necessarily in that order), and perhaps a twist in the tale. I like good world-building, and a sense that there are layers to be unpeeled.
What I especially liked about The Lowest Heaven was that all of the authors neatly dodged the obvious: they all approached their assigned planet or other heavenly body with a sense of the intriguing possibilities beyond settlement, terraforming and Captain Fantastic exploration. Some of the stories were set in versions of our contemporary world, highlighting the heavens as a source of wonder, and metaphors for many aspects of our terrestrial lives. Some were set in a future in which space, and the work of man in space had become almost ordinary. Great variety.
My favorites were
Simon Morden’s 'WWBD’ (The commander of a mission to Mars with a moral quandary hallucinates the ghost of Ray Bradbury to give him advice. What's not to love?)
Maria Dahvana Headley's 'The Krakatoan' (Heartbreaking coming of age story, in which a youngster comes to terms with the faults and failings of the adults around her. Only just on the fringes of SF, but lovely.)
David Bryher's 'From This Day Forward' (Wicked, clever be careful what you wish for story)
S.L. Grey's 'We'll Always Be Here' (Crams a novels-worth of worldbuilding and drama into a small package. Killer ending.)
Matt Jones' 'The Comet's Tale' (Another one that is only on the fringes of SF, and a heart-breaker. I would suggest having a box of Kleenex close at hand. Beautiful "ripped from the headlines" story.)
Each story is accompanied by a lovely photograph from the collection of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, some very old, of the heavenly body that inspired it. And gorgeous cover art. All round, a book that is well worth having.
October 21, 2022
4 stars, an imaginative and mind-bending anthology of SF stories that manages to inspire the reader even on the rare occasion when the story isn't to their liking
September 23, 2013
The anthology begins with "Golden Apple", a story by Sophia McDougall about a sick young girl who undergoes a treatment that imbues her with light. Like Blake Charlton's story, "Heaven in a Wild Flower", in Unfettered, there's nothing more poignant than watching parents struggling with an ill child. McDougall grabs hold of that idea with both hands. The child suffers. Her parents and doctors and the reader orbit around her. There's symbolism there from a story written to represent the sun, around which our Solar System revolves. The stories in this anthology do likewise.
What follows are stories from Alastair Reynolds, Maria Dahvana Headley, Adam Roberts, E.J. Swift, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Mark Charan Newton, Lavie Tidhar, Kameron Hurley, and a host of others. Some stand out, others less so, but they all represent a portraiture of the intersection between astronomy and story telling. Wait. . . what does that mean? I have no idea, but it sounds kind of smart so I'm going to leave it in.
The anthology shines best though with S.L. Grey's "We'll Always Be Here", which describes two young women sent on a ship to die far from home. Grey combines elements of science fiction, dystopia, and pop culture to create a haunting portrayal of a family, both born into and adopted. I would be willing to buy the entire book for this one story alone. The events leading up to it would certainly make a twisted young adult novel.
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201...
What follows are stories from Alastair Reynolds, Maria Dahvana Headley, Adam Roberts, E.J. Swift, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Mark Charan Newton, Lavie Tidhar, Kameron Hurley, and a host of others. Some stand out, others less so, but they all represent a portraiture of the intersection between astronomy and story telling. Wait. . . what does that mean? I have no idea, but it sounds kind of smart so I'm going to leave it in.
The anthology shines best though with S.L. Grey's "We'll Always Be Here", which describes two young women sent on a ship to die far from home. Grey combines elements of science fiction, dystopia, and pop culture to create a haunting portrayal of a family, both born into and adopted. I would be willing to buy the entire book for this one story alone. The events leading up to it would certainly make a twisted young adult novel.
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/201...
May 24, 2022
What a fun theme for an anthology--each author wrote a story inspired by a celestial object, and we go from the Sun through the inner planets and out past Pluto and beyond. Among my favorite stories were Archie Black's "Ashen Light" (an In Cold Blood-style recounting of murders on Venus), Matt Jones's "The Comet's Tale" (the only non-SFF story in the bunch, but which really captures that feeling of young people everywhere looking for a group and a person to belong with), and Adam Roberts's "An Account of a Voyage from World to World Again..." (the title continues for few more lines, but you get the picture; it's an 18th century account of a voyage to the moon and it's ridiculous and interesting). I also quite liked Alastair Reynolds's "A Map of Mercury" and Mark Charan Newton's "Magnus Lucretius".
