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Unintended Consequences
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction – Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
While Newton was talking about motion when he developed the above law, it can also be said that for every action or decision there is a consequence: sometimes good, sometimes bad.
Many times consequences can be foreseen and planned for. But there are times they are never seen. It is these unforeseen or Unintended Consequences that can have the biggest impact on individual lives.
An android working to pass as human.
A woman who loses her pre-destined 'soul mate' on world where they were marked at birth.
A Queen who uses magic to make her subjects more cooperative and helpful to each other.
A wife who authorizes a radical treatment for dementia to be performed on her husband.
And 16 more who will learn about the unintended consequences that will affect their lives.
Featuring stories by:
Edward Ahern
Dana Bell
Alexandria Bellefleur
Natasha Cage
Glen Damien Campbell
Michael W. Clark
Chris Dean
Guy Anthony De Marco
V. Hartman DiSanto
J.G. Formato
Lyn Godfrey
Jean Martin
S.D. Matley
Lyn McConchie
Michael J. Picco
Holly Riordan
Catrin Sian Rutland
Andrew M. Seddon
Vaughan Stanger
D.J. Tyrer
While Newton was talking about motion when he developed the above law, it can also be said that for every action or decision there is a consequence: sometimes good, sometimes bad.
Many times consequences can be foreseen and planned for. But there are times they are never seen. It is these unforeseen or Unintended Consequences that can have the biggest impact on individual lives.
An android working to pass as human.
A woman who loses her pre-destined 'soul mate' on world where they were marked at birth.
A Queen who uses magic to make her subjects more cooperative and helpful to each other.
A wife who authorizes a radical treatment for dementia to be performed on her husband.
And 16 more who will learn about the unintended consequences that will affect their lives.
Featuring stories by:
Edward Ahern
Dana Bell
Alexandria Bellefleur
Natasha Cage
Glen Damien Campbell
Michael W. Clark
Chris Dean
Guy Anthony De Marco
V. Hartman DiSanto
J.G. Formato
Lyn Godfrey
Jean Martin
S.D. Matley
Lyn McConchie
Michael J. Picco
Holly Riordan
Catrin Sian Rutland
Andrew M. Seddon
Vaughan Stanger
D.J. Tyrer
166 pages, Paperback
First published July 8, 2016
126 people want to read
About the author
Carol Hightshoe
135 books13 followersA native Texan, Carol found her way to her current home in Colorado by way of a five-year detour in The Nederlands - courtesy of her husband Tim and the US Air Force.
An avid reader at a young age, her strong desire to write came from her love of (her husband calls it obsession with) Star Trek. It was this early love of Star Trek that led her to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres.
Carol's family includes her husband Tim; their son John; and her four-footed canine friend Kans, all of whom somehow manage to tolerate her imaginary friends and worlds.
In addition to her own writing she is an acquisitions editor for Flying Pen Press - also located in Colorado. She also edits and publishes two on-line magazines - The Lorelei Signal and Sorcerous Signals.
A member of:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA)
Electronically Published Internet Connection (EPIC)
Pikes Peak Writers
Broad Universe
Her publication credits include:
Creature Fantastic (Anthology) - DAW Books - 2001
PanGaia Magazine - Summer 2004
Illuminated Manuscripts (Anthology) - Dragon Tooth Fantasy - 2005
Stories of Strength (Anthology) - 2005
Beyond Centauri - Apr & Oct 2006
The Stygian Soul (Anthology) - Double Dragon Publishing - 2006
Baen's Universe - Feb 2007
Tales of the Talisman - March 2007
She is also a contributing author to The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction - Dragon Moon Books - 2007
Her work has been translated into Polish by Nowa Fantastyka.
You are invited to visit her website at www.carolhightshoe.com
Feel free to email her at petaQ@msn.com
"
An avid reader at a young age, her strong desire to write came from her love of (her husband calls it obsession with) Star Trek. It was this early love of Star Trek that led her to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres.
Carol's family includes her husband Tim; their son John; and her four-footed canine friend Kans, all of whom somehow manage to tolerate her imaginary friends and worlds.
In addition to her own writing she is an acquisitions editor for Flying Pen Press - also located in Colorado. She also edits and publishes two on-line magazines - The Lorelei Signal and Sorcerous Signals.
A member of:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA)
Electronically Published Internet Connection (EPIC)
Pikes Peak Writers
Broad Universe
Her publication credits include:
Creature Fantastic (Anthology) - DAW Books - 2001
PanGaia Magazine - Summer 2004
Illuminated Manuscripts (Anthology) - Dragon Tooth Fantasy - 2005
Stories of Strength (Anthology) - 2005
Beyond Centauri - Apr & Oct 2006
The Stygian Soul (Anthology) - Double Dragon Publishing - 2006
Baen's Universe - Feb 2007
Tales of the Talisman - March 2007
She is also a contributing author to The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction - Dragon Moon Books - 2007
Her work has been translated into Polish by Nowa Fantastyka.
You are invited to visit her website at www.carolhightshoe.com
Feel free to email her at petaQ@msn.com
"
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August 27, 2016My friend and prolific Goodreads author Andrew Seddon, who has a short story included in this newly-published anthology from WolfSinger Publications, kindly gifted me with a free copy. The book is a quick read, as evidenced by the fact that I finished it in eight days; the 20 stories are all written in an easily-flowing style, and many are quite short, approaching flash fiction territory. All but two of the stories are published here for the first time. Some of the authors are relatively new to their craft, while others are veterans (a few sentences of biographical information are provided for each one at the end of each selection, as well as a one or two sentence introduction to each piece). A few have been represented in other Wolfsinger anthologies, Misunderstood and Tails From the Front Lines (which happen to be the only two that I've read, though the pages at the end of this book provide blurbs for 11 more, all of which sound interesting). Editor Hightshoe has stories in both of those collections, for instance, and Andrew's work appears in all three. Lyn Godfrey and Edward Ahern were also names I'd encountered before (in Misunderstood).
With the exception of "In the Water" by J. G. Formato, which is a... reinterpretation... of a fantasy trope (or of two or three of them), all of these tales happen to be science fiction. The organizing principle, though, is just that they all deal with some action or decision that has unintended consequences. These may be for good or ill, but since the intended consequences of most actions/decisions are meant to be good, there's a certain ratchet towards the negative in their unintended results. So a hefty majority of these stories are rather dark, tragic and/or dystopian or even apocalyptic. That isn't usually my preferred tone in fiction. But there are also tales that are triumphant in their own way, though characters' triumphs may come at a cost; and many of them are designed (successfully) to be thought-provoking and cautionary. The inherent danger of scientific hubris, of trying to use technology to cut corners in defiance of what's natural, of a lemming-like herd mentality, of basing decisions on greed and vanity, and of acting ignorantly and without due consideration, are all recurrent themes. (The only relatively comic tale is "Ernie the Spacebug Loves Korngeld Beer," by Jean Martin.)
I'd previously beta read Andrew's "Thomas J. Rosenbud's Lifetime Retirement Cruise;" it's well-written, but like many of those here, it's difficult to discuss without serious spoilers. My favorite selection here is the lead story, "Amy" by Lyn McConchie, which uses an android title character/protagonist to explore the basic philosophical question, what does it mean to be human? Other writers, including some of the major names in the SF genre, have plowed this ground before, but never to more powerful effect than here. (This story will be best appreciated by those who experience and get into music fully and deeply; but it spoke to me strongly even despite the fact that I'm tone deaf.) Set in the near-future, Chris Dean's "Vigilance" is a literary punch to the gut, a wake-up call for Americans of all political persuasions in 2016, that gives us a grim depiction of just exactly where our developing lawless, security-obsessed police state is taking us in real life --and it's not a pretty destination, nor one we're going to like. "Cornucopia" by Edward Ahern is thematically similar to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" --and a lot more technologically feasible, in 2016, than Forster's story was in 1908.
Most of the material here is free of bad language, and none of the selections have explicit sex. A few stories here do contain some foul language, including the f-word, and some crude references to sex by characters with a coarse, warped attitude to that whole area of life. This is particularly true of "Cornucopia," Holly Riordan's "Mismatched Marks," and Vaughan Stanger's "Dark They Were and Strange Inside." But the authors' intent there, IMO, isn't to promote that kind of speaking or thinking, but to show it as a part of an unhealthy milieu that we don't (or at least shouldn't) want to let ourselves be caught up in. The only story with really grisly content (and that's not really a spoiler, given the amount of foreshadowing there) is "Passengers" by Glen Damien Campbell; the conclusion there is not for the squeamish. (That's also one of the weaker stories, along with D. J. Tyrer's "Technically.")
"Amy," Natasha Cage's "A Cuter You," and V. Hartman's DiSanto's "Time to Remember," (along with some of the other stories mentioned above) pack the strongest emotional impact and bond the reader the most tightly with the characters. In many cases, often perhaps because of the short length, this area tends to be underdeveloped; even the tragic denouements sometimes left me affected more intellectually than emotionally. That's why I didn't rate the book, overall, with a full five stars, but I felt that it fairly earned four!
With the exception of "In the Water" by J. G. Formato, which is a... reinterpretation... of a fantasy trope (or of two or three of them), all of these tales happen to be science fiction. The organizing principle, though, is just that they all deal with some action or decision that has unintended consequences. These may be for good or ill, but since the intended consequences of most actions/decisions are meant to be good, there's a certain ratchet towards the negative in their unintended results. So a hefty majority of these stories are rather dark, tragic and/or dystopian or even apocalyptic. That isn't usually my preferred tone in fiction. But there are also tales that are triumphant in their own way, though characters' triumphs may come at a cost; and many of them are designed (successfully) to be thought-provoking and cautionary. The inherent danger of scientific hubris, of trying to use technology to cut corners in defiance of what's natural, of a lemming-like herd mentality, of basing decisions on greed and vanity, and of acting ignorantly and without due consideration, are all recurrent themes. (The only relatively comic tale is "Ernie the Spacebug Loves Korngeld Beer," by Jean Martin.)
I'd previously beta read Andrew's "Thomas J. Rosenbud's Lifetime Retirement Cruise;" it's well-written, but like many of those here, it's difficult to discuss without serious spoilers. My favorite selection here is the lead story, "Amy" by Lyn McConchie, which uses an android title character/protagonist to explore the basic philosophical question, what does it mean to be human? Other writers, including some of the major names in the SF genre, have plowed this ground before, but never to more powerful effect than here. (This story will be best appreciated by those who experience and get into music fully and deeply; but it spoke to me strongly even despite the fact that I'm tone deaf.) Set in the near-future, Chris Dean's "Vigilance" is a literary punch to the gut, a wake-up call for Americans of all political persuasions in 2016, that gives us a grim depiction of just exactly where our developing lawless, security-obsessed police state is taking us in real life --and it's not a pretty destination, nor one we're going to like. "Cornucopia" by Edward Ahern is thematically similar to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" --and a lot more technologically feasible, in 2016, than Forster's story was in 1908.
Most of the material here is free of bad language, and none of the selections have explicit sex. A few stories here do contain some foul language, including the f-word, and some crude references to sex by characters with a coarse, warped attitude to that whole area of life. This is particularly true of "Cornucopia," Holly Riordan's "Mismatched Marks," and Vaughan Stanger's "Dark They Were and Strange Inside." But the authors' intent there, IMO, isn't to promote that kind of speaking or thinking, but to show it as a part of an unhealthy milieu that we don't (or at least shouldn't) want to let ourselves be caught up in. The only story with really grisly content (and that's not really a spoiler, given the amount of foreshadowing there) is "Passengers" by Glen Damien Campbell; the conclusion there is not for the squeamish. (That's also one of the weaker stories, along with D. J. Tyrer's "Technically.")
"Amy," Natasha Cage's "A Cuter You," and V. Hartman's DiSanto's "Time to Remember," (along with some of the other stories mentioned above) pack the strongest emotional impact and bond the reader the most tightly with the characters. In many cases, often perhaps because of the short length, this area tends to be underdeveloped; even the tragic denouements sometimes left me affected more intellectually than emotionally. That's why I didn't rate the book, overall, with a full five stars, but I felt that it fairly earned four!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews