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Beyond the Stars: Space Opera Anthologies #3
Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge
A dozen science fiction writers, including New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, offer remarkable tales in this third collection of space opera stories presented under the Beyond the Stars banner. BEYOND THE STARS: At Galaxy's Edge contains twelve stories showcasing strange new worlds, alien life forms, and deep space battles. Come with us to where the legends are born... at galaxy's edge.
Contents:
* The Stories Herein... (Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge) (2016) • essay by editor
* Foreword (Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge) (2016) • essay by Jennifer Foehner Wells
* The Good Food (2016) / short story by Michael Ezell
* The Epsilon Directive (2016) / short fiction by David Bruns
* Just an Old-Fashioned Lust Story (2016) / short fiction by Christopher J. Valin
* The Quarium Wars (2016) / short fiction by E. E. Giorgi
* Re/Genesis [Aurora Rhapsody] (2016) / short story by G. S. Jennsen
* Second Place (2016) / short fiction by Nick Webb
* Last Pursuit (2016) / short fiction by Piers Platt
* Relic Hunter (2016) / short fiction by Chris Fox
* Procurement (2016) / short fiction by Adam Quinn
* One More Star, Shining [Victoria Eternal] (2016) / short fiction by Anthea Sharp
* Tabitha's Vacation (2016) / short fiction by Michael Anderle
* Elvis Has Left the Building (2016) / short fiction by Caroline A. Gill
.
Contents:
* The Stories Herein... (Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge) (2016) • essay by editor
* Foreword (Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge) (2016) • essay by Jennifer Foehner Wells
* The Good Food (2016) / short story by Michael Ezell
* The Epsilon Directive (2016) / short fiction by David Bruns
* Just an Old-Fashioned Lust Story (2016) / short fiction by Christopher J. Valin
* The Quarium Wars (2016) / short fiction by E. E. Giorgi
* Re/Genesis [Aurora Rhapsody] (2016) / short story by G. S. Jennsen
* Second Place (2016) / short fiction by Nick Webb
* Last Pursuit (2016) / short fiction by Piers Platt
* Relic Hunter (2016) / short fiction by Chris Fox
* Procurement (2016) / short fiction by Adam Quinn
* One More Star, Shining [Victoria Eternal] (2016) / short fiction by Anthea Sharp
* Tabitha's Vacation (2016) / short fiction by Michael Anderle
* Elvis Has Left the Building (2016) / short fiction by Caroline A. Gill
.
351 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 20, 2016
103 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Patrice Fitzgerald
40 books66 followersPatrice Fitzgerald is an indie author, publisher, attorney, and intergalactic singer of songs. She has been publishing herself and others since 2011 and is the force behind the BEYOND THE STARS series of space opera anthologies. Patrice is thrilled to introduce Captain Wu and her STARSHIP NAMELESS crew in her most recent trilogy, written with the inimitable Jack Lyster.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 15, 2016
AVID READERS CAN LIVE A THOUSAND LIVES. Not just on Earth, but on strange new worlds with alien life forms, or on spaceships sailing through the cosmos, or as brilliant AIs who think, “we are people, too.”
“Illuminating our humanity in the face of new extraordinary challenges is the space opera writer’s job,” says Jennifer Foehner Wells in her Foreword to “At Galaxy’s Edge.” This anthology, the third under the “Beyond the Stars” banner, delivers twelve original stories by bestselling authors who give us “a dozen more lives within tiny little universes that will exist only for you for a very short time.”
A short time is all I need, when chased by bounty hunters or scary, hungry aliens, or picking up the pieces after losing loved ones in a terrorist bombing light years away. Then again, I’m in no hurry to bid farewell to an injured dog saved from the rubble of a ruined planet, or the captain who fights city hall and wins. Some characters are so endearing, we hate to close the book. Some stories are so heartbreaking, we have to remind ourselves it was “only” a fiction.
With such diverse themes and skilled writers, any one story in “At Galaxy’s Edge” is worth the price of admission for the entire dozen.
Picking a favorite is tough, but a “Star Trek” vibe of fun and triumph has me wanting more of Adam Quinn’s“Procurement.” The tale takes place in the same universe as his “Drive Maker Trilogy,” series set in the aftermath of the cataclysmic Order War. Captain Jareyn Brook of the Interstellar Emergency Service is like a Nine-One-One responder in outer space. Imagine your ambulance (airship, in this case) getting totaled through no fault of your own—and just try explaining that to the higher-ups. “As far as I can tell,” Brook laments, “bureaucracy is this planet’s official sport.”
I love Brook’s semantic trickery. “Should I say mistakes were made and therefore the ship is not recoverable, or the ship is not recoverable because mistakes were made?”
(The correct answer is neither, according to Brook’s blue-skinned political liaison officer.)
When the bureaucrats decide to pull the plug on Brook’s popular, philanthropic Emergency Service, she has to fight not just for her own livelihood but the whole I.E.S. Who’s sabotaging her, and why, and how will Brook prevail?
The dialogue is fun, and so is the heroine. She risks torture, death, and imprisonment in her sneaky quest to procure another airship. Quinn’s author page assures us that Brook flies again in “Flashpoint,” Book One of the Drive Maker Trilogy. JP, Arriet, Charles Griffin, and Roth will be back. We’ll also meet Taylor Ghatzi, who decides to retire from galactic politics and dedicate her life to the Emergency Service—until a deadly terror attack strikes her home world.
While Quinn’s heroes are off fighting the Order Wars, an entire planet is laid waste in E.E. Giorgi’s “The Quarium Wars.” I about had a heart attack over the opening line: Yulia was dead.
Oh no! Giorgi had better not mean Yulia, the brilliant hacker in her novel “Gene Cards.” I read on with great trepidation.
Captain Weber slogs through ashes, dead bodies, and flies, in search of survivors. “Yulia wasn’t his planet, the dead weren’t his people,” he thinks. “So why was he here?”
Ah. Yulia is a planet. Or was. With nineteen pulse propulsion bombs and a newly discovered element, Quarium, Yaxee invaders have annihilated a whole planet in less than forty-eight hours.
The young captain is one of the best in the Yaxee army, “bound to quickly climb to high military ranks, just like his father”—one of the Royal Council members who’d voted for Yulia’s destruction.
Yaxee fighters descend on the ruined surface of Yulia in search of more Quarium. How does one deserter, no longer “Captain” but still a Weber, escape a villain named Zika (love it!) and all his crew? The story unfolds with all the precision, poetic descriptions, and taut prose that are Giorgi’s trademark.
Happily, we have not seen the last of the resourceful ex-Captain and a dog named Argo. Giorgi plans to feature them in a new space opera series, starting with Book One, “Anarchy.”
Dog lovers will also appreciate Michael Ezell’s “The Good Food.” Roy is a Belgian Malinois who can talk. Sort of. Roy has a more sophisticated vocabulary than Scooby Doo, but can’t put sentences together. He’s surprisingly good at thinking and reasoning, even though he seems to think about food more than anything else. Roy and his human are dispatched to a planet being terraformed. No galaxy edgecomplex life forms exist here, but something has been poaching from the garden. Whatever killed off the plants hadn’t harmed any of the insects, but Jensen is a little nervous walking around this alien land with just Roy and a sassy AI named Moira calling him a pussy. He has one job to do. Land, observe, take notes, report to “the eggheads who sent him.” Simple right? R-i-i-i-g-g-g-h-t.
The ending took me by surprise. It appears to be the worst possible fate for Jensen, for Roy, and for planet Earth—but this is fiction, and there might be sequels, and the next surprise could be a pleasant one. I hope. I hope.
Where Ezell’s story ends, “The Epsilon Directive” by David Bruns begins. Dark stuff, people. Tom grew up hearing about great fleet battles and how his siblings fought with honor. None of them returned, but “war was the family business, a proud tradition of military service that went back generations.” The admiral, Tom’s father, marches him to the armory to enlist on his eighteenth birthday. The last thing Tom wants to do is kill anyone, alien or human, but his dad gets him drafted into a death squad tasked with hunting down every last Scythian who may have survived the long, bloody war that killed so many of Tom’s people.
“That was my life,” Tom relates, “closet conscientious objector turned draftee with a front row seat to some the most brutal slaughter of aliens you could ever imagine.”
The Scythians look similar to humans, aside from their ability to grow awesome, scary-looking scales that keep bullets from penetrating. “After the fleet battles broke the back of the Scythian forces, the enemy scattered like rats all over the known galaxy,” Tom says. “We were there to find the survivors and kill them. Simple.”
Or not. Conscientious Objectors harbor the last Scythians in safe houses. Their former foes are friends, no longer violent or dangerous. When Tom comes face to face with an alien, he doesn’t see an enemy. How can he spare the alien’s life when his superior, Gunnery Sergeant Madeline Jolly, will stop at nothing to complete the mission as directed?
Tension, conflict, and mortal peril take a different turn in Christopher J. Valin’s “Just an Old-Fashioned Lust Story.” A bounty hunter, the best in the business, is hired to track down a trophy wife who ran off with her rich husband’s money. This is an action-packed adventure, with a scheming opportunistic hero, and plot twists that even the most seasoned hunter didn’t see coming.
The hero of G.S. Jennsen’s “Re/Genesis,” Eren asi-Idoni, is sent to destroy something so extraordinary, I couldn’t help but hope he would fail. The mammoth Phoenix Gateway was built to last, and no conventional weapon an anarchist might procure was capable of destroying it. One obstacle after another threatens to keep Eren from completing this suicide mission. Without giving away the ending, it’s safe to say that fans of this fantastical, far-future world will see more of it in “Aurora Resonant,” Book Three of the “Aurora Rhapsody” series.
If you need cheering up after some of the darker tales, the best antidote is Nick Webb’s “Second Place.” Frank Bickham is known as the second man to set foot on Mars. “The second.” The goddamned second. Now he’s “a nameless retiree in some nameless godforsaken suburb of Dallas.” When people start colonizing Mars, Frank sees a new chance to be the first at something. “First man to die on Mars” becomes his mission. In a sort of reversal of Murphy’s Law, however, everything that should go wrong goes right, making this a kinder and gentler version of the usual suicide mission.
If space travel sounds fun and easy, we get a more realistic view of it in Piers Platt’s “Last Pursuit.” Desh, a professional assassin, “loathed interstellar travel, from the queasy feeling of the faster-than-light accelerations, to the interminable waiting aboard the transports.” Spaceliners have exercise rooms and entertainment centers, “but a week or more of traveling through the vacuum of deep space drove most passengers slightly insane regardless of the activities available.”
Desh is on his final mission. “Forty-nine kills completed,” he thinks. “Just one more, and then you’re out.” Jinx! He forgot to knock on wood three times.
“This short story inspired a much longer story,” Platt writes in an author Q&A that accompanies all twelve tales, “so if you liked the concept of the Guild and their Fifty for Fifty assassins, you can jump back into this world in the Janus Group series.”
In Chris Fox’s “Relic Hunter,” a rookie archeologist goes to a bar in hopes of finding a spaceship crew to take him to the Elderi Spire, where a great treasure has been hidden by an unbreachable security barrier. The savvy bartender and the assorted aliens are dangerously weird, with a “Star Wars” cantina vibe. The stakes are high, the dangers many, as this rollicking adventure unfolds.
Anthea Sharp’s “One More Star, Shining” shows another downside of space travel. Liza Roth, an asteroid miner, has the rare ability to play classic works of the ancient masters on an old-Earth piano, but a broken heart has silenced her. She’s just found love again with Selina, a fellow miner. When terrorists strike a popular vacation spot, everyone in the bar watches the news screen for a list of the casualties. It brings to mind real-life scenes like the death toll of the Titanic, with names being added to a list, one by one. This story is fraught with tension, horror, and a slim ray of hope.
Michael Anderle’s “Tabitha’s Vacation” brings paranormal creatures to the territory of science fiction. “I’ve really enjoyed the vampire/military sci-fi/space opera genres,” Anderle writes. “I figured if I was going to write something, I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too.”
The truth about vampires, according to Anderle, is that a man once came across a crashed alien ship and was enhanced to help the aliens fight a war, but he stumbled away, confused and in pain, and incompletely modified. The ship left without him, but he became the progenitor of twelve centuries of changed humans, aka, vampires. Finally, the last Matriarch, Bethany Ann, aka “The Queen Bitch,” trains a team of kick-ass rangers to clean up the vampire and werewolf mess. Tabitha is a ranger on a mission to take down a vampire, which involves fighting aliens in a bar, exploiting the Etheric connection to achieve “high Vampiric” in a ship called the Achoynix, and gravite rail gun technology in her pistols.
The story is laced with action, profanity, snark, and complications that only a ranger like Tabitha could handle.
I was expecting an Elvis sighting in Caroline A. Gill’s “Elvis Has Left the Building,” but something else, something sinister, transpires. An AI named Rora is the only navigator expected to stay awake for the eleven years it will take to guide a colony ship to a far-off planet. The human crew members sleep in shifts, but there may not be enough of them to keep the shifts short enough. What happens when a human has been awake too long in the dark silence of deep space? Is one AI equipped to control the insanity?
For all the haunting and horrifying scenes in this anthology, there’s humor, fortitude, and courage. One of my favorite lines: “the first old Italian chef who came up with pizza would have killed himself if he saw this in the future”—the so-called pizza served on space liners.
Beer and pizza, here on Earth, sounds pretty good right now. When I look up at the stars tonight, I will think about whoever may up there, and hoping they get something better than airplane food as they go speeding through the universe. I'm also thinking of twelve authors who take me there without my leaving the comfy chair. Take me away!
“Illuminating our humanity in the face of new extraordinary challenges is the space opera writer’s job,” says Jennifer Foehner Wells in her Foreword to “At Galaxy’s Edge.” This anthology, the third under the “Beyond the Stars” banner, delivers twelve original stories by bestselling authors who give us “a dozen more lives within tiny little universes that will exist only for you for a very short time.”
A short time is all I need, when chased by bounty hunters or scary, hungry aliens, or picking up the pieces after losing loved ones in a terrorist bombing light years away. Then again, I’m in no hurry to bid farewell to an injured dog saved from the rubble of a ruined planet, or the captain who fights city hall and wins. Some characters are so endearing, we hate to close the book. Some stories are so heartbreaking, we have to remind ourselves it was “only” a fiction.
With such diverse themes and skilled writers, any one story in “At Galaxy’s Edge” is worth the price of admission for the entire dozen.
Picking a favorite is tough, but a “Star Trek” vibe of fun and triumph has me wanting more of Adam Quinn’s“Procurement.” The tale takes place in the same universe as his “Drive Maker Trilogy,” series set in the aftermath of the cataclysmic Order War. Captain Jareyn Brook of the Interstellar Emergency Service is like a Nine-One-One responder in outer space. Imagine your ambulance (airship, in this case) getting totaled through no fault of your own—and just try explaining that to the higher-ups. “As far as I can tell,” Brook laments, “bureaucracy is this planet’s official sport.”
I love Brook’s semantic trickery. “Should I say mistakes were made and therefore the ship is not recoverable, or the ship is not recoverable because mistakes were made?”
(The correct answer is neither, according to Brook’s blue-skinned political liaison officer.)
When the bureaucrats decide to pull the plug on Brook’s popular, philanthropic Emergency Service, she has to fight not just for her own livelihood but the whole I.E.S. Who’s sabotaging her, and why, and how will Brook prevail?
The dialogue is fun, and so is the heroine. She risks torture, death, and imprisonment in her sneaky quest to procure another airship. Quinn’s author page assures us that Brook flies again in “Flashpoint,” Book One of the Drive Maker Trilogy. JP, Arriet, Charles Griffin, and Roth will be back. We’ll also meet Taylor Ghatzi, who decides to retire from galactic politics and dedicate her life to the Emergency Service—until a deadly terror attack strikes her home world.
While Quinn’s heroes are off fighting the Order Wars, an entire planet is laid waste in E.E. Giorgi’s “The Quarium Wars.” I about had a heart attack over the opening line: Yulia was dead.
Oh no! Giorgi had better not mean Yulia, the brilliant hacker in her novel “Gene Cards.” I read on with great trepidation.
Captain Weber slogs through ashes, dead bodies, and flies, in search of survivors. “Yulia wasn’t his planet, the dead weren’t his people,” he thinks. “So why was he here?”
Ah. Yulia is a planet. Or was. With nineteen pulse propulsion bombs and a newly discovered element, Quarium, Yaxee invaders have annihilated a whole planet in less than forty-eight hours.
The young captain is one of the best in the Yaxee army, “bound to quickly climb to high military ranks, just like his father”—one of the Royal Council members who’d voted for Yulia’s destruction.
Yaxee fighters descend on the ruined surface of Yulia in search of more Quarium. How does one deserter, no longer “Captain” but still a Weber, escape a villain named Zika (love it!) and all his crew? The story unfolds with all the precision, poetic descriptions, and taut prose that are Giorgi’s trademark.
Happily, we have not seen the last of the resourceful ex-Captain and a dog named Argo. Giorgi plans to feature them in a new space opera series, starting with Book One, “Anarchy.”
Dog lovers will also appreciate Michael Ezell’s “The Good Food.” Roy is a Belgian Malinois who can talk. Sort of. Roy has a more sophisticated vocabulary than Scooby Doo, but can’t put sentences together. He’s surprisingly good at thinking and reasoning, even though he seems to think about food more than anything else. Roy and his human are dispatched to a planet being terraformed. No galaxy edgecomplex life forms exist here, but something has been poaching from the garden. Whatever killed off the plants hadn’t harmed any of the insects, but Jensen is a little nervous walking around this alien land with just Roy and a sassy AI named Moira calling him a pussy. He has one job to do. Land, observe, take notes, report to “the eggheads who sent him.” Simple right? R-i-i-i-g-g-g-h-t.
The ending took me by surprise. It appears to be the worst possible fate for Jensen, for Roy, and for planet Earth—but this is fiction, and there might be sequels, and the next surprise could be a pleasant one. I hope. I hope.
Where Ezell’s story ends, “The Epsilon Directive” by David Bruns begins. Dark stuff, people. Tom grew up hearing about great fleet battles and how his siblings fought with honor. None of them returned, but “war was the family business, a proud tradition of military service that went back generations.” The admiral, Tom’s father, marches him to the armory to enlist on his eighteenth birthday. The last thing Tom wants to do is kill anyone, alien or human, but his dad gets him drafted into a death squad tasked with hunting down every last Scythian who may have survived the long, bloody war that killed so many of Tom’s people.
“That was my life,” Tom relates, “closet conscientious objector turned draftee with a front row seat to some the most brutal slaughter of aliens you could ever imagine.”
The Scythians look similar to humans, aside from their ability to grow awesome, scary-looking scales that keep bullets from penetrating. “After the fleet battles broke the back of the Scythian forces, the enemy scattered like rats all over the known galaxy,” Tom says. “We were there to find the survivors and kill them. Simple.”
Or not. Conscientious Objectors harbor the last Scythians in safe houses. Their former foes are friends, no longer violent or dangerous. When Tom comes face to face with an alien, he doesn’t see an enemy. How can he spare the alien’s life when his superior, Gunnery Sergeant Madeline Jolly, will stop at nothing to complete the mission as directed?
Tension, conflict, and mortal peril take a different turn in Christopher J. Valin’s “Just an Old-Fashioned Lust Story.” A bounty hunter, the best in the business, is hired to track down a trophy wife who ran off with her rich husband’s money. This is an action-packed adventure, with a scheming opportunistic hero, and plot twists that even the most seasoned hunter didn’t see coming.
The hero of G.S. Jennsen’s “Re/Genesis,” Eren asi-Idoni, is sent to destroy something so extraordinary, I couldn’t help but hope he would fail. The mammoth Phoenix Gateway was built to last, and no conventional weapon an anarchist might procure was capable of destroying it. One obstacle after another threatens to keep Eren from completing this suicide mission. Without giving away the ending, it’s safe to say that fans of this fantastical, far-future world will see more of it in “Aurora Resonant,” Book Three of the “Aurora Rhapsody” series.
If you need cheering up after some of the darker tales, the best antidote is Nick Webb’s “Second Place.” Frank Bickham is known as the second man to set foot on Mars. “The second.” The goddamned second. Now he’s “a nameless retiree in some nameless godforsaken suburb of Dallas.” When people start colonizing Mars, Frank sees a new chance to be the first at something. “First man to die on Mars” becomes his mission. In a sort of reversal of Murphy’s Law, however, everything that should go wrong goes right, making this a kinder and gentler version of the usual suicide mission.
If space travel sounds fun and easy, we get a more realistic view of it in Piers Platt’s “Last Pursuit.” Desh, a professional assassin, “loathed interstellar travel, from the queasy feeling of the faster-than-light accelerations, to the interminable waiting aboard the transports.” Spaceliners have exercise rooms and entertainment centers, “but a week or more of traveling through the vacuum of deep space drove most passengers slightly insane regardless of the activities available.”
Desh is on his final mission. “Forty-nine kills completed,” he thinks. “Just one more, and then you’re out.” Jinx! He forgot to knock on wood three times.
“This short story inspired a much longer story,” Platt writes in an author Q&A that accompanies all twelve tales, “so if you liked the concept of the Guild and their Fifty for Fifty assassins, you can jump back into this world in the Janus Group series.”
In Chris Fox’s “Relic Hunter,” a rookie archeologist goes to a bar in hopes of finding a spaceship crew to take him to the Elderi Spire, where a great treasure has been hidden by an unbreachable security barrier. The savvy bartender and the assorted aliens are dangerously weird, with a “Star Wars” cantina vibe. The stakes are high, the dangers many, as this rollicking adventure unfolds.
Anthea Sharp’s “One More Star, Shining” shows another downside of space travel. Liza Roth, an asteroid miner, has the rare ability to play classic works of the ancient masters on an old-Earth piano, but a broken heart has silenced her. She’s just found love again with Selina, a fellow miner. When terrorists strike a popular vacation spot, everyone in the bar watches the news screen for a list of the casualties. It brings to mind real-life scenes like the death toll of the Titanic, with names being added to a list, one by one. This story is fraught with tension, horror, and a slim ray of hope.
Michael Anderle’s “Tabitha’s Vacation” brings paranormal creatures to the territory of science fiction. “I’ve really enjoyed the vampire/military sci-fi/space opera genres,” Anderle writes. “I figured if I was going to write something, I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too.”
The truth about vampires, according to Anderle, is that a man once came across a crashed alien ship and was enhanced to help the aliens fight a war, but he stumbled away, confused and in pain, and incompletely modified. The ship left without him, but he became the progenitor of twelve centuries of changed humans, aka, vampires. Finally, the last Matriarch, Bethany Ann, aka “The Queen Bitch,” trains a team of kick-ass rangers to clean up the vampire and werewolf mess. Tabitha is a ranger on a mission to take down a vampire, which involves fighting aliens in a bar, exploiting the Etheric connection to achieve “high Vampiric” in a ship called the Achoynix, and gravite rail gun technology in her pistols.
The story is laced with action, profanity, snark, and complications that only a ranger like Tabitha could handle.
I was expecting an Elvis sighting in Caroline A. Gill’s “Elvis Has Left the Building,” but something else, something sinister, transpires. An AI named Rora is the only navigator expected to stay awake for the eleven years it will take to guide a colony ship to a far-off planet. The human crew members sleep in shifts, but there may not be enough of them to keep the shifts short enough. What happens when a human has been awake too long in the dark silence of deep space? Is one AI equipped to control the insanity?
For all the haunting and horrifying scenes in this anthology, there’s humor, fortitude, and courage. One of my favorite lines: “the first old Italian chef who came up with pizza would have killed himself if he saw this in the future”—the so-called pizza served on space liners.
Beer and pizza, here on Earth, sounds pretty good right now. When I look up at the stars tonight, I will think about whoever may up there, and hoping they get something better than airplane food as they go speeding through the universe. I'm also thinking of twelve authors who take me there without my leaving the comfy chair. Take me away!
January 16, 2024
A mixed bunch - as with all anthologies containing the work of more than one author, there are some stories that really gel with the reader and some that do less so well, yet another reader may love them.
There were some in here that were really good, in fact most of them were.
There were some in here that were really good, in fact most of them were.
May 25, 2017
The next volume in the 'Beyond The Stars' Space Opera anthology series, and just like the previous volumes before it, 'At Galaxy's Edge' is another great selection of short stories, written by 12 fantastic authors, most of which I've not heard of before, but will now keep a watch out for.
The Q&A with the authors after each story is very enjoyable, each giving you an insight into what inspired them to write the story, their personality, and where to find more of their work.
For an anthology, there is always the possibility of story or two in the collection not quite hitting the spot, not quite at the same level as the rest. For me, there's no such worry here. Each of the stories, although very different from one another - in setting, pace, thematically etc - are all very well written, and really feel at home together in this collection.
I really enjoyed the stories. Fun to read with each able to be read in bite size chunks, therefore had the feeling of getting drawn into story more. Some I wished could have gone on a bit longer as I felt very invested in the characters and worlds within the stories, leaving me with a desire for more.
Overall, third time is definitely a charm as 'At Galaxy's Edge' is another great read from a great collection of writers in the 'Beyond The Stars' series. Whether you like Sci-fi or not, this is a great anthology of unique stories that will leave you wanting more.
The Q&A with the authors after each story is very enjoyable, each giving you an insight into what inspired them to write the story, their personality, and where to find more of their work.
For an anthology, there is always the possibility of story or two in the collection not quite hitting the spot, not quite at the same level as the rest. For me, there's no such worry here. Each of the stories, although very different from one another - in setting, pace, thematically etc - are all very well written, and really feel at home together in this collection.
I really enjoyed the stories. Fun to read with each able to be read in bite size chunks, therefore had the feeling of getting drawn into story more. Some I wished could have gone on a bit longer as I felt very invested in the characters and worlds within the stories, leaving me with a desire for more.
Overall, third time is definitely a charm as 'At Galaxy's Edge' is another great read from a great collection of writers in the 'Beyond The Stars' series. Whether you like Sci-fi or not, this is a great anthology of unique stories that will leave you wanting more.
January 29, 2020
This anthology has been a very pleasant surprise and has brought some interesting new authors to my attention. I grabbed this while randomly browsing and I'm really glad I did. Apart from a couple of the longer ones, the stories on here were excellent, and very easy to get lost in. If this anthology is indicative of the current state of indie sci-fi authors we are very lucky indeed. I will definitely be seeking out the work of a few of the authors whose work is featured here, especially David Bruns, Christopher J Valin and E E Giorgi whose stories were excellent. Hell, they were all great. I'll also be looking out for the other anthologies in this Beyond The Stars series.
August 18, 2019
A very good and well edited anthology.
All stories were enjoyable and of good quality, some better than others , the book starts strong ,than Hold well and finished strong again.
I liked that at the beginning of the book we can find an introduction for each one of the stories to prepare the mood for our reading , each work is followed by few words on the author or a short interview.
To review an anthology is always difficult and I don't usually rate them more than 4 stars,but for the reasons above and the price I gave an extra star.
Well done.
All stories were enjoyable and of good quality, some better than others , the book starts strong ,than Hold well and finished strong again.
I liked that at the beginning of the book we can find an introduction for each one of the stories to prepare the mood for our reading , each work is followed by few words on the author or a short interview.
To review an anthology is always difficult and I don't usually rate them more than 4 stars,but for the reasons above and the price I gave an extra star.
Well done.
July 20, 2022
As anthologies go, this one wasn't bad, but neither did it have much to praise. The tales were decently writtern, if lacking in arc. And while some were fresh in voice, the accompanying authorial bio-comments suggested that they might not – in many cases – represent what one would experience if reading series by these same people.
February 7, 2020
Overall was disappointed
I have it a 3 because the book by Chris Fox really caught my interest and I got more of his books, and of course Michael Anderle is always entertaining to read.
I have it a 3 because the book by Chris Fox really caught my interest and I got more of his books, and of course Michael Anderle is always entertaining to read.
May 15, 2019
Good mix modern SF stories
No traditional big eyes monsters in these stories Mixture of
Esp. And similar not suitab!e for YA reader ship. ENTERTZINING
No traditional big eyes monsters in these stories Mixture of
Esp. And similar not suitab!e for YA reader ship. ENTERTZINING
August 28, 2019
Great Entertainment
All the stories were well written. Some were not my cup of tea, some were obscure, and some were absolutely excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
All the stories were well written. Some were not my cup of tea, some were obscure, and some were absolutely excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
July 30, 2022
Dop0æ
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2025
VERDICT: 3.29 suns. A mix of good and not-quite-so-good tales (for me, tales ranged from 1.9 to 3.8 suns). Enough variety here to please most SF readers.
August 25, 2016
This anthology is everything I would expect and more. Each selection not only fits into the genre of “space opera,” but also correlates to the theme of persons and/or places that lie on the fringes of the mainstream. At Galaxy's Edge is thereby quite a fitting title. Among its twelve stories, nearly every space opera reader will find more than a few books that suit their tastes, and possibly great new leads on new material.
As an anthology, I can't use my standard form for reviewing this book. So the following is a brief overview of my favorites (in order of printing). An excerpt containing a full list and descriptions can be found on Amazon.
I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Good Food – Michael Azell
Far removed from the glory days of past, decorated marine Jensen has been dispatched on a less than exciting mission: investigate an unexplained loss of vegetation on a seed planet. All he had to do was voyage, collect samples, and return. At least that was the plan. Certainly a boring mission considering the planet's only life is the plants and small bugs which had been placed there. But, a motion alarm and a jittery K-9 would suggest otherwise.
The Epsilon Directive – David Bruns
The United Earth Federation had won the war against an alien race known as the Scythians, but the danger of resurgence dictated that winning was not nearly enough. Hence why the Epsilon Units, also known as “Eraser Squads,” were directed to continue their methodical tracking and extermination of the remaining Scythians. One member of such a squad is Tom, who is nearly a conscientious objector but regardless enlisted for the sake of family traditions. When he finds his current target being shielded by humans, his notions of right and wrong rise to the surface when he makes decisions which contradict his unit's mandate.
Second Place – Nick Webb
It has been many years since the first men set foot on the surface of Mars. In the intervening time, many others have followed in the effort to colonize Mars, and Frank Bickham's bitterness about being the second to do so has fully matured. That is, if such pettiness could ever be described as mature. But there is still one first on Mars that hasn't been achieved. Frank intends to be the first to die there. Stage an act of heroism and die in a blaze of glory is a rather simple plan. But Frank finds that the will to execute can be complicated in ways he never imagined.
Procurement – Adam Quinn
Very few people appreciate the complexities of bureaucratic process. Then again, most only see intentional obfuscation and hindrances, while their inexperience does not value the possibilities of exploiting such complexities. The Meltian Republic is dominated by this process, and is where Captain Brook operates the Interstellar Emergency Service. An agency dedicated to exactly what the name would imply. That was, until she destroyed her ship in the latest mission. Brook must now navigate the red tape and save her agency before a conspiracy shuts her down.
Elvis Has Left the Building – Caroline A. Gill
To complete the journey to a distant planet, starship Epsilon Pi-15 has been staffed with five pilots. Each pilot is to complete a 5 year shift before waking their cryofrozen relief pilots. With only an Adjunct Human Interface for companion, the pilots become threatened by the insanity brought on by isolation. Multi-Global Corporate thought this plan was sound, or at least worth the gamble to save share prices. Their reliance on human input was there greatest mistake, and the robot Rora knew it. When one captain plunges over the edge of reality and begins the destruction which would compromise the mission, Rora decides upon a course of action which is barely permissible by her key protocol: do no harm to humans.
As an anthology, I can't use my standard form for reviewing this book. So the following is a brief overview of my favorites (in order of printing). An excerpt containing a full list and descriptions can be found on Amazon.
I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Good Food – Michael Azell
Far removed from the glory days of past, decorated marine Jensen has been dispatched on a less than exciting mission: investigate an unexplained loss of vegetation on a seed planet. All he had to do was voyage, collect samples, and return. At least that was the plan. Certainly a boring mission considering the planet's only life is the plants and small bugs which had been placed there. But, a motion alarm and a jittery K-9 would suggest otherwise.
The Epsilon Directive – David Bruns
The United Earth Federation had won the war against an alien race known as the Scythians, but the danger of resurgence dictated that winning was not nearly enough. Hence why the Epsilon Units, also known as “Eraser Squads,” were directed to continue their methodical tracking and extermination of the remaining Scythians. One member of such a squad is Tom, who is nearly a conscientious objector but regardless enlisted for the sake of family traditions. When he finds his current target being shielded by humans, his notions of right and wrong rise to the surface when he makes decisions which contradict his unit's mandate.
Second Place – Nick Webb
It has been many years since the first men set foot on the surface of Mars. In the intervening time, many others have followed in the effort to colonize Mars, and Frank Bickham's bitterness about being the second to do so has fully matured. That is, if such pettiness could ever be described as mature. But there is still one first on Mars that hasn't been achieved. Frank intends to be the first to die there. Stage an act of heroism and die in a blaze of glory is a rather simple plan. But Frank finds that the will to execute can be complicated in ways he never imagined.
Procurement – Adam Quinn
Very few people appreciate the complexities of bureaucratic process. Then again, most only see intentional obfuscation and hindrances, while their inexperience does not value the possibilities of exploiting such complexities. The Meltian Republic is dominated by this process, and is where Captain Brook operates the Interstellar Emergency Service. An agency dedicated to exactly what the name would imply. That was, until she destroyed her ship in the latest mission. Brook must now navigate the red tape and save her agency before a conspiracy shuts her down.
Elvis Has Left the Building – Caroline A. Gill
To complete the journey to a distant planet, starship Epsilon Pi-15 has been staffed with five pilots. Each pilot is to complete a 5 year shift before waking their cryofrozen relief pilots. With only an Adjunct Human Interface for companion, the pilots become threatened by the insanity brought on by isolation. Multi-Global Corporate thought this plan was sound, or at least worth the gamble to save share prices. Their reliance on human input was there greatest mistake, and the robot Rora knew it. When one captain plunges over the edge of reality and begins the destruction which would compromise the mission, Rora decides upon a course of action which is barely permissible by her key protocol: do no harm to humans.
September 15, 2016
Last year, I stumbled across the splendid Dark Beyond The Stars anthology - in fact you can read my review of that smashing collection here - and I wasn't aware at all that there were more anthologies following in its wake until I saw Jennifer Foehner Wells tweeting about a discount weekend. Duly spotted, duly bought.
There are two successor anthologies to that collection - Beyond The Stars: A Planet Too Far (lined up on my Kindle for future) and this one, At Galaxy's Edge, which puts the focus squarely on space opera.
One notable difference from the off is that previous collection was an all-woman anthology, bar editor David Greenwood, whereas this collection is a mix of men and women, each spinning their story universes.
This collection has a heady brew of tales too - straight out of the gate we have a tale that author of A Boy And His Dog, Harlan Ellison, would approve of, though this time about a marine and his modified K9 unit. The pair are assigned to investigate a terraforming project gone wrong. It seems routine, it seems like little more than an excuse for the dog to frolic among the new green - but they're very wrong, as things take a turn for the worse. The Good Food is by Michael Ezell, and I really like his style - he'll definitely go on the list for authors to keep an eye on.
That set the tone nicely for a good selection of tales. David Bruns' The Epsilon Directive is very much a story asking where you draw the line in following orders, and where personal choice has to come to the fore. Chris Fox conjures up a fun expedition into space archaeology with the added threat of arms being pulled off.
There are a couple of disappointments in here - I found Just An Old-Fashioned Lust Story by Christopher J Valin to strain the suspension of disbelief with its tale of bounty hunters killing one another under the manipulation of a three-breasted beauty, while Piers Platt's Last Pursuit was going just fine until it ended all too soon.
There were three real stars in the collection for me, though - Adam Quinn's Procurement packs so much world building into its short tale of an emergency service for the stars struggling through the perils of bureaucracy that it feels like a whole movie packed into its length. Brilliant.
Nick Webb's Second Place could sit down and share a beer with the stories of Ray Bradbury, as it captures the home-spun drama of the second man to set foot on Mars, who hopes to become the first man to die there. The character work is fantastic, and it just feels like a wonderful, comfortable walk alongside the story's protagonist, as he sets about a landmark few would want to achieve.
But perhaps the story I salute the most is Anthea Sharp's One More Star, Shining. Inspired by the real world horrors of the Pulse shooting in Florida, she creates a universe of miners and those trying to outrun their dreams, all caught up in a moment of horror when an attack shatters the mining community. What makes the story so worthwhile is how it attempts to approach such horror, and examine the ways in which people deal with it. There is the horror of hope as you wish the pain would visit someone else, someone you don't know. There is the aftermath, and the attempt to understand how you can go on, and what is important. And for that, crafted in a short tale in the stars, Anthea Sharp deserves much credit.
Overall, the collection doesn't feel quite as strong as Dark Beyond The Stars - but that was a high bar to set, and it's not far behind. Series editor Patrice Fitzgerald is to be commended.
There are two successor anthologies to that collection - Beyond The Stars: A Planet Too Far (lined up on my Kindle for future) and this one, At Galaxy's Edge, which puts the focus squarely on space opera.
One notable difference from the off is that previous collection was an all-woman anthology, bar editor David Greenwood, whereas this collection is a mix of men and women, each spinning their story universes.
This collection has a heady brew of tales too - straight out of the gate we have a tale that author of A Boy And His Dog, Harlan Ellison, would approve of, though this time about a marine and his modified K9 unit. The pair are assigned to investigate a terraforming project gone wrong. It seems routine, it seems like little more than an excuse for the dog to frolic among the new green - but they're very wrong, as things take a turn for the worse. The Good Food is by Michael Ezell, and I really like his style - he'll definitely go on the list for authors to keep an eye on.
That set the tone nicely for a good selection of tales. David Bruns' The Epsilon Directive is very much a story asking where you draw the line in following orders, and where personal choice has to come to the fore. Chris Fox conjures up a fun expedition into space archaeology with the added threat of arms being pulled off.
There are a couple of disappointments in here - I found Just An Old-Fashioned Lust Story by Christopher J Valin to strain the suspension of disbelief with its tale of bounty hunters killing one another under the manipulation of a three-breasted beauty, while Piers Platt's Last Pursuit was going just fine until it ended all too soon.