There were definitely some odd stories in this one--I had a hard time wrapping my head around a couple of them, and others either missed the mark or chose to make their inspirations more metaphorical.
There were definitely some odd stories in this one--I had a hard time wrapping my head around a couple of them, and others either missed the mark or chose to make their inspirations more metaphorical.
March 2, 2021
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3604917.html
An anthology that seems to have coincided with an exhibition in Greenwich, with stories themed around parts of the solar system - starting with Mercury and working out to Voyager I. Got it as a prize from Strange Horizons. I thought a lot of these were very good, and wished I had got to them in time for Hugo nominations that year (2014). In particular the very first one, "Golden Apple" by Sophia McDougall, about a child dying of sunlight, and "The Comet's Tale" by Matt Jones, about a forbidden love affair and Halley's Comet, will both linger with me.
An anthology that seems to have coincided with an exhibition in Greenwich, with stories themed around parts of the solar system - starting with Mercury and working out to Voyager I. Got it as a prize from Strange Horizons. I thought a lot of these were very good, and wished I had got to them in time for Hugo nominations that year (2014). In particular the very first one, "Golden Apple" by Sophia McDougall, about a child dying of sunlight, and "The Comet's Tale" by Matt Jones, about a forbidden love affair and Halley's Comet, will both linger with me.
August 27, 2019
I enjoyed most of the stories in this. A couple I loved, one was written like 18th century military letters and I couldn't handle the stiffness of it so skipped.
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April 27, 2014E.J. Swift's story Saga's Children was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Short Fiction in 2014. It's the only story in the book that I've read so far, though the book looks great and I hope to get to it soon. I'm a bit overwhelmed with short fiction at the moment. If you'd like to read Swift's story it's also posted online, at least as of the time of this review.
Saga's Children was a pretty good story most of the way through, the kind of story people who vote for stories to win awards seem to like. There was some angst, some not at all subtle thoughtfulness. Then the author totally ruined it at the end by putting this totally unrelated thing in. The story is about the kids of an astronaut dealing with their relationships to each other and with their mother. It takes place on the Moon and Mars and Ceres. Then suddenly in the very last two paragraphs it's talking about women looking for people buried beneath the tundra in Siberia with ice picks. It's so melodramatic, it's ridiculous and totally unnecessary. It felt like the author had that image in her mind all along and then wrote the story to try to justify using it, or always wanted to use it and convinced herself that it worked here. But it just didn't work, not for me anyway, the story didn't need it at all and it actually really distracted from the rest of it. It's just hanging there at the end of the relatively decent story, taking it from a bit eye-rolling and dramatic to oy yoy I can't believe she just went there. It was an OK story, but I have a feeling that when I get to read the rest of the book it won't be my favorite in the book. It wasn't my favorite in the BSFA group this year. I didn't get to read the winner, Spin, because it's from a small press and too hard to get. I liked Selkie Stories Are for Losers a bit better than this, it wasn't my favorite but it was fine. Boat in Shadows, Crossing was the fourth nominated story and I really liked that one.
Saga's Children was a pretty good story most of the way through, the kind of story people who vote for stories to win awards seem to like. There was some angst, some not at all subtle thoughtfulness. Then the author totally ruined it at the end by putting this totally unrelated thing in. The story is about the kids of an astronaut dealing with their relationships to each other and with their mother. It takes place on the Moon and Mars and Ceres. Then suddenly in the very last two paragraphs it's talking about women looking for people buried beneath the tundra in Siberia with ice picks. It's so melodramatic, it's ridiculous and totally unnecessary. It felt like the author had that image in her mind all along and then wrote the story to try to justify using it, or always wanted to use it and convinced herself that it worked here. But it just didn't work, not for me anyway, the story didn't need it at all and it actually really distracted from the rest of it. It's just hanging there at the end of the relatively decent story, taking it from a bit eye-rolling and dramatic to oy yoy I can't believe she just went there. It was an OK story, but I have a feeling that when I get to read the rest of the book it won't be my favorite in the book. It wasn't my favorite in the BSFA group this year. I didn't get to read the winner, Spin, because it's from a small press and too hard to get. I liked Selkie Stories Are for Losers a bit better than this, it wasn't my favorite but it was fine. Boat in Shadows, Crossing was the fourth nominated story and I really liked that one.
September 14, 2015
I like science fiction short stories; every writer should have to hone their art through the competitive publishing mill and master well structured and concise storytelling. This collection is a bit of mixed bag, as is often the case, with some excellent and original stories from new authors (well, to me anyway) nestling side-by-side with contributions from well established names like Adam Roberts (whose story I did not enjoy at all) and Alastair Reynolds (always a pleasure). There are definitely some names to look out for in the future, Archie Black’s ‘Ashen Light’, Simon Morden’s ‘WWBD’ and Kameron Hurley’s ‘Enyo-Enyo’ have certainly stuck in my mind. There are also a couple that I skip read but I cannot recall which ones.
Each of the seventeen stories is centred about an object in our little solar system and each is accompanied by some weird and, to me, somewhat disappointing pictures from the archives of the National Maritime Museum which add nothing to the narrative. On the plus side the volume is published in trade format on lovely quality paper with big margins and clear, large print.
Reviews of short story anthologies are always difficult as tastes obviously vary from reader to reader; it is very rare to find a collection without a couple of less than inspiring contributions but not every will agree on which that couple is.
Each of the seventeen stories is centred about an object in our little solar system and each is accompanied by some weird and, to me, somewhat disappointing pictures from the archives of the National Maritime Museum which add nothing to the narrative. On the plus side the volume is published in trade format on lovely quality paper with big margins and clear, large print.
Reviews of short story anthologies are always difficult as tastes obviously vary from reader to reader; it is very rare to find a collection without a couple of less than inspiring contributions but not every will agree on which that couple is.
July 9, 2013
17 stories launched by objects in our cosmos, from Mercury out to Voyager I. What stories. What imagination. What tales of wonder. Adam Roberts’ 18th Century tale of a voyage to the moon turns itself inside out. Kaaron Warren delivers dreamchills in hallucinatory fashion. This idiosyncratic collection that fits together, somehow, like family, only without the awkward holiday dinners. Further shouts-out to Kameron Hurley’s “Enyo-Enyo” wanders through the system in an mysterious cycle, much like Eris. James Smythe caps off the system with “The Grand Tour”, his postapocalyptic paean to Voyager I. Make it a point to get this ebook.
March 17, 2014
My friend has a story (I just like saying that) in this lavish anthology, with its beautiful cover and an appropriate image from the collection at the Royal Observatory paired with each tale. The collection is themed around the solar system, with a diverse range of subjects. Some stray more towards horror than sci-fi, others are set firmly on Earth but feature a celestial object as story catalyst. Standouts for me were "An account of a voyage from World to World again, by way of the Moon, 1726" by Adam Roberts, and "A Map of Mercury" by Archie Black; I particularly liked the description of a spacecraft 'pinning itself to Mercury like a brooch'.
March 19, 2014
Three stars, because this is such a mixed bag of contemporary science fiction - by design - that the great ones are roughly equal to the dreadful ones. Conceptually, these stories are sequenced by proximity to the center of the solar system. The opening story begins with the sun and we move outward along planets, moons and comets on our way to the final story about Voyager I. As chance would have it, this collection starts and ends with fantastic stories. Alastair Reynolds' familiar themes of human body modification find a particularly fertile purchase on Mercury, and stands out as my personal favorite here. An admirable, if uneven, collection.
January 15, 2016
As the range of the stories extended from genre to genre it is hard to judge the book justly, or on face value. Each of these short stories deserve an individual rating as there were a few that personally I felt were not merely written, but rather crafted by solid penmanship and storytelling wit. But alas, there were a few that I couldn't continue reading due to their jargon and fast-pace.
September 23, 2013
A stunning science fiction anthology that has something for every taste. Contains stories from a diverse set of authors covering the whole spectrum of the science fiction genre. Highly recommended! Read full review
August 3, 2014
surprisingly good anthology of "real" SF. hugely enjoyable.
July 5, 2014
Some odd ones in this anthology. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews