The Best of All Possible Planets

by Alex Shvartsman

Far From Now, In a Galaxy Really, Really Close…

The last denizens of Earth, aka Planet Dirt, have a problem. Their protective force shield is breaking, which will mean annihilation. Now it’s up to a small group of intrepid dilettantes to procure a new one.

From planet to planet, danger to danger, and stupid choice to stupid choice, the team blunders their way across the galaxy, trying to save the day and survive the trip.

Don’t let the Call to Adventure go to voicemail. Follow the corgis!

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fantasy

312 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 28, 2026

About the author

Alex Shvartsman is a writer, editor, and translator from Brooklyn, NY. He's the author of The Best of All Possible Planets (2026A), Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022) and Eridani's Crown (2019).

Over 120 of his stories have been published in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and many other venues. He won the 2014 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction and was a three-time finalist for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction and, as a translator, a three-time finalist for the BSFA Award. For a brief, glorious moment one of his short stories was in development as a live action TV series.

Alex is the editor of nearly twenty anthologies, including the long-standing Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series of humorous SF/F.

Reviews

[Will Swardstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

**This review can also be found at: https://fanfiaddict.com/review-the-be...

Satire isn’t for everyone, but if you count The HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as one of your top reads, then I’ve got some bad news for you — Douglas Adams is deceased. But, if you don’t mind reading a book by someone who tried an awfully lot to write like Douglas Adams, then I might humbly recommend The Best of All Possible Planets by Alex Shvartsman. It isn’t as long and many of the things Shvartsman parodies in the novel aren’t even British, but if you can get past all that, The Best of All Possible Planets might be one of the best times you’ll have on a fictional spaceship and multiple fictional worlds.

Now, this review won’t be as long as a corgi — the standard unit of measurement in Shvartsman’s version of Earth’s future — but hopefully I can get you to take a chance on this fantastic corker of a book.

Shvartsman’s novel is filled with satire, puns, and Easter Eggs of all sorts. Now, satire is hard to pull off. Just ask Jonathan Swift about the backlash from A Modest Proposal or take a hard look past Brad Pitt’s abs to see how no one really understands Fight Club or Starship Troopers. Often, satire confuses and provokes, so I would not be at all surprised if there are low reviews for this book purely for that reason. Case in point — I don’t believe Shvartsman ever uses the word “American” throughout the book when referring to the people of this land from the 21st century, instead opting to go with “South Canadians.” The title of the book itself is basically a poke at those who blindly believe their country is “THE BEST” without even experiencing life outside their own borders.

But sprinkled throughout the satire are countless references to sci-fi standards from the Golden Age authors of Asimov and Heinlein to the hey-day of blockbusters like Star Wars and Star Trek and TV mainstays like Stargate SG-1 and Doctor Who (which may have been my personal favorite reference throughout TBOAPP). Alex Shvartsman has a comprehensive list of the media that he parodied and referenced in the author’s note in the back matter of the book, but I wouldn’t doubt if even he missed one or two — there’s A LOT.

My dad would have loved this book. It feels a lot like what he would have written had he written something. He had a love/hate relationship with puns — he told them and his family hated them. Often he would come up with these puns or word combinations and then spend hours coming up with a joke or scenario to shoehorn it into. For example…

“Let’s say there was a vending machine that sold deodorant, perfume, and cologne. One day the final deodorant was purchased, so they had to put a sign on it, saying “Out of Odor.”

This was just one of the thousands of puns and jokes he attempted on an unwitting family and friends over the years. And if that elicited a slight chuckle, well…The Best of All Possible Planets may very well be the book for you.

In a way, the satire and jokes are merely set dressing. The characters and the plot are well-crafted and work well. We start in the far future where Earth is in need of a protective force shield. The utterly clueless Dhawan and his date, Rada, head off into the galaxy in search of a new one, stopping at various places that alternate between maddening, confusing, and flat-out frustrating. Characters have arcs and there are tons of surprises to be had on this rollicking journey across the stars.

While I read the ebook early thanks to NetGalley, Shvartsman gave me a sneak peak at the audiobook, which features guest appearances by comedian Lewis Black (perhaps best known as Anger from Inside Out) and a wonderful innocent, yet comedic narration from Eli Schiff.

I would heartily recommend The Best of All Possible Planets, especially if you enjoy some intelligent humor with your sci-fi. Thank you to UFO Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Best of All Possible Planets releases on July 28, 2026.

[Juzzzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The description of the book had me optimistic that a fun read was in store, but the execution felt lacking.

The humour just didn't land for me with pop culture references appearing so frequently that they felt forces instead of fun and playful. The nod to the ship of Theseus was a nice touch that quickly lost its appeal when it was spelled out to the reader rather than just being a quick reference.

I'll admit one gripe is fairly niche. The author describes an octopus like creature as having tentacles (squid have tentacles. Octopus have arms)m while the illustration shows the creature having arms. A small inconsistency, but enough to pull me out of the story.

More significantly, the title 'the best of all possible planets' appears 12 times in the first three chapters alone. By the third or fourth time, it stopped feeling like a quirky theme and instead felt tedious.

This book will be enjoyable for some people, but definitely not for me.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The story was interesting and I liked the characters. I absolutely loved the pop culture references, but I am sure I missed a lot of them. And although I don’t usually like silliness, this book is an exception; it is silliness done well, so well in fact, that I stopped making notes about the parts that amused me because there were too many. I thought that the epigraphs at the start of the chapters were, in effect, not silly but very insightful. I also liked the sources at the end of the book, which flagged to me how much serious work went into writing something so much fun to read. The illustrations were excellent. Thank you to NetGalley and UFO Publishing for the advance reader copy.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best sci-fi book I've read since The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. In fact, if you had told me Douglas Adams had written it, I would have absolutely believed you. I'm sure there must be other books out there that people might also compare to that series, but I've never read one before, other than maybe Good Omens.

Also, if you love looking for Easter eggs in books, the author includes four pages at the end of the book for you to see if you caught all of them.

Definitely would recommend this to any sci-fi fan. I really hope this turns out to be a series.

So glad to have won this in a goodreads giveaway! My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

[Foxx Writer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to start by admitting i didn't finish this book. or even get very far in. i really struggled to get into it, and struggled even more to read it. the writing style was just not for me, it read like someone trying to give a dissertation rather than a novel, and the humor in it just wasn't for me. it honestly read like it was someone pretending to be much smarter than they were in order to be seen as better than everyone else. which just kind of grated at me, though i think it would be entertaining for others, i just didn't like the tone, style, or the mood of the book.

thank you to UFO Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC

[David Lahner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Shvartsman was clearly inspired by Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when writing this fun romp through the sci-fi universe.

A small group of humans is left on earth and once the force field, keeping their settlement habitable, starts to fail it falls to three of them to journey through the universe to find a new one. But this turns out not to be that easy...

I had a great time reading this book and recognizing many things that were parodies along the way, Hitchhiker's Guide being only one of them.

If you like funny sci-fi and have a rough knowledge of the different sci-fi franchises, then you'll have a good time with this book.

[Farah G · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small group of people are all that is left of humanity on earth, and they're about to discover that the shields that keep them alive may be disappearing in the very near future.

An unlikely trio of intergalactic travelers flies out in search of urgent aid. Not that help on that scale comes without easily, mind you!

This is an amusing and entertaining novel that gives more than a hat tip to the incomparable Douglas Adams, and may well be enjoyed by many science fiction fans. It gets 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.75, rounded up to 4 stars

I’ll admit it took me a while to settle into this one. But once I did, I really enjoyed this fresh, sci-fi flavored take on Candide. Satire is one of my favorite genres, and this one delivers: I had a blast hunting down the pop culture Easter eggs, especially the meme references. It’s fun, clever, and genuinely funny.

The images scattered throughout were another highlight. I loved those.

One caveat: if you’re not a sci-fi geek, your mileage may vary.

[Stephanie Vance · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious easter egg-filled romp through the best (and worst) of science fiction, fantasy, popular culture--and beyond! From red shirts to "the Janitor" (a.k.a. Dr. Who) to the scourge of AI, Alex satirizes everything and its mother in this delightfully easy-to-read space comic opera. I finished it in one sitting (yes, I stayed up past my bedtime) and found myself snorting out loud multiple times. As a huge fan of Douglas Adams who is wary of making comparisons, I can safely say that Shvartsman's book will amuse even the most discerning Adams-phile!

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. I've not read very many in the sci-fi realm, but this was fantastic. It brought out quite a few smirks, chuckles, and straight-up guffaws despite myself. This story was brilliantly done, and it was a lot of fun discovering all of the Easter eggs, especially when there were a bunch I could actually recognize.

I got this book early by supporting the Kickstarter. The hardback is beautiful.

[Jordan Mayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I waited until I got my kickstarter physical copy to read this one. It was worth the wait. This book was a fun space adventure. It reminded me of a lovechild between Hitchhikers Guide, and Futurama. It was filled to the brim with callbacks and references of science fiction and pop culture. Hunting out the Easter eggs during my read was half the fun. 5 stars!

[HaleyK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is there such thing as cozy sci fi? This book would definitely fall under that category because I find a lot of cozy fantasy to be funny.

However, I believe this book was trying too hard to be too silly and funny.

Others may love the light heartedness but it just wasn't for me

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp through all the SF universes.

[Kim Dunbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was interesting and funny. It is not a genre I have ever read or I would of gave it 5 stars!

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Puns, Easter Eggs, and words you might not be sure of the meaning; look them up and you will discover more levels of enjoyment. I really had fun reading this book and grew to love it.

[Jenifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting book.

[James (Jae) Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were at least 3 or 4 jokes on every page, which had me gaffawing throughout. I also loved the humorous aphorism at the beginning of every chapter. As my daughter would say, "It's a 6-7." Out of 6!