Strangest of All

by Julie Nováková (Editor), G. David Nordley, Geoffrey Landis

Institutions have often utilized science fiction as a method for imagining scientific concepts and new technologies. Everyone from the Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination to the US Army’s Mad Scientist Initiative to the Atlantic Council have generated their own anthologies that serve not only as fun reading for fans, but also as thought-provoking material.

The European Astrobiology Institute joins that group this month with a new anthology called Strangest of All. Best of all, it’s a free download.


The anthology is a collaboration between the EAI and Julie Nováková, a Czech scientist, editor, and science fiction author, and is designed ” to both entertain and educate” in the field of life away from Earth.

The anthology was originally designed to be released for the EAI’s annual conference, BEACON 2020, and features a solid lineup of reprinted short stories, each of which comes with a bit of additional commentary at the end.

“War, Ice, Egg, Universe” by G. David Nordley
“Into The Blue Abyss” by Geoffrey A. Landis
“Backscatter” by Gregory Benford
“A Jar of Goodwill” by Tobias S. Buckell
“The Island” by Peter Watts
“SETI for Profit” by Gregory Benford
“But, Still, I Smile” by D. A. Xiaolin Spires
“Martian Fever” by Julie Nováková

In her introduction, Nováková notes that the question of whether life exists away from Earth is a timeless question for humanity, and that science fiction from around the world has focused on it. The purpose of the anthology, she writes, “is to use good science fiction stories to let the reader accessibly learn more about astrobiology.”

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Stories, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy, Biology

386 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Julie Novakova is a Czech author and translator of science fiction, fantasy and detective stories. She has published short fiction in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Analog and other magazines and anthologies. Her work in Czech includes seven novels, one anthology (“Terra Nullius”) and over thirty short stories and novelettes. Some of her works have been also translated into Chinese, Romanian and Estonian. She received the Encouragement Award of the European science fiction and fantasy society in 2013, the Aeronautilus award for the best Czech short story of 2014 and 2015, and for the best novel of 2015. Julie is an evolutionary biologist by study and also takes a keen interest in planetary science.

She's currently working on her first SF novel in English, several new short stories and managing a new translation project.

***

Julie Nováková (*1991 v Praze) je autorkou science fiction, fantasy a detektivních příběhů. Publikovala samostatné romány Zločin na Poseidon City (2009), Tichá planeta (2011) a Nikdy nevěř ničemu (2011), novelu Bez naděje (2014), SF trilogii Blíženci (Prstenec prozření, Elysium, Hvězdoměnci; 2015) a více než třicet povídek. Dosud pět povídek jí vyšlo v časopisech a antologiích v anglickém jazyce, další se chystají k publikaci. Jako editorka se poprvé objevila v antologii Terra nullius (2015). V roce 2013 obdržela cenu evropského fandomu Encouragement Award. Kromě psaní beletrie se věnuje též studiu biologie na PřF UK, publicistice, popularizaci vědy a výuce tvůrčího psaní na workshopech společně s autorem Janem Kotoučem.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent anthology. I love the concept of sci-fi mixed with actual science. Each story is accompanied by a short scientific exploration of the main theme, in which is debated its plausibility.

War, Ice, Egg, Universe, by G. David Nordley - told from an alien perspective - very strange and hard to imagine. The way it was written reminded me of Greg Egan's Dichronauts. 4*

Into the Blue Abyss, by Geofrey A. Landis - follows an expedition on Uranus, with an unexpected outcome. 3*

Backscatter, by Gregory Benford - simply superb; my imagination bloomed. 5*

A Jar of Goodwill, by Tobias S. Beckell - about moral and ethical choices when a species' survival is at stake. 5*

The Island, by Peter Watts - how I miss Watts' writing! I've read this one a few years back and it was great to reread it. It's a marvelous story, and his writing is exquisite. It's part of the Sunflower cycle, but can be read on its own. 5*

SETI for Profit, by Gregory Benford - funny and unexpected. 3*

But, Still, I Smile, by D.A. Xiaolin Spires - would have been a great story but the constant analogy with the miscarriage and lost baby gave me the creeps. 2*

Martian Fever, by Julie Nováková - a scientific team on a Mars base discover Martian life in the worst possible way. 4*

Don't miss it, especially since it's available for free on European Astrobiology Institute site, here: https://europeanastrobiology.eu/stran.... (Can't wait for the next anthology, Life Beyond US, which hopefully will be published in September this year. )

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology is available online here: https://www.julienovakova.com/strange...
TOC and story details: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?...

Stories:
● War, Ice, Egg, Universe • (2002) • novelette by G. David Nordley. First published in Asimov's 2002. A fictional wartime adventure in an alternate Europa. Weak 3 stars: decent but wooden writing.

● Into the Blue Abyss • (1999) • short story by Geoffrey A. Landis. First published in Asimov's 1999. An expedition to Uranus! About which, the MC had known only dumb jokes: “Hey, there are rings of dirt around Uranus!” Which is true (I think). The mission is to seek life in Uranus's world-ocean. Spoiler warning: They succeed! Good story. Easy 4 stars. Landis is an old pro.

● Backscatter • (2013) • short story by Gregory Benford. First published at tor.com, which is where I first read it. My 2020 review is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A first-rate hard-SF space-travel story. 4+ stars, recommended reading. Nováková's follow-on essay has some interesting speculations as well. Worth reading.

● A Jar of Goodwill • (2010) • novelette by Tobias S. Buckell. First published in Clarkesworld. A first-rate first-contact story, and that's just the start of it. Best story yet in the anthology. Don't miss! One of Buckell's best, which is saying a lot. Very close to a full 5-stars.
Nováková's short essay on the story topic is also very good.

● The Island • [Sunflower Cycle] • (2009) • novelette by Peter Watts. First story in that series. I own a copy (and it's free online anyway), but I'd never read it. I'm somewhat allergic to Watt's stuff. This is a good one, though: a billion-year intergalactic wormhole-sower mission, with an idiot-savant boss, the Earth long gone, and the descendants of humans strange indeed. I'll have to read the rest of the series. 4+ stars! Good essay, too.

● SETI for Profit • (2008) • short story by Gregory Benford. This was a Nature short-short that I missed when it was new. Glad to finally read it! Benford is really good at his sort of thing. Easy 4 stars, and an easy 5-minute read. Don't miss!

● But, Still, I Smile • (2019) • short story by D. A. Xiaolin Spires. First published in Clarkesworld. An odd story of the first interstellar voyage, and exploration of life on an exoplanet at Proxima Centauri. This one didn't work for me. DNF.

● Martian Fever • (2019) • novelette by Julie Novakova. First published in Analog. First colony on Mars! Martian life is discovered, when a Martian microbe infects a colonist. I'll avoid spoilers, but the colony survives. Analog puzzle story: weak 3 stars. Not really my cup of tea.

As in all anthologies, I liked some stories more than others. 5 were first-rate, 2 so-so, one a DNF. A good anthology overall: 3 stars.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of SF that delves on the subject of extraterrestrial life. I read is as a part of Buddy Read in July 2020 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.

This is a peculiar collection. Usually SF works are collected by professional SF writers/editors. Julie Nováková is an author, but her main job is an evolutionary biologist and educator. Each of the stories has an afterword, where she discusses what our current knowledge about life and universe tells us about a possibility of a situation depicted is the story, from under-ice egg-like oceans to life where sun supplies a tiny percentage of what Earth gets to Fermi’s paradox.

There are the following stories:

War, Ice, Egg, Universe by G. David Nordley a story about a sentient life living in oceans behind deep ice cover, local scientists debating the nature of universe, exploring and helping against invasion. 3.5 stars – it is hard to get one’s mind into truly alien thinking and concepts, so while fascinating, a bit hard to read

Into the Blue Abyss by Geoffrey Landis possibility of life is detected in the oceans of Uranus, which are possibly ten times deeper than Earth ones and a team in special power armor is sent to investigate. 3 stars – an attempt to throw too many ideas into a short story prevents detailing them

Backscatter by Gregory Benford a classic SF one idea story – an astronaut is stranded on an iceteroid and is using a previously unknown multicellular life to escape. 2 stars, too straightforward and while idea is good, it is just too unlikely

A Jar of Goodwill by Tobias S. Buckell after Earth civilization is overcome in a peculiar way by copyright adoring aliens, to get a chance of normal life one should get new patents even if it means killing others. 4.5 stars, a great idea for the setting and interesting choices. Definitely an author to check.

The Island by Peter Watts a Hugo-winning novella set in the same setting as The Freeze-Frame Revolution. The ship-world travels at a fraction of lightspeed from point to point creating some way for wormhole-like jumps for Earth civilization million years after the program has been started. They receive signals from possibly a sentient life. 5 stars but the whole cycle should be read for better understanding

SETI for Profit by Gregory Benford a short piece: a billionaire announces that his financing of SETI allowed to finally find signals from out there, but he will divulge details only if is paid. 3 stars

But, Still, I Smile by D. A. Xiaolin Spires the only non-hard SF story and the first here written by a woman, which may support the claim “women cannot write hard SF”, but the very next piece disproves them. A story about a member of interstellar team, traumatized by failed pregnancies, who help understand an alien form through her experience. 2 stars, just not my kind of story.

Martian Fever by Julie Nováková a story about a Mars expedition contracting a local ‘flu’ and fighting it. Solid 4 stars for solid hard SF.

[Kaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather mixed collection - some really cool ideas, but the stories didn't always measure up. My favorites were “War, Ice, Egg, Universe” by G. David Nordley, “A Jar of Goodwill” by Tobias S. Buckell, and “Martian Fever” by Julie Nováková.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting much from this collection published not by a typical publisher, but by a scientific institute. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked all the stories to some extent and very much liked a few, including The Island by Peter Watts.

[Kateblue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read all the stories except one which I read the beginning of. I read none of the other material.

I would write more about each story, but no time now. My overall impression of all of them was . . . Meh. Most of the futures were SO depressing, for one thing.

I did like “SETI for Profit” by Gregory Benford a bit more. 3* for it

[Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever and memorable anthology of astrobiological sience-fiction, Strangest of All presents a well-arranged collection of stories that human encounters with non-humanoid lifeforms in non-Class M planets and celestial bodies. The stories deal as much with the excitement and dangers of human exploration (but nothing as simple as "cowboys in space"), as with the ethical implications of how and why humans deal with those lifeforms (including the debate of whether or not some of them classify as life). The authors deal with the scientifical, technological, and ethical issues involved in those interactions. Of course, the aim of this stories is also to share as much sound science as possible, but all of the authors manage to seamlessly integrate that information with their stories. Readers certainly finish each story and the whole book with plenty food for thought and an increased thirst for knowledge. And the discussions that follow each story, the succinct bibliography, and the ideas for class discussion/exercises (all provided by Nováková) doubtlessly increase the value of the anthology and provide context for each story that non-scientist readers will certainly appreciate. Overall, 4.5 stars because some passages and some descriptions do not quite achieve the balance between science and entertainment.

[Xavi Aznar · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Strangest of all" es una recopilación de relatos cortos de ciencia-ficción. Hasta ahí, nada destacable. Lo que lo diferencia de otras recopilaciones similares son los comentarios de la editora, astrobióloga, que aporta un comentario/reflexión desde un punto de vista estríctamente cientfíco a lo que se describe en cada relato; ¿podrían las formas de vida que aparecen realmente existir? ¿qué misiones o proyectos hay en marcha al respecto? El conjunto de relatos cubre todo el espectro: desde la búsqueda de señales ("SETI for profit") a las dificultades para interaccionar con esas formas de vida alienígenas y los problemas -e incluso peligros- tanto para los seres humanos como para los alienígenas.

Es un libro orientado a la divulgación, tanto por las explicaciones de la editora, las referencias para profundizar en lo citado en sus comentarios o las actividades propuestas para realizar en las aulas en base a cada relato.

Como novela de ciencia-ficción, la calidad de los relatos es muy variable y, en general, correcta, sin que ninguno destaque. El hecho de ser relatos cortos tampoco ayuda, especialmente cuando los relatos intentan describir los alienígenas o los mundos que habitan. Siendo la mayoría de autores académicos, los relatos tienen cierto tono de documental y carecen de la tensión o el misterio necesario para enganchar al lector.

En general, una buena iniciativa con el soporte del European Astrobiology Institute como alternativa a la suspensión de convención anual por culpa de la pandemia.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short stories, generally centered on alien life existing in particularly weird environments or otherwise extremely strange from human perspective. After each, there's a short essay discussing the science behind the story and whether life like that might really be possible.

It's certainly a cool idea for an anthology (and apparently another, longer one with a similar concept was just recently successfully Kickstarted), and the stories are mostly interesting. One, "The Island" by Peter Watts, I'd already read (and enjoyed) a couple times before but the rest were new to me.

Two of the stories didn't really go with the premise. At least one was completely human based and looked at SETI, which I could sort of see as being tangentially connected, and yet it's not really a story about the strangeness of alien life and so it felt a bit disappointing after a few of the other cool stories... not just for that, it didn't really feel that good, like the premise (ending included) was meant as a the kind of joke you might smile at, or the twist of a forgettable Outer Limit episode rather than a believable story of how a situation like this might go down. The another, "But Still, I Smile" by D. A. Xiaolin Spires sort of deal with a strange alien species and yet felt like a jarring inclusion because the others felt like at least an attempt to portray an alien life with some amount of scientific rigor--a variety of hard SF, in other words, whereas that one felt like just a random 'wouldn't it be cool?' idea that worked more as a metaphor than an actual encounter? Nothing particularly wrong with that, but didn't feel like it fit in with the book, and wasn't to my tastes otherwise.

There were only eight stories in total, and, leaving out "The Island", I can't think of one that particularly jumped out at me as best. Probably between “War, Ice, Egg, Universe” by G. David Nordley which had a cool alien mindset that was fun to try and wrap my brain around, and "A Jar of Goodwill" by Tobias S. Buckell.

The collection was offered for free, so certainly worth a look. I'd say probably in the 3-3.5 stars range on its own but bumping it up to 4 for that alone (or rather, bumping it up to somewhere above 3.5 which would then round up to 4).

[Mike Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like books that make me feel smarter than I really am. This one succeeds in that respect, while providing some good entertainment along the way.
Too much science fiction allows itself to be too easily classified as "hard" or "soft", each disregarding the major aspects of the other. While that may be fine for the aficionado of either style, for the general reader, it can make the genre daunting to approach.
For this reader, the best science fiction should have a balanced approach, considering the human element within the context of the wider possibilities opened up by advancing science and technology. In general, the stories in this collection strike that balance nicely, making it an equally good read for the hardcore fan or the interested browser.
I particularly like the brief scientific discussions that follow each story. This is something I'd like to see more of in the genre as it gives the reader a chance to consider the real world ramifications of the ideas explored in the fiction, and grounds the fiction on an empirical basis.
Plus, reading the afterwords makes me feel smarter than I am, and allows me to use big words like "ramifications" and "empirical", and that's all to the good.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology is a collaboration between the European Astrobiology Institute and Julie Nováková, who is the collections editor, and contributes the final story in the collection. This anthology focuses on science fiction stories that feature possible types of alien life. These stories explore the possibilities, from vacuum flowers to living Dyson spheres. There are scientific essays following each story, that explore the concepts exhibited in the story. There are even a series of questions for discussion after each essay that could be used in a educational setting or a discussion group.

The stories in the collection are reprints from other sources, but I found they were all interesting and all but one were new to me. Ms. Nováková is herself both a scientist and an accomplished Czech author. This is a great collection that satisfies the science fiction reader, educates the reader on real scientific concepts, and what’s more it is free to download from the European Astrobiology Institute. What more could one want from an anthology?

[Gary Varga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally love the matching of real science based Sci-Fi stories with a discussion of the science behind them. This allows me to enjoy the speculative fiction as well as advance my own knowledge. It is in stark contrast to some of the popular Sci-Fi that I read and I like both styles all the more for reading the other.

The stories, or rather the speculation, for me allowed me to really consider what I think of the universe in terms of astrobiology. This really involved me in each of these tales and made for a more immersive experience overall.

The stories were varied, well written, interesting, and well founded in scientific knowledge, apparently (I don't doubt it but didn't read all the references to prove it).

A great read for anyone interested in, what I have heard termed, hard and/or speculative Science Fiction.

[idle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable collection of stories that involve extraterrestrial life - but no humanoids or M-class planets here. These examples of life have found ways to survive in the most unusual or extreme environments, while also surviving at least some scientific examination: this is how scientists imagine the life we might actually find one day. And each story is followed by a comment that expands some of its topics from a scientifical point of view.

[Darinel Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Para la versión electrónica de 2020:
Las historias están ok, la más destacable es la de Martian Fever, pero lo realmente bueno son las notas y las preguntas para estudiantes/clases después de cada una

[Replica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting concepts but the stories were pretty forgettable. If you read hard sci-fi often enough there won’t be many surprises for you here.

[Francesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commentato qui: https://leggendoeguardando.blogspot.c...