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Captain Bartholomew Quasar's Starfaring Adventures #1
B is for Broken
Broken people, broken promises, broken dreams and broken objects are just some of the ways these 26 fantastic stories interpret the theme of ‘Broken’. From science fiction to fantasy, horror to superheroes the stories within these pages cover a vast swath of the genres under the speculative fiction umbrella.
Contributing writers are:
~ Brittany Warman ~ Milo James Fowler ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Sara Cleto ~ Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Megan Arkenberg ~ Gary B. Phillips ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ Jonathan C. Parrish ~ Simon Kewin ~ Beth Cato ~ Cory Cone ~ Cindy James ~ Alexis A. Hunter ~ Michael M. Jones ~ Steve Bornstein ~ BD Wilson ~ Michael Kellar ~ Damien Angelica Walters ~ Marge Simon ~ Michael Fosburg ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Pete Aldin ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Lilah Wild ~ KV Taylor ~
Contributing writers are:
~ Brittany Warman ~ Milo James Fowler ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Sara Cleto ~ Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ Megan Arkenberg ~ Gary B. Phillips ~ Alexandra Seidel ~ Jonathan C. Parrish ~ Simon Kewin ~ Beth Cato ~ Cory Cone ~ Cindy James ~ Alexis A. Hunter ~ Michael M. Jones ~ Steve Bornstein ~ BD Wilson ~ Michael Kellar ~ Damien Angelica Walters ~ Marge Simon ~ Michael Fosburg ~ Suzanne van Rooyen ~ L.S. Johnson ~ Pete Aldin ~ Gabrielle Harbowy ~ Lilah Wild ~ KV Taylor ~
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2015
11 people are currently reading
424 people want to read
About the author
Rhonda Parrish
109 books244 followersRhonda Parrish has the attention span of a magpie. Not only can she not focus on a single project at a time, but she also fails at sticking to one genre or even one type of writing (she does manage to stay true to one hockey team, though – Let’s go Oilers!). Perhaps best known for her work as an anthology editor – the Ottawa Review of Books called her “Canada’s best-known and most prolific speculative fiction anthologist” – Rhonda also works as a short story writer, novelist, game writer and a poet. She has been honoured to be included in a handful of ‘Best of’ anthologies, earn a coveted starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and be shortlisted for several awards including the Rhysling Award, the Aurora Award, the Dwarf Stars Award and Alberta Book Publishing Awards.
Most of her work falls under the speculative fiction umbrella but she has also penned paranormal non-fiction and non-speculative work.
In an effort to impose some order in her chaos, these days most of her short fiction and poetry is published directly through her Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/RhondaParrish .
More information about her, updates and calls for submission are posted on her website http://www.rhondaparrish.com/home/.
Most of her work falls under the speculative fiction umbrella but she has also penned paranormal non-fiction and non-speculative work.
In an effort to impose some order in her chaos, these days most of her short fiction and poetry is published directly through her Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/RhondaParrish .
More information about her, updates and calls for submission are posted on her website http://www.rhondaparrish.com/home/.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 22, 2015
This book is an anthology of fantasy stories based on the theme of Broken. The presentation of the stories is a little different; although the individual authors are credited at the beginning of their story, the story titles only appear at the end, the idea evidently being that the reader can guess which part of the story relates to the Broken theme. There are 26 stories and the titles run alphabetically, which makes the guessing a bit easier.
I am giving this book five stars, not because every story appealed to me, but because of the diversity of material. I read types of stories I would have normally not have done, and I really enjoyed the different stylistic approaches to the theme. There are stories of epic fantasy (pretty impressive, giving the short story format), science fiction, romance, fairy tales, and philosophy, and sometimes several of these combined.
I can't write too much about the stories I liked best, since I feel I would be ruining the fun of other readers trying to guess the titles, but Trekkies must read the letter B, and my favorites included letters C and J.
I am giving this book five stars, not because every story appealed to me, but because of the diversity of material. I read types of stories I would have normally not have done, and I really enjoyed the different stylistic approaches to the theme. There are stories of epic fantasy (pretty impressive, giving the short story format), science fiction, romance, fairy tales, and philosophy, and sometimes several of these combined.
I can't write too much about the stories I liked best, since I feel I would be ruining the fun of other readers trying to guess the titles, but Trekkies must read the letter B, and my favorites included letters C and J.
November 22, 2016
This was an interesting collection. I understood the theme for most of the stories, though some I had trouble finding the Broken idea. There was one story that I couldn't finish unfortunately. I could not follow what was going on and could not stay in the story. But the rest of them were interesting to read. I enjoyed the collection and may be looking into the first collection soon.
March 16, 2016
B is for Broken is the second installment in Rhonda Parrish's alphabet collection. While the theme of the stories is broader in scope than the first book (A is for Apocalypse), they all have a haunting and darkly delicious quality. A satisfying read...
August 29, 2016
I enjoyed B is for Broken more than I did A is for Apocalypse (though not as much as C is for Chimera or Sirens. This, despite the rarity of an anthology having a story that I forced myself through. (And it took a couple of letters for the building blocks by the doll to click for me...nice touch.)
"A is for Aurora" (Brittany Warman) was okay. A nice variation of Princess Aurora of Sleeping Beauty fame, but not really anything memorable. (Of course, it was barely two pages.)
"B is for Babies" (Milo James Fowler) was clever and different.
"C is for Change" (C.S. MacCath) was long (33 pages) and drawn-out. And yet, there was a good setting and just enough flashes of brilliance to keep me from saying "Smeg it" and moving on to the next tale.
"D is for Diamonds" (Sara Cleto) was good, a modern fairy-tale in the classic mode. A little disturbing, in the way Gwyn was treated, but utterly believable.
"E is for Escape" (Samantha Kymmell-Harvey) was a very good story, with the requisite Twilight Zone-style twist ending.
"F is for Founder" (Megan Arkenberg) was pretty good.
"G is for Glass" (Gary B. Phillips) started off similiarly to Sara Cleto's entry, but got weird and disturbing at the end, and I didn't enjoy it as much as the other.
"H is for Hanging Man" (Alexandra Seidel) was good, if confusing.
"I is for Isolate" (Jonathan C. Parrish) I didn't really care for.
"J is for Junker Joe" (Simon Kewin) was one of the better stories.
"K is for King Oberon" (Beth Cato) was also incredibly good. I liked not only the premise of the story, but greatly enjoyed the potential.
"L is for Leak" (Cory Cone) is, I think, one of my favorites in this book. While the premise is gory, it had a surprisingly happy ending.
"M is for Mothers" (Cindy James) was so incredibly mundane.
"N is for Negatives" (Alexis A. Hunter) was another rather good story that I greatly enjoyed.
"O is for Oneiroi" (Michael M. Jones) took a couple of pages for me to work out what was going on, but once I did, I enjoyed it even more (which is to say, a lot). The ending was a nightmare, though.
"P is for Programming" (Steve Bornstein) was a great robo-twist on the Grim Reaper theme.
"Q is for Quest" (BD Wilson) made me realize something. BD Wilson's contributions to these anthologies aren't short stories; they're excerpts from a larger story. Once I figured that out, it made me look at these from a different perspective. The stories are still good, but now I want to read the whole thing and not in bits and pieces.
"R is for Remnants" (Michael Keller) was just there, and unfortunately wasn't at all memorable.
"S is for Soliloquy" (Damien Angelica Walters) was very good. Mainly because it's supers. But still very good.
"T is for Twins" (Marge Simon) was also very good.
"U is for Unrequited" (Suzanne van Rooyen), not to sound repetitive, was another very good story, with a disturbing ending. Feels like the anthology is really on a roll, here.
"V is for Vendémiaire" (L.S. Johnson) was another story that hit it out of the park. (I had to look up " vendémiaire", but once I did it was incredibly fitting.) It was one of the longer stories in the book, but it used every page to good effect.
"W is for Woman" (Pete Aldin) was good, but felt incomplete...more like a prologue.
"X is for Xylophage" (Gabrielle Harbowy) was exceptional.
"Y is for Yesterday" (Lilah Wild) was yet another very good story. And I promise I'm not cut-and-pasting these reviews, but all of the last few stories were well above average.
