Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System

by Mike Ashley (Editor)

An original concept featuring a Golden Age science fiction for every planet in the Solar System, Born of the Sun includes never-before-republished material from the British Library collection, effectively exclusive by their rarity. This is the 7th of our weighty Science Fiction Classics anthologies, a set which wonderfully embodies the Golden Age of the genre.

Terror in the steamy jungles of Venus, encounters on the arid expanse of Jupiter; asteroids mysteriously bursting with vegetation whizz past and reveal worlds beyond imagination orbiting the giver of all known life, the Sun. Mike Ashley curates this literary tour through the space around this heavenly body, taking in the sights of Mercury, Venus, Mars, an alternate Earth, strange goings on on Saturn and tales from a bizarre civilization on Neptune. Pluto (still a planet in the Classic period of Science fiction) becomes the site for a desperate tale of isolation, and a nameless point at the limits of the Sun’s orbital space gives rise to a final poetic vision of this spot in the universe we call home...

Born of the Sun collects one story for each of the planets thought to be in our solar system during the Golden Age of Science fiction, from some of the greatest, and from some of the most obscure, authors of the genre. Featuring the genius works of Larry Niven, Poul Andersen, Clifford D Simak, Clare Winger Harris and many more.

Contents:
* Introduction: Solar Tour (Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System) • essay by Mike Ashley
* Sunrise on Mercury (1957) / short story by Robert Silverberg
* The Hell Planet (1932) / novelette by Leslie F. Stone
* Foundling on Venus (1954) / short story by Dorothy de Courcy, John de Courcy
* The Lonely Path (1961) / novelette by John Ashcroft
* Garden in the Void (1952) / novelette by Poul Anderson
* Desertion [City] (1944) / short story by Clifford D. Simak
* How Beautiful with Banners (1966) / short story by James Blish
* Where No Man Walks (1952) / short story by E. R. James
* A Baby on Neptune (1929) / novelette by Miles J. Breuer, M.D., Clare Winger Harris
* Wait It Out [Known Space] (1968) / short story by Larry Niven
.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

335 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection from the British Library! This was one of the series that is available via Kindle Unlimited so I jumped in quickly. I'm enjoying delving into these obscure tales from the past getting to see how the planets, in this case, were imagined. I enjoyed the majority of these and especially enjoyed the introductions to each story. This is the second I've read in the series and I will continue with the British Library Science Fiction Classics.

Here are my thoughts on each story:

Mercury: Sunrise on Mercury by Robert Silverberg - in which first contact has interesting consequences. A very well told story with a very neat ending. The ship in the story was named after the French astronomer who located Neptune: Urbain Leverrier. This has, I thought, one of the best intros to the story in all of the book.

Vulcan: The Hell Planet by Leslie F. Stone- in which the quest for riches leads most on a mission to forget that they have a need for a more important necessity. The lesson is learnt too late and it's a rather sad, futile tale but has one of the best monologues to close it out. 

Venus: Foundling on Venus by John and Dorothy De Courcy- this was a great story for setting the scene of the hellscape that is New Reno but I honestly didn't get the ending nor see the point of the story. Still worth reading.    

Mars: The Lonely Path by John Ashcroft- this one may be my favourite of all. at novella length, it is a poignant story about a Tower found on Mars by a mission group and what happens when they figure out how to get inside. The beginning is a bit slow but as soon as an in-depth investigation of the Tower begins, it became a completely immersive and compelling story. The story intro mentions that the author wrote a companion to this called No Longer Alone and the two comprised an entire novel-length work. It actually hurt to read it was lost and this will remain the only part of the story we'll know. A true loss. 

Asteroid Belt: Garden in the Void by Poul Anderson- in which a couple stop off on a green asteroid in the Belt and meet a gardener. This one leans in on horror before all was said and done. I could see it coming but I kept hoping it would turn out differently. An atmospheric and well told story.

Jupiter: Desertion by Clifford D. Simak- in which human exploration of planets means changing the humans into beings that are suited to the world itself. Kind of a terrifying story just based on that but turns a bit brighter in tone. My favourite character was Miss

Saturn: How Beautiful with Banners by James Blish- a strange tale that ultimately wasn't my cup of tea.

Uranus: Where No Man Walks byE.R. James- in which employees of a mining company are pushed beyond the limit in the search for a deeper diamond seam. One, in particular, has sacrificed quite a lot and has interesting thoughts on his position in relation to his colleagues in this place. The end with a visit from corporate was a good moment. This story, along with the Jupiter and asteroid in the Belt stories impressed upon me that I do not have the heart of a miner.  

Neptune: A Baby on Neptune by Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer-

Pluto: Wait It Out by Larry Niven- in which we end the book with a really sad tale of stranding. It's a good one, nevertheless.

Recommended. :)

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touring the Solar System…

This collection of ten vintage science fiction stories takes us on a tour of our Solar System. There are six of the seven actual planets in the system (excluding Earth). Saturn’s moon Titan is included instead of the planet itself. Pluto is included because it was considered a planet until Neil De Grasse Tyson viciously demoted it to lump of rock or some such. The Asteroid Belt gets its own entry since there have been lots of stories about it. And there’s a mysterious planet, Vulcan – never seen but once postulated to exist by scientists trying to explain the oddness of Mercury’s orbit before Einstein’s theories provided a better explanation; and exercising a considerable magnetic pull on the imaginations of SF writers of the time.

The editor, Mike Ashley (who is wonderful at these anthologies, by the way), has chosen most of the stories from the ‘40s and ‘50s, with just a couple of earlier ones and a couple from the ‘60s. He explains that this is because he wanted to “select stories that took at least some notice of the scientific understanding of the day”. Before each story there is an introduction to the planet, giving its dual history – the advances in scientific understanding of its physical properties over the decades, along with a potted history of how it was viewed and used over time by SF writers. These intros are fantastic – pitched at absolutely the right level for the interested non-scientist and packed full of examples of authors and specific stories to investigate further. Each story is also prefaced with fabulous pictures of the relevant planetscape, mostly as envisioned by Lucien Rudaux, a French artist and astronomer of the early 20th century. I must say that, much though I enjoyed most of the stories, it was the intros in this one that made it extra special – of all the great anthologies the BL has produced this year, this one is my favourite by miles… or I should probably say, by light-years!

Onto the actual stories! Of the ten, I gave six either 4 or 5 stars, and only a couple were duds for me, one which went on too long and another which I simply didn’t understand, so it may work fine for the more science-minded reader. Here’s a flavour of a few of those I most enjoyed:

Foundling on Venus by John and Dorothy De Courcy. A story of the various races and species all living in New Reno, a frontier town on Venus, with all the violence and vice that usually comes with that. The story tells of a child found in the street by a young woman, and we gradually learn how he, and she, came to be there.

The Lonely Path by John Ashcroft. Mars! The first manned flight has landed on Mars, sent to examine a strange tower standing hugely high in the desolate landscape. The astronauts gradually discover the purpose of the tower and what happened to its builder. It’s an excellent, novelette-length story, well-told, interesting and thoughtful.

Garden in the Void by Poul Anderson. Set in the Asteroid Belt, this tells of two prospectors, hoping to strike it rich so they can return to earth. One day they spot a green asteroid and land to investigate. They find it is covered in vegetation and has its very own gardener – a human who was stranded there many years before and has developed a kind of symbiotic relationship with the plants. I found this quite a creepy story, very well told, with lots of science that mostly went right over my head, but I was still able to follow the story easily.

Wait It Out by Larry Niven. This is “hard” SF – i.e., based on real science, but explained well enough that there’s no need to be an astrophysicist to understand the story! Our narrator is one of the two men aboard the first ship to land on Pluto. But they land on ice, and their nuclear powered engine temporarily melts it. As soon as they switch their engine off, the ice refreezes and their ship is trapped. This is a bleak story but very well told, and I found the ideas in it left me feeling a bit discombobulated.

So some excellent stories in here, enhanced by the fantastic introductions. If you’re interested in science fiction in even the mildest way, then I heartily recommend this anthology to you. Great stuff!

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an anthology with roughly one story per planet in our solar system appropriately themed thereof. It hovers between hard science fiction and classic sci-fi with selections from some of the masters of the field. Each story has an introduction section not only telling the scientific facts of the planet but also the literary facts of the planet-I.e. what was the first story written about that planet (and the age of the most classic of classic sci-fi may well surprise!), the rough plots and literary trends dealing with the planet and its scientific understanding over the centuries and decades.

The anthology starts strong with “Sunrise on Mercury” by Silverbrtg, dealing with questions of sanity and morality in an expedition to this world of extreme cold and fire in a gripping story rife with action and tension from the start.

“The Hell Planet” written about the sci-fi planet Vulcan (that some postulated was near mercury creating mercuries static orbit who’s existence has since been disproven) presents a sort of “Heart of Darkness” style tale where earthlings try to manipulate Vulcan natives in an effort to claim precious metals by convincing the natives they are Gods while being at constant risk if death from the high radiation levels on the planet. So it is that the story has a nice mix of man vs man coupled with man vs environment in an interesting immersive prose style.

The Venus section has a truly interesting lead in that nicely encapsulated all the literary trends on writing about Venus over the centuries (though each planet has such a section)-therein it was pointed out that traditionally living Venus stories usually presented a sort of paradise driven, artistic venusians or savage, primal venusians; often there is a jungle environment, sometimes a water world, and slowly, as science settled in, desert stories of a sort. It seems that going with the more scientific trends this is a sort of desert, inhospitable Venus story, though while I enjoyed the story, I was kind of disappointed with its representational aspect. This story could have been any planet, anywhere for the most part. Though, as stated, the story was beautiful all the same, with a nice surprise or two towards the end.

The Mars story “the Lonely Path” has a philosophical depth that is good sci-fi at its best. The writing is austere and fairly minimalistic, but with flashes of beauty and humor that make it enjoyable like some gorgeous movie. One definitely feels one’s perspective enlarged after reading this piece beautiful bittersweet story.

“Garden in the Void” is gorgeously written with a pathos channeled by striking imagery told in fiery splashes depicting a sad, lonely (human ?!?) tale of love and loss, in my opinion at least. Haunting indeed.

“Desertion” our Jupiter story for me was the most sci-fi out of the set so far with a theme of mental expansion and greater universal oneness that felt like a key note if hippy culture despite it being written in the 1940s. The premise is fun and imaginative, laced with excitement, social tension, and mystery.

I will concede that I read “How Beautiful with Banners” on my lunch break at work. As such I didn’t get a good enough read on it to review it properly. Sorry. My bad.

“Where No Man Walks” is another sort of transformation, endurance adventure story. It was fairly action packed, but felt a bit lacking to me, but then I read half of this on lunch breaks at work too so I probably missed a bunch of content.

The Neptune section begins with a nice low down of that world both factually and literally literally as the others, and after reading of some of the authors other words I was relatively excited to read this work. However, upon beginning I encountered a fairly stogy prose that would feel at home with todays works and a very academic piece bolstered by old science as I suppose is rather common with classic sci -fi. We are presented with the passing of centuries and the worlds most boring first contact, I think? But then we meet the “recordings on a steal tape” section and the story gains an immediacy and energy, at least comparitevly to the earlier section. As one continues on it is clear that the authors had a good understanding of physics and engineering, at least for those days and times. At times there is a subtle humor to some of the science sections. In this rather dry way the story continues on to present an intriguing scientific mystery of a sort. While this writing style will never be my favorite, I can see an appeal and enjoyment at least. And then, when the mystery clears, drama done in the fine philosophical form that only the best sci-fi can seemingly manage so well.

The last story, Wait it Out, by Larry Niven is a sort of stream of conscious tale centered on man vs environment in the extreme cold at the edge of the solar system. It was short and a touch painful-though hard science at the time of its writing I don’t think it would stand up to scrutiny today.

In conclusion, I’d recommend this anthology for sci-fi fans and those interested in the history and literary history of our solar system. 3 out of 5 stars.

[D J Rout · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book thinking I'd be seeing classic stories. That is to say, stories written during the Golden Age of Science Fiction, the period from the 30's ot the 50's. There are some stories from that period, but one of the stories is "Wait It Out" by Larry Niven which is from 1968, a great story and, I suppose, at fifty years old, classic—but it'a not from the classic era.

Okay, having said that, here's the contents:

Sunrise on Mercury – Robert Silverberg
The Hell Planet – Leslie F. Stone
Foundling on Venus – John and Dorothy De Courcy
The Lonely Path – John Ashcroft
Garden in the Void – Poul Anderson
Desertion – Clifford D. Simak
How Beautiful with Banners – James Blish
Where No Man Walks – E.R. James
A Baby on Neptune – Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer
Wait It Out – Larry Niven

Of those, 'Desertion' is the one I would call a classic. The Harris & Breuer story is a cute one from the 20's that shows you how those stories used to be written (and are thus fodder for a sendup if you anted to do one) and the others are reasonably entertaining, except maybe 'Garden in the Void' which is creepy.

Mike Ashley gives informative introductions to the stories in the field that are about the particular planet he's covering, and bios of each author and intros to each story. This is part of the British Library Classic SF series, and I wish I could find a full listing of that series so I could get them all.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review was also posted to my blog here.

-

I’d read Science Fiction off and on, but it wasn’t until I had to study for a module on SF during my English Literature undergraduate days that I really got into it. In particular, I really enjoyed The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, edited by Tom Shippey. I remember distinctly the moment I realised this was a literature I was seriously interested in; it was when I finished Frederik Pohl’s The Tunnel Under the World. Between that mind-blowing story, my first encounter with Ballard’s short fiction in Billenium, also in the same collection, and the sheer breadth of the other stories. I knew this was something I needed to investigate further. 

One of the first things I did was read some of PKD’s short fiction. Up until then I was only familiar with his major novels, but it was the short fiction where his ideas are most concentrated and effective, in my opinion. The intense blasts of paranoia and weirdness these stories aimed directly at my brain encouraged me to start writing my own weird short fiction (some of which I published and are available here). 

I’d been meaning to read more SF short stories for a while as a kind of long term, free form project, partly for enjoyment and partly for research purposes, because if you intend to write good fiction, you should read a lot of the kind of fiction you intend to write. 

Browsing in the library, I discovered a series from The British Library called Science Fiction Classics, themed anthologies of SF stories, edited by Mike Ashley, who I hadn’t encountered before, but who apparently also edits the Mammoth Book of… series. There were a few of these British Library anthologies in the library, I borrowed them and will be making my way through them as and when I can. I also had a lot of fun reviewing each story in the form of a single tweet, #onetweetreviews, like I did for the first volume of Ballard’s short fiction. I have copied the tweets below, but if you’d rather read them in a twitter thread, you can find it here. 

The first anthology I had a look at was Born of the Sun: Adventures in our Solar System. There’s a story for every planet in our solar system, and a couple of interesting additions to fill it out. Each story is introduced by Ashley, fitting the story into its proper context both within SF as a whole and among other stories about the same planet. These introductions might be old news to a lot of hardcore SF fans, but they probably wouldn’t be looking at these anthologies. To interested newcomers like me, who might have heard of Robert Silverberg and read one of his stories in another anthology but otherwise know little, these introductions are great. 

I could say the same thing about this anthology that you can say about any anthology; there are a few dull stories, a few that blew my mind. I did enjoy Ashley’s focus on stories that haven’t been anthologised before, I suppose that’s him flexing his knowledge as a historian of popular fiction. I’d never heard of E.R. James for example, but if I see his name in another anthology at some point, I’ll know to be excited. 

I liked this anthology a lot. I look forward to reading the other ones. 







-




Sunrise on Mercury by Robert Silverberg 

Mercury

There's nothing quite like a touch of Space Madness. SF and horror are often very close. Have you seen Event Horizon?




The Hell Planet by Leslie F. Stone

Vulcan

An anti-colonial SF story from 1931 with some horrifying Ancient Mariner elements. Enjoyable but overlong, imo. 




Foundling on Venus by John and Dorothy De Courcy

Venus

Who knew a story where a little alien man tears off his human child skin costume could be so heartwarming?




The Lonely Path by by John Ashcroft

Mars

A first contact and time travel story rolled into one. If you ever wondered how the aliens who sent down the monolith in 2001 felt about Earth, this story will intrigue you. 




Garden in the Void by Poul Anderson

Asteroid Belt

There are some environments you don't want to adapt to.




Desertion by Clifford D. Simak

Jupiter

And some environments that you just might. What a beautiful story in its way. And also, wow, Avatar was even less original than I'd thought. 




How Beautiful with Banners by James Blish

Venus

You just can't trust single celled organisms.




Where No Man Walks by E.R. James

Uranus

There's always a new market. Space as resource to be extracted regardless of cost. 




A Baby on Neptune by Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer

Neptune

A story for those who've ever wondered about the damage they wreak on the ants by walking across grass. 




Wait It Out by Larry Niven

Pluto

Reminds me of Ubik, do wonder if Dick read this while he was writing it. As much as I like a space adventure, I do love a story that acknowledges how easy it is for everything in space to go totally wrong. 

[Katariina · Rating 4 out of 5]

READ 2021

Right away when I saw this book, I knew I had to buy it. Gorgeous title? Check. Gorgeous cover? Check. And it contains a story about every planet in our solar system?? Uhm, yes. Take my money and go. As a collection, I enjoyed it quite a lot! I'll write shortly about each and every one of them. (Oh and I also LOVED that there was a picture before each planet where we could see how big the sun would look.)

MERCURY
Sunrise on Mercury - Robert Silverberg
It was a good start to this collection. Not my favourite, but a nice introduction. I liked the aspect about this kind of different type of intelligent life, like some kind of mind readers and wish granters. Also I loved that ending, it's exactly how I like novellas to end. However, I was confused when they talked so much about "degrees". SPEAK SENSE. Do you mean Celsius (which is the best and only truly acceptable option), Fahrenheit (which is the worst and dumb) or Kelvin (which would be a little more comprehensible)... what is it!?

VULCAN
The Hell Planet - Leslie F. Stone
I don't remember too much about this story, but I imagine that what I liked most about it was just the planet itself - which obviously doesn't really exist, but people used to believe it did. This story mostly made me angry at people, because they just arrive at this planet and meet the natives, call them "savages" and won't even try to learn most of their names. They just want to take what they came for and leave. I'm tired of your bullshit :) But it was interesting that everything was Radium, though, and humans can't eat anything.

VENUS
Foundling on Venus - John & Dorothy de Courcy
All I remember is that it was quite a mysterious story. It was somehow the one I could understand both the most and the least. This is the best planet, so I might be a little biased, but I really liked the story - and the ending especially.

MARS
The Lonely Path - John Ashcroft
This one was definitely one of my favourites from this collection! I was pleasantly surprised, since I usually find stories of Mars kinda boring. I guess that's because they're the most common. However, I absolutely adored this take on it, with intelligent rodents on Mars! And it was so cute when Guide and Sanderson met. One thing I also appreciated was the aspect of time, and now, maybe for the first time, I truly understand the appeal of Martians existing.

ASTEROID BELT
Garden in the Void - Paul Anderson
I really liked this one as well, and it was one of my favourites. I don't know about the actual science and how believable it is, but I loved the concept of a garden on a meteor, and of a gardener who has to become a part of the plant to survive. It was the most mysterious and dark of the stories here, I think. And you guessed it - loved the ending as well.

JUPITER
Desertion - Clifford D. Simak
This story was rather short, but enjoyable. However, not the most memorable one. The concept was different and interesting, although it's unclear how it could possibly work... I like the idea that we humans think we are the greatest and the best, but in the vast Universe, we would just be regarded as stupid and dumb. I relate to that.

SATURN
How Beautiful with Banners - James Blish
I mean, it wasn't bad, but... I don't really know what it was at all. Maybe I was just too uncultured to appreciate this or understand the point of it. I've already forgotten most of it.

URANUS
Where No Man Walks - E. R. James
My comment on this one is rather similar to Saturn. It was perfectly alright, but it didn't grab my attention like some other stories did. At least there was some action.

NEPTUNE
A Baby on Neptune - Clare Winger Harris & Miles J. Breuer
Now, it gets good again. Loved this! Absolutely one of my favourites. Sure, maybe the info dumps in the beginning were a bit too long, but then again, this story was also written for educational purposes. It was fascinating to read about communication between two so very different species and two so very different worlds, and how they function in so different ways .- the humans couldn't even see the Neptunians at first! And they saved the child 🥺

PLUTO
Wait It Out - Larry Niven
This is thee story that differs the most from the others, in my opinion. It's about a man stranded on Pluto in the cold, so he's kind of losing his mind, and most of the story is just monologue. However, I can appreciate that. I actually loved the writing style; it was so poetic and beautifully moving.

[Pooja Kashyap · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book feels like a journey through the solar system, with a different story connected to each planet. That idea alone is what pulled me in.

I think this book works especially well for readers who are curious about science fiction but don’t know where to start, or for anyone who wants to explore the genre through a planetary theme. If you like the idea of mixing science, imagination, and space in small, manageable pieces, this is a great place to begin.

I bought the book thinking I’d enjoy it, and I did. That said, I realized something about my own taste while reading it, that I tend to prefer longer novellas over short stories. The stories here are good, some are very good, but for me, just as I was getting invested, they’d end. That’s not a flaw in the book, just a personal preference.

Overall, it’s a solid collection and well worth reading, especially if you enjoy short science fiction or want to sample the genre without committing to a full novel. For me, it was less about whether the book was good (it is) and more about discovering what kind of science fiction I enjoy most.

[Saffron · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short sci-fi stories based on our solar system, one story for each planet with an extra thrown in for the asteroid belt.

My personal favourites were the Mars story, The Lonely Path by John Ashcroft, The Jupiter story Desertion by Clifford D Simek, and the Neptune story A Baby on Neptune by Clare Winger Harris & Mile J Breuer.

The compiler Mike Ashley gives a background on each planet, its view of the Sun from its position in the Solar System, and a list of further interesting stories released based on the planets.

An enjoyable compilation in general, there were a couple that I really didn't engage with but overall a good selection.

[Blogul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good ideas but really bad (too old-school, pulp) writing. Before the 60s wave, scifi was cringy AF (except Asimov and Heinlein, not included here). Most of the stories here were also dragged down by terribly bad dialogues.

[Margaret Haigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a real curates egg of a collection, redeemed by the Clifford Simak story.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice anthology of short stories from the solar system. Particularly enjoyed:

Mercury - Sunrise on Mercury
Vulcan - The Hell Planet
Asteroid Belt - Garden in the Void
Neptune - A Baby on Neptune

[Lucinda (Taylor’s version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that - like the planet - the Vulcan story didn't exist

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting short stories about the solar system. Also a good source for classic sci-fi titles.

[Elzemieke]

I chose to write a review because this book does not have many yet and maybe people want a bit more information before starting this book.
This book discusses every planet in the solar system (excluding earth and including vulcan and the asteroid belt). Each chapter represents a planet. The chapters start with a short summary and explanation of the planet itself and what role this planet played in (science finction) novels. It then introduces the author of the featured story, after that the fiction begins.

For my own reference i will give each chapter a rating, to maybe look back on in the future.
1. Mercury: 3/5 not reallly and exciting story but it was interesting and a good start for the book.
2. Vulcan: 5/5 incredible story. The writing style helped me 'see' the story and it made my mouth dry and crave water at certain points. This is what i kind of imagined when visiting an unfamiliar planet and finding life there.
3. Venus: 3/5 this was just too weird for me, the ending was very abrupt and too confusing.
4. Mars: 5/5 also a very interesting story, it got a bit more weird than the others and the ending just leaves so many unanswered questions. Also, the author has humour.
5. ateroid belt: 5/5 This idea for a story is just amazing, i really liked the setting and the idea of a garderner on a lonely asteroid. very open ending with enough room for imagination.
6. jupiter: 4/5 it was an interesting take on outer space stories, the setting was a bit confusing to me (where are they currently and what technology do they use) but the ending and idea were awesome and there's a dog involved which is adorable.
7. saturn: 2/5 did not understand it at all
8. uranus: 1/5 also did not understand and was therefore a long read
9. Neptune: 5/5 amazing story with a happy/closed ending for once, you might want to leave the technological part of it aside but i liked the 'time is moving slower on neptune' trope.
10. pluto: 3/5 a more weird story, the writing style is also a bit confusing to me but i guess that just refelcts the mind of the character (who is left alone on pluto with no chance of getting back and saw his crewmate die). it's a short story and worth a second read but not that exciting.