Bridge to Elsewhere

by Alana Joli Abbott (Editor), Julia Rios (Editor), L.X. Beckett

A spaceship's nothing without her crew.In the vastness of space, there's room for all types of adventures. Scientists seek to solve the mysteries of the universe. Explorers look for lost alien civilizations or new worlds to support life. Planet builders and planet smugglers create life and steal worlds. And some human spacefarers navigate with the help (or hindrance) of feline or feathered companions. The universe contains infinite possibilities—but while space is limitless, it's the people who travel it that make their adventures worth reading. And many of the decisions they make happen on the bridge of a spaceship.

A ship is only as good as her crew. These are their stories.

Genres: Science Fiction

387 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 5, 2022

About the author

Alana Joli Abbott is the author of interactive multiple choice novel apps including Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts, the "Redemption Trilogy," and comics including Cowboys and Aliens II and Ithaca. Her game design has been featured in Tiny Dungeon 2e: The Hatchling Edition and Serenity Adventures. She is Editor in Chief at Outland Entertainment where she co-edits anthologies like Where the Veil Is Thin and APEX. Alana has visited ancient ruins around the world; sung madrigals semi-professionally; and earned her black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate. She lives near New Haven, CT.

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Supporting indie publishing on Kickstarter is a good thing, right? This anthology sounded like a cool project to support. So I did. And then I started reading – almost six months ago now. The majority of the stories were mediocre at best, imo – there were the “so what?”, stories, there was uninspired writing, there were fragments instead of stories, there were the “you think you’re funny, but you are not” stories…

I ended up using the book as a palate cleanser when I couldn’t decide what to read next.

There was just one memorable story:

“Meteorites” by Anjali Patel – a retelling of Ray Bradbury’s “Kaleidoscope”. It was wise and heartbreaking, delightfully written. Why couldn’t the rest of the book be the same?

Well, at least I am done now.

[Jamesboggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I backed the Kickstarter for Bridge to Elsewhere a while back. I saw the list of authors had many Boskone regulars, so I wanted to support the project.

The bridge in the title refers to the bridge of a starship. Space travel, especially travel into the unknown, ties these stories together thematically. The theme offers a wide range of interpretations.

This is also a very queer-friendly collection. Lots of same-sex relationships, found families, and other staples of queer lit. If you want LGBTQ+ representation, this is a good collection for you.

I also think this is a good collection for finding authors. Many of the stories are set in existing universes, so there’s more if you want it.


“The Atrox Killboard" by CG Volars
I think this story is a little bit of a bait-and-switch. It seems like it's about Izo escaping his extraterrestrial abductors. However, it ends abruptly before his situation is resolved. Instead, it provides subtle political commentary about political moderates represented by Tearn. 3.5/5

"Gort, Cinder, and Sphinx" by R J Theodore
I think this one will be a popular story, but I am confused. The premise is that the yowling of cats allows for FTL travel. However, it is written in the second person and obscures many details. What happened to the humans? How intelligent are these cats? I expect I will have to reread several times to get the hints. 3/5

"How to Win Friends and Influence Rebellion" by R.S.A. Garcia
I love multispecies galaxy-spanning civilizations. This one reminds me of my favorite aspects of the Wayfarers series and the Halo universe. I am eager to read more from this universe in Lex Talionis. 4/5

"Salvage Blossom" by L.X. Beckett
This story is about a corporate mission to retrieve a wayward executive. The entanglement between business and family seems vaguely Asian-inspired, like a zaibatsu in space. It feels like the middle chapter in an epic space opera. 3/5

"Meteorites" by Anjali Patel
This is an amazing story. It starts with a disaster in space and unfolds through the reflections that four extraordinary women make about their lives as they come to terms with their end. Devastatingly beautiful. 5/5

"Snowed In" by C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez
This is a great story. It uses a charity event to explore the history of a deep space colony ship. I have never seen quite this combination of sleeper ship, deep space colonization, corporate screw-up, evolution, and philanthropy. The story has a good sense of humor too. 5/5

"Seven Things I Learned Traveling Through Space with a Genetically Engineered Lesbian Peahen" by Jennifer Lee Rossman
"I went to space with a genetically engineered lesbian space peahen, and I found the love love space love of my life again." I think that pretty much sums it up. 3/5

"The Trip" by Mari Kurisato
An intimate look into a cyberpunk dystopia. Corie is the best virtual data layer creator on a seed ship leaving the Sol system, but it's not enough to afford cancer treatment for her best friend Amy. Corie is forced into a desperate plan to save her friend's life. 4/5

"Cumulative Ethical Guidelines for Mid-range Interstellar Storytellers" by Malka Older
This story speculates about an underexplored aspect of interstellar travel: the need for entertainment. It imagines more traditional storytelling as a core component of space travel. It reads like a dialogue between storytellers discussing a training document. I feel like it exaggerates the ethical concerns. 3.5/5

"Whose Spaceship Is It Anyway?" by John Chu
This story describes an improv audition for about seven people. The scene is about a starship crew, but the actual story is not science fiction. I think it would work in a nongenre collection or anthology. 2/5

"Team Building Exercise" by Valerie Valdes
This story shows a corporate-mandated team-building exercise for a starship crew. It seems just as empty and foolish as corporate nonsense in our day, but it may be more clever than it initially seems. I do really appreciate speculation about mundane aspects of life in the future. 4.5/5

"The Planet Builders" by Peter Tieryas
This story is about gods making planets. Except they are students simulating worlds for the Diety Board. Yahweh is among the builders and of course Earth is a notorious failure. It's a fun premise, but I don't think it goes far enough in any direction. It raises so many questions that it does not substantively explore. DarkMatter2525 did a better job on YouTube. 3/5

"Quantum Leap" by Justin C. Key
I would describe this story as cosmic horror completely independent of Lovecraft, but the ending seems more ambiguously hopeful than doomed. It features a mysterious and inexplicable object that inexorably alters all humans who encounter it. While the object is definitely creepy, it may be benevolent. 4/5

"Planetary" by Zig Zag Claybourne
This story is about a biological construct built by AIs that gained independence from humans having an existential crisis in the face of death and first contact. It is emotional and reflective, leaving lots of room to breathe. I did not expect such a serious story from Claybourne, although it’s entirely possible that I missed a huge joke. 3.5/5

"Of Dreamers and Prophets — A “Chronicles of Nethra” Story by E.R. Donaldson
This story is missing context. Several of the stories in this collection are part of existing universes, but so far only this one feels incomplete. I have many questions about the setting. I did not like the protagonist much. 2.5/5

"Silence in the Dark" by Alexandra Pitchford
This story is about the search for a dangerous mystery ship. I expect there to be more to this universe, too. 3/5

"The Ship Cat of the Suzaku Maru" by SL Huang
This story is about the vital service that cats provide starships from a cat's perspective. 4/5

"The Music of a New Path" by A. T. Greenblatt
This story is about a sentient cargo ship that goes rogue, and the crew's attempts to listen to the ship and figure out what went wrong. 3.5/5

As a backer, I received two additional stories from the editors. I might as well review them here.

“Scenes from a Hat…IN SPACE!” by Alana Joli Abbott
This is a short story, almost a vignette. It depicts a doctor (of what?) taking an android to a comedy performance on a starship. It’s a familiar “emotionless robot tries to understand humanity” story. 3.5/5

“To Catch a Flieff” by Julia Rios
This story was actually written based on feedback from the backers. There was a survey and everything. The result is a queer Christmas romance set in space. Very cheesy but well-executed. Another story with a cat. 4/5

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are new to me authors and a collection of short stories. They are at different level and but entertaining.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.2 stars if you go by the average) This is a kickstarter funded anthology of space-faring stories. A very mixed bag with no big-name authors. Most of the stories are stand-alone (SA), but some seem to be either excerpts (EX) from a longer work or stories that plug into some existing universe that presupposes you know the characters and background. It was an okay collection to read but I wish more attention had been paid to the quality of the stories than the diversity of authors and their characters.

On a story by story basis here are my thoughts...

___** The Atrox Killboard - A dumb, mildly offensive story about being abducted by aliens. (EX)
__*** Gort, Cinder, and Sphinx - Cats rule the spaceways, who knew? (SA)
___** How to Win Friends and Influence Rebellion - A story with a lot of missing background detail that is about using genetic manipulation to undermine a culture? (EX)
_**** Salvage Blossom - A daughter travels to an off-the-beaten-course space station to try and bring her father home to run the family business(SA)
_**** Meteorites - A retelling of Ray Bradbury's short story "Kaleidoscope.” (SA)
_**** Snowed In - What happens when the company sponsoring your interstellar voyage goes bankrupt (SA)
___** Seven Things I Learned Traveling Through Space with a Genetically Engineered Lesbian Peahen - A story about navigating through space with peahens by someone who doesn't understand much about space travel at all. (SA)
__*** The Trip - An interesting setting for a story about keeping someone else alive by committing suicide? (SA)
_**** Cumulative Ethical Guidelines for Mid-range Interstellar Storytellers - I wouldn't have thought you could turn redlines & review commentary on someone's training manual outline into a story. Interesting idea for long term interstellar travel (SA)
___** Whose Spaceship Is It Anyway? - Not quite sure exactly why this was in here, it's a story about a guy at totally ordinary improv audition. (SA)
__*** Team Building Exercise - Kind of a silly story about a starship crew going through tedious mandatory team-building training with a mole. (SA)
_**** The Planet Builders - What if you wanted to grow up to be a universe builder but first you have to evolve a planetary society to successful interstellar travel? (SA)
__*** Quantum Leap - 2001: A Space Odyssey meets the Thing. Kinda dumb because nobody would run a space mission that way, but still interesting. (SA)
__*** Planetary - Odd story about a biologic AI on an AI controlled ship that's wrecked and drifting through space while being assimilated by bacteria... sort of (SA)
***** Warranty - When your ship's auto-doc develops a really bad attitude (SA)
___** Of Dreamers and Prophets - Bleh, felt like a chapter out of a longer boring book. A kid dragged along after his father on an expedition that feels like something out of the movie "Prometheus" (EX)
__*** Silence in the Dark - This story didn't say it was an excerpt but it definitely feels a couple chapters extracted from a bigger story about two smugglers who are picked up by the law after their ship is wrecked by mysterious aliens. (EX)
***** The Ship Cat of the Suzaku Maru - Best story in the whole anthology and not just because it has a cat. It's a tight, well written story with a beginning, a middle and a satisfying end. (SA)
_**** The Music of a New Path - A story about the crew on a sentient semi-organic cargo ship trying to figure out why the ship has suddenly changed for nowhere in particular.

[The Reading Ruru (Kerry) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - an eclectic mix of stories of which I enjoyed just over 50%.
My favourite line of the whole book
".. BUT I WENT TO SPACE WITH A GENETICALLY ENGINEERED LESBIAN PEAHEN, AND I FOUND THE LOVE LOVE SPACE LOVE OF MY LIFE AGAIN"

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories are alright (a couple are even fantastic), but mostly this is an average anthology.

[Mackenzie (mackenziespocket) · Rating 3 out of 5]

short story collections are just hard for me to enjoy i think

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bridge to Elsewhere is a fun collection of space themed stories with a surprising amount of space animals. I think the lesbian peahens were my favorite (Seven Things I Learned Traveling Through Space with a Genetically Engineered Lesbian Peahen), but they were closely followed by the space travel enhancing cats (Gort, Cinder, and Sphinx). We also get to meet androids, gods that are learning to make planets, and even an improv troupe!

If you like anthologies dealing with sci-fi and space travel, I recommend this! Sometimes in anthologies you get a clunker or two, but this one I enjoyed every single one of these stories. They're fun, fast reads, and many of them involve lgbtq+ characters, which is a plus in my book.