There were three real stars in the collection for me, though - Adam Quinn's Procurement packs so much world building into its short tale of an emergency service for the stars struggling through the perils of bureaucracy that it feels like a whole movie packed into its length. Brilliant.
Nick Webb's Second Place could sit down and share a beer with the stories of Ray Bradbury, as it captures the home-spun drama of the second man to set foot on Mars, who hopes to become the first man to die there. The character work is fantastic, and it just feels like a wonderful, comfortable walk alongside the story's protagonist, as he sets about a landmark few would want to achieve.
But perhaps the story I salute the most is Anthea Sharp's One More Star, Shining. Inspired by the real world horrors of the Pulse shooting in Florida, she creates a universe of miners and those trying to outrun their dreams, all caught up in a moment of horror when an attack shatters the mining community. What makes the story so worthwhile is how it attempts to approach such horror, and examine the ways in which people deal with it. There is the horror of hope as you wish the pain would visit someone else, someone you don't know. There is the aftermath, and the attempt to understand how you can go on, and what is important. And for that, crafted in a short tale in the stars, Anthea Sharp deserves much credit.
Overall, the collection doesn't feel quite as strong as Dark Beyond The Stars - but that was a high bar to set, and it's not far behind. Series editor Patrice Fitzgerald is to be commended.
September 27, 2016
Very different!
The stories here show imagination, and creativity. Some were not my cup of tea, but all were well written. There were several that I'd love to see expanded into a larger venue!
The stories here show imagination, and creativity. Some were not my cup of tea, but all were well written. There were several that I'd love to see expanded into a larger venue!
August 30, 2016
My literary taste usually runs to non-fiction and history, but this anthology is a nice change and may prompt me to read more sci-fi. Let me comment on three of its stories.
Michael Ezell's "The Good Food" blurs any distinctions between animals, vegetables and minerals. Jensen, the protagonist soldier-scientist and his dog, Roy, are sent on a mission to assess earlier experiments on a distant planet. What used to be called suspended animation is now called stasis and allows the crew to endure long missions through space. Upon arrival, they venture forth from the craft as much to avoid the crabby AI systems as to conduct their assessments. Quite an adventure ensues with some really interesting threats. I'm hoping Ezell will come back with a sequel to this one.
David Bruns' "The Epsilon Directive" is a tale that I found morally troubling. "Merely following orders" didn't work for ex-Nazis at Nuremberg post WWII and ought not work now or in the future. A squad of Marines are dispatched to find and kill remaining Scythians post-war. It's an interesting tale, well worth your time. I'd be interested in a JAG's opinion as to whether the climax of the story is a violation of the Laws of Armed Conflict.
E.E. Giorgi's "The Quarium Wars" is a post-conflict story of a soldier sent to a destroyed planet to search for survivors. He encounters a small but well-equipped group of the enemy who are searching for any remaining Quarium, the element of the title. Quarium's destructive power makes current nuclear weapons seem no more powerful than black powder. The lone soldier is pursued by the bad guys as he evades being killed as he makes his way back to his ship to escape the planet. Author Giorgi is altogether adept at turning a fast paced, suspenseful sequence into prose. Highly recommend this story.
Michael Ezell's "The Good Food" blurs any distinctions between animals, vegetables and minerals. Jensen, the protagonist soldier-scientist and his dog, Roy, are sent on a mission to assess earlier experiments on a distant planet. What used to be called suspended animation is now called stasis and allows the crew to endure long missions through space. Upon arrival, they venture forth from the craft as much to avoid the crabby AI systems as to conduct their assessments. Quite an adventure ensues with some really interesting threats. I'm hoping Ezell will come back with a sequel to this one.
David Bruns' "The Epsilon Directive" is a tale that I found morally troubling. "Merely following orders" didn't work for ex-Nazis at Nuremberg post WWII and ought not work now or in the future. A squad of Marines are dispatched to find and kill remaining Scythians post-war. It's an interesting tale, well worth your time. I'd be interested in a JAG's opinion as to whether the climax of the story is a violation of the Laws of Armed Conflict.
E.E. Giorgi's "The Quarium Wars" is a post-conflict story of a soldier sent to a destroyed planet to search for survivors. He encounters a small but well-equipped group of the enemy who are searching for any remaining Quarium, the element of the title. Quarium's destructive power makes current nuclear weapons seem no more powerful than black powder. The lone soldier is pursued by the bad guys as he evades being killed as he makes his way back to his ship to escape the planet. Author Giorgi is altogether adept at turning a fast paced, suspenseful sequence into prose. Highly recommend this story.
August 24, 2016
This is a great collection of short stories by various authors. It is so fun to see how different authors take an idea and run with it and the various stories can be so vastly different and intriguing as well. These were a lot of fun to read and my favorites were the stories by David Bruns (who has become one of my favorite authors the last few years, if you haven't checked out his other books do yourself a favor and try them out, they are amazing!), Adam Quinn, and Caroline Gill.
Honestly I enjoyed all 12 of the stories, but those three were my favorites. I love these compilation books, they are fun to read and keep you guessing. With the stories being short it is easy to read an entire story in one sitting and then come back to it and start a new story later. Each of these are well written and have their own unique voice that will leave you wanting more. I see that there are more books books in this series so I"m excited to see what comes next in the books to come.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return I was asked to give an honest and unbiased review. I'm glad I got the chance to read and review this book, it was a lot of fun and I can't recommend it enough.
5 Stars.
Honestly I enjoyed all 12 of the stories, but those three were my favorites. I love these compilation books, they are fun to read and keep you guessing. With the stories being short it is easy to read an entire story in one sitting and then come back to it and start a new story later. Each of these are well written and have their own unique voice that will leave you wanting more. I see that there are more books books in this series so I"m excited to see what comes next in the books to come.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return I was asked to give an honest and unbiased review. I'm glad I got the chance to read and review this book, it was a lot of fun and I can't recommend it enough.
5 Stars.
August 24, 2016
So far I've had the pleasure of reading both Adam Quinn's and Caroline A. Gill's contributions to the anthology and they are each a balance of heartbreaking and hysterical.
Procurement answered some questions I didn't even know I had after reading Flashpoint (the first book in the Drive Maker trilogy which released earlier this month.) This is a great look at Quinn's style and works well on its own for those who haven't read his other work yet. Political and irreverent, this is a great fit amongst the more fantastical entries into the anthology.
Elvis Has Left the Building is a chilling account of a long journey to colonize another planet, predominantly told around an AI's pov. If you're new to Gill's work this is a bit different than her Flykeeper Chronicles but you still see her love of the grand sci-fi tradition and use of stirring prose. Things don't always go as planned, and sometimes the rules have to be bent, which is a recurring theme in Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge.
Another sweeping adventure as only space opera can deliver, this anthology is sure to please new and old fans of the series, and marks a turning point for the overall theme of humans vs. machines, and how we can or can't handle space travel and all its complexities.
Procurement answered some questions I didn't even know I had after reading Flashpoint (the first book in the Drive Maker trilogy which released earlier this month.) This is a great look at Quinn's style and works well on its own for those who haven't read his other work yet. Political and irreverent, this is a great fit amongst the more fantastical entries into the anthology.
Elvis Has Left the Building is a chilling account of a long journey to colonize another planet, predominantly told around an AI's pov. If you're new to Gill's work this is a bit different than her Flykeeper Chronicles but you still see her love of the grand sci-fi tradition and use of stirring prose. Things don't always go as planned, and sometimes the rules have to be bent, which is a recurring theme in Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge.
Another sweeping adventure as only space opera can deliver, this anthology is sure to please new and old fans of the series, and marks a turning point for the overall theme of humans vs. machines, and how we can or can't handle space travel and all its complexities.
September 5, 2016
This is written by 12 amazing sci-fi authors that have come together under the Beyond the Stars title. They offer such awesome tales that take place in different worlds and in most cases aren't even human characters but each of the 12 stories takes place on the edge, of space that is.
I really enjoyed each of the 12 stories, many by authors I already know, and some by new authors I can't wait to read more of. Adam Quinn's "Procurement" is one of those new authors I can't wait to read more of, his story goes hand in hand with his new book just out. My favorite is by a new author, Michael Ezell entitled "The Good Food" in which a Jensen and his dog Roy are sent to a planet to terraform it, only problems arise, I will leave it there, but working with dogs I loved this story. Christopher Valin's story "Just An Old Fashion Lust Story" is a story of true karma, and will leave you with a huge smile at the end And Nick Webb's story "Second Place", well, any one would love that story whether or not they like sci-fi or not, it's just that good. Every time I read one of these compilations I don't think they can get much better but they always do, I can't wait to see what they have in store next.
I really enjoyed each of the 12 stories, many by authors I already know, and some by new authors I can't wait to read more of. Adam Quinn's "Procurement" is one of those new authors I can't wait to read more of, his story goes hand in hand with his new book just out. My favorite is by a new author, Michael Ezell entitled "The Good Food" in which a Jensen and his dog Roy are sent to a planet to terraform it, only problems arise, I will leave it there, but working with dogs I loved this story. Christopher Valin's story "Just An Old Fashion Lust Story" is a story of true karma, and will leave you with a huge smile at the end And Nick Webb's story "Second Place", well, any one would love that story whether or not they like sci-fi or not, it's just that good. Every time I read one of these compilations I don't think they can get much better but they always do, I can't wait to see what they have in store next.
February 10, 2017
Fantastic fun reading
There are so many great space adventures contained in this anthology. From treasure hunters to a blossoming AI that saves an extended mission.
There are so many great space adventures contained in this anthology. From treasure hunters to a blossoming AI that saves an extended mission.
August 25, 2016
A Space Opera bonanza! Here comes the third book in this series... Patrice has done it again with a group of fantastic writers...
I've got to say, The Good Food is a perfect story to start with, albeit a bit creepy. The book finishes with the fun little read -Elvis Has Left the Building- and it's a perfect ending for this collection.
Once again I've found some some new authors that will need further investigation, so Hello to Michael Ezell, Chris Fox, & Piers Platt.
David Bruns, E.E. Giorgi, Caroline Gill all came through with total goodness, and Nick Webb, well now I'm gonna have to find and read EVERY short story you've written...
In these pages you'll find a wide assortment of characters: blackguards, dogs, an AI, an archaeologist... Oh yeah, and plenty of aliens too!
So get this book and find out who your next favorite author(s) gonna be!
I've got to say, The Good Food is a perfect story to start with, albeit a bit creepy. The book finishes with the fun little read -Elvis Has Left the Building- and it's a perfect ending for this collection.
Once again I've found some some new authors that will need further investigation, so Hello to Michael Ezell, Chris Fox, & Piers Platt.
David Bruns, E.E. Giorgi, Caroline Gill all came through with total goodness, and Nick Webb, well now I'm gonna have to find and read EVERY short story you've written...
In these pages you'll find a wide assortment of characters: blackguards, dogs, an AI, an archaeologist... Oh yeah, and plenty of aliens too!
So get this book and find out who your next favorite author(s) gonna be!
August 25, 2016
I will begin by saying I was given a free copy of this anthology in exchange for my honest opinion.
But honestly, I absolutely loved it! Every story in it had something unique and mesmerizing, and often thought provoking. Even being short stores, every single one grabbed my attention and got me hooked, but still left me satisfied when they ended.
I certainly had my favorite stories, some having better details and characters, but every single one was still a great read! There are so many worlds to explore and wonders to be in awe of. Jump in and get reading - You won't regret it!
But honestly, I absolutely loved it! Every story in it had something unique and mesmerizing, and often thought provoking. Even being short stores, every single one grabbed my attention and got me hooked, but still left me satisfied when they ended.
I certainly had my favorite stories, some having better details and characters, but every single one was still a great read! There are so many worlds to explore and wonders to be in awe of. Jump in and get reading - You won't regret it!
August 25, 2016
Another amazing collection by the Beyond The Stars anthology authors.I like being able to read stories by authors i already know and finding little treasures by new writers to enjoy.My favorites are The Quarium Wars by E.E. Giorgio which was insightful.The Epsilon Directive by David Bruns was intriguing and reveals the true natures of humanity.Second Place by Nick Webb was outstanding and worth the price of the book alone.I received a copy of this book from the authors in exchange for an honest review.
August 28, 2016
This is a really enjoyable anthology from different authors about space exploration and all the possibilities the future might hold. I loved the variety of stories with the differing characters and technological advancements. This anthology is a perfect representation of the power of imagination. Lots of fun!
September 16, 2016
Some great,some good, some not
This was an entertaining collection. There were a couple of stories that I skipped over after a few pages though. Most others were good glimpses of some rising talent in this genre. I recommend it, after all you can't beat a free book.
This was an entertaining collection. There were a couple of stories that I skipped over after a few pages though. Most others were good glimpses of some rising talent in this genre. I recommend it, after all you can't beat a free book.
August 4, 2017
Great collection. Well written, well chosen and very entertaining. A solid SF collation.
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