Written in Light: And Other Futuristic Tales

by Jeff Young

Eighteen stories that span from the near future to the far, from next door to the deeps of space. Meet aliens who struggle to determine if we are a threat or equals. Discover what really makes us happy. Join the war effort to free the outer planets. Find out how far a man is willing to change to gain a true talent. Uncover the gift and the danger of memories.

Includes the Writer's of the FutureTM award-winning "Written in Light."

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2021

About the author

Jeff Young is a bookseller first and a writer second – although he wouldn’t mind a reversal of fortune.
He is an award winning author who has contributed to the anthologies: Writers of the Future V.26, Afterpunk, In an Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk, Clockwork Chaos, Gaslight and Grimm, By Any Means, Best Laid Plans, Dogs of War, Man and Machine, If We Had Known, Fantastic Futures 13, The Society for the Preservation of C.J. Henderson, TV Gods & TV Gods: Summer Programming. Jeff’s own fiction is collected in Spirit Seeker and TOI Special Edition 2 – Diversiforms. He has also edited the Drunken Comic Book Monkey line, TV Gods and TV Gods –Summer Programming. He has led the Watch the Skies SF&F Discussion Group of Camp Hill and Harrisburg for seventeen years. Jeff is also the proprietor of Helm Haven, the online Etsy and Ebay shops, costuming resources for Renaissance and Steampunk.

Reviews

[Maria V. Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an early review copy of this collection of SF short stories for a possible blurb. This is what I sent Jeff: "An intriguing and thought-provoking collection that explores alien concepts and future tech with echoes from today."

This collection had a nice variety of stories. Some with endings that made me think, and others that were just fun like the AI gone rogue in Opportunity/Chance. Blankets was another favorite. Considering the current pandemic – it had quite the impact. I also thought the technology in Viewpoint was super cool and creepy! Another favorite was Aptitude – I can see that happening in the near future and am glad both my kids are out of school.

If you like SF short stories, this is for you!

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because writing in the dark wouldn’t be advisable, unless you have one of those handy light up keyboards.
But seriously, science fiction. I like it, but as with most genres, not in its entirety. I’m choosy, but willing to try new things. This was very new to me, never heard of the author before. It was also wildly uneven as far as short story collections go. And those are really difficult to review and even more difficult to rate.
The first story did nothing for me, but the second one intrigued. From there on it was a gamut of ups and downs. Some downs, then an up, an excellent up, a very clever story about the dangers of having perfect memory. And the next few stories were solid ups too. Then back down and mostly down with occasional sparks here and there.
That may not be very descriptive, so let’s say this…I like science fiction that’s very far from fantasy, far from space opera things, far from things like Star Wars and close to things like Black Mirror. People driven stories with wild twists, psychological implications of technology as opposed to convoluted alien politics of distant space worlds. The stories I liked in the book matched my preferences. The rest (too dense, too geeked out, overbuilt and overechnoloaded in the wrong way) weren’t for me.
But, having that been said, overall, this was a pretty decent read and there was a lot here to please and entertain all sorts of genre fans. The main thing here is that these stories were smart. In my books, a lot gets forgiven for smart. The author genuinely had some good ideas, some interesting and exciting things to say about the world (well, worlds, really).
So…not in love, not a total waste of time, somewhere in between, having tried something new. I’ll be uncharacteristically generous here, because, like I said…the potential’s there and smart goes a long way. It may speak differently to different readers. In any case, it’s a fairly quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

[Serena ♡]

dnf 40%

i tried to give every story a rating because they are very different… but damn it’s all just really… empty.

1/5 for the characters
4/5 for originality
1/5 for the writing
3/5 for the world building

really not my cup of tea. it was boring, bland and hard to read!

story 1: 2/5
You know when you’re reading a book and the world suddenly only exists of words? Or rather, the world disappears. In this case, there wasn’t a world to begin with. I understood exactly nothing. From the writing style (and the vocab, oh my-) to the plot.

story 2: 3/5
It started of pretty good and I actually was kind of curious. I loved the unique style this was in. Just emailing back and forth. It was fast paced and straight to the point. I liked that. Just the ending… was it even an ending? It felt like we had an introduction. But the story ended before there even was a plot. I guess I’ll give it three stars for the idea?

story 3: -/5
What the- Okay, so this one is 2 pages long—too short for me to rate. It’s about a girl killing butterflies because they cause hurricanes, because of the butterfly effect… I- What?

dnf story 4+ because i couldn’t read it without putting myself to sleep

(thanks, NetGalley)

[Caroline Vaught · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this book really excited because I love sci-fi and I love short stories and the cover is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, the majority of the stories in this were a major let-down. When it comes to sci-fi, it can be really easy to get sucked into the science and the world-building, but most of these were just overkill. This was bogged down by scientific lingo and made-up creatures and civilizations. And the stories generally had good sentiment, it was really hard to get invested in the stories and to actually care about the characters/worlds involved, given the lack of emotion in every line of dialogue. There were a few stories that I genuinely liked, but the ones that I slowly dragged through dominated the page count. If you are a sci-fi lover that actually enjoys the science behind everything and you don't need a lot of action, this might be the book for you. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this overall. I like short stories and this collection isn't as good as others, but still has merit. Young has writing chops and has written quite a bit, so he know his craft. A couple of stories stood out, and the collection is fairly diverse.

Thanks for the free review copy!!

[BlurbGoesHere · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in Light

[Blurb goes here]

I, unfortunately coincide with some of the reviews posted here, while a few of the stories where intriguing and fun, others felt like filler stories, stories that where simply put there to make this a bigger anthology. Bigger in some instances, doesn't mean better. The good stories: worth reading. The bad ones: clutter.

After finishing the book I kept on wondering, could it be a good idea to have a proper editor to have a go through the bad material to make it better? I leave that to smarter people than me.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read an author so adept at introducing an alien intelligence and physiology so completely unlike our own. Each and every tale showed skill and imagination beyond measure.

[Nightwing Whitehead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each story was more absorbing than the previous. I was extrememly sad when the last page loomed and I realozed the journey was over. For now.