What do you think?
Rate this book
Great Ship #3
The Greatship
Since the beginning of the universe, the giant starship wandered the emptiest reaches of space, without crew or course, much less any clear purpose. But humans found the relic outside the Milky Way, and after taking possession, they named their prize the Great Ship and embarked on a bold voyage through the galaxy’s civilized hearts.
Larger than worlds, the Great Ship is laced with caverns and oceans, scenes of exalted beauty and corners where no creature has ever stood. Habitats can be created for every intelligent species, provided that the passengers can pay for the honor of a berth, and the human captains make the rules and dispense the justice in what soon becomes thousands of alien species joined a wild, unpredictable journey.
The first Great Ship story was "The Remoras", published in 1994 by THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author’s growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion.
Robert Reed is the author of a dozen science fiction novels, including two titles about the Great Ship: MARROW and THE WELL OF STARS, both from Tor Books. He has also published more than two hundred shorter works, winning a Hugo in 2007 for his novella, "A Billion Eves". Reed is a long-term resident of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Contents:
Alone (2010)
Hoop-of-Benzene (2006)
Mere (2004)
The Remoras (1994)
Rococo (2006)
River of the Queen (2004)
Night of Time (2003)
Aeon's Child (1995)
The Caldera of Good Fortune (2007)
Camouflage (2005)
The Man with the Golden Balloon (2008)
Hatch (2007)
Larger than worlds, the Great Ship is laced with caverns and oceans, scenes of exalted beauty and corners where no creature has ever stood. Habitats can be created for every intelligent species, provided that the passengers can pay for the honor of a berth, and the human captains make the rules and dispense the justice in what soon becomes thousands of alien species joined a wild, unpredictable journey.
The first Great Ship story was "The Remoras", published in 1994 by THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author’s growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion.
Robert Reed is the author of a dozen science fiction novels, including two titles about the Great Ship: MARROW and THE WELL OF STARS, both from Tor Books. He has also published more than two hundred shorter works, winning a Hugo in 2007 for his novella, "A Billion Eves". Reed is a long-term resident of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Contents:
Alone (2010)
Hoop-of-Benzene (2006)
Mere (2004)
The Remoras (1994)
Rococo (2006)
River of the Queen (2004)
Night of Time (2003)
Aeon's Child (1995)
The Caldera of Good Fortune (2007)
Camouflage (2005)
The Man with the Golden Balloon (2008)
Hatch (2007)
636 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 2013
69 people are currently reading
567 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
February 6, 2016
Since I was a small child, I have read science fiction, and lots of it. For decades, I’ve read all types, from H.G. Wells through 1930s pulp through 1950s “golden age” through 1970s trippy through modern (the latter in all its broad range from “hard” to “socially conscious”, i.e., culturally leftist stories lacking the “science” in “science fiction”). I suspect science fiction has materially shaped my own world view. I don’t know why I like science fiction, particularly—perhaps just taste, like some people like Westerns or detective stories, or maybe it’s the wide-open possibilities that science fiction tends to envision.
At the same time, though, I’ve always realized that none of the science fiction I’ve read is GOOD. I mean, it can be, and often is, interesting and enjoyable, even compelling, but it’s not good as literature, in the sense of aesthetic excellence. But I’ve never realized why. Reading Robert Reed’s collection of stories, “The Greatship,” has finally made me realize why. It’s because science fiction invariably evidences no understanding of actual human nature. It’s the meringue of writings—it tastes sweet, but its pleasure is short-lasting and hollow, because it does not reflect how actual people really act. It does not reflect reality, so it is inherently unsatisfying.
Robert Reed is a prolific author. Many of his stories revolve around the “Greatship,” a gas-giant-sized spaceship of extremely ancient but unknown alien origin, which entered the Milky Way empty. In this universe, our galaxy has thousands of intelligent spacefaring species, among them humans. By random chance, humans came upon it first and therefore own it—but they take on all types of paying passengers, and intend to ride the Greatship on what amounts to a lengthy pleasure cruise. The other key element of this universe is that all intelligent species are close to immortal. They have “bioceramic” brains that can withstand anything short of focused fusion plasmas, and bodies that swiftly completely regrow from any injury short of brain destruction.
This is a clever and interesting setup. Many of the other specifics in Reed’s Greatship stories are similarly clever, especially in their invention of alien species that are truly alien. But where this universe totally fails is as a reflection of human nature, and presumably alien nature, other than in its most basic and crudest elements. Plenty of intelligent beings in these stories lie, steal and murder in order to achieve personal gain—otherwise, there’d be no plot. Money, both in general and as measure of relative standing, is still very important, again largely in service of plot. But beyond these behaviors, Reed evinces no understanding of human beings, and that means the stories are clever, but lack any aesthetic excellence.
For example, the humans in the stories are frequently thousands of years old, some considerably older. Yet for most of them, their time is spent talking to friends, gossiping, shopping, engaging in extreme tourism, and hanging out. Very few have any occupation; even fewer need to work at an occupation. At the same time, it’s explicitly stated that a spouse or close friend may randomly disappear for decades, as people today would disappear for a day or two, without causing any consternation. None of this makes any sense. The reality is that all humans seek meaning in their lives and have certain constants, including the need for continual contact with those with whom they have real personal relationships. But not these humans, which makes them totally unbelievable.
History teaches us that any group of bored rich people get up to a wide range of potentially troublesome behavior, grouped roughly into two buckets. Either they become jaded and alienated, and behave badly among themselves (see, e.g., “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”), or they aggressively seek meaning and transcendence in their lives (see, e.g., zillions of real people who range from Muhammad to St. Francis to Rasputin to Patty Hearst). What they most definitely don’t do for any lengthy period of time is act like upper-middle-class American suburbanites on an eternal Saturday afternoon. It is not in our nature.
For another example, Reed posits that the entire galaxy is bound by extremely rigid rules of property, universally voluntarily recognized by thousands of radically different sentient species (even though there is no faster-than-light travel). (This is the mechanism by which humans are deemed to own the Greatship—prior in time is higher in right, at least in allocation of property between species, and humans got there first.) This is so unlikely, even if only humans were at issue, as to by itself remove this book from the realm of “literature,” and place it in the category of “clever stories requiring total suspension of disbelief.” Similarly, the entire galaxy, all species, in total contradiction to the biological imperatives that must have impelled any successful species, have collectively decided to sharply, but each individually purely voluntarily, limit reproduction in order to prevent overpopulation. Uh-huh.
Aside from this jarring set of unrealities about people, “The Greatship” is also an exemplar of another tendency in both much modern science fiction and in modern technology leaders (Ray Kurzweil, I’m looking at you). The universe it portrays is a religion substitute. In Reed’s universe, and in Kurzweil’s, we are all promised redemption and apotheosis, but through technology and our own efforts. Neither works nor grace, merely faster computers. Such religion substitutes even have heretics, in the form of the few crazy people who are traditionally religious (and those religions are portrayed in a way that makes it clear the author has only the most simplistic understanding of actual human religions). Instead of believing in God, we are told to believe in some version of the Singularity, upon the arrival of which we will be as gods. This is a belief with an ancient pedigree, of course, falsely gussied up as something new. It’s so trite, though, as to further undermine any claim to aesthetic virtue in such works.
Finally, Reed’s work is also infected with many of the silly tropes so common in modern science fiction. Captains of warships are invariably women—always in one of two types that have never existed in any quantity in real life and never will, the hardbitten warrior woman and the hardbitten lesbian warrior woman. Every being exercises total sexual autonomy and fluidity. Children are functionally non-existent. And so on, tediously and jarringly, bouncing the reader out of absorption in the story, and putting the final nail in the aesthetic coffin.
None of these problems are confined to Reed, of course—I’m just beating up on him as an exemplar of most modern science fiction. Stephen Baxter is no different. Technically, Reed’s writing is good. I enjoyed his stories for what they are—clever, creative, and interesting thought experiments. But Dostoevsky or Austen, it’s not. It’s not even up to the level of fifth-rate novelists like Alice Walker or Barbara Kingsolver. That doesn’t make it not worth reading, though. I plan to read Reed’s two Greatship novels. I’m just glad I figured out what it is that makes science fiction what it is, and is not.
