Stranded

by Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis, James Alan Gardner

Three Great Authors—Three Great Science Fiction Stories

A Strand In The Web

New York Times Bestselling Fantasy Author Anne Bishop makes her U.S. debut in Science Fiction with this engaging futuristic novella. The Restorers travel the universe fulfilling a purpose handed down through the generations. They live and die aboard city-ships, never knowing the worlds they create and save. What begins as a disastrous training exercise in creating and balancing ecosystems becomes an unexpected fight for survival. The only hope may be the secret project of an untried Restorer team.

Host Of Leeches

Award winning author James Alan Gardner pens a wonderfully imaginative tale, in which a young woman wakes to find herself the sole human on an orbiting, mechanical space station. To find a way home, she must navigate the dangerous politics of war between opposing robot leaders.

Stranded

Popular urban fantasy writer Anthony Francis (Dakota Frost, Skindancer series) explores the clash of ethics and survival when a young, genetically engineered centauress from the ultra-advanced Alliance lays claim to a rare, strategic garden planet, only to find herself captured by a band of rag-tag Frontier refugees who’ve crashed their vintage ship on her unexpectedly hostile world.


On the edge, all things are possible...

From Stranded, by Anthony Francis

She crested a ridge overlooking the wreck—and froze, bewitched.

Climbing from the ship were the most beautiful people she’d ever seen.

They wore armored spacesuits, patched in a thousand places, and painted to look like animals. Helmets folded back revealed inner pressure suits decorated too: one girl in a leopard outersuit had a snakeskin helm, adorned with feathers, over skin painted a pale blue.

Serendipity gasped. These were adventurers. The gravity was clearly punishing their slender frames, but they kept going, crawling out of the smoking ship from every hatch, rappelling down on spacelines, tools jangling on their belts when their boots touched the broken earth.

Not one of them looked a day over sixteen.

That should have meant nothing—her grandmother didn’t look a day over sixteen—but as fractured shale dislodged by her slogs crackled down the slope, they turned and stared at her with youthful shock. They had none of the smug poise of ancient souls newly young.

What Serendipity saw instead, and felt keenly, was fear. Her gut churned. The boys were armed with projectile automatics.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Ebooks, Young Adult

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 24, 2012

About the author

Anne Bishop lives in upstate New York where she enjoys gardening, music, and writing dark, romantic stories. She is the author of over twenty novels, including the award-winning Black Jewels Trilogy. She has written a new series, the Others, which is an urban dark fantasy with a bit of a twist.

Crawford Award (2000)




Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Mary Heron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't.know if the series is good or bad as I couldn't make it through. Always a mistake to just barbecued you see an author you like without checking out the.subject matter. I am not a fan of sci fi.

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology is a fabulous read. For those who love Ms. Anne Bishop, her story is very different than her existing novels, with the tiny exception of her favourite reoccurring motif - webs. There are three great writers brought together to write stories about being stranded.

Stranded by Anthony Francis is a jumbled yet intriguing world. This novella is a 3 star. Mr. Francis possess great ideas. His concept for this story is sound. His execution was a bit shaky for me. The world building was crammed with ideas which were not fully explored and explained. This is what made the story not flow as well for me. It's as if we received a one page summary covering over several thousands history. In addition to this, the young female lead, Serendipity experiences issues with her family. The focus is on her competition with her grandmother yet in the last part of the story, new information is introduced regarding strained relationships with Serendipity's parents.

The story not only brings in some great technology, it throws in gender inequality and homophobia. Let's not forget prejudices against species. To do this story justice, it would have been better as a full length novel. One which fully explores the futuristic world with it's many versions of humans. One which uses the world to enhance the storyline of a girl, coming of age, trying to prove herself. Instead, this story pulls the reader in too many directions at once, enticing yet not fulfilling. Still, it is a lovely piece which stimulates the reader's imagination, especially with the non consensual sexual tension.


A Host of Leeches by Mr. James Gardner is fabulous. This is a 4 star tale. This story is so tightly written with every question answered in a believable manner. Mr. Gardner's writing voice is attractive and so smooth. He paints a clear picture of this world he's created. His interpretation of stranded is as unique as he hoped it would be.

The reason why this ended up being a 4 star even though I enjoyed the concept and storytelling, is because I couldn't connect with the characters. Alyssa wakes up in a frightening place. She's obviously been ill yet she doesn't recall what is going on nor does she know where she's been placed. Through out the entire story, there is little emotion. The characters are cute and some of them are likeable, but it was hard to root for them or care about them. Even with Alyssa, her plight as a plague survivor did not move me. It could be because there was little feeling demonstrated by Alyssa. I can't quite put my finger on it. Still, the story is very well written and highly recommended.

A Strand in the Web by talented storyteller Ms. Bishop is a solid 5 star. This story was so well written. The world building was tight with each piece of information revealed at precisely the right time. The dystopian society is divided up into two classes - Restorers and non-Restorers. The Restorers are trying to create a balanced world for all living things to exist peacefully in a small plot of area they are tasked to maintain. The social ecological theme here is nicely woven in a not too heavy handed lecture. It's rather clever and a good way to present information to a young adult and mold their thinking into a more environmentally friendly manner. It reminds me of Ms. Sheri Tepper stories.

Willow is the heroine in this story. In classic Ms. Bishop style, the woman is a gentle, humble and unassuming adolescent wise beyond her years. As with all Ms. Bishop's characters, a strong supportive male exists - Stev. With Stev's help, Willow accomplishes the impossible and it's a lovely journey to accompanying them on. Amazing. I loved this story and it is what really made this book for me. I highly recommend this book just to read Ms. Bishop's well crafted piece.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthology. I only rated two of the stories. So the average is 3.5 stars.

1. Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner. I'm not getting the significance of the Leeches so much. I mean the significance in naming the story after the Leeches which seemed really secondary. I liked how the robots had personalities. I was acting like it was a reality show and speaking out loud as I was reading it on what I thought the characters should do immediately. "Take off! Don't trust that person! Are you nuts!?! " So, good story that had me invested. 4 stars.

2. A Strand In The Web by Anne Bishop. I'm not sure if this a future where humans have to atone for what was done on Earth or if this is actually Earth that is the planet they are working on. Which then makes me wonder how the adults would let a class screw something up so horribly just out of spite and then not even mention anything during the event or afterwards. This is a class so supposedly they are being taught and supervised in some way. I would have enjoyed the story more if there had been repercussions. 3 stars

3. Stranded by Anthony Francis. This story starts like Lord of the Flies and then turns into this fantasy sci-fi. I couldn't get into it. No rating.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of the three stories was A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop - I loved the concept and the (literal) world building. A Host of Leeches was also good- especially the first half. The third story was ok, but I didn't connect with it as much.

[Adele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book for the Anne Bishop story and that story did not disappoint. Yes, it was really more fantasy set in space than science-fiction, but it worked for me and held my interest. The environmentalism and philosophy in this story fits so well with Religious Naturalism that I am adding this to my Religious Naturalism shelf. The first story, "A Host of Leeches" was a pleasant surprise, fun and fast-paced with my only complaints being more of a YA feel than I like and a kind of abrupt ending. After completing the first two stories I was all set to rate this book four stars, though I was aware a bad final story would lower the rating to three. Little did I know exactly how bad the final story would be. Horrible writing, stupid nonsensical plot full of holes, annoying and unnecessary made up words, but the capper was the sexism and misogyny. When the main character was attracted to the murderer who groped her I was done. Finishing this was torturous. I would never have read this story if I hadn't already invested the time in the first two. I hope someone publishes the first two stories as stand-alones, or with just those two together with some other, any other, third. Until that time I recommend reading the first two and pretending the third part isn't there.

[Lalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strand in the web by Anne Bishop was a sweet, original and entertaining short story. Loved it!

And no I didn't bother to read the other stories, sorry!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good collection of three science-fiction stories with a similar underlying theme of being stranded, whether it is in outer space, a solitary planet or a giant cylinder-come-military hospital.

A Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner.
Fun story about a girl who wakes up on a military space station after contracting a contagious disease - along with everyone else on the island she was on. Although the only human awake on this station, there are a host of military robots engaged in their own political debacle to keep her company.
The story was well written and fun to read - would be a good introduction to science-fiction for a novice to the genre.


A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop.
This was my favourite story in the collection. Absolutely fascinating take on how humans try (and fail) to restore the ravaged Earth from the not-so-safety of their spaceship. Loved the world-building and the characterisations and I would be interested in seeing whether this would be expanded into a full-length novel or even more stories set in this world, because there is certainly enough scope for the author to do so.

Stranded by Anthony Francis.
For me this was the weakest of the collection, but only because it took so long for the story to get going. I didn't particularly like the Serendipity, the centauress, when she first appeared but she grew on me as the story progressed. I did enjoy the 'war of the sexes' of the young people on the failing spaceship - the author portrayed both groups well in their total selfishness and immaturity but ultimately giving them all a life lesson by the end.
I did enjoy this story more as the story progressed, and again, I think there is great scope for expansion by the author.

Overall a good collection by three writers I had never heard of but will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of their work.

An advance reader copy was kindly supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

[Stephen Hull · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite the curate's egg, this. Jim's story (which is the reason I bought the book) was, as usual, great fun and wonderfully written (although he does get a bit bogged down in technical explanations sometimes). The sly references to The Wizard of Oz were nicely handled (I almost LOL'd when he referred to some emerald green paint on the walls) and the snappy pace kept the reader entertained right to the finish. Unfortunately, the book didn't end there...

I apologize if this sounds snobbish, but the other two stories are good examples of the reason I stopped reading most SF decades and decades ago. The prose was perfectly acceptable and... well... that's about it. Characters behaved illogically, half-baked ideas were plastered over unconvincing plots, speculative technology was used to distract the reader from things that simply didn't make sense.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. I was sufficiently intrigued to want to get to the end of each novella -- though I doubt I would have done so if either of them had been novels. But I was definitely not compelled to seek out any sequels.

One last thing I'd just like to take this opportunity to rant about. There is a Trend in this kind of writing to use capital letters to add Significance to a Concept, to add a patina of Profundity to something that the author can't make seem profound in any other way, like maybe by thinking up something that actually is profound. I'd just like to say that I'm Sick and Tired of this and that I think authors should declare a Moratorium on this Stale and Hackneyed Device before I Puke my Guts Out.

If it were just Jim's story I'd give it three stars, but as it is it gets two.

[Tess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. It was OK. The first story, A Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner was my favorite. A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop was why I bought the book, I love her Black Jewels books. This story was good, but predictable. Stranded by Anthony Francis was just confusing. There were too many new ideas crammed into one small story, poorly developed characters, and the overarching morals were not well incorporated into the plot. If the moral was the point, then the plot was not written well around it.

Overall, a fast read and nice to add for someone who already likes Anne Bishop. I've never heard of the other two authors. I will look up other works by them, but only James Alan Gardner's story really inspires me to read more by either of them. I did like the forwards by the authors describing how they got their ideas; origins are always interesting to me.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story was creative and fun and, of course, the Anne Bishop story was delightful, but the last one was unreadable. Awful dreck. I couldn't make myself finish it. It was like someone's fevered drug dream rather than a coherent story. So glad I could skip it.

[Angela]

1 December 2015: $1.99 on Kindle

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stranded by Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis, James Alan Gardner features three science fiction novellas that share "stranded" as a common theme.
All of the stories feature young protagonists so this collection could easily be classified as YA.

In "A Host Of Leeches" by James Alan Gardner Alyssa is a young woman who wakes up, alone, after suffering from some sort of plague. She discovers she has been left on a space station and that all the other infected humans on the station are frozen. The station was originally set up for human habitation but is now only inhabited by war robots, who have been decommissioned to the space station. Alyssa is unexpectedly thrust into a conflict between two opposing robot leaders. I enjoyed this story the most and would very highly recommend it.

In "A Strand In the Web" by Anne Bishop, Willow is a restorer in training on an aging ship. She is learning to create ecosystems with balance on planets across the solar system. Willow is assigned trees as her specialty in her training team. When two members of her team sabotage the groups efforts on their project, jeopardizing the future for everyone, Willow takes a daring leap of faith and applies to be the sole restorer of a nearby island. Surprisingly, she is granted permission to create a balanced ecosystem for the island and calls upon a classmate, Stev, to assist her. I enjoyed this heartfelt story with a hopeful ending. I also enjoyed this story a lot and would very highly recommend it.

