Launch Pad

by Jody Lynn Nye (Editor, Author), Mike Brotherton (Editor, Author), Geoffrey A. Landis

Humanity is coming up against the limits of the physical world—but the imaginations of the writers in this anthology reach far beyond those boundaries.

The Launch Pad Astronomy Seminar aims to bring more hard science into science fiction. These twelve stories look into our future and find humor, pathos, grand determination, and genuine courage.

Written by some of today’s most innovative writers in science fiction, all veterans of the Launch Pad program!

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 13, 2013

About the author

Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as ‘spoiling cats.’ When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories.

Before breaking away from gainful employment to write full time, Jody worked as a file clerk, book-keeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant and costume maker.

For four years, she was on the technical operations staff of a local Chicago television station, WFBN (WGBO), serving the last year as Technical Operations Manager. During her time at WFBN, she was part of the engineering team that built the station, acted as Technical Director during live sports broadcasts, and worked to produce in-house spots and public service announcements.

Over the last twenty-five or so years, Jody has taught in numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published at science-fiction conventions. She has also spoken in schools and libraries around the north and northwest suburbs. In 2007 she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago. She also runs the two-day writers workshop at DragonCon, and is a judge for the Writers of the Future contest, the largest speculative fiction contest in the world.

Jody lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with her husband Bill Fawcett, a writer, game designer, military historian and book packager, and three feline overlords, Athena, Minx, and Marmalade.

Reviews

[BJ Haun · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Man in the Mirror - 3/5
The Last Probe - 3/5
Are We Alone? - 3/5
The Space Gypsies and the Ronin Planet - 2/5
The Stars Do Not Lie - 3/5
The Caretaker - 3/5
The Old Equations - 3/5
Think Only This of Me - 3/5
Sylvia Ascending - 2/5
Glitches - 3/5
Doppler Shift - 3/5
Spectromancy- 3/5

All told a fairly "meh" anthology for me. I didn't hate any of the stories, but I didn't love any of them either.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories about the very beginnings of humans leaving Earth to colonize new planets. A few were barely mediocre, most were ok and one or two (including the last one) were really good. I wouldn't move it up on your list, but if you do read it you won't hate it.

[Az Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this collection of short stories is really interesting. Everyone who writes for it has either attended or lectured at the Launch Pad Astronomy Seminar which aims to give writers a better understanding of science topics to help them create more accurate works. The extra dose of reality isn't there to stop them from writing fun and fantastic science fiction, but to prevent common pitfalls that may drag readers out of their enjoyment and destroy the immersion that scifi is supposed to create.

And with few exceptions, most of the tales do exactly that and proceed in their own different ways. From the diary of lost space probe powered by artificial intelligence as it tries to find a new home for an Earth it can no longer detect to tales of life in academia and even a series of transmission logs as a space mission goes awry, each story brings something else to the table.

This is a book I'd strongly recommend to any hard scifi fans and especially anyone whose worked in academia, either going for their PhD or staff at a university (there's a few tales that are aimed at these groups). Out of all the entries, only "Think Only This Of Me" by Michael Kurland was of terribly bad quality, it had some interesting premises but was let down by incredibly misogynistic tropes and writing and boring characters.

Special mentions go to "The Last Probe" by Matthew Kressel and "The Old Equations" by Jake Kerr for making me cry on the bus to work and Spectromancy by Jody Lynn Nye for finishing the book on a perfect note.

[Sikkdays · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best part of this collection for me was the intro. There, I learned about Launchpad an annual event for authors to learn more about real Science to make their work more accurate and believable. That sounds fascinating and I love the idea.

From there, things fell apart rapidly. There were about 2 stories that I actually enjoyed. I feel like there was a class on leaving the readers wanting more. As if each story was an audition for writing a whole book.

With any collection, you're not going to like all of them. With Launchpad, I had a hard time finding one I enjoyed. Then, it became more of a political election, which do I dislike the least.

I don't want to be so negative, but my real lasting impression is from one short story about a heretic that was so cliche and the longest one in the collection.

[Charl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of stories.