Starbound

by S.M. Reine

Her stories... her stars. A fabulous collection of short stories with great female characters (most of them lead-ins to series, so a great way to discover some new reading material!) You'll also find dragons, smugglers, vampires, aliens, a street-ruffian mathematical genius, a princess desperate to save Earth, and more. It’s amazing what’s out there traveling the stars.

PASSAGE OUT (Anthea Sharp): Street rat Diana Smythe has long since given up her hopes of escaping Earth, but that doesn't mean she can't watch the ships fly in and out of the spaceport and dream...

BLOOD TIES (Christine Pope): On the outlaw world of Iradia, Miala Fels and her computer-hacker father discover that taking the wrong commission can have unexpected consequences.

RAISING A DRAGON (Sara Reine): Nobody knows that retired war hero Aja Skytoucher took an alien from an enemy's nest. Hiding on a farm planet with the dragonet, she finds that the hardest part of committing treason may not be the treason itself, but going home again.

EXILE (Nathan Lowell): When her graduation party goes awry, Natalya Regyri finds herself on the run from the most powerful police force in the galaxy.

ARCTURUS 5 (Debra Dunbar): Xella went to Arcturus 5 to mediate a simple trade dispute between the Mol and the Dark, but now she’s not sure she’ll get out alive.

A TALE OF TWO SHIPS, A KarmaCorp Story (Audrey Faye): Two ships crash into an unimportant digger rock. The first carries a newborn baby. The second will rewrite her destiny.

CARL SAGAN'S HUNT FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (C. Gockel): Sometimes intelligent life is right in front of your whiskers.

BLUE LIGHT (Phaedra M. Weldon): You gotta run... before you burn.

TREASON'S COURSE (LJ Cohen): When a soldier is given a covert assignment, she must decide if treason lies in carrying out her orders or disobeying them.

SILENT WITNESS (Colleen Vanderlinden): Aria is about to become the next ruler of a society that is sworn to Witness and record the lives and histories of all beings, but when the planet that has fascinated her since childhood is threatened with annihilation, she must decide between fulfilling her duty or creating her own destiny.

THE FINAL SUNRISE (Shawntelle Madison): A lonely vampire, with no memories of her past, must face looters who have infiltrated her powerful spaceship.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Amazon, Adventure, Space, Steampunk

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2016

About the author

Hi everyone! My name is Sara, and I write urban fantasy and paranormal novels as SM Reine. I collect swords, cat hair, and typewriters (which I do use for writing!). It's a good day when those three things have nothing to do with each other.

If you would like to know the instant my next book is available, you should enlist in my Army of Evil! We have a wicked cool secret handshake, but you'll have to sign up to learn it. ;) Check it out -- http://smarturl.it/armyofevil

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starbound: Eleven Tales of Interstellar Adventure by S.M. Reine and other great writers has some great stories! This is really a good collection of star or outer world stories by the best! It was hard to pick a favorite but I think it would be ARCTURUS 5. All of them were good. No 3 stars or less in the bunch. Good book!

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology mostly consists of prequel novellas. I enjoyed both Raising a Dragoon and The Final Sunrise, but I doubt I will be continuing any of the stories beyond this point - with the exception of Debra Dunbar's contribution. Although her prequel novella didn't immediately catch my interest, the first full length novel in the Two Souls series certainly did.

I give this anthology 3.5 stars

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a fan of different author shorts, but for the most part these were ok. Read the book because of Nathan Lowell's story Exile and loved it. That story was worth 6 stars.

[Moira · Rating 4 out of 5]

16.5.2017 - 4,5*

Některé antologie jsou skvělé.
Některé hrozné.
A u některých si myslíte, že víte, co čekat, a pak vás srazí na zadek. :)

Passage Out (Victoria Eternal) - Anthea Sharp - 3* - (2.2.2017)
Je to zajímavá ochutnávka příběhu, který teprve přijde. Má to rychlý spád, dobře se to čte a má to sympatické charaktery. Jen je to hodně krátké, doslova je to lákačka na navazující příběh a je to dost idealizované a jednoduché.
Plus - stále se nedokážu prokousat ideou "viktoriánské sci-fi". :D

Blood Ties (Gaian Consortium, #1.5) - Christine Pope - 4* - (16.5.2017)
Mám ráda příběhy o programátorech a hackerech. Prostě je to tak. A tento příběh, přestože je jen ochutnávka toho, co autorka teprve chystá v budoucnosti, byl dost dobře napsaný, aby mě navnadil a já se na pokračování určitě podívám. :)

Raising a Dragon - Sara Reine - 4* (2.2.2017)
Jednodušší příběh, ale roztomilý. Roztomile roztomilý, i když trochu smutný. Bavila jsem se více, než jsem čekala, a tahle povídka mě doutila uvažovat, jestli se za antologií neskrývá více, než by se zdálo.

Exile (Smuggler's Tales from The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper, #0.5) - Nathan Lowell - 4* (2.2.2017)
Napětí. Tahle povídka uměla vykreslit atmosféru a vygradovat napětí dokonale. Postavy byly chytré a měly hloubku, opravdu se dostaly pod kůži a autor do nich dokázal vdechnout život. Nemluvě o tom, jak roztomile příběh začal. Plus - svět vypadá zajímavě a já bych se ráda dozvěděla více.

Arcturus 5 (20 Sectors, #0.5) - Debra Dunbar - 5* (2.2.2017)
Nestává se mi moc často, že dávám povídkám pět. Ale tohle byla chvíle (myšleno povídka, kterou jsem popravdě četla jako třetí), kdy mě to srazilo na zadek.
Zajímavý hlavní charakter.
Chytré. Nedávno jsem se dívala na britského Sherlocka a Xela mi jej trochu připomínala, svými dedukcemi, hehe.
A svět? Rasy, politika, vesmír. Oh my, chci vědět všechno, Dunbar nám dala ochutnávku, a, well, v tomhle případě mi ani lehce nevadí, že je to lákačka. Jelikož to vidím jako vstupenku do úžasného světa a skvělé série.

A Tale of Two Ships (The Fixers of KarmaCorp, #0.5) - 4,5* (2.2.2017)
Je to smutný příběh, ale má to příslib. Není to sice poprvé, kdy jsem narazila na nápad nadaných lidí zpívajícím svým lodím (je to potřetí, abych by přesná), a doufám, že to bude zase o trochu jiné a že mě to chytí a pobaví. Povídka byla zpracovaná dobře, i když byla spíše jen úvod, a trochu překotný. Ale byly tam momenty, které mě zarazily, které mě do sebe vtáhly, a to je jediné, co se nakonec počítá. :)

Carl Sagan's hunt for Intelligent life in the Universe (Archangel Project, #0.5) - C. Gockel - 4,5* (16.5.2017)
Roztomilý příběh, opravdu se mi líbil.
Příběh o lidech, kteří dosáhli na hvězdy, žijí ve vesmíru... a nejsou tam sami.
A zástupce mimozemské inteligence je tak zatraceně roztomilý. :))

Blue Light (The Hepburn Secrets, #0.5) - Phaedra M. Weldon - 4,5* (16.5.2017)
Wow. Miluju detektivky a špionáž atd.
A tohle začíná zatraceně dobře. :) Škoda jen, že autorka, přestože psala, že kniha vyjde na podzim 2016, s projektem ještě nepohla. :(

Treason's Course (Halcyone Space, #0.5) - LJ Cohen - 3,5* (16.5.2017)
Je to slabší, co se týče této jedné povídky, ale jako začátek jiného, většího příběhu je to skvělé a ponouká číst dále.

Silent Witness (Exile, #0.5) - Colleen Vanderlinden - 4* (16.5.2017)
Trošičku samoúčelné, ale stejně milý příběh.
O rase Svědků, kteří stojí při všech důležitých událosech, pamatují, ale nezasahují... a o jedné Svědkyni, která něco takového nemůže snést.

The Final Sunrise - Shawntelle Madison - 4* (13.5.2017)
Upírka, která se probudila ve vesmírné lodi a snaží se zjistit, co se stalo? Kdyby to nebylo tak krátké a, well, bez pořádné pointy, jen pro ten nápad bych tomu bez zaváhání dala 5*.
A zajímalo by mě, jestli to patří do nějaké série. Tohle na antologiích nenávidím. Nikdy to neupřesní, pche.

[Jim Kratzok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit and miss

Some of these stories were great and some might appeal to other people - but didn't work for me. I loved the Nathan Lowell story, but I've been a fan since his days releasing audio books on podiobooks.com. Some of the other ones tempted me to explore their authors' other work. But that's the idea behind these compilations.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only Read:
Christine Pope - The Gaian Consortium 1.5 - BLOOD TIES
On the outlaw world of Iradia, Miala Fels and her computer-hacker father discover that taking the wrong commission can have unexpected consequences.

[Jeanne M. Jacquet · Rating 5 out of 5]

To the stars.

I really enjoyed the stories and now am reading several new authors. A book like this is a great way to investigate new authors and genres.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like most of these.

[Gerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this collection up when it was free on Amazon.
This is not so much a collection of short stories, I would say, as it is an introduction to several different SF series, with two exceptions.
As is the case with most collections I liked some of the stories more than others, but overall it was interesting to see different writing styles at work.

Anthea Sharp, Passage Out
A steampunk short story which reads well enough but suffers, in my personal opinion, from special girl syndrome.

Christine Pope, Blood Ties
Noir style story with a few tired concepts, like sexual assault, set in a promising world building.

Sara Reine, Raising a Dragon
Space Dragons!
Sara combines Fantasy and SF not always logical in this story but delivers a charming, fast read. Entertaining and self enclosed this is one of the entries not bound to a larger series.

Nathan Lowell, Exile
This feels more like a story fragment or a teaser for the series it belongs to. There's not much of a story building here and it ends on a complete open note.

Debra Dunbar, Arcturus 5
A bit confusing, I didn’t fully grasp the concept behind the main characters race.
The story itself though provided an entertaining read with some twist and an interesting “bad boy” character. There’s a bit of a romance undercurrent going on (with the tired old “soulmates” concept) that I felt didn’t readily belong to the story, but which I guess is part of the main series concept.

Audrey Faye, A Tale of Two Ships
This one felt heavily tied to the series it belongs too.
More than a teaser, less than a self-contained short story it seems mostly to serve as a character introduction.

C. Gockel, Carl Sagan’s Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe
Ends on a open, somewhat confusing note and probably needs to be read with the series it belongs to. Liked the writing and the way it was set-up though. Going from fun, to bitter-sweet, to quite dark, I think this is the most ambitious story in the collection.

Phaedra M. Weldon, Blue Light
Didn’t really get into this, I thought there was too much explaining going on and not enough story. The overall concept to it reminded me of an 80s TV-Series.

LJ Cohen, Treason’s Course
Militaristic SF, which although it reads like a self-enclosed story probably sets up the backdrop for the series it belongs to which is set several decades later.

Colleen Vanderlinden, Silent Witness
Girl on a mission comes along a ragtag band of adventurers.
Space opera with a superheroes bend this seems to be aimed at younger readers and such who are young at heart. Lovely storytelling with an YA-ish feel this was my favourite from the collection.
An author I need to keep in mind.

Shawntelle Madison, The Final Sunrise
A vampires in space short story. The set-up left me a bit confused but the story was fun to read and it isn’t part of a series, yet it left me wondering about missing story background.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mainly read it for the "character introduction" short story by Nathan Lowell for the new Ishmael Wang series...

[Jan Niblock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starborn
I have not read all of the stories in this anthology but not because I didn’t like them but because I have not had time to read them. I intend to read every one of them and considering the ones I have read; they will all be just as awesome as those I have finished. If you like SciFi, you must read this series.

Passage Out
Anthea Sharp
A very interesting story that keeps you engaged until the end. It shows that not all who are homeless are useless. The sense of loyalty shows through this story in a way that makes you really fall in love with Diana.

Blood Ties
Christine Pope
This story had me guessing until the very end. You did not know who was evil and who was good. It is told from the point of view of the main character who is often left out of the story but has to see it from another room. I truly enjoyed it.

Raising a Dragon
Sara Reine
If you ever read and enjoyed the Pern series, you will love this story. How to raise a dragon is one of those stories that grabs you and holds you until the end. The relationship between Aja and her mother is very interesting which makes you wonder how come it was that way. The ending is heartwarming.

Exile
Nathan Lowell
From the beginning of the story, you are left wondering what is going on. Why the rush to leave? Why the secrecy? It is truly a story which is one that keeps you holding your breath.

Carl Sagan’s Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe
C. Grockel
This is the wonderful backstory to Archangel Down, If you liked this, you must read Archangel Down. It fills in a lot of the things you might wonder about. love the idea that there is a different thought or idea of life and the ending is perfect but I will not give any spoilers. Hsissh is a very interesting being and you cannot help failing in love with him.

[Dave Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies are hard to rate and this is no exception. I purchased it for "Exile" a story by Nathan Lowell to keep up with the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper universe in which I am invested but that story while adequate seemed a bit too predictable for me and did not live up to his longer book standard, all of which I reccommend. Only one of these shorts I probably should have quit early and some were adequate time killers but not something I really wanted to sit with a glass of wine and savor before bedtime; although others might as there was a considerable variety of subgenres. But the great thing about these collections are finding a few new authors to look into further and that's exactly how this was presented. The first find was "Acturus Five" by Debra Dunbar about a pair of Galactic dispute mediators. There was excellent SF imagination behind this story with new ideas, to include invented species I found fascinating. There was some fine subtle humor here too. The second was "Silent Witness" by Coleen Vanderlinden which was full tilt old time save the planet (THE planet) space opera maybe a little over the top but I see potential here for a fun odd-ball buddy crew ride. The third was "The Final Sunrise" by Shawntelle Madison a very odd vampire in space story that I would like to read more of. This is far from the standard spooky caped or sparkly vampire, neither of which I care much for as I am a Bram Stoker man. I do hope she writes more of this character. I was going to rate this entire book a 3 star, but as this book fulfills it's stated mission as meeting new authors in short pieces I will give it 4 stars, just barely.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to several authors. You are sure to like some.

The book is what the description says, a collection of prequels with female main characters. I found it because one of my current favorite writers (Lowell) is a contributor. I have already gotten books by two more of the writers. I expect to follow up on a couple others.
A couple of the stories were too juvenile for me - I'm not a thirteen year old girl.
A couple others just did not appeal to me. But none were so long that I felt cheated of time.

[Cmoore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh oh, another collection that I did not finish. No that sounds wrong, I couldn't finish it, and yes I tried. So I'm reviewing it on the grounds of just one story. But I just have to say Nathan Lowell's story Exile is fantastic and apparently it's setting up his new spinoff series in the Solar Clipper universe. You won't have to read this, of course, to enjoy the book when it is released but if you're anything like me you absolutely need to read it 'cause Nathan wrote it, for sure!

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book

Each story was a page turner and it did what it set out to do. Introduce the reader to new authors and series. I found several that I'm going to start following. The stories were interesting and intriguing. Recommended for anyone who likes sci-fi even if you're not looking for a new series to follow.

[Norma Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

All are a great ride!

It took me a while to finish this, as I read each story I had to stop and check out what else was available by the author. Many authors who write a wonderful book are unable to master a short story, but that's not the case here. First time I've read an anthology where ALL the stories were completed, yet left me wanting more.

[Jason Kivela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the mood to re-read the Talent series by McCaffrey, but thought a bunch of short stories about kick ass women in space would do. Not sure if it quenched that thirst or kindled that flame more, but it's a great bunch I'd tales. Originally bought it for the Nathan Lowell story, but they were all good.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some times short stories are just what you need to read while you wait for the doctor or between classes at school. Each of these stories featured a female lead (though not all the females were human) and almost every single one left me wanting more stories in the worlds that were created.

[Teresa Carrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of the stories were good. The others I didn't finish. I will want to reread Exile by Nathan Lowell, and possibly the Audrey Faye KarmaCorps story as well.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked 5 out of 11 of these stories which is good.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great assortment of stories!

Of course I didn't enjoy them all equally, but they were all interesting. I'm looking forward to checking out some of these author's series!

[Cass Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you don't find a new author to add to your list, you probably don't enjoy this type of story.. Each one was well written and left me wanting more.

[Kathy Treadway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aliens!

These were a great bunch of short stories. Thought they would be longer. Some of them kind of ended to abruptly for me. Overall

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good selection of stories

Good selection of stories. My favorite was by Nathan Lowell. Big fan of his Solar Clipper series, and this story did not disappoint.

[Katharina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really picked it up for Nathan Lowell's story, wasn't too fussed about the rest unfortunately.

[Betsy]

I got this short story collection only to get one particular short story by Nathan Lowell. But I don't like short stories in general and none of the others interested me.

[L Bongiorno · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I really liked the first story by Audrey Faye... enough that I am seeking out the rest of the series:) 4 stars