"Stranded" by Anthony Francis involves a genetically engineered Centauress from the advanced Alliance, traveling to a planet she wants to colonize - and to escape her accomplished grandmother's sphere of influence. She arrives only to have a group of feral children, who have broken into bands of boys versus girls, crash their spaceship on "her" planet. A conflict erupts as a struggle for power plays out between all the juveniles. This was the least successful story in the collection for me, but I would still recommend it.

Verdict: highly recommended as a collection

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Belle Bridge Books and Netgalley for review purposes.
http://www.netgalley.com/

Quotes:

"A Host of Leeches" James Alan Gardner Author’s Note:
If you were invited to write a science fiction story about someone getting “stranded,” I’ll bet your first thought would be, “Okay, somebody gets stranded on an alien planet.” Then, if you’re like me, you’d think, “So how do I do the opposite?” What’s the opposite of being stranded on a planet? Being stranded off a planet. I pictured a girl who wakes up all alone in a spaceship. That’s a good place to begin, but she needed characters to interact with. The only problem was that if she met other humans, she wouldn’t be alone anymore. What could she meet instead of humans? Robots. Or aliens. Or both. Mix together The Omega Man, The Wizard of Oz, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick or Lonesome No More!, and it all makes perfect sense. Location 24-30


She woke and heard silence for the first time in her life. No music. No voices. Not even the hum of machinery or the of distant traffic. When she breathed, she could hear air going in and out of her nose. She could even hear the slow beat of her heart. She was in a bed—she could feel that much—but the room was as black as a blindfold. “Balla?” she whispered. No answer. “Balla?” Her voice cracked as she tried to speak as if she hadn’t talked in a long, long time. Her throat was gummed with mucus. “Balla!” This time she managed a hoarse shout. The name echoed faintly, then the silence returned. It scared her. She’d never before been this alone. She sat up and brushed her left fingers across her right forearm, where Balla should have been. She felt her own bare skin, and the small stent-hole where Balla was supposed to jack into her bloodstream. The hole was plugged with a little plastic cap. Location 31-37; "A Host of Leeches" opening


"A Strand in the Web" Anne Bishop Author’s Note:
Many years ago, three things happened around the same time. I read a quote by Chief Seattle about humankind being one strand in the web of life. I was playing a game called Sim Park and not having much luck keeping my ecosystems balanced. And I saw a bumper sticker that said, “One Earth, One Chance.” I wondered what would happen if you could have a second chance. That wondering eventually became “A Strand in the Web.”

“Oh, yuckit,” Zerx said as she looked at the cup in her hand and made squinchy faces. “I asked for it hot, and this is barely even warm!” Location 883-888, opening "A Strand in the Web" (More at http://www.annebishop.com/ss.strand.html)

You couldn’t apply for a Restorer’s team until you proved you could work in real time and maintain Balance in your part of the project. So, we had waited and studied and done the computer simulations and watched our simulated worlds crumble into ecological disaster—much like the worlds the Restorers committed themselves to rebuilding. Now each team had part of a large island. Each part had a strong force field around it to prevent any accidents or disasters from going beyond the team’s designated area. Now we were working in real time. We couldn’t just delete plants and animals to make it more convenient when something got out of hand because we were given an allotment from the huge, honeycombed chambers holding the genetic material for billions of species from all over the galaxy. That allotment determined how many of each species we could deposit at our site. Now, every life counted—not just for our own final scores in the project, but for the well-being of the planet. I was assigned the trees for this project, which pleased me very much because my name is Willow. Location 908-915

"Stranded" Anthony Francis Author’s Note:
Almost a decade ago, I was working on a space opera starring a genetically engineered centauress from a supercivilization with all the toys. Wondering what her grandchildren would be like, I sketched a young centauress crossing a field of wheat towards impossible mountains, then drew her brother, a pudgier centaur with a straw hat reading a map of the universe … and carrying a staff that could take him anywhere. Almost a decade later, my editor Debra asked me for a science fiction story about young adults finding their way. I gave that young girl her brother’s staff and her grandmother’s morals, imagined what would happen if she met a bunch of refugee children who were every bit as good as her in their hearts but who didn’t quite have it all together, and made them all collide on that field of wheat before those impossible mountains. The result is “Stranded.”

—Dr. Anthony G. Francis, Jr. Stranded Sirius flinched as sizzling grey bullets tumbled around him in zero-gee. The grey dented veligen pellets rattled through the cramped innards of Independence’s life support plant, stinging his nose with the scent of bitter almonds. His hands strained at the yellow-striped master fuse. The girls shouted. They fired their guns again. More bullets twanged around him, ricocheting off the ancient, battered equipment, striking closer with every shot—but Sirius just gripped the hot, humming tube harder, braced both booted feet, and pulled. Location 1663-1674, opening "Stranded"


“No. Don’t waste a second of your life hurting yourself just because someone else ‘should’ do something. Accept the situation and make the best of it—” Location 2861-2862

http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stranded
Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis, James Alan Gardener

This book is a collection of three short stories all based on being “Stranded”.
I was visiting people in different cities during COVID at the time and read them out of order, shortest first.
It’s while reading the last one (with breaks between the stories) that I realised the book as a whole is ‘Young Adult’.
I’ve looked at all the acknowledgements, dedications, etc, nothing that gave me a heads up. I’ve looked back at them now and can see the settings, themes, etc are suited for the audience, and recognise that at 60YO, I don’t relate so well.
The stories in the book in its entirety, are light, punchy, deal with very different settings yet cover both interesting and important topics.
Given the Young Adult audience I’d give the book as a whole a 4/5.

The following are my original notes as a 60YO...

Stranded by Anthony Francis
There is this alien race, centaur-like that apparently has extra ordinary powers like being able to skip across hundreds of light-years trivially. A young version lands on a mostly old and decrepit planet. And a bunch of young folk in a human ship crash land - and that’s the premise of this version of ‘Stranded’.
The story, while interesting has problems. If the centaur’s so powerful, why doesn’t she sort everything out quickly (which the final character in the story ominously appearing just might).
It’s a good story 3/5

A Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardener
Alyssa wakes up having been sick, and still is. She and her ai (?) assistant wander through an unusual world of computer-ish characters, some become antagonists others helpers (think ‘Yellow Brick Road’ with automatons replacing people).
This story is told with a pane of glass in between; while the world is odd, kinda believable, but there is nothing that makes me reach out and connect with any of the characters.
It’s ok, but just ok 2/5

A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop
Ok, this is the best one. I read it in a couple of hours. It flows beautifully with characters that you can relate to easily.
People are travelling through space on a city-ship. They are taught to create sections of a world that are ‘balanced’, blending flora & fauna such that the entirety works together. The story deals with creation, extinction, threat to/for everyone, and teams working together, or not.
A great short story 4/5


My Key: bad 1/5, ok 2/5, good 3/5, great 4/5, unusually outstanding 5/5

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first two stories by James Alan Gardner and Anne Bishop. Their stories really left me wanting more from the worlds they built.
I've read all of Anne Bishop's books and actually ran across this book while searching for another of her books. She did not disappoint. Although it did take me a minute to get into the world, but mostly its characters. It left me wanting more of the world though to find out what happens to the island she had and where it would take her. Which rarely happens to me.
Gardner's story I enjoyed the most from the beginning. Got into it quicker than the rest and really wanted to know more about the world after. I had never read anything by him before and will look into more of his books because of this short story.
The last book by Anthony Francis took me almost the whole thing to get into. It was frustrating and annoying to me on quite a but of it. It is about children so I took that into account but the main antagonist was just... Very difficult for me to read. I was glad with where it ended but not really interested in reading any more.

[N.W. Moors · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with anthologies, you get a mixed bag. I bought this one because of the Anne Bishop story, and it didn't disappoint. The idea of Restorers rebuilding lost worlds in reparation for worlds destroyed in the past is excellent, and I loved the execution here. This story could be expanded into a full book or even a series.
A Host of Leeches was intriguing and well-written. I felt that this was a story that could have benefited by being expanded, but I enjoyed the idea of the war robots dealing with the aliens that they invited in the first place.
Like others, I couldn't get into the last story, Stranded. The Lord-of-the-Flies teenagers vs. the adventuress Centauress didn't work for me as well.

