Pangaea

Pangaea #1

by Michael Jan Friedman, Geoffrey Thorne, Kelly Meding

Fourteen top-flight science fiction authors explore a world in which mankind lives and always has lived on a single super-continent!

Genres: Anthologies, Science Fiction

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2015

About the author

Michael Jan Friedman is an author of more than seventy books of fiction and nonfiction, half of which are in the Star Trek universe. Eleven of his titles have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friedman has also written for network and cable television and radio, and scripted nearly 200 comic books, including his original DC superhero series, the Darkstars.

Reviews

[Robert Greenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I have a story in this collection, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the work of my betters and recommend them to you. there are some very fine tales here and as you read through the anthology, you get a really good sense of the world and the changes afoot. if you like alternate earths, this one is for you.

[Richard Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I backed this Kickstarter campaign due to many of the authors involved. It sort of reminded me of a role playing game sourcebook as authors each wrote a story based on a different country and there was some shared back matter. Overall I’d have preferred essays about the world, the ethnic breakdown and how human society was affected by having only a single landmass. It bad but lacking something that made me genuinely interested in the place as a setting

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one up from the kickstarter because the premise sounded cool and I like several of the authors. Taken as a whole this collection was alright. The complaints I have are pretty minor but there just wasn't anything that really made me want to pick up the next volume that they're kickstarting.

My biggest single complaint is that almost every short story in this collection just felt like set up for another, bigger story. While there was a plot thread that was followed through a handful of the tales the lack of all but the barest of background on the setting really made it difficult to care at all about any of the stories.

OK, let me revise my biggest complaint - my biggest complaint is that all the stories feel like they're the tie in fiction of an RPG setting that I haven't read. Neanderthals, and this culture that really believes in contracts, and a bunch of areas that feel really feudal, and there are solar powered cars, etc.

If each of these stories had instead been the opening chapter of a stand alone novel I'd have picked up about a third of the books in the series, but as it stands I can't really recommend this book unless you're particularly fond of one or more of the authors.

[Neil Ottenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pangaea is a great collection of stories speculating what life could be like if Earth was a super continent. There is a mystery that runs through some of the stories starting with the first one. Other stories are essentially independent. One story, "A Dearth of Dragons" by Adam Troy-Castro, is a standalone masterpiece of storytelling. The only story I did not care for was Russ Colchamiro's "The Kites of Alogornae" which was too mean spirited for my taste. The collection ends with Peter David's "The Living and the Dead" which appears to promise more stories in this fascinating world. I would love another journey here.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whata great beginning to what I hope goes on for a long time.
Full of writers I love.
One world.
Wow.
That is a wild idea.

Some of the stories touch or overlap in very interesting ways.
The 2nd book will be very welcome by me...I can't wait to see where this goes.