At the same time, though, I’ve always realized that none of the science fiction I’ve read is GOOD. I mean, it can be, and often is, interesting and enjoyable, even compelling, but it’s not good as literature, in the sense of aesthetic excellence. But I’ve never realized why. Reading Robert Reed’s collection of stories, “The Greatship,” has finally made me realize why. It’s because science fiction invariably evidences no understanding of actual human nature. It’s the meringue of writings—it tastes sweet, but its pleasure is short-lasting and hollow, because it does not reflect how actual people really act. It does not reflect reality, so it is inherently unsatisfying.
Robert Reed is a prolific author. Many of his stories revolve around the “Greatship,” a gas-giant-sized spaceship of extremely ancient but unknown alien origin, which entered the Milky Way empty. In this universe, our galaxy has thousands of intelligent spacefaring species, among them humans. By random chance, humans came upon it first and therefore own it—but they take on all types of paying passengers, and intend to ride the Greatship on what amounts to a lengthy pleasure cruise. The other key element of this universe is that all intelligent species are close to immortal. They have “bioceramic” brains that can withstand anything short of focused fusion plasmas, and bodies that swiftly completely regrow from any injury short of brain destruction.
This is a clever and interesting setup. Many of the other specifics in Reed’s Greatship stories are similarly clever, especially in their invention of alien species that are truly alien. But where this universe totally fails is as a reflection of human nature, and presumably alien nature, other than in its most basic and crudest elements. Plenty of intelligent beings in these stories lie, steal and murder in order to achieve personal gain—otherwise, there’d be no plot. Money, both in general and as measure of relative standing, is still very important, again largely in service of plot. But beyond these behaviors, Reed evinces no understanding of human beings, and that means the stories are clever, but lack any aesthetic excellence.
For example, the humans in the stories are frequently thousands of years old, some considerably older. Yet for most of them, their time is spent talking to friends, gossiping, shopping, engaging in extreme tourism, and hanging out. Very few have any occupation; even fewer need to work at an occupation. At the same time, it’s explicitly stated that a spouse or close friend may randomly disappear for decades, as people today would disappear for a day or two, without causing any consternation. None of this makes any sense. The reality is that all humans seek meaning in their lives and have certain constants, including the need for continual contact with those with whom they have real personal relationships. But not these humans, which makes them totally unbelievable.
History teaches us that any group of bored rich people get up to a wide range of potentially troublesome behavior, grouped roughly into two buckets. Either they become jaded and alienated, and behave badly among themselves (see, e.g., “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”), or they aggressively seek meaning and transcendence in their lives (see, e.g., zillions of real people who range from Muhammad to St. Francis to Rasputin to Patty Hearst). What they most definitely don’t do for any lengthy period of time is act like upper-middle-class American suburbanites on an eternal Saturday afternoon. It is not in our nature.
For another example, Reed posits that the entire galaxy is bound by extremely rigid rules of property, universally voluntarily recognized by thousands of radically different sentient species (even though there is no faster-than-light travel). (This is the mechanism by which humans are deemed to own the Greatship—prior in time is higher in right, at least in allocation of property between species, and humans got there first.) This is so unlikely, even if only humans were at issue, as to by itself remove this book from the realm of “literature,” and place it in the category of “clever stories requiring total suspension of disbelief.” Similarly, the entire galaxy, all species, in total contradiction to the biological imperatives that must have impelled any successful species, have collectively decided to sharply, but each individually purely voluntarily, limit reproduction in order to prevent overpopulation. Uh-huh.
Aside from this jarring set of unrealities about people, “The Greatship” is also an exemplar of another tendency in both much modern science fiction and in modern technology leaders (Ray Kurzweil, I’m looking at you). The universe it portrays is a religion substitute. In Reed’s universe, and in Kurzweil’s, we are all promised redemption and apotheosis, but through technology and our own efforts. Neither works nor grace, merely faster computers. Such religion substitutes even have heretics, in the form of the few crazy people who are traditionally religious (and those religions are portrayed in a way that makes it clear the author has only the most simplistic understanding of actual human religions). Instead of believing in God, we are told to believe in some version of the Singularity, upon the arrival of which we will be as gods. This is a belief with an ancient pedigree, of course, falsely gussied up as something new. It’s so trite, though, as to further undermine any claim to aesthetic virtue in such works.
Finally, Reed’s work is also infected with many of the silly tropes so common in modern science fiction. Captains of warships are invariably women—always in one of two types that have never existed in any quantity in real life and never will, the hardbitten warrior woman and the hardbitten lesbian warrior woman. Every being exercises total sexual autonomy and fluidity. Children are functionally non-existent. And so on, tediously and jarringly, bouncing the reader out of absorption in the story, and putting the final nail in the aesthetic coffin.
None of these problems are confined to Reed, of course—I’m just beating up on him as an exemplar of most modern science fiction. Stephen Baxter is no different. Technically, Reed’s writing is good. I enjoyed his stories for what they are—clever, creative, and interesting thought experiments. But Dostoevsky or Austen, it’s not. It’s not even up to the level of fifth-rate novelists like Alice Walker or Barbara Kingsolver. That doesn’t make it not worth reading, though. I plan to read Reed’s two Greatship novels. I’m just glad I figured out what it is that makes science fiction what it is, and is not.
June 4, 2017
DNF - gave up after more than 300 pages in. It is, in effect, no more than a series of barely connected short stories of very mixed quality.
My experience was not helped by the very poor editing of my e-book version.
My experience was not helped by the very poor editing of my e-book version.
February 10, 2015
I had read a few Great Ship stories before (two of which are in here), so I was really excited about getting a collection that has almost all of them, in some sort of order.
Let me get the annoying thing out of the way first. This collection was collated by Reed himself, as far as I can tell, with a bit of additional material to bridge the stories (and adding to "the resident confusion" apparently), and some stories altered as well to better fit with the others. There are a lot of typos, and a number of problems that I would have expected proofreading to catch. This didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the stories, but I found it really quite frustrating. Also, rather than having headers that give the name of each story, the header is a number: so it might have "5 95" at the top of the page, which tells you you're on p95 overall and section 5 on whichever story is on that page. But it doesn't tell me which story! Argh. Anyway.
There's no point in talking about every story; that would be tiresome. I realised as I read the last story that the collection as a whole rather put me in mind of Christopher Priest's The Islanders. They have nothing in common in terms of themes or characters or setting, but there is a certain way in which their methods of connecting disparate elements feels similar. In Priest's work, the same character might turn up on several different islands and you learn about them a little more. Here, there are a couple of characters who recur in a big way (Quee Lee especially, and Perri), and several others who appear intermittently. Additionally, the Great Ship is so very big that each story is set in a different place - and sometimes not even on the Great Ship - so that, like the Dream Archipelago for Priest, it's the same place but very different.
The Great Ship is just that: a spaceship that is at one time described as being the size of Uranus. And there's very few who live on the surface - which would be big, but not that impressive: rather, the entire innards of the Ship is honeycombed with a vast array of habitats, meaning that the Ship can support countless billions. For whatever reason it was launched into the universe, travelling along, and then humanity managed to board and claim it. But it's not just a human ship; any species, as long as they've got the cash to pay their way, can come along for the ride. And what a ride: they're doing the ultimate Grand Tour, around the Milky Way.
All of the stories are entirely standalone. There is no reason to read this collection in the order it's presented. Except that Reed claims to have it in some sort of chronological order (and certainly the two bookending stories feel like a beginning and an end), and there is something very satisfying about feeling like you're progressing through the history of the Great Ship and its passengers. And everyone is a passenger, whether they're paying or working their way. I like that there are stories about rich folks as well as people who work on the ship; it wasn't quite balanced, but it's better than simply seeing the idle wealthy. There are stories of action and adventure; stories about relationships, and solitude, and time; there is death and birth and just getting on with things.
One of the odd things about these stories is the issue of time. Pretty much everyone on the Ship is functionally immortal. No diseases, no ageing; you get hurt but as long as your brain is intact it doesn't even matter if you die. So ideas like your husband being away for a year (or ten), or a journey taking thirty years, or having to hide for centuries... those words, those time-concepts, are basically irrelevant. I didn't end up with much of a sense of grandeur or the epic sweep of time because the numbers are so big that my mind just rebelled and basically say those as weeks, perhaps months. Which doesn't make the stories any less interesting but perhaps is not the response Reed is hoping for.
I do intend to read the Great Ship novels... but I might go read something on a slightly smaller scale first...
Let me get the annoying thing out of the way first. This collection was collated by Reed himself, as far as I can tell, with a bit of additional material to bridge the stories (and adding to "the resident confusion" apparently), and some stories altered as well to better fit with the others. There are a lot of typos, and a number of problems that I would have expected proofreading to catch. This didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the stories, but I found it really quite frustrating. Also, rather than having headers that give the name of each story, the header is a number: so it might have "5 95" at the top of the page, which tells you you're on p95 overall and section 5 on whichever story is on that page. But it doesn't tell me which story! Argh. Anyway.
There's no point in talking about every story; that would be tiresome. I realised as I read the last story that the collection as a whole rather put me in mind of Christopher Priest's The Islanders. They have nothing in common in terms of themes or characters or setting, but there is a certain way in which their methods of connecting disparate elements feels similar. In Priest's work, the same character might turn up on several different islands and you learn about them a little more. Here, there are a couple of characters who recur in a big way (Quee Lee especially, and Perri), and several others who appear intermittently. Additionally, the Great Ship is so very big that each story is set in a different place - and sometimes not even on the Great Ship - so that, like the Dream Archipelago for Priest, it's the same place but very different.
The Great Ship is just that: a spaceship that is at one time described as being the size of Uranus. And there's very few who live on the surface - which would be big, but not that impressive: rather, the entire innards of the Ship is honeycombed with a vast array of habitats, meaning that the Ship can support countless billions. For whatever reason it was launched into the universe, travelling along, and then humanity managed to board and claim it. But it's not just a human ship; any species, as long as they've got the cash to pay their way, can come along for the ride. And what a ride: they're doing the ultimate Grand Tour, around the Milky Way.
All of the stories are entirely standalone. There is no reason to read this collection in the order it's presented. Except that Reed claims to have it in some sort of chronological order (and certainly the two bookending stories feel like a beginning and an end), and there is something very satisfying about feeling like you're progressing through the history of the Great Ship and its passengers. And everyone is a passenger, whether they're paying or working their way. I like that there are stories about rich folks as well as people who work on the ship; it wasn't quite balanced, but it's better than simply seeing the idle wealthy. There are stories of action and adventure; stories about relationships, and solitude, and time; there is death and birth and just getting on with things.
One of the odd things about these stories is the issue of time. Pretty much everyone on the Ship is functionally immortal. No diseases, no ageing; you get hurt but as long as your brain is intact it doesn't even matter if you die. So ideas like your husband being away for a year (or ten), or a journey taking thirty years, or having to hide for centuries... those words, those time-concepts, are basically irrelevant. I didn't end up with much of a sense of grandeur or the epic sweep of time because the numbers are so big that my mind just rebelled and basically say those as weeks, perhaps months. Which doesn't make the stories any less interesting but perhaps is not the response Reed is hoping for.
I do intend to read the Great Ship novels... but I might go read something on a slightly smaller scale first...
March 12, 2020
This was a sensational collection of short stories, all linked around the theme of a ship the size of a planet traveling across the galaxy. Who built it? Where did they go? And where is this ship itself going? The Greatship is essentially an enormous cruise, with species from every corner of the galaxy living in chambers the size of continents that fill its interior. The stories are incredibly detailed, and typically focus on one or two specific characters or species. They're typically formulated as mysteries and are self-contained. Sometimes the mysteries are character centered but more often than not they also have some central question about the nature of the ship as well. Why does this cavern lead to nowhere? How does the engine the size of a continent work? Where does the waste of the ship's vast population get sent?
This is a stunning collection and by far my favourite sci-fi short story collection to date. I will most definitely be reading the standalone series, that begins with Marrow, soon.
This is a stunning collection and by far my favourite sci-fi short story collection to date. I will most definitely be reading the standalone series, that begins with Marrow, soon.
June 19, 2022
Some wonderfully imaginative aspects. Very enjoyable as a whole - some parts are a bit abstract, eg the final section, and I didn't know what was going on. Maybe I should have started with Marrow.
March 28, 2025
A lot of this book has a very self-published vibe. Some of the stories are engaging but the typos my god.
May 8, 2024
Each short story is clever and amazing.
October 20, 2017
I read this after the 2nd Marrow novel which seemed about the right time to read it. I definitely wouldn't suggest reading this as a standalone unless you are really into reading short stories anyway. I think a lot of the bad reviews are from people reading without the context of the Marrow series, which definitely makes sense, as standalone shorts these don't work that well. This gives a lot of back story to several of the main characters from the Marrow series but also meanders quite a bit. I really wish the author had just incorporated these stories into the main series, but on the other hand, those books are wordy enough as it is.
January 4, 2018
A fantastic, wildly creative and out there book that manages still to be grounded in solid science. The characters are fewer than you'd expect for a book encompassing this much time, but there is good reason for that.
Alone and Mere are firmly two of my favorite short stories now.
Alone and Mere are firmly two of my favorite short stories now.
Read
June 18, 2021Needs proofing
These stories were interesting and varied in terms of genre, but the many typos ruined the experience. I would get deep into the story only to "come out" of the story because of a misspelling or a repetition of a word.
These stories were interesting and varied in terms of genre, but the many typos ruined the experience. I would get deep into the story only to "come out" of the story because of a misspelling or a repetition of a word.
October 21, 2021
It was only after finishing this book that I realized it was a loose collection of short stories. That explains why there was no coherent story.
The Amazon page for this says "All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author’s growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion."
The stories here are about a giant basically eternal ship the size of a planet on a 500 million year journey through the Milky Way but it was abandoned until Humans found it and took ownership. Captains and sub captains and aliens. Plenty of interesting stories but not enough to persist.
I don't plan on reading any of the following books.
The Amazon page for this says "All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author’s growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion."
The stories here are about a giant basically eternal ship the size of a planet on a 500 million year journey through the Milky Way but it was abandoned until Humans found it and took ownership. Captains and sub captains and aliens. Plenty of interesting stories but not enough to persist.
I don't plan on reading any of the following books.
May 26, 2018
Intriguing, as always. Following two characters enjoyable & fulfilling. Once again, the ending of the last story, therefore the end of the book, was too vague & confusing. Plus the story that’s yet to be told, about the War & its conclusion is needed. If it exists as a stand alone, I’ve yet to spot it.
Reed is a marvelous & imaginative storyteller who is sometimes too vague & whose endings are too often not on par with rest of the story.
Reed is a marvelous & imaginative storyteller who is sometimes too vague & whose endings are too often not on par with rest of the story.
February 16, 2024
I found the stories to be shallow and rushed, the author seemingly trying to map out a whole lifetime in five pages. The stories have no overarching theme, bar they all happen in the greatship, and the book just never became engaging. Furthermore, the kindle edition suffers greatly from some very bad transcription errors and omissions.
January 4, 2021
Good anthology. Having nearly all the stories set within the backdrop of the Greatship kept a sense of consistency and coherence moving between each. Personal favorites were "Mere" and "Aeon's Child".
June 7, 2022
The editing was a bit rough around the edges, which the author himself notes as the result of it being homebrew and self-published. Despite that, I very much enjoyed this collection of stories for the new breadth and depth it brought to the universe of the Greatship.
October 1, 2024
Endless
I got carried along thinking each situation might lead to something. None of it did. I felt as though i was reading many short stories. The connections between the short stories was nebulous. But I am proud that i finished reading every word. I fear the author is crazy.
I got carried along thinking each situation might lead to something. None of it did. I felt as though i was reading many short stories. The connections between the short stories was nebulous. But I am proud that i finished reading every word. I fear the author is crazy.
January 29, 2025
Great stories each unique but related!
Read this collection in preparation for reading the Novels, Very enjoyable and now I'm ready to learn about the world at the center of the Great Ship!
Read this collection in preparation for reading the Novels, Very enjoyable and now I'm ready to learn about the world at the center of the Great Ship!
July 13, 2017
Not overly interesting IMHO
January 13, 2022
Space opera of the finest vintage.
Style: string
Characters: strong
Plot: all interesting, some wonderful, some intriguing
Setting: Great
Style: string
Characters: strong
Plot: all interesting, some wonderful, some intriguing
Setting: Great
December 8, 2022
I liked "Mere," "The Remoras," and "Aeon's Child"
July 23, 2017
I was attracted to the entire Greatship series by the synopsis of this collection, and after reading one story that was collected in one of Gardner Dozois' Year's Best SF.
Unfortunately, that story is not contained herein, and of the remaining stories, only two are of notice, the remaining turned out to be extremely difficult to read through to the end.
Sure, they are brimming with cool ideas, but I did not like the execution style, or any of the characters.
Unfortunately, that story is not contained herein, and of the remaining stories, only two are of notice, the remaining turned out to be extremely difficult to read through to the end.
Sure, they are brimming with cool ideas, but I did not like the execution style, or any of the characters.
September 3, 2015
Robert Reed is one of the most underrated authors in science fiction. Every year he produces a number of very good short stories (and an occasional novel), and he's won several awards, but he seems to be rarely discussed. The Greatship is a collection of his stories set aboard the Greatship -- an alien spaceship the size of Uranus whose interior (and a bit of whose surface) is inhabited by numerous human and non-human groups who have migrated to the ship over the centuries as the ship has passed near their star systems. The stories are diverse, covering many different aspects of the ship. Most center on human characters, but several intriguing alien races play major parts. A few certainly are Hugo calibre.
Well worth reading.
Well worth reading.
July 13, 2014
I'm not a big friend of short stories but these are EXCELLENT!!!
Actually, most would rather classify as novelettes, imo.
These short stories play in the same universe, in fact on the same 'GreatShip' as the fullblown novel 'Marrow', which I thought was good, but as I feel that Reed writes better short stories than actual novels - he's an ideas and style man, not long-form plot writer imo - I enjoyed the short stories even more.
But I feel even if you haven't read Marrow, you can thoroughly enjoy the grandeur and strangeness of the short stories: If you are into big-scale (think Iain M Banks) spaceship, spaces and concepts a MUST READ.
Actually, most would rather classify as novelettes, imo.
These short stories play in the same universe, in fact on the same 'GreatShip' as the fullblown novel 'Marrow', which I thought was good, but as I feel that Reed writes better short stories than actual novels - he's an ideas and style man, not long-form plot writer imo - I enjoyed the short stories even more.
But I feel even if you haven't read Marrow, you can thoroughly enjoy the grandeur and strangeness of the short stories: If you are into big-scale (think Iain M Banks) spaceship, spaces and concepts a MUST READ.
March 25, 2014
Breaks a streak for me of books I've given up on without finishing. Just what I needed, apparently: good space-opera style science fiction short stories and novellas, not too bogged down in the technical details, dealing a lot with the implications of fantastic technology. Plenty of mystery and intrigue. The only complaint was that it ended too soon. I might go on to read the two additional novel-length books set in this universe, if I can overcome my hesitation due to the negative reviews they've gotten.
September 19, 2014
This book is fantastically inventive and broad. I loved the vignettes and found myself strangely drawn to read more despite the lack of traditional plot. As I read I always wanted to know more about the universe invented by Reed and the approach of jumping from character to character and one timespan to another, actually served the purpose well and seemed to underscore the breadth of his universe. I may come back and rate this 5 stars if it sticks with me.
October 21, 2014
Robert Reed is one of my all time favorite science fiction writers and The Greatship is another good reason why. I love his imagination, the way he stretches life into all these strange and familiar worlds and realities within the vastness of the Greatship and weaves together their stories. Fun, clever, intriguing, fresh and captivating I find his storytelling. I want to board the Greatship myself.
Thanks for giving us more digital editions of your delightful work.
Thanks for giving us more digital editions of your delightful work.
July 24, 2016
I loved this series of stories. There's a phenomenal range of ideas and characters within. Similar to almost everything I rate 5 stars, these stories are idea driven: they explore ideas and at times take their time to do so. In most cases the fact that these are set in space is beside the point to the purpose. This is awesome stuff, but read with caution if you like plot driven stuff and are averse to an indulgent writing style.
August 30, 2014
Every now and then you come across a classic, this one is among the top. A series of short stories combined together to form a thrilling romp across the galaxy that when combined created a fantastic read. Well written and constructed.
October 14, 2014
Stories based on an idea of a galaxy-roving omnibus spaceship would have been fun, but if the spaceship is planet-sized, it makes them even more fun. This book was very enjoyable - it should especially appeal to science/speculative fiction fans who like their writers to think big.
December 30, 2016
I know this is a minority opinion, but I could not finish this book. None of the characters ever engaged me. The plot was sprawling and disorganized, it seemed to me. I give it some credit for ambition.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews