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Infinity's End
THE HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED FINAL VOLUME OF THE CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED SCIENCE FICTION ANTHOLOGY SERIES
Life in space is hard, lonely, and the only person you can rely on is yourself. Whether you're living deep in the gravity well of humanity's watery home, mucking out air vents in a city floating high in the clouds of Jupiter, or re-checking the filtration system on some isolated space station, life is hard and demanding, and life is small.
The stories of 'Infinity's End' are set in those empty spaces, in futures where planets have been dissembled and reused for parts, or terraformed and settled; where civilizations have risen and fallen; where far future people make their lives anywhere from colonies hanging in the clouds of Neptune or Venus to the repurposed cores of distant asteroids; on worldlets and asteroids, inside Saturn's rings or distant spheres and wheels, on-board ships trucking from home to home, and port to port. They're set in a future that's lived in. And they make it clear that even if we never leave the solar system, there's life enough and room enough to live out all of science fiction's dreams.
'Infinity's End' is the future. The stories you'll find here are the stories of your life.
©2018 See PDF for full details (P)2018 Recorded books
Life in space is hard, lonely, and the only person you can rely on is yourself. Whether you're living deep in the gravity well of humanity's watery home, mucking out air vents in a city floating high in the clouds of Jupiter, or re-checking the filtration system on some isolated space station, life is hard and demanding, and life is small.
The stories of 'Infinity's End' are set in those empty spaces, in futures where planets have been dissembled and reused for parts, or terraformed and settled; where civilizations have risen and fallen; where far future people make their lives anywhere from colonies hanging in the clouds of Neptune or Venus to the repurposed cores of distant asteroids; on worldlets and asteroids, inside Saturn's rings or distant spheres and wheels, on-board ships trucking from home to home, and port to port. They're set in a future that's lived in. And they make it clear that even if we never leave the solar system, there's life enough and room enough to live out all of science fiction's dreams.
'Infinity's End' is the future. The stories you'll find here are the stories of your life.
©2018 See PDF for full details (P)2018 Recorded books
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First published July 10, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
March 31, 2024
Excellent anthology. 3 outstanding stories and 5 more very good ones. Hard to beat that, if you like short SF. 4 stars.
Opening up our Solar System for colonization! The core myth of science fiction, Strahan says, and that was his aim-point for this anthology of original stories.
TOC and story details: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?6... Stories are listed here in descending order of my rating.
• Longing for Earth • Linda Nagata. An old, old man visits a biome habitat, a replica of the Beringia grasslands. It’s his thousandth biome to visit since his retirement. He doesn’t see many other visitors these days, in these grand projects of the Age of Abundance…. One of her best stories ever, an easy 5 stars. Bravo!
• Foxy and Tiggs • Justina Robson. Detectives Foxy and Tiggs, a fox and a velociraptor, investigate a murder on Safari World. Hijinks ensue. I’m guessing you’ll be sold well before the pirate zombie rats. “God in a fucking bucket, but you are one badass hotel.”
4+ stars. This one has the flavor of a classic John Varley story — high praise indeed. And I’d like to see more of Foxy and Tiggs!
• Death's Door • novelette by Alastair Reynolds. Two old friends stop by Titan to cheer up a third, who is feeling the weight of his years, and thinking about ending it all. They take their friend on a Grand Tour of a far-future Solar System, from Mercury to Pluto. And beyond, to some unexpected stuff. Unusually poetic writing for Reynolds. I liked this one a lot. 4+ stars
• Once on the Blue Moon • Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A ship full of asteroid pirates is thwarted by Colette, age 11. A Heinlein juvenile homage, and a good one. 3.5 stars
• Prophet of the Roads • Naomi Kritzer. The nameless Protag visits Amphitre, a habitat orbiting Neptune. They carry a fragment of the Engineer, the governing AI before the Great War, and an amazingly bossy one, which was part of the reason for the war…. A good story by one of my favorite new authors: 3+ stars.
• Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon • Paul J. McAuley. A new Quiet War story, written with McAuley’s usual flair and attention to details. Bai Bahar Minnot, a restless 17 year old, lands at a crashed life pod on Oberon, and finds a woman in cold sleep. The mystery woman wakes up, steals a ship, and vanishes…. Well, I think I’ll stop there, to avoid spoilers, but it’s a good story: 3+ stars.
• Swear Not by the Moon • Seanan McGuire. Wendy May, daughter and sole heir to one of Earth’s wealthiest men, got a notion to buy Titan. And then build the greatest theme park in the solar system! Many years later, her children come to visit…. A solid story, and a rare venture into SF for this author. 3 stars.
• Intervention • Kelly Robson. Jules managed a creche on Luna, but got no respect. So they moved to Ricochet, an asteroid habitat, to start over…. This is a good story, but I’m not that interested in kids, so that part missed for me. Cool character development, though, and a bang-up finish. So, 3 stars.
I once mistook Kelly for her older namesake Justina. No relation, I think, and she was amused rather than offended. I hope.
• Talking to Ghosts at the Edge of the World • Lavie Tidhar. A former combat medic in an obscure civil war among the Galilean moons of Jupiter has a postwar job removing the "ghosts" (life recorders) of deceased family members. Good story: 3 stars.
• Cloudsong • Nick Wolven. The Inner System is running short of water. They are ready to start exploiting the unclaimed ice in the Kuiper Belt — but the mysterious Darklings are refusing to honor their treaty with the inner worlds…. and the mysterious Ascetics’ Music is the key insight. A pretty good story, if a bit clunky, by a new-to-me author. 2.7 stars
• Last Small Step • Stephen Baxter. Kind of a gloomy story. Humanity has pulled back to Earth, mostly, after civilization almost collapsed. But there’s a Last Small Step program, for single visits to virgin planetoids. But there’s always someone who breaks the rules…. Eh. Hard-SF, but didn’t really work for me. 2.5 stars.
• The Synchronist • Fran Wilde. A complex and confusing story about improving the clocks that control the foldspace jumps of starships. Plus family conflict, and a Bureau of Consistency. Well-written, but didn’t make sense, especially the rubber science. 2.5 stars.
• A Portrait of Salai • Hannu Rajaniemi, Bounced hard on first try. Maybe later? I like most of his stuff.
• Kindred • Peter Watts. Bounced. I may try again later, but I have a blind spot for Watts’ stuff.
Nice detailed review, the one that led me to read it: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2018/10/...
Partial reread, early 2024. No substantial changes.
My Kindle highlights: https://www.goodreads.com/notes/40406...
Opening up our Solar System for colonization! The core myth of science fiction, Strahan says, and that was his aim-point for this anthology of original stories.
TOC and story details: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?6... Stories are listed here in descending order of my rating.
• Longing for Earth • Linda Nagata. An old, old man visits a biome habitat, a replica of the Beringia grasslands. It’s his thousandth biome to visit since his retirement. He doesn’t see many other visitors these days, in these grand projects of the Age of Abundance…. One of her best stories ever, an easy 5 stars. Bravo!
• Foxy and Tiggs • Justina Robson. Detectives Foxy and Tiggs, a fox and a velociraptor, investigate a murder on Safari World. Hijinks ensue. I’m guessing you’ll be sold well before the pirate zombie rats. “God in a fucking bucket, but you are one badass hotel.”
4+ stars. This one has the flavor of a classic John Varley story — high praise indeed. And I’d like to see more of Foxy and Tiggs!
• Death's Door • novelette by Alastair Reynolds. Two old friends stop by Titan to cheer up a third, who is feeling the weight of his years, and thinking about ending it all. They take their friend on a Grand Tour of a far-future Solar System, from Mercury to Pluto. And beyond, to some unexpected stuff. Unusually poetic writing for Reynolds. I liked this one a lot. 4+ stars
• Once on the Blue Moon • Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A ship full of asteroid pirates is thwarted by Colette, age 11. A Heinlein juvenile homage, and a good one. 3.5 stars
• Prophet of the Roads • Naomi Kritzer. The nameless Protag visits Amphitre, a habitat orbiting Neptune. They carry a fragment of the Engineer, the governing AI before the Great War, and an amazingly bossy one, which was part of the reason for the war…. A good story by one of my favorite new authors: 3+ stars.
• Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon • Paul J. McAuley. A new Quiet War story, written with McAuley’s usual flair and attention to details. Bai Bahar Minnot, a restless 17 year old, lands at a crashed life pod on Oberon, and finds a woman in cold sleep. The mystery woman wakes up, steals a ship, and vanishes…. Well, I think I’ll stop there, to avoid spoilers, but it’s a good story: 3+ stars.
• Swear Not by the Moon • Seanan McGuire. Wendy May, daughter and sole heir to one of Earth’s wealthiest men, got a notion to buy Titan. And then build the greatest theme park in the solar system! Many years later, her children come to visit…. A solid story, and a rare venture into SF for this author. 3 stars.
• Intervention • Kelly Robson. Jules managed a creche on Luna, but got no respect. So they moved to Ricochet, an asteroid habitat, to start over…. This is a good story, but I’m not that interested in kids, so that part missed for me. Cool character development, though, and a bang-up finish. So, 3 stars.
I once mistook Kelly for her older namesake Justina. No relation, I think, and she was amused rather than offended. I hope.
• Talking to Ghosts at the Edge of the World • Lavie Tidhar. A former combat medic in an obscure civil war among the Galilean moons of Jupiter has a postwar job removing the "ghosts" (life recorders) of deceased family members. Good story: 3 stars.
• Cloudsong • Nick Wolven. The Inner System is running short of water. They are ready to start exploiting the unclaimed ice in the Kuiper Belt — but the mysterious Darklings are refusing to honor their treaty with the inner worlds…. and the mysterious Ascetics’ Music is the key insight. A pretty good story, if a bit clunky, by a new-to-me author. 2.7 stars
• Last Small Step • Stephen Baxter. Kind of a gloomy story. Humanity has pulled back to Earth, mostly, after civilization almost collapsed. But there’s a Last Small Step program, for single visits to virgin planetoids. But there’s always someone who breaks the rules…. Eh. Hard-SF, but didn’t really work for me. 2.5 stars.
• The Synchronist • Fran Wilde. A complex and confusing story about improving the clocks that control the foldspace jumps of starships. Plus family conflict, and a Bureau of Consistency. Well-written, but didn’t make sense, especially the rubber science. 2.5 stars.
• A Portrait of Salai • Hannu Rajaniemi, Bounced hard on first try. Maybe later? I like most of his stuff.
• Kindred • Peter Watts. Bounced. I may try again later, but I have a blind spot for Watts’ stuff.
Nice detailed review, the one that led me to read it: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2018/10/...
Partial reread, early 2024. No substantial changes.
My Kindle highlights: https://www.goodreads.com/notes/40406...
August 30, 2018
I feel really bad when I have to give an honest star-based review to an anthology where a few of the authors have killed it, but many were barely competent – if that. However, that’s just what we have here – I get that this is “the end”, and that the majority of the stories are going to be dealing with ends, but that doesn’t mean that the author can’t hit a brutal home run like, for instance, Watts did, or hell, it doesn’t mean that the stories need not be stories at all – many of them are, for some weird reason, mere travelogues of fictional places, and while that can be done well (see, for instance, Sebald’s Rings of Saturn or Harrison’s You Should Come With Me Now), in this case what we have is a few listless attempts at florid descriptions trying to wish-wash away the fact that they contain precisely zero actual story. Reynolds is a particularly egregious example of this, since it would seem from his latest novels – and his story here – that he has given up on writing exciting and thought-provoking SF, and this is simply what he wants to write now, grand descriptions of fictional places with the absolute bare minimum of narrative thrown in. In between the two extremes lies a spectrum of quality, ranging from the quick, colourful and fun detective story of Justina Robson to the, frankly, dull, but okayish non-story by Nagata, but overall, this was far less fun than the quite prominent names on the list of contributors promised it would be.
September 9, 2018
All good things must come to an end, and thus it is with Jonathan Strahan's Infinity Project. The Infinity Project was (because it is now complete) a series of (relatively) hard science fiction themed anthologies, roughly following the human race from the cradle of Earth out to the edge of the Solar System and beyond. The penultimate volume, Infinity Wars, told tales of military conflict, although those stories were told with a very humanistic viewpoint in mind. Sure, it was military science fiction, but not the kind you may be used to reading.
The titles of the books in Infinity Project were meant to give the reader some hint as to what was contained in that volume. Infinity's End does not, as the title might lead the reader to believe, contain stories about the end of the universe. Instead, it is self-referential with regard to the Infinity Project. It is saying essentially, yep, this is it. We're done. To get an idea of what might be in this volume, Strahan says this is his Introduction: "I asked the writers creating new stories for
this book to try to open up the solar system, to look again at its vastness, its incredible scale, and at how humanity in different ways might fit successfully and happily into its nooks and crannies."
To that end, the stories in this volume vary greatly in the way they meet Strahan's objective. No two stories are alike in subject matter, tone, characters, or anything else you might think of. In getting that variety, Strahan succeeded. However, I feel that the quality of the stories in the volume is uneven. While any original themed anthology (or, I suppose collection of stories from a particular author) will have some stories that are better than others, the best stories in Infinity's End (in my opinion - remember, I'm a reviewer, not a critic - so your mileage may vary) are head and shoulders above the rest (I want to say "worst" stories, but there are no bad stories in this book, so worst is not the right word by any stretch of the imagination).
It should come as no suprise to anyone that among my favorite stories in this volume is Alastair Reynold's "Death's Door". It is, at its most basic, a tale of two friends trying to convince a third not to check out of this life. They attempt to do so by taking him on a tour of the solar system's most stunning and spectacular wonders. It as if Reynolds looked at Strahan's request and said, okay, I'll make this story a Grand Tour of the wonders of the solar system; now I'd better put a plot around
it. For someone that likes big scale sense of wonder stories, I ate this one up.
Stories regarding the manipulation of time have always fascinated me. Yes, I like time travel stories and all the weird things those can entail, but playing with time itself is an interesting topic to me. Fran Wilde's "The Synchronist" tells the story of Beneficence Sand, the "kit kid" of Galen Sand, a trader who seems to have a special relationship with time and who leaves his daughter behind with her mother while he goes on the run from The Consistency, time police of a sort. Beneficence enters a contest called the Synchronist's Challenge and makes some fascinating discoveries. It's not an easy story to explain, but a fun one to read.
I love the work of Peter Watts. It's dark, fascinating, and compelling. When I read Blindsight many years ago, I know that I wasn't really sure what I was reading, but I loved it nonetheless. "Kindred" is a story like that. I can sit here and tell you about the story, but I'd be scratching my head the whole time. I loved it.
In Naomi Kritzer's "Prophet of the Roads", the Solar System is in tatters. When it wasn't in tatters, it was run by the Engineer, which at some cataclysmic point was broken into pieces. Now the Engineer is trying to orchestrate the reunification of its fragments; the funny thing is that most people don't want to the Engineer to return. This is more a story of two people who are carrying fragments of the Engineer and how they relate to each other rather than a "let's find all the fragments and put them together story". I think the story we get is much better than that latter one.
In Nick Wolven's "Cloudsong", the inner Solar System is seriously lacking water. Anander Flyte is headed to the the outer portion of the system to talk to the Darklings, a race of beings who have agreed to help out with Project Snowflake, which is designed to send water to the inner system. Only now the Darklings are saying that the project cannot be done. The reason for that, and how the problem is solved, is fascinating.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Once in a Blue Moon" is a well written tale of pirates trying to steal a weapon off a space ship and of a precocious girl who is being sent to Earth to a "school that can handle her" that foils the plan. Nothing particularly outstanding, but a solid story.
Seanan McGuire's "Swear Not by the Moon" is another solid story about a young girl from a wealthy and connected family who is kidnapped. The story is a tale of wealth, influence, and bored people who do things just because they have the money and can do them, even though those projects shouldn't succeed. It is also a tale of a family that, despite it's wealth, influence, and privilege, is still a family that loves each other, a family that is protective of each other, a family just like many others.
Other stories that I recommend are "Intervention" by Kelly Robson; "Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon", by Paul McAuley (a story in his Quiet War universe which while not extraordinary makes me want to read the Quiet War books); "Longing for Earth" by Linda Nagata; and "Talking to the Ghost at the Edge of the World" by Lavie Tidhar. I don't believe any of these stories are going to win awards, but they are good, solid, core science fiction.
Stories that I felt didn't quite live up to my expectations were "Foxy and Tiggs", by Justina Robson (oddly enough the lead off story in the anthology - since it's typical the the first story is supposed to be one of the better ones that reach out and grab the reader, I must be missing something); "Last Small Step" by Stephen Baxter (which seems like one long infodump, and certainly not up to the standards of much of his other work); and "A Portrait of Salai" by Hannu Rajaniemi (in which I was
lost from the beginning, which in turn may have something to do with all the time I was spending reading in the car during our drive to and from San Jose for Worldcon 76).
Again, as you read this book your mileage may vary. Overall, I didn't think the collection of stories in this volume matched the quality of stories in the other volumes I have read in the series (while preparing this review, I discovered much to my chagrin that I have not read two of the seven volumes - I think I'd better get on that as soon as I can). Still, I also don't believe you can go wrong with this book; there's likely something here for everyone that enjoys these kind of stories.
The titles of the books in Infinity Project were meant to give the reader some hint as to what was contained in that volume. Infinity's End does not, as the title might lead the reader to believe, contain stories about the end of the universe. Instead, it is self-referential with regard to the Infinity Project. It is saying essentially, yep, this is it. We're done. To get an idea of what might be in this volume, Strahan says this is his Introduction: "I asked the writers creating new stories for
this book to try to open up the solar system, to look again at its vastness, its incredible scale, and at how humanity in different ways might fit successfully and happily into its nooks and crannies."
To that end, the stories in this volume vary greatly in the way they meet Strahan's objective. No two stories are alike in subject matter, tone, characters, or anything else you might think of. In getting that variety, Strahan succeeded. However, I feel that the quality of the stories in the volume is uneven. While any original themed anthology (or, I suppose collection of stories from a particular author) will have some stories that are better than others, the best stories in Infinity's End (in my opinion - remember, I'm a reviewer, not a critic - so your mileage may vary) are head and shoulders above the rest (I want to say "worst" stories, but there are no bad stories in this book, so worst is not the right word by any stretch of the imagination).
It should come as no suprise to anyone that among my favorite stories in this volume is Alastair Reynold's "Death's Door". It is, at its most basic, a tale of two friends trying to convince a third not to check out of this life. They attempt to do so by taking him on a tour of the solar system's most stunning and spectacular wonders. It as if Reynolds looked at Strahan's request and said, okay, I'll make this story a Grand Tour of the wonders of the solar system; now I'd better put a plot around
it. For someone that likes big scale sense of wonder stories, I ate this one up.
Stories regarding the manipulation of time have always fascinated me. Yes, I like time travel stories and all the weird things those can entail, but playing with time itself is an interesting topic to me. Fran Wilde's "The Synchronist" tells the story of Beneficence Sand, the "kit kid" of Galen Sand, a trader who seems to have a special relationship with time and who leaves his daughter behind with her mother while he goes on the run from The Consistency, time police of a sort. Beneficence enters a contest called the Synchronist's Challenge and makes some fascinating discoveries. It's not an easy story to explain, but a fun one to read.
I love the work of Peter Watts. It's dark, fascinating, and compelling. When I read Blindsight many years ago, I know that I wasn't really sure what I was reading, but I loved it nonetheless. "Kindred" is a story like that. I can sit here and tell you about the story, but I'd be scratching my head the whole time. I loved it.
In Naomi Kritzer's "Prophet of the Roads", the Solar System is in tatters. When it wasn't in tatters, it was run by the Engineer, which at some cataclysmic point was broken into pieces. Now the Engineer is trying to orchestrate the reunification of its fragments; the funny thing is that most people don't want to the Engineer to return. This is more a story of two people who are carrying fragments of the Engineer and how they relate to each other rather than a "let's find all the fragments and put them together story". I think the story we get is much better than that latter one.
In Nick Wolven's "Cloudsong", the inner Solar System is seriously lacking water. Anander Flyte is headed to the the outer portion of the system to talk to the Darklings, a race of beings who have agreed to help out with Project Snowflake, which is designed to send water to the inner system. Only now the Darklings are saying that the project cannot be done. The reason for that, and how the problem is solved, is fascinating.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Once in a Blue Moon" is a well written tale of pirates trying to steal a weapon off a space ship and of a precocious girl who is being sent to Earth to a "school that can handle her" that foils the plan. Nothing particularly outstanding, but a solid story.
Seanan McGuire's "Swear Not by the Moon" is another solid story about a young girl from a wealthy and connected family who is kidnapped. The story is a tale of wealth, influence, and bored people who do things just because they have the money and can do them, even though those projects shouldn't succeed. It is also a tale of a family that, despite it's wealth, influence, and privilege, is still a family that loves each other, a family that is protective of each other, a family just like many others.
Other stories that I recommend are "Intervention" by Kelly Robson; "Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon", by Paul McAuley (a story in his Quiet War universe which while not extraordinary makes me want to read the Quiet War books); "Longing for Earth" by Linda Nagata; and "Talking to the Ghost at the Edge of the World" by Lavie Tidhar. I don't believe any of these stories are going to win awards, but they are good, solid, core science fiction.
Stories that I felt didn't quite live up to my expectations were "Foxy and Tiggs", by Justina Robson (oddly enough the lead off story in the anthology - since it's typical the the first story is supposed to be one of the better ones that reach out and grab the reader, I must be missing something); "Last Small Step" by Stephen Baxter (which seems like one long infodump, and certainly not up to the standards of much of his other work); and "A Portrait of Salai" by Hannu Rajaniemi (in which I was
lost from the beginning, which in turn may have something to do with all the time I was spending reading in the car during our drive to and from San Jose for Worldcon 76).
Again, as you read this book your mileage may vary. Overall, I didn't think the collection of stories in this volume matched the quality of stories in the other volumes I have read in the series (while preparing this review, I discovered much to my chagrin that I have not read two of the seven volumes - I think I'd better get on that as soon as I can). Still, I also don't believe you can go wrong with this book; there's likely something here for everyone that enjoys these kind of stories.
January 20, 2022
A disappointingly lackluster conclusion to what has been, on the whole, an enjoyable collection of hard-SF anthologies. While many of these stories relate to “big ideas” about Endings (with a capital E here, for emphasis), I found them rather uninteresting all the same. If they’re not treading the same ground as each other- usually in the form of a civilization so incredibly advanced that death in the way we know it now is a distant memory, usually along with any need to live on Earth -they’re moving into the territory of nigh-incomprehensible alterations to what we understand as life in the first place (I’m looking at you, Fran Wilde). It’s possible, or even likely, that this just isn’t the anthology for me: I’m not usually a fan of stories set so far in the future that there’s little left to recognize as human, or that there’s no tangible connection to human history that explores *HOW* we get to that point, though the rest of the anthologies in this series may satisfy that particular point. Maybe it just isn’t the collection for me, but regardless, I wish they’d had a bit more variety in the types of stories that were included here.
3/5 stars.
3/5 stars.
October 20, 2018
Surprisingly, consistently good. Real *science fiction* short stories.
October 29, 2018
All of the stories are very imaginative and bizarre. They're unlike anything I've ever read.
"Foxy & Tiggs" are a pair of animal cyborg security guards at a resort investigating a murder and being mistaken for amusements. Typo: "sanding on my" should be standing.
"Intervention" is a woman who likes taking care of kids but is shunned because of this on her home world. She settles somewhere else, but events conspire to bring her home.
"Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon" is a young mechanic resentful of her mother who rescues an alien and spends the rest of her life trying to catch up with it.
"Swear Not by the Moon" is by a favorite fantasy author. This is sci-fi, about a privileged family and their use of power.
"Once on the Blue Moon" is a young girl who outsmarts some criminals. Typo: it's "defuse a bomb," not diffuse.
The rest of the stories didn't hold my interest.
"Foxy & Tiggs" are a pair of animal cyborg security guards at a resort investigating a murder and being mistaken for amusements. Typo: "sanding on my" should be standing.
"Intervention" is a woman who likes taking care of kids but is shunned because of this on her home world. She settles somewhere else, but events conspire to bring her home.
"Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon" is a young mechanic resentful of her mother who rescues an alien and spends the rest of her life trying to catch up with it.
"Swear Not by the Moon" is by a favorite fantasy author. This is sci-fi, about a privileged family and their use of power.
"Once on the Blue Moon" is a young girl who outsmarts some criminals. Typo: it's "defuse a bomb," not diffuse.
The rest of the stories didn't hold my interest.
December 7, 2018
8,5 This book only falls short of a five star review because not all stories in here are bonafide classics, and not all left me in awe, but it's a close call. This is a very good collection of modern hard SF stories, collected by Jonathan Strahan, centered around a theme. In this collection the theme is not the end of all things, but more a conceivable endstate for human expansion in our solar system. Because interstellar travel is not a very realistic prospect, probably humanity will be restricted to the solar system. But our solar system is filled with planets, moons, asteroids, nooks an crannies, and our human presence in this system can take a lot of different forms. Here the authors decribe our life in the solar system and show that a lot of diversity is possible, even if we don't travel to the stars. Justina Robson has an intelligent fox and a velociraptor solve a case on a party planet. A lot of fun, especially when a kid thinkgs the dinosaur is an animatronic ... Kelly Robson has a beautiful tale of an old man choosing to go into child care as a career, and dealing with saying goodbye to his pupils later and new opportunities. I liked this one in its loving depiction of its protagonist. Paul McAuley gives us a teenager sent to a distant moon to learn to submit to clan authority, but being confronted with a relic of the past. I thought this tale had a beautiful description of the moon Oberon, but failed in the resolution. I had expected a bit more at the end, but this is a part of a grander universe and therefore is constricted a bit. Naomi Kritzer shows the solar system after a system wide AI has crashed - trying to restore it, but the characters finding another way. Alastair Reynolds takes the reader on a grand tour of the solar system, when two 'people' try to convince their friend that life is still worth living. I don't think this is Reynolds' best story ever, but it's still very good. Seanan McGuire story focuses on human aspects. Pretty good, but I think her fantasy is better. A bit too much world building for my taste and too little resolution. Stephen Baxters story also seems a bit subdued for a Baxter story (Maybe because his imagination works better on a galaxy wide scale). 'Once on the blue moon' is a fun story about pirates in the solar system, and a little girl trying to outsmart them. I had to grin about this one. Hannu Rajaniemi does what he does best and makes SF weird, having group intelligences, system spanning systems and weird imagination in spades. An inspiring story that made my imaginative juices flow as well. In contrast Linda Nagata's tale was more subdued, with an old man making a last trek across a habitat. Well written, emotionally involving and engaging. A gem. Fran Wilde's tale I did not really understand that well, it's about clocks and relativity and a girl outsmarting her father. It didn't really work that well for me. Lavie Tidhar describes a scene, but as with most of his stories I find he writes well, but he doesn't tell involving stories. I'm still not a fan. 'Cloudsong' has an old fashioned feel, as a project to utilise the ice in the Kuyperbelt hits an unexpected snag. Peter Watts ends the collection on a hight, following Hannu Rajaniemi in taking his ideas to the ultimate conclusion, with weirdness, speculation about being human and AI, and atense conflict. His view of human nature is pretty bleak, but his stories are harrowing and imaginative. All in all a great SF collection and recommended for SF-fans.
skimmed-or-skipped-around
September 3, 2023SF short stories are not my thing, but I want to read everything that Naomi Kritzer has written. This collection contains her "Prophet of the Roads," which I enjoyed. I like the way she describes things without saying too much. And the story arc was just right.
I abandoned the book after reading two other stories. ("Longing for Earth" by Linda Nagata was bland, with a disappointing ending; "Foxy and Tiggs" by Justina Robson was contrived window dressing on a basic TV-cop-show plot.) But I'm glad I got to read Naomi Kritzer's story.
I abandoned the book after reading two other stories. ("Longing for Earth" by Linda Nagata was bland, with a disappointing ending; "Foxy and Tiggs" by Justina Robson was contrived window dressing on a basic TV-cop-show plot.) But I'm glad I got to read Naomi Kritzer's story.
January 18, 2019
The infinity series has been very up and down. This is a straight down the middle collection, not reaching the heights of Engineering, Meeting or Wars but still good to read. For me the best stories were definitely McGuire's and Baxter's stories in the middle.
February 10, 2019
An excellent anthology with a consistent theme. My favorite story was possibly Justina Robson's "Foxy and Tiggs." While I didn't buy the societal worldbuilding of Stephen Baxter's "Last Small Step," I loved its secret history so much I forgave it. Strahan is underrated.
December 1, 2018
7/10 Mejor que las dos anteriores, pero no llega al nivel de las primeras.
https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/20...
https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/20...
July 19, 2025
Quick synopsis
: 14 sci-fi stories.
Brief opinion : I sure do wish there would be some indication of which of these Infinity series books are sci-fi and which ones are hard sci-fi. This one was regular sci-fi. Some of the stories were okay, one or two were good, a couple were not so good. That's better than none of them working for me when it's a hard sci-fi book.
Plot : Even the stories I liked/finished didn't stick out enough for me to remember the plots now. Only the one I liked the least (by Seanan McGuire), stuck with me, but for a bad reason: It was very social justice-y, not so much sci-fi-ish.
Writing/editing : Both were generally fine.
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like : Since this one was normal sci-fi instead of hard, it generally worked for me a lot better. I even looked up a couple authors and got a book by them. Even with that though, I think I'm done with this Infinity series. Too many of the books are complete misses for me.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved : ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay.
Brief opinion : I sure do wish there would be some indication of which of these Infinity series books are sci-fi and which ones are hard sci-fi. This one was regular sci-fi. Some of the stories were okay, one or two were good, a couple were not so good. That's better than none of them working for me when it's a hard sci-fi book.
Plot : Even the stories I liked/finished didn't stick out enough for me to remember the plots now. Only the one I liked the least (by Seanan McGuire), stuck with me, but for a bad reason: It was very social justice-y, not so much sci-fi-ish.
Writing/editing : Both were generally fine.
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like : Since this one was normal sci-fi instead of hard, it generally worked for me a lot better. I even looked up a couple authors and got a book by them. Even with that though, I think I'm done with this Infinity series. Too many of the books are complete misses for me.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved : ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay.
December 13, 2018
Good collection of stories, but I only enjoyed a quarter of them
I love the ideas of an anthology of short stories on a theme, but I think this just wasn’t the one for me. I might read the other anthologies in the Infinity collection though.
I only enjoyed about a quarter of these stories, but I appreciated that they were all reasonably short and well-written. The authors tend to drop you off in a world (well, Universe) so far in the future that it’s unrecognizable, and it’s interesting (yet disorienting) to have to find your footing again and again.
For short Sci-Fi vignettes it’s not bad. Originally I gave it 2 stars, but after reviewing the table of contents upped my review to 3 stars. The stories I liked happened to be near the front end of the collection, so the last quarter was a real slog.
I love the ideas of an anthology of short stories on a theme, but I think this just wasn’t the one for me. I might read the other anthologies in the Infinity collection though.
I only enjoyed about a quarter of these stories, but I appreciated that they were all reasonably short and well-written. The authors tend to drop you off in a world (well, Universe) so far in the future that it’s unrecognizable, and it’s interesting (yet disorienting) to have to find your footing again and again.
For short Sci-Fi vignettes it’s not bad. Originally I gave it 2 stars, but after reviewing the table of contents upped my review to 3 stars. The stories I liked happened to be near the front end of the collection, so the last quarter was a real slog.
August 7, 2018
Not the greatest anthology, but it had its highlights. The first four stories were kind of slog that left me feeling like Strahan was just using this last volume to publish his series slush pile, but things got interesting when I hit Allstair Reynolds' story. After that the ride was a little bumpy. Few stand outs, but a better ride than the start. Overall I felt this book concluded the otherwise good anthology series with a whimper and not a bang.
August 8, 2024
One of the most stellar lineups of authors I've ever see. Six are absolute favorites of mine, and I already liked most of the rest too.
That said, there was a strange tendency to tell, in great detail, rather than show. Even some of my favorite writers included what seemed to me too high a percentage of exposition in their stories. This is partly because of the theme, which is a solar system that humans have expanded into. I did like that theme, though, and almost all the stories.
That said, there was a strange tendency to tell, in great detail, rather than show. Even some of my favorite writers included what seemed to me too high a percentage of exposition in their stories. This is partly because of the theme, which is a solar system that humans have expanded into. I did like that theme, though, and almost all the stories.
October 13, 2021
This is sci-fi written the way it should be. There are fine characters with flaws that you get invested in. There are incredibly powerful aliens. Great plot twists, a fantastic universe, good pacing, and a story arc that's well thought out and very enjoyable. Recommended for sci-fi fans.
(Note: Review applies to entire series.)
(Note: Review applies to entire series.)
June 21, 2021
Just as good as the previous entries. If you enjoyed them, you'll enjoy this.
But even if you haven't read any of the previous ones, if you like wide-ranging, far-thinking Sci-Fi, you'll enjoy this collection.
But even if you haven't read any of the previous ones, if you like wide-ranging, far-thinking Sci-Fi, you'll enjoy this collection.
August 7, 2018
Review forthcoming
November 10, 2018
The first story was great but left you wanting more. The rest of short stories were OK.
January 2, 2019
Get it
Well worth taking the time to read. This is my second Infinity book, and will read more. I recommend the series!
Well worth taking the time to read. This is my second Infinity book, and will read more. I recommend the series!
January 25, 2019
A solid mix of SF stories.
February 14, 2019
i think ill film a full review for this shortly
November 28, 2020
I liked "Foxy and Tiggs" by Justina Robson and "Once on the Blue Moon" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
June 9, 2022
Not bad, but the stories sorta rehash the same concepts over and over. Probably the weakest anthology in the series.
November 1, 2023
Very interesting collection of short stories. Good exposure to a number of interesting authors.
December 20, 2023
11. There wasn’t one entry that I liked. Not sure why but this is an anthology that clearly doesn’t work for me.
August 20, 2025
Some good stories. But way too many have brilliant premises or ideas, but no plot, no story. Just the premise.
Read
January 18, 2026VERDICT: 2.45 stars for the sub-genre: SF short story anthologies.
Or 2.9 if rated as general fiction.
Or 2.9 if rated as general fiction.
July 24, 2019
It is a collection of sci-fi short stories by 14 different authors and is the seventh and last part of the Infinity Project. The project collected sci-fi stories with particular themes in each volume.
Overall, I would greatly recommend this book to any sci-fi reader, especially if you tend to read on the bus or anywhere where you manage to steal a few minutes. A definite ‘read it!’
Overall, I would greatly recommend this book to any sci-fi reader, especially if you tend to read on the bus or anywhere where you manage to steal a few minutes. A definite ‘read it!’
Read
November 6, 2018I read the Peter Watts short story (liked it enough) and the Hannu Rajaniemi story (left no memory whatsoever other than a vague sense of disappointment), gave up early on the Lavie Tidhar story, skipped the other nine or ten entirely I think.
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