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We all look up at the moon and wonder. And maybe dream. For centuries, the moon filled our imaginations. Eleven professional writers took those dreams and set original stories on moons scattered all over the galaxy. Yet, as the dreams of centuries, every story holds a human touch. From a mythical man fulfilling a childhood wish to a fantastic addition to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s bestselling Retrieval Artist series, this volume of Fiction River allows you to travel to eleven different moons without leaving the comfort of home.
Fiction River is an original fiction anthology series. Modeled on successful anthology series of the past, from Orbit to Universe to Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, the goal of Fiction River is to provide a forum for “original ground-breaking fiction of all genres.”
Fiction River is an original fiction anthology series. Modeled on successful anthology series of the past, from Orbit to Universe to Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, the goal of Fiction River is to provide a forum for “original ground-breaking fiction of all genres.”
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 29, 2014
1 person is currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Dean Wesley Smith
822 books177 followersPen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley
Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.
With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.
Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley
Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.
With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.
Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 1, 2020
I was in the mood for some short fiction and stories set on the Moon (or in this case, any moon) work for me. I enjoyed a good number of these and also have a good number of "new to me" authors to follow. The standout was the final novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch that takes place in her Retrieval Artist universe.
More detailed review to come.
More detailed review to come.
July 5, 2016
A short story collection. The stories are all set on a moon, either our own or some other planet’s moon.
I’ve been wanting to read this since I heard about it because of the setting but also because it has Rusch’s new novella set in the Retrieval Artist universe. But a bit to my surprise I ended up enjoying all of the stories in this collection. The stories:
“Hot Jupiters” by Steven Mohan, Jr.
Saxton and Monica are lovers and they traveled together to an alien planet’s moon. They’ve been in cryosleep for a long time and their journy is coming to an end. However, it turns out that Monica’s reasons to come along were different than Saxton thought. And in the middle of their confrontation, their ship is hit.
“The Old Guy” by Annie Reed
It’s harder and harder for older people to get jobs these days and this story’s main character feels like nobody on Earth wants to hire him. So, he applies elsewhere.
“The Toy That Ran Away” by Scott William Carter
Dexter Duff is a PI on the terraformed alien planet Venga 7. A powerful and wealthy senator asks Dexter to find his daughter’s favorite toy. It has an AI and it has ran away. At first Dexter’s only interest is in the money but after meeting the senator’s young daughter, his heart melts and he decides to find the toy.
“The Payment” by Maggie Jaimeson
This was a very interesting story about a convict who has a very unusual punishment for the crime. Carrie James is isolated into a small space pod which orbits Charon. She’s even confined to a small, coffin like sleeping couch and is essentially forced to do scientific work, exploring the moon and the space around it. However, she finds an usual way to cope with her situation.
“Caressing Charon” by Ryan M. Williams
A group of scientists is exploring Charon. One of the, Sharon, finds something quite unusual.
“Moon Shine” by Matthew Lieber Buchman
This was a fun short story! It’s written in first person. The main character is essentially a space trucker but a woman. Her space ship breaks down and she needs to get to Europa to get it fixed. But the Jupiter’s moon is gone…
“Dreams of a Moon” by Dean Wesley Smith
Narrated by the author. A Brian Saber story. I haven’t read any of the others but these sound like fun. Apparently, Brian is actually a retirement home resident and in a bad condition. However, when he goes on a mission for Earth Protection League, he’s beamed to an intergalactic ship and made young again. This time, he and his group have to save Earth… from the Moon.
“The Moon Was Bitter and Hungry” by JC Andrijeski
Another interesting and strange story, where the main character is… well, an alien who has made a huge mistake and is stranded on the Moon, watching Earth and salivating over prey which was so far away.
“The Verdant Gene” by Marcelle Dubé
Another great story. Verdant is an alien planet where human colony has landed. Unfortunately, the planet has quite a different cycle than Earth and the two moons, Castor and Pollux seemed to cause madness in humans.
“Moonfall” by Lisa Silverthorne
Humans have sent a new moon lander to Io. “Dove” is the first robotic lander with an AI and it’s soon going to make moonfall. Cassie is the engineer who designed Dove and her whole career depends on a successful mission.
And finally Rusch’s new novella, “A Murder of Clones”. It doesn’t have any familiar characters and I think it can be well read on it own. It introduces new characters and new situations and even a new alien race. I loved it! The novella even contains problem in translation! The humans haven’t had much contact with the Io-fuzz, so there aren’t many translators to go around and the mechanical translation doesn’t do well, either. Their culture is also not well known. Gomez is forced to deal with a translator who is a member of a different alien species who first has to translate its conversation with Gomez, in English, into its own language and then to the Io-fuzz language to speak with that alien. You can guess how well that goes in a potential criminal investigation.
Judith Gomez is part of Earth Alliance Fronter Squad and the leader of her group, which has two other officers. They are supposed to police and investigate the frontier planets. The Io-fuzz have sent for the EAFS and Gomez was the officer closest to their habited moon. So, she has the deal with the situation, which is that the Io-fuzz moon has a human enclosure. The humans have started to behave violently towards each other and the aliens want them gone. Their evidence are three dead human bodies, boys who are barely even 14. When the bodies are autopsied, it’s found that they are in fact clones and even worse, illegal clones. Gomez is not happy.
I’ve been wanting to read this since I heard about it because of the setting but also because it has Rusch’s new novella set in the Retrieval Artist universe. But a bit to my surprise I ended up enjoying all of the stories in this collection. The stories:
“Hot Jupiters” by Steven Mohan, Jr.
Saxton and Monica are lovers and they traveled together to an alien planet’s moon. They’ve been in cryosleep for a long time and their journy is coming to an end. However, it turns out that Monica’s reasons to come along were different than Saxton thought. And in the middle of their confrontation, their ship is hit.
“The Old Guy” by Annie Reed
It’s harder and harder for older people to get jobs these days and this story’s main character feels like nobody on Earth wants to hire him. So, he applies elsewhere.
“The Toy That Ran Away” by Scott William Carter
Dexter Duff is a PI on the terraformed alien planet Venga 7. A powerful and wealthy senator asks Dexter to find his daughter’s favorite toy. It has an AI and it has ran away. At first Dexter’s only interest is in the money but after meeting the senator’s young daughter, his heart melts and he decides to find the toy.
“The Payment” by Maggie Jaimeson
This was a very interesting story about a convict who has a very unusual punishment for the crime. Carrie James is isolated into a small space pod which orbits Charon. She’s even confined to a small, coffin like sleeping couch and is essentially forced to do scientific work, exploring the moon and the space around it. However, she finds an usual way to cope with her situation.
“Caressing Charon” by Ryan M. Williams
A group of scientists is exploring Charon. One of the, Sharon, finds something quite unusual.
“Moon Shine” by Matthew Lieber Buchman
This was a fun short story! It’s written in first person. The main character is essentially a space trucker but a woman. Her space ship breaks down and she needs to get to Europa to get it fixed. But the Jupiter’s moon is gone…
“Dreams of a Moon” by Dean Wesley Smith
Narrated by the author. A Brian Saber story. I haven’t read any of the others but these sound like fun. Apparently, Brian is actually a retirement home resident and in a bad condition. However, when he goes on a mission for Earth Protection League, he’s beamed to an intergalactic ship and made young again. This time, he and his group have to save Earth… from the Moon.
“The Moon Was Bitter and Hungry” by JC Andrijeski
Another interesting and strange story, where the main character is… well, an alien who has made a huge mistake and is stranded on the Moon, watching Earth and salivating over prey which was so far away.
“The Verdant Gene” by Marcelle Dubé
Another great story. Verdant is an alien planet where human colony has landed. Unfortunately, the planet has quite a different cycle than Earth and the two moons, Castor and Pollux seemed to cause madness in humans.
“Moonfall” by Lisa Silverthorne
Humans have sent a new moon lander to Io. “Dove” is the first robotic lander with an AI and it’s soon going to make moonfall. Cassie is the engineer who designed Dove and her whole career depends on a successful mission.
And finally Rusch’s new novella, “A Murder of Clones”. It doesn’t have any familiar characters and I think it can be well read on it own. It introduces new characters and new situations and even a new alien race. I loved it! The novella even contains problem in translation! The humans haven’t had much contact with the Io-fuzz, so there aren’t many translators to go around and the mechanical translation doesn’t do well, either. Their culture is also not well known. Gomez is forced to deal with a translator who is a member of a different alien species who first has to translate its conversation with Gomez, in English, into its own language and then to the Io-fuzz language to speak with that alien. You can guess how well that goes in a potential criminal investigation.
Judith Gomez is part of Earth Alliance Fronter Squad and the leader of her group, which has two other officers. They are supposed to police and investigate the frontier planets. The Io-fuzz have sent for the EAFS and Gomez was the officer closest to their habited moon. So, she has the deal with the situation, which is that the Io-fuzz moon has a human enclosure. The humans have started to behave violently towards each other and the aliens want them gone. Their evidence are three dead human bodies, boys who are barely even 14. When the bodies are autopsied, it’s found that they are in fact clones and even worse, illegal clones. Gomez is not happy.
October 20, 2017
The short stories in this collection were really enjoyable. Of course my favorite story was "A Murder of Clones by Kristine Kathryn Rusch". The introductions to the stories were also quite interesting.
May 13, 2014
Another very good anthology in this series. This volume is dedicated to stories about moons including our own. There is not a bad story here and some excellent ones. If like me you are a fan of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Retrieval Artist series the highlight of this book is a new standalone novella set in that universe. But there are also many interesting takes on lunar stories that make this a fine addition to any library.
July 25, 2014
Possibly my favorite Fiction River release yet, this one covers an assortment of science fiction stories that deal with moons in some way. It was phenomenal, with a lot of actual science fiction stories (as opposed to various sub-genres of romances in a sci-fi setting, etc.). It ends with a lengthy and excellent novella by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, one of my favorite stories in the collection and a favorite in the number of works of Rusch's that I've read so far.
May 12, 2014
This might seem a little self-serving because I have a story in this volume. But then I read the other stories here and I'm left to wonder how I got in to begin with. There are many fantastic views of moons in science fiction here. Simply wonderful!
October 12, 2022
Some rather interesting stories in this collection. I've liked all the fictionriver volumes I've come across, and this one was no exception. Good stories throughout.
July 5, 2015
Love these stories, and not just because one of mine is in the anthology! Great group of writers featured. I particularly like the Rusch story, "A Murder of Clones" (also in the novel of the same title).
October 13, 2022
Fiction River is always a delight!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews