There Comes a Time

by J.J. Green

Ten science fiction shorts about time travel, cryogenic preservation, life extension, interplanetary exploration, Mars colonies, strange new subterranean life forms and other futuristic, weird and horrific tales. There Comes a Time Travelling a hundred years into the future, Caris finds nature has taken back control of the Earth from humans, who seem to no longer exist. She must find the cause of humankind's demise and avert the course of future history. Tread Lightly Aging war vet Geoff Finch fought to make the world a better place for all forms of life, but finds the long-term effects of victory are not to his taste. Return of the Prodigals Martian colonists return, not as heroes, but as refugees. Breathing Space Nine thousand feet below ground an unknown life form threatens Collins' efforts to retrieve the body of a lost caver. The Last Days of Duane Dayton Convicted murderer Duane Dayton thinks the worst that can happen is that someone deletes the file that holds all that remains of his consciousness. He's wrong. Read these and five other stories, and sign up to J.J. Green's mailing list for a free ecopy of Dawn Falcon, a fantasy collection.

Genres: Science Fiction

169 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 2015

About the author

J.J. Green is a British-Australian science fiction author with a lifelong love of distant landscapes, intriguing cultures and fascinating places. She was born within the sound of the bells of Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside, London, making her a bona fide Cockney, and she lived in Australia, Laos and Taiwan before returning to the UK to settle down in Cambridge.

Green’s novels weave science-based speculation with richly personal stories. Her works explore themes of environmental degradation, political conflict, mythical resonance, human resilience, and the ethics of technology and expansion. Her characters—often strong women—navigate future worlds grounded in both scientific plausibility and mythic imagination.

Sign up to J.J. Green's reader group at jjgreenauthor.com

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not big on short stories, I always come away wanting more...but this is easily the second best single- author selection of short stories I've ever come across (my favourite is still Isobelle Carmody's Green Monkey Dreams).
The title story was my favourite in the collection. Green's writing is just effortlessly evocative, beautiful style. Some concepts I liked more than others, but I enjoyed all of the stories.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a collection of short sci-fi-type stories of various lengths. Each one was, in its way, tied to the book's title: there comes a time. In some cases, that time was an eternal punishment for bad deeds or daring to rebel against the order of things. In others, it was time to move on, move up, leave behind, and change. Quite a few of these stories punched me right square in the feels, which is precisely how I like my fiction. My only minor complaint was that a few stories had some stilted wording, a lot of 'could not' and 'would not' instead of 'couldn't' and 'wouldn't,' etc. Only a few suffered from this, though, and it is easily overlooked.

I would highly recommend this collection of stories to those who aren't afraid of sad or ambiguous endings (though not all are sad and ambiguous) and enjoy a good 'what if' kind of sci-fi.

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

The version published in 2015 had 4 short stories; in 2024 the book/audio has 10 shorts. The audio is AI generated (which means that there is a variety of voices).

Enjoyable collection

[Thomas Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these are evocative of Black Mirror, and I am here for it.

[Sally Hannoush · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is several short stories in one book. Some of them were a little confusing for me and require more story to "get it" but others were very good. I enjoyed the first story, which is named after this whole book. "Tread Lightly" was one of the stories I found needed more story for it to make more sense. "The Last Days of Duane Dayton" was told well and was easy to picture. I like this book because the short stories means you can pick it up and put it down as needed without forgetting what the books about.

[Carly Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting

I really enjoyed the short stories in this collection. Each one is different and gives you something to think about. Looking forward to seeing what else this author has written, hopefully his books are as good as these were.