The Hundred Worlds

by Tiffany Reynolds (Editor), J.F. Holmes, Daniel Humphreys

Fifteen classic Science Fiction stories from both masters of the craft and up and coming new writers!

A tyrannical United Nations pulls the strings of its colony worlds, ruling with an iron fist. Corporate interests take precedence, and brushfire rebellions smolder on the edges. One system, home to the only species yet discovered, has, with human allies, thrown off the yoke and calls itself Independence.

Jon Del Arroz - Gate Keeper: A UN operative works to stop the destruction of the Gate that allows star travel to systems.

Doug Dandridge – Leverage: A former UN Marine living on Mars rebels and strikes back at the Special Forces unit sent to kill him.

James Schardt - The Only Planet We Have: First contact with the alien Karan sets the stage for a revolution in their society.

Lucas Marcum – Unrest: Decades after first contact, UN oppression of the Karan leads to strange alliances.

James Peters - Sailing to Independence: A chance encounter with a dying man puts a spacer on the trail of a thousand year old treasure.

Jamie Ibson - Above My Paygrade: A new, unknown alien threat is kept under wraps by police brutality and betrayals.

Sean McCune - Debt Repaid: A retired Marine joins with a motley crew to uncover layers of conspiracies and potential death
when they run afoul of the UN.

Daniel Humphreys - Finding Sara: A private detective is hired to find a runaway woman and encounters far more than he bargained for following her from system to system.

Bart Kemper - Miracle Machine: UN operatives on Earth conduct an operation to catch a rebel courier, with unintended consequences.

J.K. Robinson - The Jump: The crew of a smuggling ship carrying a forbidden cargo must outwit a UN patrol craft or die trying.

J.F. Holmes - The Big Picture: Mercenaries contract to carry out some dirty work, but there’s a hidden agenda running though all the players.

Scott Bascom - One Fish, Two Fish: Genetic engineers under contract to the mob work to perfect their product while keeping their own heads on their shoulders.

T. Allen Diaz - The Witch’s Spell: Corporate interests drive a deadly form of warfare and the order of the day is betrayal.

John M. Olsen - Three Strikes: A woman with a murdered family works to deliver her revenge against the government that killed them.

Sean McCune - After Party: The crew of a starship comes face to face with an alien terror aboard an abandoned space station.

462 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2018

Reviews

[Wampuscat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent anthology with a couple of standout stories. I am impressed with the flow of the tales, and the passing of the baton between the authors as they continued over-arching history of the universe. I'm still a bit iffy on whether I believe the premise of the main control method used by the UN to keep the various planets in line. They did manage to create some serious bad guys that you just want to see get what's coming to them. Unfortunately, it looks like Volume 2 may be where we start to see that happen in earnest.

Averaged out, the whole thing gets 3.3 stars. Here's a breakdown of my ratings of the individual stories (with the Goodreads blurb included):


Gate Keeper by Jon Del Arroz (3 stars)

"A UN operative works to stop the destruction of the Gate that allows star travel to systems."

A bit of fast paced intrigue on this one. Lost a star due to the bad science (sub-sonic frequencies are just sound waves that are below the human hearing threshold, so they don't travel through empty space). A little too overtly political for my taste. I prefer subtle to keep the story more realistic.

Leverage by Doug Dandridge (3.5 stars)

"A former UN Marine living on Mars rebels and strikes back at the Special Forces unit sent to kill him."

A very shocking intro to the 'bad guys' of the hundred worlds, the UN Citizen. A good story with quick detailed character development that works.

The Only Planet We Have by James Schardt (5 stars)

"First contact with the alien Karan sets the stage for a revolution in their society."

A great story that introduces a unique and detailed alien race. This is probably the best story in the whole anthology.

Unrest by Lucas Marcum (4 stars)

"Decades after first contact, UN oppression of the Karan leads to strange alliances."

A great hand-off of the aliens that picks up where the last story left off. Its different, but quite good in its own way. I want more of these aliens!

Sailing to Independence by James Peters (4 stars)

"A chance encounter with a dying man puts a spacer on the trail of a thousand-year-old treasure."

A very interesting pushed destiny type of tale. A bit of romance and quite a bit of intrigue. A decent tale despite the fact that we never get to see what happens with the alien tech they find.

Above My Paygrade by Jamie Ibson (5 stars)

"A new, unknown alien threat is kept under wraps by police brutality and betrayals."

This is the one that made me really hate the bad guys. It’s one set of slick betrayals after another that teaches you to never trust a Citizen.

Debt Repaid by Sean McCune (4 stars)

"A retired Marine joins with a motley crew to uncover layers of conspiracies and potential death when they run afoul of the UN.”

This one finally gives you some competent good guys to root for. Enjoyed in a lot.

Finding Sara by Daniel Humphreys (2 stars)

"A private detective is hired to find a runaway woman and encounters far more than he bargained for following her from system to system."

This one propelled the main arc forward by providing new information, but did not feel finished. It ended too abruptly just as I was starting to like the characters.

Miracle Machine by Bart Kemper (2 stars)

"UN operatives on Earth conduct an operation to catch a rebel courier, with unintended consequences."

The story was decent, but it made promises about consequences that I never saw played out in the rest of the anthology.

The Jump by J.K. Robinson (5 stars)

"The crew of a smuggling ship carrying a forbidden cargo must outwit a UN patrol craft or die trying."

One of the best in the anthology. It has some really sympathetic characters that you really want to root for.

The Big Picture by J.F. Holmes (4 stars)

"Mercenaries contract to carry out some dirty work, but there’s a hidden agenda running through all the players."

Another set of good guys to root for. Nice bit of action as well. Also the start of another carry-over character arc.

One Fish, Two Fish by Scott Bascom (2.5 stars)

"Genetic engineers under contract to the mob work to perfect their product while keeping their own heads on their shoulders."

A lot of things were detailed out in this one that really didn’t add to the story. Could have used a good chop edit. Not a bad tale though. Contrarily, the ending could have used slightly more explanation on how the “solution” was going to work.

The Witch by T. Allen Diaz (2 stars)

"Corporate interests drive a deadly form of warfare and the order of the day is betrayal."

I didn’t really understand how the politics in this one worked. Mercs were hired to fight rebels on behalf of some corporations. There was a lot of infiltration, double-crossing, etc. I never really figured out who the good guys were. There may not have been any, or I may have just gotten confused.

Three Strikes by John M. Olsen (4 stars)

"A woman with a murdered family works to deliver her revenge against the government that killed them."

I like this one quite a bit. I wish the consequences of the woman’s efforts had been detailed out more, but overall it was a good story.

After Party by Sean McCune (5 stars)

"The crew of a starship comes face to face with an alien terror aboard an abandoned space station."

This one is a regular space marine shoot-em-up story. Enjoyed, especially as it was the return of some previously known characters in Debt Repaid earlier in the anthology. It serves as a nice bookend to the whole anthology, and makes you want to read the next one.

[Red Tide · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blandly US-centric

DNF after about 50%. This takes place across a hundred planets dominated by Earth and every character has an English surname and speaks with an U.S. voice.

Unfortunately the setup to the collection failed to mention how every non-american European vanished from the planet. I suspect suicide. I wanted to mourn the passing of all of Asia but no details of its demise were provided. Africa and South America were probably victims of an unfortunate accident. Canada and Mexico were possibly victims of drive by shootings.

One character in one story was a black spacer captain, so the human race is still diverse. The stories start to feel blandly like the U.S. in space. With the blandness came boredom. The writing was fine except for humanity's homogeneity, both culturally and ethnically. The later stories might be different but by then It was too late for me. It might work for some readers but it lost my interest.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

I enjoyed the format - there is great synergy between the writers developing the same world, characters, and timeline in a cohesive way while contributing their own style.

I'm excited to watch for more from several of these writers, especially Lucas Marcum's upcoming debut novel.

My only criticism would be a few of the stories feeling rushed in their ending. I don't know if it was a deadline crunch or just the unique challenge of writing short stories, but they started out really strong,then kind of jumped to a conclusion. That said,even while noticing that,it made me want a full novel form of those stories more than it bothered me.

[Kathy Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read.

Started reading this book one evening and just couldn’t put it down until I had read the whole thing. I love the one one story ends and another written by a different author picks up that story and carries it forward. Thanks to all the authors from Canon Publishing and cant wait for the next book.

[Leif Dolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The future is what we make it to be!

Great writing for this book. Many new authors to follow! When is the next book coming out!
The Hundred Worlds is a fresh new idea of the sci-fi to be written in. There seems to be a bit of small rules to follow. With a great potential! Even some old friends have shown up! IST1? What a great way to get a bunch of writers together