"Z is for Zipper" (KV Taylor) was another goodie, if a bit psycho-slasherish.
All in all, although B is for Broken got off to a (mostly) slow start, it really got on a roll with about the last half of the stories.
"A is for Aurora" (Brittany Warman) was okay. A nice variation of Princess Aurora of Sleeping Beauty fame, but not really anything memorable. (Of course, it was barely two pages.)
"B is for Babies" (Milo James Fowler) was clever and different.
"C is for Change" (C.S. MacCath) was long (33 pages) and drawn-out. And yet, there was a good setting and just enough flashes of brilliance to keep me from saying "Smeg it" and moving on to the next tale.
"D is for Diamonds" (Sara Cleto) was good, a modern fairy-tale in the classic mode. A little disturbing, in the way Gwyn was treated, but utterly believable.
"E is for Escape" (Samantha Kymmell-Harvey) was a very good story, with the requisite Twilight Zone-style twist ending.
"F is for Founder" (Megan Arkenberg) was pretty good.
"G is for Glass" (Gary B. Phillips) started off similiarly to Sara Cleto's entry, but got weird and disturbing at the end, and I didn't enjoy it as much as the other.
"H is for Hanging Man" (Alexandra Seidel) was good, if confusing.
"I is for Isolate" (Jonathan C. Parrish) I didn't really care for.
"J is for Junker Joe" (Simon Kewin) was one of the better stories.
"K is for King Oberon" (Beth Cato) was also incredibly good. I liked not only the premise of the story, but greatly enjoyed the potential.
"L is for Leak" (Cory Cone) is, I think, one of my favorites in this book. While the premise is gory, it had a surprisingly happy ending.
"M is for Mothers" (Cindy James) was so incredibly mundane.
"N is for Negatives" (Alexis A. Hunter) was another rather good story that I greatly enjoyed.
"O is for Oneiroi" (Michael M. Jones) took a couple of pages for me to work out what was going on, but once I did, I enjoyed it even more (which is to say, a lot). The ending was a nightmare, though.
"P is for Programming" (Steve Bornstein) was a great robo-twist on the Grim Reaper theme.
"Q is for Quest" (BD Wilson) made me realize something. BD Wilson's contributions to these anthologies aren't short stories; they're excerpts from a larger story. Once I figured that out, it made me look at these from a different perspective. The stories are still good, but now I want to read the whole thing and not in bits and pieces.
"R is for Remnants" (Michael Keller) was just there, and unfortunately wasn't at all memorable.
"S is for Soliloquy" (Damien Angelica Walters) was very good. Mainly because it's supers. But still very good.
"T is for Twins" (Marge Simon) was also very good.
"U is for Unrequited" (Suzanne van Rooyen), not to sound repetitive, was another very good story, with a disturbing ending. Feels like the anthology is really on a roll, here.
"V is for Vendémiaire" (L.S. Johnson) was another story that hit it out of the park. (I had to look up " vendémiaire", but once I did it was incredibly fitting.) It was one of the longer stories in the book, but it used every page to good effect.
"W is for Woman" (Pete Aldin) was good, but felt incomplete...more like a prologue.
"X is for Xylophage" (Gabrielle Harbowy) was exceptional.
"Y is for Yesterday" (Lilah Wild) was yet another very good story. And I promise I'm not cut-and-pasting these reviews, but all of the last few stories were well above average.
"Z is for Zipper" (KV Taylor) was another goodie, if a bit psycho-slasherish.
All in all, although B is for Broken got off to a (mostly) slow start, it really got on a roll with about the last half of the stories.
March 4, 2016
NOTE: I have a story in this anthology, so my review may be a LITTLE biased, :).
26 authors tell 26 tales around the theme of brokenness, having randomly received a letter of the alphabet to "write to". A hugely diverse range of inventive tales, some beautiful, some dark.
Picks of the bunch for me: S and U.
Loving this series.
26 authors tell 26 tales around the theme of brokenness, having randomly received a letter of the alphabet to "write to". A hugely diverse range of inventive tales, some beautiful, some dark.
Picks of the bunch for me: S and U.
Loving this series.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews