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Spaceworlds: Stories of Life in the Void
Astronauts constructing a new space station must avert destruction from a missile sent by an unknown enemy; a generation starship is rocked by revelations of who their secret passengers in the hold truly are; a life or death struggle tests an operating surgeon – in orbit, with an alien patient never seen before. Since space flight was achieved, and long before, science fiction writers have been imagining a myriad of stories set in the depths of the great darkness beyond our atmosphere. From generation ships – which are in space so long that there will be generations aboard who know no planetary life – to orbiting satellites in the unforgiving reaches of the vacuum, there is a great range of these insular environments in which thrilling, innovative, and deeply emotional stories may unfold. With the Library’s matchless collection of periodicals and magazines at his fingertips, Mike Ashley presents a stellar selection of tales from the infinite void above us, including contributions from Judith Merril, Jack Vance, and John Brunner.
336 pages, Paperback
Published March 25, 2021
17 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Mike Ashley
277 books129 followersMichael 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.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 20, 2021
Another very good entry in the British Library Science Fiction Classics series. It's one of the series that is available through Kindle Unlimited (at least at the time I've read it). The intros to each story are informative as ever and have again given me more books and authors I want to follow up and read. These have so far been 4-star reads for me so here are my thoughts on each story.
Umbrella in the Sky by E.C. Tubb- in which a project to build a solar sail shield has fallen behind schedule and the narrator is dispatched to find out why. The culprit turns out to be a particular human trait in the end. A very good story and the thing that shocked me most was there was so much smoking! lol
Sail 25 by Jack Vance- in which the man in command, Henry Belt brought down the story. I understood his reasoning to either break or burnish the cadets in his charge but I just didn't like him. Worse, I didn't want him to do anything in this story except die. In story parlance: All the demerits, cannot recommend.
The Longest Voyage by Richard C. Meredith- in which a mission to Jupiter goes catastrophically wrong almost from the beginning. The best thing here is that even in the face of infinitesimal odds, one character devises a great long shot and I was a complete cheering section, pulling for success. One of my favourites.
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey- a poignant tale of a paired team. One human is bound to a ship (the brain) and the other not (the brawn). I liked how their bond was forged and also how when one died the other truly grieved and was supported.
O'Mara's Orphan by James White- in which the tale of a galactic hospital and how the man who came to be the administrator of it achieved the post, wasn't nearly a captivating as I'd thought it would be.
Ultima Thule by Erik Frank Russell- a ship comes out of hyperspace into a void (reminded me of the scenarios in the Star Wars High Republic books) and eventually one of the crew finds that that which is beyond the edge of space isn't the end. Another favourite.
The Voyage that Lasted 600 Years by Don Wilcox- in which a historian along for a 600 ear voyage fails to take into account the history of civilizations so is repeatedly shocked by what happens (to say nothing of his self-interested meddling that results in disruptions). In the end, America prevails. A story I liked for the most part but the end left me dissatisfied.
Survival Ship by Judith Merrill- in which a mission with secrets reveals it's biggest one by the end. A neat read altogether that made me want to read more by the author.
Lungfish by John Brunner- in which things on a generation ship go awry, because of course. This was a good one and reminded me that I had enjoyed very much another story by Brunner that was featured in The Eagle Has Landed: 50 Years of Lunar Science Fiction by Neil Clarke and so I will be reading one of his full length works sooner rather than later.
I'll of course, continue with the series. Recommended.
Umbrella in the Sky by E.C. Tubb- in which a project to build a solar sail shield has fallen behind schedule and the narrator is dispatched to find out why. The culprit turns out to be a particular human trait in the end. A very good story and the thing that shocked me most was there was so much smoking! lol
Sail 25 by Jack Vance- in which the man in command, Henry Belt brought down the story. I understood his reasoning to either break or burnish the cadets in his charge but I just didn't like him. Worse, I didn't want him to do anything in this story except die. In story parlance: All the demerits, cannot recommend.
The Longest Voyage by Richard C. Meredith- in which a mission to Jupiter goes catastrophically wrong almost from the beginning. The best thing here is that even in the face of infinitesimal odds, one character devises a great long shot and I was a complete cheering section, pulling for success. One of my favourites.
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey- a poignant tale of a paired team. One human is bound to a ship (the brain) and the other not (the brawn). I liked how their bond was forged and also how when one died the other truly grieved and was supported.
O'Mara's Orphan by James White- in which the tale of a galactic hospital and how the man who came to be the administrator of it achieved the post, wasn't nearly a captivating as I'd thought it would be.
Ultima Thule by Erik Frank Russell- a ship comes out of hyperspace into a void (reminded me of the scenarios in the Star Wars High Republic books) and eventually one of the crew finds that that which is beyond the edge of space isn't the end. Another favourite.
The Voyage that Lasted 600 Years by Don Wilcox- in which a historian along for a 600 ear voyage fails to take into account the history of civilizations so is repeatedly shocked by what happens (to say nothing of his self-interested meddling that results in disruptions). In the end, America prevails. A story I liked for the most part but the end left me dissatisfied.
Survival Ship by Judith Merrill- in which a mission with secrets reveals it's biggest one by the end. A neat read altogether that made me want to read more by the author.
Lungfish by John Brunner- in which things on a generation ship go awry, because of course. This was a good one and reminded me that I had enjoyed very much another story by Brunner that was featured in The Eagle Has Landed: 50 Years of Lunar Science Fiction by Neil Clarke and so I will be reading one of his full length works sooner rather than later.
I'll of course, continue with the series. Recommended.
May 2, 2023
A varied collection of stories about life in space stations, generation ships etc., what that would do to people, what problems would arise and why people would want to go through that in the first place. The introductions to the collection and the individual stories are top notch and the classic stories themselves still noteworthy. My favorites were the ones by Richard C. Meredith, Anne McCaffrey and Judith Merril. While the stories share a similar setting, there is a good variety in tone, premise and goal of each work. If the subject matter appeals to you, it's very much worth a read.
June 12, 2021
Into the void…
The latest of the themed anthologies in the British Library’s excellent Science Fiction Classics series, this one takes as its theme living in space, either on space stations or ships. As always there’s an informative introduction from the series editor, Mike Ashley, in which he gives a short history of the development of the ideas of how man might make the colossal journeys around the solar system and beyond. The nine stories in this collection date between 1940 to 1967, so late enough for the scientific difficulties of space travel to be well understood, but early enough for the full play of imagination still to have plenty of scope.
There are some well known names among the authors although, since I’m not very knowledgeable about science fiction, several of the authors are new to me, or only familiar from other stories having featured in some of the earlier anthologies in the series. Anne McCaffrey is here – often thought of as a fantasy author but her story here is undoubtedly science fiction. James White, a star of one of the earlier books for me, shows up with another story about his hospital in space, a place designed to deal with all kinds of alien lifeforms. John Brunner, whose stories about The Society of Time the BL recently reissued, finishes the collection with an excellent novelette-length story about a generational starship.
Because of the theme of this collection, only one of the stories involves aliens and the characters rarely land on a planet, but the authors show how varied stories can be even when they share similar settings. A couple of them depended too much on technical problems for my taste – as soon as widgets break down and need to be repaired by ingenious scientific methods my brain seizes up and my eyes glaze over, but that’s simply a subjective issue. The other seven stories are all more about the side of science fiction that interests me much more – examining how humans react when placed in unique situations.
I rated four of the stories as five stars, with the others ranging between three and four, so another very good collection overall. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
The latest of the themed anthologies in the British Library’s excellent Science Fiction Classics series, this one takes as its theme living in space, either on space stations or ships. As always there’s an informative introduction from the series editor, Mike Ashley, in which he gives a short history of the development of the ideas of how man might make the colossal journeys around the solar system and beyond. The nine stories in this collection date between 1940 to 1967, so late enough for the scientific difficulties of space travel to be well understood, but early enough for the full play of imagination still to have plenty of scope.
There are some well known names among the authors although, since I’m not very knowledgeable about science fiction, several of the authors are new to me, or only familiar from other stories having featured in some of the earlier anthologies in the series. Anne McCaffrey is here – often thought of as a fantasy author but her story here is undoubtedly science fiction. James White, a star of one of the earlier books for me, shows up with another story about his hospital in space, a place designed to deal with all kinds of alien lifeforms. John Brunner, whose stories about The Society of Time the BL recently reissued, finishes the collection with an excellent novelette-length story about a generational starship.
Because of the theme of this collection, only one of the stories involves aliens and the characters rarely land on a planet, but the authors show how varied stories can be even when they share similar settings. A couple of them depended too much on technical problems for my taste – as soon as widgets break down and need to be repaired by ingenious scientific methods my brain seizes up and my eyes glaze over, but that’s simply a subjective issue. The other seven stories are all more about the side of science fiction that interests me much more – examining how humans react when placed in unique situations.
I rated four of the stories as five stars, with the others ranging between three and four, so another very good collection overall. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
July 28, 2021
This review first appeared on my blog - https://nsfordwriter.com - on 23rd June 2021.
I found this short story collection underwhelming. I was feeling cautious about the British Library Science Fiction Classics series since reading Beyond Time, but I thought this recently published one sounded exciting and decided to risk it. There was no list of contents anywhere online, so I also took a chance that I hadn’t already read them.
There are 9 stories in this collection, all originally published between 1940 – 1967 and set on space stations or spaceships. I really like this theme that unites them. Although they’re all products of the contemporary era – nearly all of the characters are tough males who smoke cigarettes (in space!), say ‘goddamn’ and are called Fred, Bob, Joe, Mike, etc – every story is amazingly prescient, having been written years before space stations happened for real. The publication dates being close together ensures the collection is more cohesive than Beyond Time was, but the downside is that a few of them seem too similar in style and content. I also thought that the stories were mostly too long. There could have been more stories included, shorter ones, to give more variety.
‘Umbrella in the Sky’ by E C Tubb. A sinister tale, with construction workers on a shield to protect the Earth placing bets on each other’s deaths.
‘Sail 25’ by Jack Vance. A good story about a group of cadets training on a solar-wind powered spaceship under a terrifying alcoholic instructor.
‘The Longest Voyage’ by Richard C Meredith. Nail-biting narrative of the last surviving crew member of a damaged spaceship.
‘The Ship Who Sang’ by Anne McCaffrey. The stand-out story in the collection and the only one which totally wowed me. I’ve read it before but I was happy to re-read.
‘O’Mara’s Orphan’ by James White. Lengthy story of a man, accused of causing the deaths of two aliens by negligence, ordered to take care of the aliens’ baby.
‘Ultima Thule’ by Eric Frank Russell. A crew are lost in empty space and are going crazy because they’ll have to stay there forever. Started off confusing but it became more interesting.
‘The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years’ by Don Wilcox. A miniature epic which explores what could happen on a generation starship over time. Great twist ending.
‘Survival Ship’ by Judith Merril. A fun, clever story addressing the gender balance on starships. I wish there had been more like this in the collection.
‘Lungfish’ by John Brunner. The weakest story in the book, with confusing plot and too many characters, but I’ll give the author credit for having a diverse crew, at odds with most of the other stories.
I don’t regret buying this book, as there are perhaps 3 stories I’d re-read and none I disliked. I’d recommend if you’re looking for more science fiction from the 1950s and 60s, as some of these are unavailable anywhere else, unless you have the original magazines.
I found this short story collection underwhelming. I was feeling cautious about the British Library Science Fiction Classics series since reading Beyond Time, but I thought this recently published one sounded exciting and decided to risk it. There was no list of contents anywhere online, so I also took a chance that I hadn’t already read them.
There are 9 stories in this collection, all originally published between 1940 – 1967 and set on space stations or spaceships. I really like this theme that unites them. Although they’re all products of the contemporary era – nearly all of the characters are tough males who smoke cigarettes (in space!), say ‘goddamn’ and are called Fred, Bob, Joe, Mike, etc – every story is amazingly prescient, having been written years before space stations happened for real. The publication dates being close together ensures the collection is more cohesive than Beyond Time was, but the downside is that a few of them seem too similar in style and content. I also thought that the stories were mostly too long. There could have been more stories included, shorter ones, to give more variety.
‘Umbrella in the Sky’ by E C Tubb. A sinister tale, with construction workers on a shield to protect the Earth placing bets on each other’s deaths.
‘Sail 25’ by Jack Vance. A good story about a group of cadets training on a solar-wind powered spaceship under a terrifying alcoholic instructor.
‘The Longest Voyage’ by Richard C Meredith. Nail-biting narrative of the last surviving crew member of a damaged spaceship.
‘The Ship Who Sang’ by Anne McCaffrey. The stand-out story in the collection and the only one which totally wowed me. I’ve read it before but I was happy to re-read.
‘O’Mara’s Orphan’ by James White. Lengthy story of a man, accused of causing the deaths of two aliens by negligence, ordered to take care of the aliens’ baby.
‘Ultima Thule’ by Eric Frank Russell. A crew are lost in empty space and are going crazy because they’ll have to stay there forever. Started off confusing but it became more interesting.
‘The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years’ by Don Wilcox. A miniature epic which explores what could happen on a generation starship over time. Great twist ending.
‘Survival Ship’ by Judith Merril. A fun, clever story addressing the gender balance on starships. I wish there had been more like this in the collection.
‘Lungfish’ by John Brunner. The weakest story in the book, with confusing plot and too many characters, but I’ll give the author credit for having a diverse crew, at odds with most of the other stories.
I don’t regret buying this book, as there are perhaps 3 stories I’d re-read and none I disliked. I’d recommend if you’re looking for more science fiction from the 1950s and 60s, as some of these are unavailable anywhere else, unless you have the original magazines.
May 21, 2022
Collection of short stories, most are 4* but there are some very 3* stories in there too.
Read
December 13, 2021I'm continuing my Golden Age reads with this collection of stories set in space. Many of the authors were either new to me, or I'd only read one or two stories recently in other collections. Oddly, I met John Brunner once in ~1994 and kept meaning to read his work, but this was the first time I'd had the chance. (Procrastinator? Me?)
The stories were originally published in the forties to sixties. In many, the attitudes to women and smoking stuck out for me.
The collection included mysteries/problems to solve, such as "Umbrella in the Sky" by E. C. Tubb and "The Longest Voyage" by Richard C. Meredith. Others were more an imagining of how someone might deal with a situation, such as "O'Mara's Orphan" by James White and "Ultima Thule" by Eric Frank Russell. I liked the idea of a solar sail as visualised by Jack Vance in "Sail 25," even if I didn't find the story particularly gripping.
A few stories explore different implications of generation ships: where space voyages last longer than a lifetime, and so travellers need to keep the population up. Don Wilcox's "The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years" had a tone of social commentary, although I kept being distracted by the complete improbability of the setup. Brunner's "Lungfish" examined psychological and other implications of being shipborn as opposed to earthborn. Although an interesting thought experiment, I found myself impatient with the older folks for not spotting the bleeding obvious. "Survival Ship" by Judith Merril had a more straightforward and, dare I say it, humorous take.
As with other collections of this sort, the biographical details were more interesting than some of the stories. It was certainly educational to see what technology was being speculated about at the time.
The stories were originally published in the forties to sixties. In many, the attitudes to women and smoking stuck out for me.
The collection included mysteries/problems to solve, such as "Umbrella in the Sky" by E. C. Tubb and "The Longest Voyage" by Richard C. Meredith. Others were more an imagining of how someone might deal with a situation, such as "O'Mara's Orphan" by James White and "Ultima Thule" by Eric Frank Russell. I liked the idea of a solar sail as visualised by Jack Vance in "Sail 25," even if I didn't find the story particularly gripping.
A few stories explore different implications of generation ships: where space voyages last longer than a lifetime, and so travellers need to keep the population up. Don Wilcox's "The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years" had a tone of social commentary, although I kept being distracted by the complete improbability of the setup. Brunner's "Lungfish" examined psychological and other implications of being shipborn as opposed to earthborn. Although an interesting thought experiment, I found myself impatient with the older folks for not spotting the bleeding obvious. "Survival Ship" by Judith Merril had a more straightforward and, dare I say it, humorous take.
As with other collections of this sort, the biographical details were more interesting than some of the stories. It was certainly educational to see what technology was being speculated about at the time.
June 8, 2021
Mike Ashley’s Introduction to this collection is in effect a short history of the earliest SF stories set in space habitats such as a space station, spaceship or generation starship, in any one of which the nine stories herein are set. Their first publications date from 1940 to 1967. Few are without (but in one case plays upon) the mostly unconscious sexism of their times. A theme common to that era of SF, the suffering of a technical problem which must be solved, crops up regularly, though some of the stories do concern themselves with psychological matters.
The eponymous umbrella of Umbrella in the Sky by E C Tubb is a space shield being built to protect Earth from a solar eruption due to the imminent arrival of an anti-matter stream. Our narrator is hired to find out why the work is progressing too slowly. This story invites the reflection that nothing ages as fast as the future. (Consider all those flashing panel lights and toggle switches in the original Star Trek TV series.) This story contains many references to people lighting cigarettes and smoking. In a space-faring environment!
Sail 25 by Jack Vance was originally published as Gateway to Strangeness. A grizzled, curmudgeonly veteran trains a group of recruits to operate a solar sailing ship (the type sometimes known as sunjammers.) He doesn’t make it easy for them.
In The Longest Voyage by Richard C Meredith the first human expedition to Jupiter is beset by problems. Scott Sayers is the only survivor, engine gone, in perpetual orbit round Jupiter. He has to find a way to cobble together some sort of propulsion system to get him back to Earth.
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey was the first SF story to feature a spaceship operated by a human mind. This one, Helva, inspired by music, is able to sing. This is a love story, of sorts.
O’Mara’s Orphan by James White I first read many years ago in the anthology Worlds Apart way back in the 1960s. It is one of White’s “Sector General” tales, set on a habitat designed for dealing with the medical needs of a vast array of alien species. O’Mara’s orphan is the offspring of two Hudlarians killed in an accident during Sector General’s construction. He is given its care as a punishment for his supposed responsibility for their deaths.
Ultima Thule by Eric Frank Russell finds a spaceship with a crew of three men emerging from hyperspace into nowhere – beyond the known universe, with no apparent way back. Each man reacts differently.
What was apparently the first ever generation starship story, The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years by Don Wilcox has thirty-five people setting out on the voyage - two of them stowaways of a sort. The narrator is the odd - therefore unmarried - one out. His job is to be revived every hundred years to solve any problems that have arisen in the interim. Over the generations there are plenty of these as he morphs from potential saviour and god to despised ogre. Just about all the subsequent tropes of this sub-genre are in evidence.
Survival Ship by Judith Merril is another generation starship story. This one is set on the Survival, sent off with much fanfare to “Sirius in fifteen years,” carrying its load of Twenty and Four humans. That capitalisation - and mix - is the single most important aspect of both the voyage and the story.
Lungfish by John Brunner focuses on the difference that developed between tripborn and earthborn as a generation starship nears Trip’s End. Unusually in the stories here, where marriage (and presumably, monogamy) are unquestioned social arrangements, a character in this one reflects that “promiscuity had to be encouraged to ensure the mixing of all genetic factors.”
Most of these stories – if not all – are still immensely readable. And they can still evoke a sense of the strangeness and immensity of the universe and humanity’s insignificance by comparison, though some of them lean towards the “humans can do anything” standpoint.
The eponymous umbrella of Umbrella in the Sky by E C Tubb is a space shield being built to protect Earth from a solar eruption due to the imminent arrival of an anti-matter stream. Our narrator is hired to find out why the work is progressing too slowly. This story invites the reflection that nothing ages as fast as the future. (Consider all those flashing panel lights and toggle switches in the original Star Trek TV series.) This story contains many references to people lighting cigarettes and smoking. In a space-faring environment!
Sail 25 by Jack Vance was originally published as Gateway to Strangeness. A grizzled, curmudgeonly veteran trains a group of recruits to operate a solar sailing ship (the type sometimes known as sunjammers.) He doesn’t make it easy for them.
In The Longest Voyage by Richard C Meredith the first human expedition to Jupiter is beset by problems. Scott Sayers is the only survivor, engine gone, in perpetual orbit round Jupiter. He has to find a way to cobble together some sort of propulsion system to get him back to Earth.
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey was the first SF story to feature a spaceship operated by a human mind. This one, Helva, inspired by music, is able to sing. This is a love story, of sorts.
O’Mara’s Orphan by James White I first read many years ago in the anthology Worlds Apart way back in the 1960s. It is one of White’s “Sector General” tales, set on a habitat designed for dealing with the medical needs of a vast array of alien species. O’Mara’s orphan is the offspring of two Hudlarians killed in an accident during Sector General’s construction. He is given its care as a punishment for his supposed responsibility for their deaths.
Ultima Thule by Eric Frank Russell finds a spaceship with a crew of three men emerging from hyperspace into nowhere – beyond the known universe, with no apparent way back. Each man reacts differently.
What was apparently the first ever generation starship story, The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years by Don Wilcox has thirty-five people setting out on the voyage - two of them stowaways of a sort. The narrator is the odd - therefore unmarried - one out. His job is to be revived every hundred years to solve any problems that have arisen in the interim. Over the generations there are plenty of these as he morphs from potential saviour and god to despised ogre. Just about all the subsequent tropes of this sub-genre are in evidence.
Survival Ship by Judith Merril is another generation starship story. This one is set on the Survival, sent off with much fanfare to “Sirius in fifteen years,” carrying its load of Twenty and Four humans. That capitalisation - and mix - is the single most important aspect of both the voyage and the story.
Lungfish by John Brunner focuses on the difference that developed between tripborn and earthborn as a generation starship nears Trip’s End. Unusually in the stories here, where marriage (and presumably, monogamy) are unquestioned social arrangements, a character in this one reflects that “promiscuity had to be encouraged to ensure the mixing of all genetic factors.”
Most of these stories – if not all – are still immensely readable. And they can still evoke a sense of the strangeness and immensity of the universe and humanity’s insignificance by comparison, though some of them lean towards the “humans can do anything” standpoint.
January 18, 2024
Another fine collection from Mike Ashley, and possibly my favourite in this British Library series yet. The stories are all themed around deep space travel, with many intriguing variants on that theme.
E.C. Tubb's UMBRELLA in the sky reminds me of the Connery film OUTLAND, a tale of sabotage in space brimming with suspense. Next up, Jack Vance's SAIL 25 is one of the best in this anthology and a quite wonderful character study of a unique figure and his crew. THE LONGEST VOYAGE, by Richard Meredith, concerns disaster and a solution, handled with just the right amount of reader involvement.
THE SHIP WHO SANG is by Anne McCaffrey, better known for her dragon novels, and an engaging fusion of human emotion and cold technology. O'MARA'S ORPHAN is an entertaining black comedy from James White about a man rearing an alien baby, while Eric Frank Russell's ULTIMA THULE explores what happens when men cross the edge of the universe.
Don Wilcox's THE VOYAGE THAT LASTED 600 YEARS introduces the reader to the idea of a 'generation ship' and the author crafts a mini-epic from that premise; it's spellbinding stuff. SURVIVAL SHIP is a twist in the tale effort by Judith Merril which has aged a bit since it was written, while John Brunner's LUNGSHIP is another generation ship story brimming with conflict, albeit of a different kind.
E.C. Tubb's UMBRELLA in the sky reminds me of the Connery film OUTLAND, a tale of sabotage in space brimming with suspense. Next up, Jack Vance's SAIL 25 is one of the best in this anthology and a quite wonderful character study of a unique figure and his crew. THE LONGEST VOYAGE, by Richard Meredith, concerns disaster and a solution, handled with just the right amount of reader involvement.
THE SHIP WHO SANG is by Anne McCaffrey, better known for her dragon novels, and an engaging fusion of human emotion and cold technology. O'MARA'S ORPHAN is an entertaining black comedy from James White about a man rearing an alien baby, while Eric Frank Russell's ULTIMA THULE explores what happens when men cross the edge of the universe.
Don Wilcox's THE VOYAGE THAT LASTED 600 YEARS introduces the reader to the idea of a 'generation ship' and the author crafts a mini-epic from that premise; it's spellbinding stuff. SURVIVAL SHIP is a twist in the tale effort by Judith Merril which has aged a bit since it was written, while John Brunner's LUNGSHIP is another generation ship story brimming with conflict, albeit of a different kind.
January 27, 2024
This is a collection of short stories about space travel. Most of them (except 1) start with earth and not really in the future so far away that there are completely different planet forms. There's very few which actually take place on other planets and as the name suggests, these are stories in the void or in space.
Some of them are quite interesting but you can't help but think that the plots aren't elaborate enough. A few of the ideas could even be thought to be expanded into full novels or even series. The short stories are nice but obviously can't do justice to a proper narrative. Sometimes they almost feel like they're an excerpt from a larger book.
That aside, a few of the stories were quite nice and enjoyable. The writing style in almost all of them is free flowing and keeps the reader hooked on. A pretty decent read if you're looking for something short and punchy. Not one of the classics though if that's your expectation.
A very decent 4 star from me.
Some of them are quite interesting but you can't help but think that the plots aren't elaborate enough. A few of the ideas could even be thought to be expanded into full novels or even series. The short stories are nice but obviously can't do justice to a proper narrative. Sometimes they almost feel like they're an excerpt from a larger book.
That aside, a few of the stories were quite nice and enjoyable. The writing style in almost all of them is free flowing and keeps the reader hooked on. A pretty decent read if you're looking for something short and punchy. Not one of the classics though if that's your expectation.
A very decent 4 star from me.
April 5, 2024
I have always been interested in science fiction and space exploration so this was a great book for my tastes.
The stories and writers are not current but the writing style and terminology used throughout the short stories makes it seem as if these writers were still with us today.
Some of the ideas presented are still used in today's modern sci-fi media which is amazing to see. These authors and their stories created the pathway for future science fiction writers and the ideas they came up with, I am willing to guess, will be around for a long time.
If you love space and science fiction, this is a great book for you.
The stories and writers are not current but the writing style and terminology used throughout the short stories makes it seem as if these writers were still with us today.
Some of the ideas presented are still used in today's modern sci-fi media which is amazing to see. These authors and their stories created the pathway for future science fiction writers and the ideas they came up with, I am willing to guess, will be around for a long time.
If you love space and science fiction, this is a great book for you.
May 4, 2024
An excellent collection of life-in-space short stories; I really like the concept of this collection series which focuses on specific themes. There is a nice continuity between the concepts of stories, something that is generally overlooked in such collections; all stories somehow fit well. My favourite was the last one with its rather bleak view of generational space travel. I will definitely read other books from this collection.
May 19, 2024
Quite a lot were 4 star but the last 3 stories let the collection down (in my eyes).
It's a great idea for a collection - 'Stories of Life in the Void" and was interesting to read them together.
4 Star:
Umbrella in the Sky (R C Tubb)
Sail 25 (Jack Vance)
The Longest Voyage (Richard C Meredith)
The Ship who Sang (Anne McCaffrey)
O'Mara's Orphan (James White)
Ultima Thule (Eric Frank-Russell)
It's a great idea for a collection - 'Stories of Life in the Void" and was interesting to read them together.
4 Star:
Umbrella in the Sky (R C Tubb)
Sail 25 (Jack Vance)
The Longest Voyage (Richard C Meredith)
The Ship who Sang (Anne McCaffrey)
O'Mara's Orphan (James White)
Ultima Thule (Eric Frank-Russell)
November 4, 2024
Overall the book was a really interesting exploration into space travel. My only issue is that all the stories are quite dated. This isn't a problem by itself I just would have liked to also read about a modern take on the concept.
I recommend it for anyone who likes scifi short stories.
I recommend it for anyone who likes scifi short stories.
December 19, 2024
This is a great collection classic stories from space launches, being in orbit, interplanetary travel and beyond. Each story is very different and, despite when they were written, have aged remarkably well. A worthwhile collection.
October 7, 2025
Typical of an anthology a mixture of good and ok short stories.
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