[Sandi Randelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are three stories in this collection. The Anne Bishop story is by far the best, and is a really good story. The James Allen Gardner story is interesting. The Anthony Francis story is the worst kind of liberal propaganda disguised as bad sci-fi. I honestly couldn't even finish the Francis story, it was just that awful. If you are an Anne Bishop fan and can get this book on sale, it's worth adding to your collection, but I wouldn't recommend it if you have to pay full price for it.

[Pam Winkler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner was really good.
I also really liked A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop. I fell out of love with her Black Jewels series, but she's still a good author.
I didn't get far through Stranded by Anthony Francis, it just didn't appeal to me very much.

[Tonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book because I enjoy Anne Bishop’s Others series. Fun to go back to a genre I haven’t read in a while. The stories were good, if slightly juvenile. I found a potential new series to read, which is always exciting.

[Neeuqdrazil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three interesting stories, with three very different ideas.

[Tacuazin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Anne Bishop's story, A Strand in the Web, so 3 stars.
I didn't read the other two, shorter stories.

[Illana Halliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

the Anne Bishop story was excellent

Stranded was not so good. Very much enjoyed Anne’s Restorer. Also the first short story
Stranded was the longest and least engaging.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 Short stories and a new author. Fun read

[Dragana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stranded is an anthology containing three science fiction stories featuring young adult protagonists (16 years or so) who are stranded in space and placed in charge of their fate. Without condescending to the age group, we are given a moral message of right vs. wrong and how our actions influence not only our lives but the world around us too.

A Host Of Leeches
This story has a promising start. Alyssa wakes up after getting sick in an unknown hospital without memory how she got there. As she explores unknown space station populated with robots instead of people, we get to learn about what happened to her.
There are a lot of robots in this story: small, large, smart, slow, hostile, motherly, ... I am a fan of robots since R2D2 beeped those cute sentences from screen to me, so I enjoyed reading about them. Their antics and sometimes weird sense of logic always make me smile. My favorite was Og. He was the cutest of them all (ignore the fact that he is a giant doom machine).
James Alan Gardner did a great job writing this story. There are a lot of twists - some surprising and some not so surprising - but they make you read this story in a blink of an eye.

A Strand In the Web
Before this book, I only read books written by Anne Bishop. She and I have an ongoing love/hate relationship. I love her Black Jewels trilogy and hate her Ephemera series. So I did not know what to expect when I started reading her debut story to science fiction genre. Will I like it or not?
The answer is yes, this was a good story. We follow young Willow as she struggles with usual teenager problems: school assignments gone wrong, jealousy from class mates and project that is too complex for her to do it by herself. Also, we learn about scary (but possible?) future of Earth inhabitants if we do not take care about our planet better.

Stranded
This was the last story and for me the hardest to read. I was excited when I read the summary. How many science fiction stories are there that feature young genetically engineered centauress? But unfortunately Anthony Francis has a style of writing that I found very hard to read. There are so many unknown terms and invented words in his sentences, crammed and unfinished ideas and plot elements, that my brain simply could not process all that and enjoy in the same time. This feels more like a draft for a novel than a fully developed novella.
But if we disregard that, this story is very interesting and original and it discusses some very serious subjects like gender equality and homophobia.

Disclaimer: I was given a free ebook by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on Amazon and my blog.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of three short stories for young adults revolving around a theme of being stranded.

The Stories
James Alan Gardner's "A Host of Leeches" is an odd mix of science fiction, paranoia, and the cartoonish. I definitely could see a Saturday morning cartoon based on this, although the audience is more likely to be conspiracy theorists.

Alyssa is the lucky one, the one experimented upon in a secret space station where plague victims were sent. She's also the unlucky one as she seems to be the only living being in the entire complex. Until she can find Balla, her Dolphin aut. Then it's two against the, well, world?

Good point. People thinking up all the bad things they'd do to others and automatically assuming that's what their enemies are planning to do to them. Doesn't say much about us. Or them.

This story feels as though it could be a prequel for a series. I want to give it a "3" because it's just too juvenile in how Gardner writes the story, but it rates a "4" for its ingenuity. Which means a "3.5" in the ratings.

Anne Bishop's "A Strand in the Web" is a sad look at what our future could be if we don't pay attention and care for the environment in which we currently live.

"It also showed that there was no room for ego in the work we were choosing to do." I also like Bishop's message that we are only one strand in the web of our world.

This is definitely a "5", and I'd love to read future stories about this new effort at building a world. Bishop delivers her environmental message consistently and well. I did love the obvious connection between the comment on ego and Dermi and Fallah's stupid reasons. Bishop wrote a great story without being condescending or cartoonish.

Anthony Francis' "Stranded" is a gender-divided Lord of the Flies with teenaged idiots. Ego- and hormone-driven nitwits who finally have to work together or die.

They and Serendipity Saint George collide when their ship crashes and she's just claimed the moon where they crashed. The crew is still fighting amongst themselves and Serendipity has her knowledge of history and the success/failure rate of human colonies, centuries of centaur philosophy and her grandmother's training.

Francis certainly has an imagination and he's certainly creative which rates it a "4"; however, I give it a "3" because I think he handled it clumsily at the start nor does he deliver his message very well. So, another "3.5".

The Title
The title is the theme for these three stories: Stranded. Whether its in fear, absolution, or a desire to prove oneself.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This exciting collection on a theme of being stranded pits young people against system failures, aliens and biological catastrophe.

James Alan Gardner wrote A Host of Leeches about Alyssa who wakes up alone on a hospital space station. She has only robots and her damaged symbiont to talk to, and discovers that she is quarantined as a plague sufferer, along with other cryogenically frozen sufferers, and the robots are all war machines. Devoid of enemies and dumped here after the war was averted, the robots have started pitting wits (and robotic leeches) against one another, causing peril for Alyssa as she tries to find a way to cure the plague and get a message home. This is very reminiscent of the classic 'Second Ending' by James White, the main difference being that White's hero is the only human left alive.

A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop is a lovely story of a team of student environment restorers aboard a dying city ship. The restorers travel around building up ecologies and food webs onto ravaged planets with painstaking work from stored genetic stock. But their ship systems are breaking down and cannot be fixed, and no other city has been contacted for many years. Willow, responsible for trees, is fed up with the thoughtless fellow students who unleash a plague of deer and locusts on her saplings, and requests an island of her own to work on - never expecting her wish to be granted. When it is, she and a boy who creates bees and dreamt up bumblebees are determined to get the biodiversity right, even as their own survival is threatened. This is the longest tale and very well written. But there was no mention of nematodes.

Stranded by Anthony Francis reminds us of 'Lord of the Flies' as it tells of a squad of boys who battle a squad of girls for control of their spaceship after the adults aboard have died. The alien invaders booted humans off planet and into spaceships and now their ship needs serious repairs. Sirius is a boy who tries to get them to a safe dock. An alien girl, Serendipity, happens to be on the planet he picks, with her own methods of travel. She looks like a centaur and when a spaceship crashlands her first thought is to lend aid, but her arrival is misinterpreted and the humans assume she is an enemy. Stranded together, they have to learn to get along. This does not read as well as the others, too full of jargon and equipment names for a smooth flow, and it's not that easy to believe in the battle of the sexes when survival is the essence.

Altogether a good read for anyone from young adult to adult.

[Sarah Hulcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three thought-provoking, short stories of young people stranded in some manner in space. Each story features situations that have to be dealt with by the teens/young adults who have been placed in charge of their lives in various ways, whether intentionally or not.

One is a "city-ship" from earth charged with atoning for the devastation visited on other species by humans, millennia in the past. This takes the form of carefully seeding other planets with everything needed to establish a balanced ecology from single-celled creatures to large, animals and everything they need to survive, using advanced technology which the people of the ship can no longer create. Each successive generation is trained to take over these tasks from the previous generation of adults... but technology can't last forever and all things come to an end.

One is an exploration ship on which the adults and many young people were stricken with a terrible disease and died, leaving a bare few children and teenagers to operate the ship as they grow up and try to figure out how to deal with a closed society, lacking any helpful instructions or ideas, as the ship voyages on, looking for a port where they can find help.

One is the story of a teenage girl who awakens by herself in a medical facility with no idea how she got there or where the rest of the people have gone. She must find her own way through the facility and try to find help, but encounters an unimaginable reality that she discovers is all too real and she, along with many other sleeping humans, are about to be destroyed by the human race because they are "infected" with an alien plague.

Three very different situations imagined by these excellent writers. Each story is brilliantly written without condescending to the age group it showcases. If you know a teenager who thinks "sci-fi" is for old fuddy-duddies, give them "Stranded" and see how the feel after they read it! I definitely recommend this set of short stories to young adult and other readers who enjoy YA.

I was given a free copy of this work by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This will be posted on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, LibraryThing and my blog at www.museofhellreviews.wordpress.com.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting collection of 3 short stories. The overarching theme was of course being 'Stranded' in some way.

The first one: Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner is about a young girl who wakes up alone in a hospital unsure how she got there or where anyone else is. The beginning was a bit slow but it was ultimately fairly satisfying.

The second one: A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop was about a group of humans flying from system to system restoring worlds to balance. It is never explained what this balance is, or why our standard list of earth insects, mammals, plants, and so on are cool to plunk down on the planets. Despite this, after a judicious application of suspension of disbelief, the story is really good. Until the end. Apparently, you just get to be THE Restorer if you make Unicorns. Go figure.

The third one: Stranded by Anthony Francis was just crazy out there. He tried to include words and phrases from an advanced Human/Alien mixed civilization, but there was just enough difference from our speech pattern to render it gibberish to me. And while after the rocky beginning things became interesting, it felt like the story was cut off. More interesting to me would have been the experiences once they were actually 'Stranded' for sixteen months.

All in all, it was a decent collection of stories. I hope to enjoy them again during a re-read in the future.

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased the book because I love everything Anne Bishop: I loved reading her voice in a sci-fi rather than fantasy setting. All three are coming-of-age stories set around the individual authors definition of what it could mean to be "stranded" in the science fiction genre:

A Host of Leeches: The Authors Note sets the scene much better than I ever could so I'll just say read that for a summary/intro! I quite enjoyed this one: it is my first exposure to anything written by J. A. Gardner. Unfamiliar concepts/technology was introduced well and in such a way that was informative to the reader without being an info-dump. A cute and quirky read.

A Strand in the Web: An intriguing idea which worked well as a short story, but also had enough scope that it could be developed into a novel. Very engaging and enjoyable to read.

Stranded: I was a little bit confused by this one: there were a *lot* of concepts, strange technology and gadgets which were introduced but not really explained in the story. I got the impression that the characters were part of another series by the author, where presumably the tech and technology is discussed in greater detail. This, however, doesn't help any readers who are encountering A. Francis' works for the first time (like me!). Not a bad read, but it was my least favourite of the three stories.

[Shai Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't tend to read many compilations of short stories or novella simply because I prefer a longer length for my books. This gives the author much more room for character development and I don't have to say goodbye to new friends quite as quickly. That being said when I saw that Anne Bishop was trying her hand at science fiction I just couldn't resist.

I found that I really enjoyed A Strand In The Web and A Host Of Leeches. The main characters were easy to relate to and the stories themselves were ones that tugged at my heart strings. Both stories while being science fiction focused more on the human side of the equation even if the humanity shows up in robots as in A Host Of Leeches. I really can't decide just which one I preferred more.


Stranded was my least favorite of the stories as it was 'harder' science fiction with more focus being on the science. I also found it difficult to relate to any of the characters in the story. It was very well written though and I am sure that other readers will find it to be their favorite.

I do recommend this book to any readers that enjoy science fiction. I found it suitable to readers of all ages even though the protagonists in each tale are teenagers. I rate this book a 3.7.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Members of a Yahoo group that I'm on recommended Anne Bishop as an author I might like. When I noticed this book on Net Gallery I picked it based on that recommendation. I'm glad I did.

The first short story A Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner is about a girl who is "stranded" on a spaceship. I really enjoyed this story and I will be searching for more of his work. He built an interesting world and I liked his characters.

The next short story is A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop. I loved this story about restorers that rebuilt worlds. There was drama, suspense and hope for humanity in this story. I will definitely look for more of her work.

The last story is Stranded by Anthony G. Francis, Jr. The centaur was a interesting character. His world building was good and the gadgetry he gave the "centauress" was intriguing. She was a likeable character. This story does have some profanity, if that bothers you.

All three of these stories are about young adults. They have a moral message about good versus evil and right versus wrong. I enjoyed all three and will be searching for these authors works in the future.