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Brainship #1.5
Federations
From Star Trek to Star Wars, from Dune to Foundation, science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in Federations will continue that tradition. What are the social/religious/environmental/technological implications of living in such a vast society? What happens when expansionist tendencies on a galactic scale come into conflict with the indigenous peoples of other planets, of other races? And what of the issue of communicating across such distances, or the problems caused by relativistic travel? These are just some of the questions and issues that the stories in Federations will take on.
Contents:
Introduction / John Joseph Adams --
Mazer in prison / Orson Scott Card --
Carthago delenda est / Genevieve Valentine --
Life-suspension / L.E. Modesitt, Jr. --
Terra-exulta / S.L. Gilbow --
Aftermaths / Lois McMaster Bujold --
Someone is stealing the great throne rooms of the galaxy / Harry Turtledove --
Prisons / Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason --
Different day / K. Tempest Bradford --
Twilight of the gods / John C. Wright --
Warship / George R.R. Martin and George Guthridge --
Swanwatch / Yoon Ha Lee --
Spirey and the queen / Alastair Reynolds --
Pardon our conquest / Alan Dean Foster --
Symbiont / Robert Silverberg --
Ship who returned / Anne McCaffrey --
My she / Mary Rosenblum --
Shoulders of giants / Robert J. Sawyer --
Culture archivist / Jeremiah Tolbert --
Other side of Jordan / Allen Steele --
Like they always been free / Georgina Li --
Eskhara / Trent Hergenrader --
One with the interstellar group consciousnesses / James Alan Gardner --
Golubash, or wine-blood-war-elegy / Catherynne M. Valente
Contents:
Introduction / John Joseph Adams --
Mazer in prison / Orson Scott Card --
Carthago delenda est / Genevieve Valentine --
Life-suspension / L.E. Modesitt, Jr. --
Terra-exulta / S.L. Gilbow --
Aftermaths / Lois McMaster Bujold --
Someone is stealing the great throne rooms of the galaxy / Harry Turtledove --
Prisons / Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason --
Different day / K. Tempest Bradford --
Twilight of the gods / John C. Wright --
Warship / George R.R. Martin and George Guthridge --
Swanwatch / Yoon Ha Lee --
Spirey and the queen / Alastair Reynolds --
Pardon our conquest / Alan Dean Foster --
Symbiont / Robert Silverberg --
Ship who returned / Anne McCaffrey --
My she / Mary Rosenblum --
Shoulders of giants / Robert J. Sawyer --
Culture archivist / Jeremiah Tolbert --
Other side of Jordan / Allen Steele --
Like they always been free / Georgina Li --
Eskhara / Trent Hergenrader --
One with the interstellar group consciousnesses / James Alan Gardner --
Golubash, or wine-blood-war-elegy / Catherynne M. Valente
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 3, 2009
136 people are currently reading
1125 people want to read
About the author
John Joseph Adams
367 books982 followersJohn Joseph Adams is the series editor of BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as ROBOT UPRISINGS, DEAD MAN'S HAND, BRAVE NEW WORLDS,WASTELANDS, and THE LIVING DEAD. Recent and forthcoming books include WHAT THE #@&% IS THAT?, OPERATION ARCANA, PRESS START TO PLAY, LOOSED UPON THE WORLD, and THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH (consisting of THE END IS NIGH, THE END IS NOW, and THE END HAS COME). Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated nine times), is a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines LIGHTSPEED and NIGHTMARE, and is a producer for Wired's THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. You can find him online at www.johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @JohnJosephAdams.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
November 29, 2009
One of the better sf collections I've read lately.
The bad:
"Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card. Mazer Rackham, the first human to defeat the Buggers, is waiting in a near-lightspeed ship for the Buggers to return, or the next human commander to be found. Very disappointing, like most of Card's work in his Ender's Game universe. The story is basically a back and forth of "I knew you knew that I knew that you knew, so I..."
"Life-Suspension" by LE Modesitt, Jr. Ugh.
"Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" by Harry Turtledove. Like when a 13year old gets "high" off of pixie-sticks and posts "hilarious" and "wacky" crackfic on ff.net.
"Twilight of the Gods" by John C Wright. Clunky, melodramatic--like someone took JRR Tolkien and ran his dialog through a stupidizer. Randomly chosen sentence: "Several of the knights stared at the black-cloaked stranger in awe." How did this get published?
The Fine:
"Carthago Delenda Est" by Genevieve Valentine. Interesting, with moments of tragedy and humor. Diplomats wait generations for the Carthago delegation.
"Terra-Exulta" by SL Gilbow. A linguist talks about his work in destroying various alien life-forms.
"Different Day" by K Tempest Bradford. Gets her point across about how average, every-day people and politics would react to aliens. It seems like it tries a little too hard to be folksy--but I expect a lot from KTB's stories, so perhaps I'm judging this to an unreasonable standard.
"Spirey and the Queen" by Alastair Reynolds. War in space is not always what it seems. Far too many double-crosses and plot twists, but I like the science and the ideas he uses.
"Pardon Our Conquest" by Alan Dean Foster. The surrender ceremony of the Empire to the Commonwealth. I would undoubtedly have enjoyed this more if A)I had read Foster's Commonwealth stories or B)the differences between Empire and Commonwealth weren't presented so heavy-handedly.
"Symbiont" by Robert Silverberg. A young soldier is infected with another life form. Years later, he begs an old friend to put him out of his misery. Pretty dated, and there's not much to the characterization or plot, though the world-building is ok.
"The Ship Who Returned" by Anne McCaffrey. Helva-the-brainship has recently lost her brawn, Niall. Stricken with grief, she has created an unreasonably sophisticated holographic replica of him. They banter while they try to save the religious colonists of Ravel from Kolnari pirates. Really heterosexist and unimaginative, but not terrible.
"The Shoulders of Giants" by Robert J Sawyer. A colony ship arrives at a planet to find that while they were in crystasis, Earth already colonized it.
"The Other Side of Jordan" by Allen Steele. A young man reconnects with an old flame after years apart. I have no idea why he wrote this story. There's no point to it: no emotional climax, no character construction, no plot.
"Like They Always Been Free" by Georgina Li. An atypical love story. Hot and well-written, but there's not much to it.
"Eskhara" by Trent Hergenrader. Very clearly inspired/modeled by the US troops' occupation in Iraq.
The Good:
"Aftermaths" by Lois McMaster Bujold. A callow pilot watches as a med tech retrieves and identifies bodies from the recently finished war.
"Prisons" by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason. A prison revolt has succeeded, and the former prisoners have stopped all export of a drug that can only be made on their world. The Praesidentrix will stop at nothing to punish the prisoners for their temerity. (This was a weird story, because I felt like we were supposed to root for the Praesidentrix and the Warden, but in point of fact I thought the prisoners were in the right.)
"Warship" by GRR Martin and George Guthridge. The last surviving member of a crew killed by disease must destroy the ship to prevent contagion to reach Earth. A good ending.
"Swanwatch" by Yoon Ha Lee. A young woman is exiled to bear witness to ships that commit honorable suicide into black holes. The only way to escape the exile is to create a masterwork, which she sets out to do.
"My She" by Mary Rosenblum. The unnamed, unnoticed servant of a Speaker begins to realize the danger her Speaker is in--and just what the Speakers do, after all. Really interesting story in which tradition and religion is used to cloak uneven power.
"The Culture Archivist" by Jeremiah Tolbert. A standout of the collection. As he says, "I started thinking about what a realistically capitalistic federation would look like, and the story was born." Hilarious and poignant.
"The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousness" by James Alan Gardner. Very funny, and well thought out.
"Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy" by Cathrynne M Valente. A tale of capitalist greed and strangleholds, as told by a wine merchant. Fantastic world building, beautiful language, and an engaging story.
The bad:
"Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card. Mazer Rackham, the first human to defeat the Buggers, is waiting in a near-lightspeed ship for the Buggers to return, or the next human commander to be found. Very disappointing, like most of Card's work in his Ender's Game universe. The story is basically a back and forth of "I knew you knew that I knew that you knew, so I..."
"Life-Suspension" by LE Modesitt, Jr. Ugh.
"Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" by Harry Turtledove. Like when a 13year old gets "high" off of pixie-sticks and posts "hilarious" and "wacky" crackfic on ff.net.
"Twilight of the Gods" by John C Wright. Clunky, melodramatic--like someone took JRR Tolkien and ran his dialog through a stupidizer. Randomly chosen sentence: "Several of the knights stared at the black-cloaked stranger in awe." How did this get published?
The Fine:
"Carthago Delenda Est" by Genevieve Valentine. Interesting, with moments of tragedy and humor. Diplomats wait generations for the Carthago delegation.
"Terra-Exulta" by SL Gilbow. A linguist talks about his work in destroying various alien life-forms.
"Different Day" by K Tempest Bradford. Gets her point across about how average, every-day people and politics would react to aliens. It seems like it tries a little too hard to be folksy--but I expect a lot from KTB's stories, so perhaps I'm judging this to an unreasonable standard.
"Spirey and the Queen" by Alastair Reynolds. War in space is not always what it seems. Far too many double-crosses and plot twists, but I like the science and the ideas he uses.
"Pardon Our Conquest" by Alan Dean Foster. The surrender ceremony of the Empire to the Commonwealth. I would undoubtedly have enjoyed this more if A)I had read Foster's Commonwealth stories or B)the differences between Empire and Commonwealth weren't presented so heavy-handedly.
"Symbiont" by Robert Silverberg. A young soldier is infected with another life form. Years later, he begs an old friend to put him out of his misery. Pretty dated, and there's not much to the characterization or plot, though the world-building is ok.
"The Ship Who Returned" by Anne McCaffrey. Helva-the-brainship has recently lost her brawn, Niall. Stricken with grief, she has created an unreasonably sophisticated holographic replica of him. They banter while they try to save the religious colonists of Ravel from Kolnari pirates. Really heterosexist and unimaginative, but not terrible.
"The Shoulders of Giants" by Robert J Sawyer. A colony ship arrives at a planet to find that while they were in crystasis, Earth already colonized it.
"The Other Side of Jordan" by Allen Steele. A young man reconnects with an old flame after years apart. I have no idea why he wrote this story. There's no point to it: no emotional climax, no character construction, no plot.
"Like They Always Been Free" by Georgina Li. An atypical love story. Hot and well-written, but there's not much to it.
"Eskhara" by Trent Hergenrader. Very clearly inspired/modeled by the US troops' occupation in Iraq.
The Good:
"Aftermaths" by Lois McMaster Bujold. A callow pilot watches as a med tech retrieves and identifies bodies from the recently finished war.
"Prisons" by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason. A prison revolt has succeeded, and the former prisoners have stopped all export of a drug that can only be made on their world. The Praesidentrix will stop at nothing to punish the prisoners for their temerity. (This was a weird story, because I felt like we were supposed to root for the Praesidentrix and the Warden, but in point of fact I thought the prisoners were in the right.)
"Warship" by GRR Martin and George Guthridge. The last surviving member of a crew killed by disease must destroy the ship to prevent contagion to reach Earth. A good ending.
"Swanwatch" by Yoon Ha Lee. A young woman is exiled to bear witness to ships that commit honorable suicide into black holes. The only way to escape the exile is to create a masterwork, which she sets out to do.
"My She" by Mary Rosenblum. The unnamed, unnoticed servant of a Speaker begins to realize the danger her Speaker is in--and just what the Speakers do, after all. Really interesting story in which tradition and religion is used to cloak uneven power.
"The Culture Archivist" by Jeremiah Tolbert. A standout of the collection. As he says, "I started thinking about what a realistically capitalistic federation would look like, and the story was born." Hilarious and poignant.
"The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousness" by James Alan Gardner. Very funny, and well thought out.
"Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy" by Cathrynne M Valente. A tale of capitalist greed and strangleholds, as told by a wine merchant. Fantastic world building, beautiful language, and an engaging story.
August 31, 2015
Excellent SF collection.
The Introduction by Adams was OK - short & to the point.
Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card was excellent, but I listened to it not long ago in one of his collections. I skimmed it & it's still worthy of 4 stars.
Carthago delenda est by Genevieve Valentine missed the mark with me. 2 stars.
Life-suspension by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. was good, 3.5 stars. I like his minimalist take on space piloting. He was a combat pilot.
Terra-exulta by S.L. Gilbow was chilling. 4 stars.
Aftermaths by Lois McMaster Bujold is another I've read before. It's great each time. 5 stars.
Someone is stealing the great throne rooms of the galaxy by Harry Turtledove was supposed to be humorous. I've never cared much for his writing & less for his humor.
Prisons by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason was excellent. I wasn't sure who to root for, but I'll give it 4 stars.
Different day by K. Tempest Bradford - great! LOL! 4 stars.
Twilight of the gods by John C. Wright - very good. 3 stars.
Warship by George R.R. Martin and George Guthridge - whoops! 4 stars
Swanwatch by Yoon Ha Lee - meh. 2 stars
Spirey and the queen by Alastair Reynolds - good. 3 stars
Pardon our conquest by Alan Dean Foster - LOL! 3 stars
Symbiont by Robert Silverberg - :shiver: Creepy & sad, but good. 4 stars
Ship who returned by Anne McCaffrey - great to revisit this universe. The Ship Who Sang was one of my early SF reads & a favorite. 3 stars.
My she by Mary Rosenblum - minimal & interesting. 3+ stars.
Shoulders of giants by Robert J. Sawyer - Excellent & just what SF is about. 4 stars.
Culture archivist by Jeremiah Tolbert - poor Redshirts. They get no respect, but otherwise this was pretty awesome. 4 stars.
Other side of Jordan by Allen Steele
Like they always been free by Georgina Li
Eskhara by Trent Hergenrader
One with the interstellar group consciousnesses by James Alan Gardner - funny!
Golubash, or wine-blood-war-elegy by Catherynne M. Valente - interesting way of presenting a history through wine.
The last were all pretty good, 3+ stars. Excellent collection.
The Introduction by Adams was OK - short & to the point.
Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card was excellent, but I listened to it not long ago in one of his collections. I skimmed it & it's still worthy of 4 stars.
Carthago delenda est by Genevieve Valentine missed the mark with me. 2 stars.
Life-suspension by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. was good, 3.5 stars. I like his minimalist take on space piloting. He was a combat pilot.
Terra-exulta by S.L. Gilbow was chilling. 4 stars.
Aftermaths by Lois McMaster Bujold is another I've read before. It's great each time. 5 stars.
Someone is stealing the great throne rooms of the galaxy by Harry Turtledove was supposed to be humorous. I've never cared much for his writing & less for his humor.
Prisons by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason was excellent. I wasn't sure who to root for, but I'll give it 4 stars.
Different day by K. Tempest Bradford - great! LOL! 4 stars.
Twilight of the gods by John C. Wright - very good. 3 stars.
Warship by George R.R. Martin and George Guthridge - whoops! 4 stars
Swanwatch by Yoon Ha Lee - meh. 2 stars
Spirey and the queen by Alastair Reynolds - good. 3 stars
Pardon our conquest by Alan Dean Foster - LOL! 3 stars
Symbiont by Robert Silverberg - :shiver: Creepy & sad, but good. 4 stars
Ship who returned by Anne McCaffrey - great to revisit this universe. The Ship Who Sang was one of my early SF reads & a favorite. 3 stars.
My she by Mary Rosenblum - minimal & interesting. 3+ stars.
Shoulders of giants by Robert J. Sawyer - Excellent & just what SF is about. 4 stars.
Culture archivist by Jeremiah Tolbert - poor Redshirts. They get no respect, but otherwise this was pretty awesome. 4 stars.
Other side of Jordan by Allen Steele
Like they always been free by Georgina Li
Eskhara by Trent Hergenrader
One with the interstellar group consciousnesses by James Alan Gardner - funny!
Golubash, or wine-blood-war-elegy by Catherynne M. Valente - interesting way of presenting a history through wine.
The last were all pretty good, 3+ stars. Excellent collection.
March 16, 2023
In many ways, I've started to come to believe that you can't go wrong with a John Joseph Adams' collection.
Wastelands
was incredible,
The Living Dead
was great, and Federations...? Also very very good.
The "dust jacket description" of this anthology pretty much sums it up... It collects a few different modern takes on the classic science fiction trope: What does it take; what does it mean for a civilization to be interstellar and/or pan-galactic?
My take of Federations, it gets a composite rating of 3.9130 (individual stories below)
• "Mazer in Prison" (Orson Scott Card): ★★★
» About what you'd expect from Card. So it doesn't disappoint but it doesn't exactly thrill, either.
• "Carthago Delenda Est" (Genevieve Valentine): ★★★★
• "Life Suspension" (L. E. Modesitt, Jr.): ★★½
• "Terra-Exulta" (S.L. Gilbow): ★★★
» Reminds me a bit of that Stephen King piece that opens Wastelands. The letter-writing format is a tough one to write in and I appreciate the effort here. And I don't dislike this piece but it seems... too short? or just that its hand is tipped too early and that kind of blows the ending a bit?
• "Aftermaths" (Lois McMaster Bujold): ★★★★
• "Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" (Harry Turtledove): ★★
» Not terribly intriguing, and a little puerile/juvenile. To me... I can see why it was included (for the variety and for the perspective it brings) but it just doesn't do it. Not for me.
• "Prisons" (Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason): ★★½
» So much potential, and almost good; but why did I wind up feeling like it needed to be more subversive? (E.g., so many heteronormative relationships!—if the prison revolt leader had been lovers with another man, well now maybe that might have been a little more intriguing.)
• "Different Day" (K. Tempest Bradford): ★★★★★
• "Twilight of the Gods" (John C. Wright): ★★★★
» The Tolkien-esque language can be a little off-putting at first but it really starts to make sense after you get about a third of the way in.
• "Warship" (George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge): ★★★★★
» I can't imagine why it took so long for Martin to shop this piece—unless Guthridge really brought that much to it. The execution is very spot-on.
• "Swanwatch" (Yoon Ha Lee): ★★★★
» I want to like this more. It's beautiful but a bit oblique—and that's fine but somehow it doesn't jump to where it needs to be.
• "Spirey and the Queen" (Alastair Reynolds): ★★★★★
» Awesome. Did you like Watts' Blindsight ? Did you like Sterling's "Swarm"? A little bit like that. (Only robots.)
• "Pardon Our Conquest" (Alan Dean Foster): ★★★½
• "Symbiont" (Robert Silverberg): ★★★★½
» Highly disurbing; more so than I thought it would be. (Just read this one; skip the introduction.)
• "The Ship Who Returned" (Anne McCaffrey): ★★★★
• "My She" (Mary Rosenblum): ★★★★½
» Brilliant. Nicely subversive and almost perfect.
• "The Shoulders of Giants" (Robert J. Sawyer): ★★½
• "The Culture Archivist" (Jeremiah Tolbert): ★★★★★
» This one is funny in the way that "Someone is Stealing..." (vida supra) could/should have been.
• "The Other Side of Jordan" (Allen Steele): ★★★★½
» Serves a little bit as a reminder that one of the things you're going for (when you're going for sci-fi) is the "deep milieu". This has got it. And I love it for it.
• "Like They Always Been Free" (Georgina Li): ★★★★
» Very dense; worthwhile.
• "Eskhara" (Trent Hergenrader): ★★★★★
» The allegory bits are obvious but rather than detract, they make it all very worth while.
• "The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses" (James Alan Gardner): ★★★★
» Cute, and a bit novel, but kind of like an artisan soda: not really bad for you but not really necessary but damn tasty but kind of a cloying aftertaste?
* "Golubash, or Wine-War-Blood-Elegy" (Catherynne M. Valente): ★★★★½
» A little on the oblique side but the framing for the story is absolutely killer.
The "dust jacket description" of this anthology pretty much sums it up... It collects a few different modern takes on the classic science fiction trope: What does it take; what does it mean for a civilization to be interstellar and/or pan-galactic?
My take of Federations, it gets a composite rating of 3.9130 (individual stories below)
• "Mazer in Prison" (Orson Scott Card): ★★★
» About what you'd expect from Card. So it doesn't disappoint but it doesn't exactly thrill, either.
• "Carthago Delenda Est" (Genevieve Valentine): ★★★★
• "Life Suspension" (L. E. Modesitt, Jr.): ★★½
• "Terra-Exulta" (S.L. Gilbow): ★★★
» Reminds me a bit of that Stephen King piece that opens Wastelands. The letter-writing format is a tough one to write in and I appreciate the effort here. And I don't dislike this piece but it seems... too short? or just that its hand is tipped too early and that kind of blows the ending a bit?
• "Aftermaths" (Lois McMaster Bujold): ★★★★
• "Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" (Harry Turtledove): ★★
» Not terribly intriguing, and a little puerile/juvenile. To me... I can see why it was included (for the variety and for the perspective it brings) but it just doesn't do it. Not for me.
• "Prisons" (Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason): ★★½
» So much potential, and almost good; but why did I wind up feeling like it needed to be more subversive? (E.g., so many heteronormative relationships!—if the prison revolt leader had been lovers with another man, well now maybe that might have been a little more intriguing.)
• "Different Day" (K. Tempest Bradford): ★★★★★
• "Twilight of the Gods" (John C. Wright): ★★★★
» The Tolkien-esque language can be a little off-putting at first but it really starts to make sense after you get about a third of the way in.
• "Warship" (George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge): ★★★★★
» I can't imagine why it took so long for Martin to shop this piece—unless Guthridge really brought that much to it. The execution is very spot-on.
• "Swanwatch" (Yoon Ha Lee): ★★★★
» I want to like this more. It's beautiful but a bit oblique—and that's fine but somehow it doesn't jump to where it needs to be.
• "Spirey and the Queen" (Alastair Reynolds): ★★★★★
» Awesome. Did you like Watts' Blindsight ? Did you like Sterling's "Swarm"? A little bit like that. (Only robots.)
• "Pardon Our Conquest" (Alan Dean Foster): ★★★½
• "Symbiont" (Robert Silverberg): ★★★★½
» Highly disurbing; more so than I thought it would be. (Just read this one; skip the introduction.)
• "The Ship Who Returned" (Anne McCaffrey): ★★★★
• "My She" (Mary Rosenblum): ★★★★½
» Brilliant. Nicely subversive and almost perfect.
• "The Shoulders of Giants" (Robert J. Sawyer): ★★½
• "The Culture Archivist" (Jeremiah Tolbert): ★★★★★
» This one is funny in the way that "Someone is Stealing..." (vida supra) could/should have been.
• "The Other Side of Jordan" (Allen Steele): ★★★★½
» Serves a little bit as a reminder that one of the things you're going for (when you're going for sci-fi) is the "deep milieu". This has got it. And I love it for it.
• "Like They Always Been Free" (Georgina Li): ★★★★
» Very dense; worthwhile.
• "Eskhara" (Trent Hergenrader): ★★★★★
» The allegory bits are obvious but rather than detract, they make it all very worth while.
• "The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses" (James Alan Gardner): ★★★★
» Cute, and a bit novel, but kind of like an artisan soda: not really bad for you but not really necessary but damn tasty but kind of a cloying aftertaste?
* "Golubash, or Wine-War-Blood-Elegy" (Catherynne M. Valente): ★★★★½
» A little on the oblique side but the framing for the story is absolutely killer.
April 10, 2012
John Joseph Adams' Federations is at-best a mediocre collection, putting together a few really good stories with a few really bad stories and a bunch of mediocre, interesting-but-could-have been better stories. My two biggest complaints about the collection are that it tends towards super-contemporary and slightly juvenile styles and it also contains several stories which are sequels, prequels, or otherwise part of story arcs set across multiple stories and novels by their authors, making the stories themselves hard to follow if you're not familiar with that author (and those characters') other stories.
Anyway, broken down by story:
"Mazer in Prison," by Orson Scott Card : Didn't finish it. This is one of the aforementioned stories based in the authors' other work. I've never read Card's major work and what was presented early in this story didn't invigorate me enough to try.
"Carthago Delenda Est," by Genevieve Valentine : An interesting, if somewhat philosophically basic, story about reaching political equilibrium in an otherwise-divided galaxy. Decent story, relatively well told, but nothing too special.
"Life-Suspension," by LE Modesitt, Jr : This Asian themed story manages to do "mythology in space" without succumbing to Star Wars level tackiness. It also manages to be a story about real, relatable people as well as a story about the universe's mysteries. Once again, nothing that'll blow you away, but it's still a good story.
"Terra-Exulta," by SL Gilbow : Stories told in 100% expository fashion tend to bore me. This one didn't do much to alleviate that. The story has pretty decent voice, but its premise is apparently largely to creep out the audience, something which it manages only peripherally. Pass.
"Aftermaths," by Lois McMaster Bujold : Another solid story. Although this one is also part of a larger story arc written by the author in novel form, this story stands on its own well, and, as the introduction promises, explores the grim professions that crop up out of war. Worth reading.
"Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy!" by Harry Turtledove : Skipped. I used to love Turtledove, too, but his supreme lack of style - and intelligence - in this piece is unforgivable. I'm really not sure how this piece wormed its way into this - or any other - collection.
"Prisons," by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason : I was surprised at the sophistication of this story, given Anderson's predilection for relatively simple storytelling. That isn't to say that it's super sophisticated; just that it's deeper than what I was expecting. Also, the detached tone the story takes towards its characters' strong, and conflicting, senses of morality is relatively well done. Well worth reading.
"Different Day," by K Tempest Bradford : Bradford's channeling of the "American Everyman" for a brief monologue, reacting to the presence and politics of more-advanced alien races in modern-day American, is a bit on the puerile side, but that is by design. Ultimately, it gets across the sense of hypocrisy with which we'd regard aliens visiting Earth with the same motives we visit other countries right now. And it's extremely short, so it's not like reading it will set you back more than a few minutes.
"Twilight of the Gods," by John C Wright : Another story that's part of an extended arc by the author, this story actually is one of my favorites in the collection. The exploration of society aboard a generational warship that experienced a great cataclysm that caused its crew to lose its way, turning the ship into a microcostic world with warring states, is engaging and interesting from beginning to end. It's easy to picture both the large scale and small scale implications of every facet of the story, which is well-written overall. Definitely worth a look.
"Warship," by George RR Martin and George Guthridge : A short and semi-pointless parable about the advance of war technology. Doesn't really have enough to it to be a really good story. Mercifully it's over fast, but you can skip it just as easily.
"Swanwatch," by Yoon Ha Lee : Another mysterious mythology-in-space story with a decidedly Asian style. This story has a bit of a learning curve to it, meaning that the first page or two will be confusing. It's worth it, though. Once the full picture begins to resolve, the story is quite gorgeous.
"Spirey and the Queen," by Alastair Reynolds : I have mixed feelings about this story. The exposition and imagery give a definite feeling of other-ness; these are not human beings as we know them. However, the dialogue is every consistent with standard, modern English dialogue, which is every by design so that readers can continue to relate to the story, or by fault of the author not developing voice well. Hard to tell. The story itself is pretty good, but doesn't really pick up until about a third of the way through. There's a lot of violation of the show-don't-tell rule here, too.
"Pardon Our Conquest," by Alan Dean Foster : Kind of like the above-mentioned "Warship," this story feels more like a pointless anecdote than a full story. While it has some interesting ideas - the culture clash between a less-advanced but extremely aggressive species which has decided to surrender to a technologically superior but benevolent civilization rather than lose at war, while the latter superior civilization takes their surrender as an opportunity to let them join their society - it ultimately plays these clashes off more as gags than as an intellectual exploration of the incident.
"Symbiont," by Robert Silverberg : This story creeped me out, which is definitely what it set out to do. It's actually more the description of what the humans do to their "Ovoid" enemies during the war that creeped me out than the rest of the story - which almost seemed fitting after that one paragraph. Silverberg was definitely channeling the masculine, jingoistic science fiction of Card, Bova, and Heinlein with this one.
"The Ship Who Returned," by Anne McAffery : Yet another story that is the sequel to something else. This one manages to stand on its own mostly on virtue of near-constant expository reminiscing, which feels a little excessive. Unfortunately, the way this story is written won't appeal to anyone fully - people who are already fans of the other stories will be bored with the constant rehash, and new fans will be put off by all the exposition.
"My She," by Mary Rosenblum : Another skip. Didn't look appealing. Might return to it later.
"The Shoulders of Giants," by Robert J Sawyer : Very simplistic. From the beginning I figured the sleeper ship might arrive to find that people beat them to their destination, but the story doesn't really do anything with that except glorify the desire to explore in an empty way. I thought, when they decided to push off again and try for something even further away, that the author might go the Stanislaw Lem distance and show them being overtaken by human progress again, but to no avail. Aggressively mediocre.
"The Culture Archivist," by Jeremiah Tolbert : It says in the introduction that Tolbert was heavily inspired by Star Trek for this story, and that it arose out of imagining how the Federation and the Borg in Star Trek really aren't so different, assimilating other cultures and all, and what would the Federation/Borg be like together as a capitalist entity? The story serves as much as a meganerd homage to Star Trek as it does to a satire of cultural assimilation. Decently done but it does feel a bit juvenile, and if you're not heavily familiar with both Trek lore and contemporary internet-nerd culture you'll probably be quite lost reading it.
"The Other Side of Jordan," by Robert Steele : This story is mostly summary and exposition. Its ideas and societies and economic structures are pretty interesting, but ultimately it fails to deliver a really good storytelling experience. It feels more like a long-winded dust jacket than a story.
"Like They Always Been Free," by Georgina Li : Definitely, by far the strongest voice in the collection. This story positively drips with the sense of how alien it is from our own world viewpoint. Short, and probably could have been longer to be a more fulfilling story, but definitely a high point of the collection.
"Eskhara," by Trent Hergenrader : Another parable, this time about the disturbance of native cultures by unwanted, ignorant, and insensitive visitors. The story gets its point across and leaves the reader feeling pretty lousy, while maintaining a decent sense of character and a relative lack of melodrama. Its one downfall is that it might still be too light to really hit readers as hard as it could otherwise.
"The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousness, " by James Alan Gardner : Despite its title (and some of its stereotypical characterizations) seemingly taking inspiration from the sitcom Friends, this story is mostly a success, due in large part to its excellent premise: anthropomorphisizing societies, a trick which tickles me to death. The story itself is almost overwhelmingly simplistic, and the language used once again borders on the juvenile at times, but its still a great concept that isn't so terribly executed that its ruined.
"Golubash, or Wine-War-Blood-Elegy," by Catherynne M Valente : Skipped. Once again, I might take a look at this again in the future, but the first couple of pages felt too disjointed for me to continue.
And that's it. Of these, the best are "Life-Suspension," "Aftermaths," "Twilight of the Gods," "Swanwatch," "Like They Always Been Free," and "Eskhara." I'm still not sure I'd recommend a purchase, but a grabbing a copy from the library to take in a few of the stories isn't a bad idea if you're looking for a few fun, but not terribly ground-breaking, reads. I think the one largest drawback to the collection is that fails to demonstrate even once the full breadth of what space opera can do, which is truly a shame.
Anyway, broken down by story:
"Mazer in Prison," by Orson Scott Card : Didn't finish it. This is one of the aforementioned stories based in the authors' other work. I've never read Card's major work and what was presented early in this story didn't invigorate me enough to try.
"Carthago Delenda Est," by Genevieve Valentine : An interesting, if somewhat philosophically basic, story about reaching political equilibrium in an otherwise-divided galaxy. Decent story, relatively well told, but nothing too special.
"Life-Suspension," by LE Modesitt, Jr : This Asian themed story manages to do "mythology in space" without succumbing to Star Wars level tackiness. It also manages to be a story about real, relatable people as well as a story about the universe's mysteries. Once again, nothing that'll blow you away, but it's still a good story.
"Terra-Exulta," by SL Gilbow : Stories told in 100% expository fashion tend to bore me. This one didn't do much to alleviate that. The story has pretty decent voice, but its premise is apparently largely to creep out the audience, something which it manages only peripherally. Pass.
"Aftermaths," by Lois McMaster Bujold : Another solid story. Although this one is also part of a larger story arc written by the author in novel form, this story stands on its own well, and, as the introduction promises, explores the grim professions that crop up out of war. Worth reading.
"Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy!" by Harry Turtledove : Skipped. I used to love Turtledove, too, but his supreme lack of style - and intelligence - in this piece is unforgivable. I'm really not sure how this piece wormed its way into this - or any other - collection.
"Prisons," by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason : I was surprised at the sophistication of this story, given Anderson's predilection for relatively simple storytelling. That isn't to say that it's super sophisticated; just that it's deeper than what I was expecting. Also, the detached tone the story takes towards its characters' strong, and conflicting, senses of morality is relatively well done. Well worth reading.
"Different Day," by K Tempest Bradford : Bradford's channeling of the "American Everyman" for a brief monologue, reacting to the presence and politics of more-advanced alien races in modern-day American, is a bit on the puerile side, but that is by design. Ultimately, it gets across the sense of hypocrisy with which we'd regard aliens visiting Earth with the same motives we visit other countries right now. And it's extremely short, so it's not like reading it will set you back more than a few minutes.
"Twilight of the Gods," by John C Wright : Another story that's part of an extended arc by the author, this story actually is one of my favorites in the collection. The exploration of society aboard a generational warship that experienced a great cataclysm that caused its crew to lose its way, turning the ship into a microcostic world with warring states, is engaging and interesting from beginning to end. It's easy to picture both the large scale and small scale implications of every facet of the story, which is well-written overall. Definitely worth a look.
"Warship," by George RR Martin and George Guthridge : A short and semi-pointless parable about the advance of war technology. Doesn't really have enough to it to be a really good story. Mercifully it's over fast, but you can skip it just as easily.
"Swanwatch," by Yoon Ha Lee : Another mysterious mythology-in-space story with a decidedly Asian style. This story has a bit of a learning curve to it, meaning that the first page or two will be confusing. It's worth it, though. Once the full picture begins to resolve, the story is quite gorgeous.
"Spirey and the Queen," by Alastair Reynolds : I have mixed feelings about this story. The exposition and imagery give a definite feeling of other-ness; these are not human beings as we know them. However, the dialogue is every consistent with standard, modern English dialogue, which is every by design so that readers can continue to relate to the story, or by fault of the author not developing voice well. Hard to tell. The story itself is pretty good, but doesn't really pick up until about a third of the way through. There's a lot of violation of the show-don't-tell rule here, too.
"Pardon Our Conquest," by Alan Dean Foster : Kind of like the above-mentioned "Warship," this story feels more like a pointless anecdote than a full story. While it has some interesting ideas - the culture clash between a less-advanced but extremely aggressive species which has decided to surrender to a technologically superior but benevolent civilization rather than lose at war, while the latter superior civilization takes their surrender as an opportunity to let them join their society - it ultimately plays these clashes off more as gags than as an intellectual exploration of the incident.
"Symbiont," by Robert Silverberg : This story creeped me out, which is definitely what it set out to do. It's actually more the description of what the humans do to their "Ovoid" enemies during the war that creeped me out than the rest of the story - which almost seemed fitting after that one paragraph. Silverberg was definitely channeling the masculine, jingoistic science fiction of Card, Bova, and Heinlein with this one.
"The Ship Who Returned," by Anne McAffery : Yet another story that is the sequel to something else. This one manages to stand on its own mostly on virtue of near-constant expository reminiscing, which feels a little excessive. Unfortunately, the way this story is written won't appeal to anyone fully - people who are already fans of the other stories will be bored with the constant rehash, and new fans will be put off by all the exposition.
"My She," by Mary Rosenblum : Another skip. Didn't look appealing. Might return to it later.
"The Shoulders of Giants," by Robert J Sawyer : Very simplistic. From the beginning I figured the sleeper ship might arrive to find that people beat them to their destination, but the story doesn't really do anything with that except glorify the desire to explore in an empty way. I thought, when they decided to push off again and try for something even further away, that the author might go the Stanislaw Lem distance and show them being overtaken by human progress again, but to no avail. Aggressively mediocre.
"The Culture Archivist," by Jeremiah Tolbert : It says in the introduction that Tolbert was heavily inspired by Star Trek for this story, and that it arose out of imagining how the Federation and the Borg in Star Trek really aren't so different, assimilating other cultures and all, and what would the Federation/Borg be like together as a capitalist entity? The story serves as much as a meganerd homage to Star Trek as it does to a satire of cultural assimilation. Decently done but it does feel a bit juvenile, and if you're not heavily familiar with both Trek lore and contemporary internet-nerd culture you'll probably be quite lost reading it.
"The Other Side of Jordan," by Robert Steele : This story is mostly summary and exposition. Its ideas and societies and economic structures are pretty interesting, but ultimately it fails to deliver a really good storytelling experience. It feels more like a long-winded dust jacket than a story.
"Like They Always Been Free," by Georgina Li : Definitely, by far the strongest voice in the collection. This story positively drips with the sense of how alien it is from our own world viewpoint. Short, and probably could have been longer to be a more fulfilling story, but definitely a high point of the collection.
"Eskhara," by Trent Hergenrader : Another parable, this time about the disturbance of native cultures by unwanted, ignorant, and insensitive visitors. The story gets its point across and leaves the reader feeling pretty lousy, while maintaining a decent sense of character and a relative lack of melodrama. Its one downfall is that it might still be too light to really hit readers as hard as it could otherwise.
"The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousness, " by James Alan Gardner : Despite its title (and some of its stereotypical characterizations) seemingly taking inspiration from the sitcom Friends, this story is mostly a success, due in large part to its excellent premise: anthropomorphisizing societies, a trick which tickles me to death. The story itself is almost overwhelmingly simplistic, and the language used once again borders on the juvenile at times, but its still a great concept that isn't so terribly executed that its ruined.
"Golubash, or Wine-War-Blood-Elegy," by Catherynne M Valente : Skipped. Once again, I might take a look at this again in the future, but the first couple of pages felt too disjointed for me to continue.
And that's it. Of these, the best are "Life-Suspension," "Aftermaths," "Twilight of the Gods," "Swanwatch," "Like They Always Been Free," and "Eskhara." I'm still not sure I'd recommend a purchase, but a grabbing a copy from the library to take in a few of the stories isn't a bad idea if you're looking for a few fun, but not terribly ground-breaking, reads. I think the one largest drawback to the collection is that fails to demonstrate even once the full breadth of what space opera can do, which is truly a shame.
April 15, 2022
Mazer in Prison - Orson Scott Card (2005)
The 50 relativistic years journey of Mazer Rackham preceding Ender's Game that led to the foundation of Battle School. The premise is shaky and hero worship and wish fulfillment is plentiful, but it's fun.
Ok
Carthago Delenda Est - Genevieve Valentine (2009)
A delegation awaits the arrival of an alien species based on a message that almost no one is allowed to hear. There mustn't be any war before their arrival. The delegation has been waiting 400 years. However long it takes, they'll be waiting, to ensure peace.
Meh
Life-Suspension - L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (2009)
A space opera romance filled with Japanese mythology.
Ok
Terra-Exulta - S. L. Gilbow (2009)
A linguist picks a file at random to translate from Galactic Standard to Ancient Planetary English for submission to the Galactic Society of Ancient Languages to show that it can be done. The file is a transmission from a terralogist about their life's work of terraforming and all the neologisms they coined to describe the process. The story becomes something different than what it first seems to be.
Enjoyable
Aftermaths - Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
A Pilot Officer observes a medtech, in this case basically a mortician, involved with Personnel Retrieval and Identification of those who have died in space. This would've been more meaningful if I had read any of the Vorkosigan Saga. Maybe I'll try again, someday.
Ok
Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy - Harry Turtledove (2006)
A story overflowing with intentionally groanworthy puns, 4th wall breaks from an omniscient narrator talking to you, and bants about the French and at least one author. Space Cadet Rufus Q. Shupilluliumash, an overgrown hamster, must solve the titular crime.
Ok
Prisons - Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason (1992)
A prison planet overseen by a single AI has been overthrown. The Federation is desperate to reclaim it, as the withdrawal symptoms of the illicit and addictive drug that comes from there are often deadly.
Ok
Different Day - K. Tempest Bradford (2009)
Various aliens use Earth as a competition to see who can trick the humans into giving them the most stuff. Probably also a political allegory.
Meh
Twilight of the Gods - John C. Wright (2009)
The third part of a sequence that retells The Ring of Nibelung in space. Those upon the generation worldship, one of several, have forgotten everything. The implied setting for this story is immense, but takes place in a single location. So, in that regard it will be much more enjoyed by those who can fully appreciate the implications. For me, it's mostly a tease.
Ok
Warship - George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge (1979)
The first SF story that Martin tried and failed to sell, which was rewritten by Guthridge and then sold. Alecto is an invulnerable spaceship, its only weakness being its human crew. Most of the narrative is in devotion to a dead lover.
Meh
Swanwatch - Yoon Ha Lee (2009)
A small group of exiles aren't allowed to leave the space station unless they perform a masterpiece. The highest form of art involves suicide.
Meh
Spirey and the Queen - Alastair Reynolds (1996)
Betrayals, desperation, and sentient AI with vast plans.
Ok
Pardon Our Conquest - Alan Dean Foster (2009)
A comedy of three species involved in conquest, surrender, confusion, and friendship. This is set in his Commonwealth series, none of which I've read, but I was amused regardless.
Highly Enjoyable
Symbiont - Robert Silverberg (1985)
Biological warfare between humans and an alien species makes living through an attack worse than dying, so his friend asks, "Why didn't you kill me?"
Meh
The Ship Who Returned - Anne McCaffrey (1999)
A mind ship laments the loss of her pilot she had for over three quarters of a century. She then returns to a people she saved a century ago and may have to again.
Enjoyable
My She - Mary Rosenblum (2009)
Clones are bred in convents on each planet to serve as quantum communication devices. The protagonist is a sapient seeing-eye dog, which allows the clone to see through their eyes. His newest clone to be paired with is different from all the others.
Enjoyable
The Shoulders of Giants - Robert J. Sawyer (2000)
Space pioneers have been in cryosleep for 1,200 years, but now they've reached their destination, only to find it was colonized long ago by far faster ships. What's to be done?
Enjoyable
The Culture Archivist - Jeremiah Tolbert (2009)
A rogue ethnographer's day is ruined when the United Planets's spaceship Jolly Happy Fun Time comes to assimilate the previously uncontacted sentients, except by him, into their consumerist hegemony.
Ok
The Other Side of Jordan - Allen Steele (2009)
A blue collar working class man escapes Earth to travel the galaxy by doing manual labor jobs on space freighters and at space ports. There are several alien species described. It has a retrofuture aesthetic that reminded me of leaving Europe for the New World. There's also a romance with the daughter of a plantation owner.
Enjoyable
Like They Always Been Free - Georgina Li (2009)
The specifics of this sexual relationship elude me, but it's some kind of literary alien sex erotic romance.
Blah
Eskhara - Trent Hergenrader (2009)
US occupation of Baghdad, but in space.
Ok
The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses - James Alan Gardner (2009)
A romantic comedy where entire civilizations are cast as individuals.
Enjoyable
Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy - Catherynne M. Valente (2009)
A tale of history and war told through wine vintages.
Ok
The 50 relativistic years journey of Mazer Rackham preceding Ender's Game that led to the foundation of Battle School. The premise is shaky and hero worship and wish fulfillment is plentiful, but it's fun.
Ok
Carthago Delenda Est - Genevieve Valentine (2009)
A delegation awaits the arrival of an alien species based on a message that almost no one is allowed to hear. There mustn't be any war before their arrival. The delegation has been waiting 400 years. However long it takes, they'll be waiting, to ensure peace.
Meh
Life-Suspension - L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (2009)
A space opera romance filled with Japanese mythology.
Ok
Terra-Exulta - S. L. Gilbow (2009)
A linguist picks a file at random to translate from Galactic Standard to Ancient Planetary English for submission to the Galactic Society of Ancient Languages to show that it can be done. The file is a transmission from a terralogist about their life's work of terraforming and all the neologisms they coined to describe the process. The story becomes something different than what it first seems to be.
Enjoyable
Aftermaths - Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
A Pilot Officer observes a medtech, in this case basically a mortician, involved with Personnel Retrieval and Identification of those who have died in space. This would've been more meaningful if I had read any of the Vorkosigan Saga. Maybe I'll try again, someday.
Ok
Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy - Harry Turtledove (2006)
A story overflowing with intentionally groanworthy puns, 4th wall breaks from an omniscient narrator talking to you, and bants about the French and at least one author. Space Cadet Rufus Q. Shupilluliumash, an overgrown hamster, must solve the titular crime.
Ok
Prisons - Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason (1992)
A prison planet overseen by a single AI has been overthrown. The Federation is desperate to reclaim it, as the withdrawal symptoms of the illicit and addictive drug that comes from there are often deadly.
Ok
Different Day - K. Tempest Bradford (2009)
Various aliens use Earth as a competition to see who can trick the humans into giving them the most stuff. Probably also a political allegory.
Meh
Twilight of the Gods - John C. Wright (2009)
The third part of a sequence that retells The Ring of Nibelung in space. Those upon the generation worldship, one of several, have forgotten everything. The implied setting for this story is immense, but takes place in a single location. So, in that regard it will be much more enjoyed by those who can fully appreciate the implications. For me, it's mostly a tease.
Ok
Warship - George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge (1979)
The first SF story that Martin tried and failed to sell, which was rewritten by Guthridge and then sold. Alecto is an invulnerable spaceship, its only weakness being its human crew. Most of the narrative is in devotion to a dead lover.
Meh
Swanwatch - Yoon Ha Lee (2009)
A small group of exiles aren't allowed to leave the space station unless they perform a masterpiece. The highest form of art involves suicide.
Meh
Spirey and the Queen - Alastair Reynolds (1996)
Betrayals, desperation, and sentient AI with vast plans.
Ok
Pardon Our Conquest - Alan Dean Foster (2009)
A comedy of three species involved in conquest, surrender, confusion, and friendship. This is set in his Commonwealth series, none of which I've read, but I was amused regardless.
Highly Enjoyable
Symbiont - Robert Silverberg (1985)
Biological warfare between humans and an alien species makes living through an attack worse than dying, so his friend asks, "Why didn't you kill me?"
Meh
The Ship Who Returned - Anne McCaffrey (1999)
A mind ship laments the loss of her pilot she had for over three quarters of a century. She then returns to a people she saved a century ago and may have to again.
Enjoyable
My She - Mary Rosenblum (2009)
Clones are bred in convents on each planet to serve as quantum communication devices. The protagonist is a sapient seeing-eye dog, which allows the clone to see through their eyes. His newest clone to be paired with is different from all the others.
Enjoyable
The Shoulders of Giants - Robert J. Sawyer (2000)
Space pioneers have been in cryosleep for 1,200 years, but now they've reached their destination, only to find it was colonized long ago by far faster ships. What's to be done?
Enjoyable
The Culture Archivist - Jeremiah Tolbert (2009)
A rogue ethnographer's day is ruined when the United Planets's spaceship Jolly Happy Fun Time comes to assimilate the previously uncontacted sentients, except by him, into their consumerist hegemony.
Ok
The Other Side of Jordan - Allen Steele (2009)
A blue collar working class man escapes Earth to travel the galaxy by doing manual labor jobs on space freighters and at space ports. There are several alien species described. It has a retrofuture aesthetic that reminded me of leaving Europe for the New World. There's also a romance with the daughter of a plantation owner.
Enjoyable
Like They Always Been Free - Georgina Li (2009)
The specifics of this sexual relationship elude me, but it's some kind of literary alien sex erotic romance.
Blah
Eskhara - Trent Hergenrader (2009)
US occupation of Baghdad, but in space.
Ok
The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses - James Alan Gardner (2009)
A romantic comedy where entire civilizations are cast as individuals.
Enjoyable
Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy - Catherynne M. Valente (2009)
A tale of history and war told through wine vintages.
Ok
April 17, 2011
OK collection, best stories those by the stars: Card, Bujold. Also the worst/slightest: Modesitt, Martin.
June 4, 2015
Federations
Author: Bujold, Card, Martin, McCaffrey, Reynolds, Silverberg, Valentine, Modesitt Jr, Turtledove, Anderson, Beason, Bradford, Wright, Guthridge, Lee, Foster, Silverberg, Rosenblum, Sawyer, Tolbert, Steele, Li, Hergenrader, Gardner, Valente,
Publisher: Prime Books
Date: 2009
Pgs: 379
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Vast interstellar societies and the challenges facing them. Federations stories mix new fiction alongside reprints that represent what interstellar SF is capable of. Space is big.
Genre:
Adventure
Alternate History
Apocalypse
Cyberpunk
Disaster
Fiction
Military
Multiverse
Science fiction
Short stories
Space
Space opera
War
Why this book:
The cover. And the Wil Wheaton blurb on the back.
______________________________________________________________________
Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card
Favorite Character:
Mazer Rackham, war hero and deep space traveller, and Rip Van Winkle on a long trip through time on his roundtrip way to Earth and command a fleet that is on its way to enemy territory. The idea of his being launched on a trip like this so that he ages in conjunction with his crews as they race toward the enemy and will be of an age with his crew despite everyone else on Earth aging multiple decades in the interim.
The Feel:
The feel is claustrophobic through the early stages opening into infinity as Mazer and Graff make their play.
Favorite Scene:
When Mazer realizes the subtext in the previously omitted letters from home beamed to him on his relativistic trip as decades pass on Earth while a bare year has passed on his ship and the ship observing his upset tries to sedate him and reports his condition back to the panel of shrinks on Earth. Reminded me of the scene in Apollo 13 when Tom Hank’s Lovell ripped the sensors out of his space suit because he was tired of people knowing everything that was going on with him.
Pacing:
The pace of the short was great.
Hmm Moments:
Sending the commander into space at relativistic speeds on a trip to nowhere so that he maintains time with the fleets outbound from Earth for the Formic worlds.
Mazer’s take-it-or-leave-it was incredibly awesome.
______________________________________________________________________________
Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine
The Feel:
Sort of a United Nations of space at the behest of an advanced civilization that drops into the local group and broadcast for all to hear, come join us. And then, leaves the locals hanging between contacts. The Carthaginian is on its way, but hasn’t arrived yet.
Hmm Moments:
The cloning ambassadors thing instead of having to send new ones out from Earth is odd. Cool...just odd. And just that quick, I’m confused, are the Yemenis clones or are they androids? Guess that will become clearer deeper into the text. They are clones. One of the aliens did send an AI instead of a flesh and blood being.
Clone ambassadors in deep space with other alien ships close at hand waiting on an “all powerful” alien to show up while keeping the peace between all those waiting for the arrival. What could possibly go wrong?
Casting call:
Reese Witherspoon as a young clone of Yemeni just awakened. And Helen Mirren as an older clone just before her expiration.
______________________________________________________________________________
Life-Suspension by L. E. Modesitt Jr
The Feel:
The text lends itself to a Godzilla movie cadence. Imagine the text in the narrative voice of the male lead from one of the Godzilla movies and the text flows better, for me anyway. I know how odd that seems. But just straight reading it, the flow is choppy. Employing this device makes the text more palatable. Not sure if this was the intention of the author or if this is the author’s normal style.
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Flight Captain Ghenji Yamato’s physical description of the new officer entering the mess, which is presented as an inner monologue, doesn’t read like anyone would talk to themselves. The description is stilted.
Maybe I’m just being thick today, but I couldn’t figure out what Captain Rokujo Yukionna is/was. I looked up Yukionna and discovered that she is a snow ghost in Japanese folklore. She drains the life, vampire like, and takes away the heat of the body in cold weather. She is a winter spirit. This needed to be clearer within the text.
______________________________________________________________________________
Terra-Exulta by S L Gilbow
The Feel:
This is like a Reverse Earth Day diatribe hidden inside a discussion of language wrapped in a sci fi template. It’s grim. Very grim when viewed through that lens.
______________________________________________________________________________
Aftermaths by Lois McMaster Bujold
Favorite Character:
A wet behind the ears Pilot Officer on his first real mission and he’s doing recovery trips across dead battlefields recovering the bodies of troops from both sides. It would have to be a demoralizing bit of work for the newly minted officer, would be tough enough for the old hand who had been in the service for a long while.
The Feel:
Creepy. Wandering around a battlefield with the dead and the scavengers.
Hmm Moments:
The idea of carrion wagons crisscrossing interstellar battlefields to recover the bodies of soldiers and sailors. That’s not a concept that I recall running across in sci fi before. I’ve seen it used in Civil War and Revolutionary War stories.
______________________________________________________________________________
Prisons by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason
Favorite Character:
The Warden
Amu, the revolutionary.
Character I Most Identified With:
The Warden, the AI who while he did oversee the prison also was overseeing the terraforming of the Planet Bastille...and the production and process of ubermindist, a galactic drug that is very well received on the black market across the Federation.
The Feel:
One of the villains was an actual villain. The others were just people caught in the whirlwind of history.
Favorite Scene:
The climax and the aftermath. There are all kinds of prisons.
Pacing:
Well paced.
Hmm Moments:
I wonder if the the Federation’s Prasidentarix is a ubermindist addict and what that and her consort’s death all have to do with the uprising on Bastille. Excellent climax and denouement clear this up. Well done.
______________________________________________________________________________
Different Day by K Tempest Bradford
The Feel:
Too short. Reads more like the idea for a story than the actual story. I like the concept, just needed more.
______________________________________________________________________________
Twilight of the Gods by John C Wright
Favorite Character:
The last Watchman, his duty is to be carried through even if all is lost.
Least Favorite Character:
Acting Captain Weston II, he is every privileged silver spoon who thought that by virtue of birth he was chosen to lead that you’ve ever encountered in your life.
The Feel:
I like the idea of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in space.
Favorite Scene:
When the traitor Captain returns to the throne room and faced down the Acting Captain and went all Jedi on him and his knights in the darkness.
Pacing:
Great pace. Lots of action. This could have been much longer and still been awesome.
Hmm Moments:
How have we become so ignorant so soon?
My master said once that the Computer spoke to all the children, and instructed them. When the Computer fell silent, there were no written things aboard with which to teach the children. Much was lost; more was lost in the confusion of the wars and darkenings. What we know, we know by spoken lore; but in the past, all men knew the priestly arts, and could read the signs
That’s poignant in juxtaposition with what the future could hold IRL.
______________________________________________________________________________
Warship by George R R Martin and George Guthridge
Pacing:
Good pace, but what happened next. The ship did what the ship did and then...a bit of unsatisfying.
Hmm Moments:
Creepy when he uncovered the body of his dead lover and kissed her kneecap. I was worried where this part of the story was going.
______________________________________________________________________________
Spirey and the Queen by Alastair Reynolds
Favorite Character:
Spirey is us caught up in the flux of duty, honor, and what is right when all three don’t equal out.
Character I Most Identified With:
Spirey. He doesn’t want to surrender his humanity...perceived humanity for comfort in the ship’s aquatic interior atmosphere. He’s stuck in his job. He’s doing his duty. And he’s being challenged by the evidence before his eyes about what his duty truly is. And is he really seeing what he’s seeing or did the nanospores insides his suit survive the purge and infect him.
The Feel:
Love the concept. Two warring forces fighting over a nascent solar system filled with mineral riches. Winner is going to mine it. But the war has been going on forever, generation on generation. Intentional mutations and augmentations. Cyborgs. A.I.s taking control.
Favorite Scene:
Spirey’s surprise when he encounters the defector after crash-jumping to the splinter. And his ship having been taken over by the nanospores is trying to cook him from orbit with its particle beams.
Hmm Moments:
Posthuman men falling into barbarism while machines fight their wars. And across the Spiral, posthuman women who have evolved out of their need for men and bioengineered them out of existence, while they think they fight their war, but the machines fight for them too. And a wasp machine queen intelligence throwing out Noah’s arks into the depth of the Spiral’s oort cloud on long orbits to return them to the Spiral when the planets are fully formed and they can be settled. Wow! Just wow!
That’s a great twist on the evolution of the A.I.s.
______________________________________________________________________________
Pardon Our Conquest by Alan Dean Foster
Favorite Character:
Admiral Gorekii for that last line if nothing else, but he’s excellent throughout.
The Feel:
Love the “what the heck is going on here” feeling that the representatives of the Commonwealth engender in the Admiral.
Hmm Moments:
“...this war. We lost-didn’t we?” That made me laugh.
______________________________________________________________________________
Symbiont by Robert Silverberg
The Feel:
It’s a decent story about duty and honor.
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
But did he get it or not at the end?
______________________________________________________________________________
The Ship Who Returned by Anne McCaffrey
Favorite Character:
The ship is an excellent character.
Favorite Scene:
The rise of the flora
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
So much of the Ship books is internal dialogue against the backdrop of action happening off-screen or near screen that I’m not sure that it would translate.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Shoulders of Giants by Robert J Sawyer
Character I Most Identified With:
Toby MacGregor. He’s the narrator and the voice that leads us through the story. He’s our in to the world of giants.
The Feel:
This has that classic sci fi flavor.
Favorite Scene:
The moment when MacGregor and Woo realize that it isn’t vulcanism causing those lights on their target planet’s dark side.
Hmm Moments:
Love the Rip Van Winkle / Vance Astrovik / tortoise and the hare aspect of this story.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Culture Archivist by Jeremiah Tolbert
Favorite Character:
Bertie, the archivist, moving around the galaxy ahead of the swarm of the UP.
The Feel:
Join or be assimilated, no one has a body of uniqueness. If you aren’t conformed, you don’t belong and you are absorbed. Even when you conform, you are absorbed. Helluva concept. I disagree with the author on the concept of capitalism being about conformity. When it works best, it is absorbing culture and making it part of itself. The conformity here is more how I picture Soviet communism.
Favorite Scene:
When Captain Morgana recognizes Bertie and cries out his name and his non-human form attempts to respond as his human body would if aroused.
Pacing:
The pace is great.
Hmm Moments:
Love the idea that there are nodes out there with the “real” identiies of all these absorbed cultures, just waiting for their rediscovery by the drones who may escape the UP and rebegin again. The archivist’s job sounds very pyrrhic. The rebeginnings/regenesis may only last until the UP catches up with them again, but then, those nodes still exist out there waiting to be discovered again and causing another revolution.
The mindless Redshirts, basically flesh golem cannon fodder. Greatness.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Other Side of Jordan by Allen Steele
Favorite Character:
The narrator is great. His adventure and love story is very well told.
The Feel:
There is a great sense of wonder at the universe that the narrator is moving through.
Favorite Scene:
The climax scene, though I did see the storytelling part coming.
Pacing:
Greatness.
Hmm Moments:
The way that the danaii deal with warfare on The Hex.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Would make an awesome movie, Message in the Bottle in space.
Casting call:
Would love to see Brad Pitt as the Narrator and Angelina Jolie as Jordan. Would make a beautiful movie. The love story would work for all genders. Great story.
______________________________________________________________________________
Like They Always Been Free by Gerogina Li
Favorite Character:
Kinger and Boy are great characters. Kinger’s voice is so well communicated I can almost hear it.
The Feel:
This feels like Shawshank.
Pacing:
The story is very short. But the pace is incredible. It flows so fast that the short pages fly passed.
Hmm Moments:
I’m so happy that there wasn’t a final twist that undid the happiness of the ending. I was afraid there was going to be one. That feeling of impending doom was upon me as I read the final pages.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Eskhara by Trent Hergenrader
Favorite Character:
Xenologist Kiernan. He’s what you’d hope a diplomat would be in space.
Least Favorite Character:
Rauder comes across as every hard ass, ever. Blow it up. Kill ‘em all. A stereotype.
Character I Most Identified With:
Kiernan.
The Feel:
Feels real. Could be a story about a representative of the Crown in a foreign land trying to keep a militant regular Army officer from burning everything down before he has a chance to find out what it is.
And it’s a tragedy.
Hmm Moments:
The planet naming conventions.
______________________________________________________________________________
The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousness by James Alan Gardner
Favorite Character:
Both the Union and the Didge are great characters in possibly the weirdest romantic comedy of all time.
Least Favorite Character:
The Abundance reminds me of my ex.
The Feel:
A Douglas Adams rom com.
Favorite Scene:
When the Union realizes that the Abundance isn’t all she’s cracked up to be.
Pacing:
The pace is great. I flew through the shortness of it.
Hmm Moments:
I kept wanting to read the line “and this was regarded as being a really bad idea” or some variation of that.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This couldn’t translate to the screen.
______________________________________________________________________________
Golubash, or Wine-Blood War-Elegy by Catherynne M Valente
Favorite Character:
Our narrator and winetaster in chief
The Feel:
The illicit, illegal wine tasting history lesson is an awesome way to do world building for the background.
Favorite Scene:
Love the end. Love it.
Hmm Moments:
Possibly one of the oddest sci fi stories I’ve ever read. Interstellar wine wars...really? And now I’m thinking about writing a story about cheese smuggling...in space. It’s a cool concept and wrapped up in the power of corporations in the sci fi environ.
The Hyphens of Golubash could be elementals or parts of the Hyperion Cantos. Excellent stuff.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Considering how much of the story happens to Uncle Such-n-such so many years ago or Grandma This or Cousin That, the focus of the movie would skip around. Wouldn’t be impossible on the big screen, but the audience desire to be lead by the nose in too many films and studios wanting to make things as simple as possible would fight against anyone wanting to sink into the escapism of it. Would anyone really want to watch an outer space travelogue and history lesson with aliens using wine as its underpinnings? I wouldn’t have thought so either, but the story is good and well written.
______________________________________________________________________________
Last Page Sound:
This was a great collection of sci fi.
Author Assessment:
There are some incredible authors involved in this collection. Some I’ll no doubt read again. And some I might not. By and large, this has been a well written collection.
Editorial Assessment:
I give full marks to the editors.
Knee Jerk Reaction:
real genre classic
Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX
Dewey Decimal System:
F FED
Would recommend to:
everyone
______________________________________________________________________________
Author: Bujold, Card, Martin, McCaffrey, Reynolds, Silverberg, Valentine, Modesitt Jr, Turtledove, Anderson, Beason, Bradford, Wright, Guthridge, Lee, Foster, Silverberg, Rosenblum, Sawyer, Tolbert, Steele, Li, Hergenrader, Gardner, Valente,
Publisher: Prime Books
Date: 2009
Pgs: 379
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Vast interstellar societies and the challenges facing them. Federations stories mix new fiction alongside reprints that represent what interstellar SF is capable of. Space is big.
Genre:
Adventure
Alternate History
Apocalypse
Cyberpunk
Disaster
Fiction
Military
Multiverse
Science fiction
Short stories
Space
Space opera
War
Why this book:
The cover. And the Wil Wheaton blurb on the back.
______________________________________________________________________
Mazer in Prison by Orson Scott Card
Favorite Character:
Mazer Rackham, war hero and deep space traveller, and Rip Van Winkle on a long trip through time on his roundtrip way to Earth and command a fleet that is on its way to enemy territory. The idea of his being launched on a trip like this so that he ages in conjunction with his crews as they race toward the enemy and will be of an age with his crew despite everyone else on Earth aging multiple decades in the interim.
The Feel:
The feel is claustrophobic through the early stages opening into infinity as Mazer and Graff make their play.
Favorite Scene:
When Mazer realizes the subtext in the previously omitted letters from home beamed to him on his relativistic trip as decades pass on Earth while a bare year has passed on his ship and the ship observing his upset tries to sedate him and reports his condition back to the panel of shrinks on Earth. Reminded me of the scene in Apollo 13 when Tom Hank’s Lovell ripped the sensors out of his space suit because he was tired of people knowing everything that was going on with him.
Pacing:
The pace of the short was great.
Hmm Moments:
Sending the commander into space at relativistic speeds on a trip to nowhere so that he maintains time with the fleets outbound from Earth for the Formic worlds.
Mazer’s take-it-or-leave-it was incredibly awesome.
______________________________________________________________________________
Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine
The Feel:
Sort of a United Nations of space at the behest of an advanced civilization that drops into the local group and broadcast for all to hear, come join us. And then, leaves the locals hanging between contacts. The Carthaginian is on its way, but hasn’t arrived yet.
Hmm Moments:
The cloning ambassadors thing instead of having to send new ones out from Earth is odd. Cool...just odd. And just that quick, I’m confused, are the Yemenis clones or are they androids? Guess that will become clearer deeper into the text. They are clones. One of the aliens did send an AI instead of a flesh and blood being.
Clone ambassadors in deep space with other alien ships close at hand waiting on an “all powerful” alien to show up while keeping the peace between all those waiting for the arrival. What could possibly go wrong?
Casting call:
Reese Witherspoon as a young clone of Yemeni just awakened. And Helen Mirren as an older clone just before her expiration.
______________________________________________________________________________
Life-Suspension by L. E. Modesitt Jr
The Feel:
The text lends itself to a Godzilla movie cadence. Imagine the text in the narrative voice of the male lead from one of the Godzilla movies and the text flows better, for me anyway. I know how odd that seems. But just straight reading it, the flow is choppy. Employing this device makes the text more palatable. Not sure if this was the intention of the author or if this is the author’s normal style.
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Flight Captain Ghenji Yamato’s physical description of the new officer entering the mess, which is presented as an inner monologue, doesn’t read like anyone would talk to themselves. The description is stilted.
Maybe I’m just being thick today, but I couldn’t figure out what Captain Rokujo Yukionna is/was. I looked up Yukionna and discovered that she is a snow ghost in Japanese folklore. She drains the life, vampire like, and takes away the heat of the body in cold weather. She is a winter spirit. This needed to be clearer within the text.
______________________________________________________________________________
Terra-Exulta by S L Gilbow
The Feel:
This is like a Reverse Earth Day diatribe hidden inside a discussion of language wrapped in a sci fi template. It’s grim. Very grim when viewed through that lens.
______________________________________________________________________________
Aftermaths by Lois McMaster Bujold
Favorite Character:
A wet behind the ears Pilot Officer on his first real mission and he’s doing recovery trips across dead battlefields recovering the bodies of troops from both sides. It would have to be a demoralizing bit of work for the newly minted officer, would be tough enough for the old hand who had been in the service for a long while.
The Feel:
Creepy. Wandering around a battlefield with the dead and the scavengers.
Hmm Moments:
The idea of carrion wagons crisscrossing interstellar battlefields to recover the bodies of soldiers and sailors. That’s not a concept that I recall running across in sci fi before. I’ve seen it used in Civil War and Revolutionary War stories.
______________________________________________________________________________
Prisons by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason
Favorite Character:
The Warden
Amu, the revolutionary.
Character I Most Identified With:
The Warden, the AI who while he did oversee the prison also was overseeing the terraforming of the Planet Bastille...and the production and process of ubermindist, a galactic drug that is very well received on the black market across the Federation.
The Feel:
One of the villains was an actual villain. The others were just people caught in the whirlwind of history.
Favorite Scene:
The climax and the aftermath. There are all kinds of prisons.
Pacing:
Well paced.
Hmm Moments:
I wonder if the the Federation’s Prasidentarix is a ubermindist addict and what that and her consort’s death all have to do with the uprising on Bastille. Excellent climax and denouement clear this up. Well done.
______________________________________________________________________________
Different Day by K Tempest Bradford
The Feel:
Too short. Reads more like the idea for a story than the actual story. I like the concept, just needed more.
______________________________________________________________________________
Twilight of the Gods by John C Wright
Favorite Character:
The last Watchman, his duty is to be carried through even if all is lost.
Least Favorite Character:
Acting Captain Weston II, he is every privileged silver spoon who thought that by virtue of birth he was chosen to lead that you’ve ever encountered in your life.
The Feel:
I like the idea of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in space.
Favorite Scene:
When the traitor Captain returns to the throne room and faced down the Acting Captain and went all Jedi on him and his knights in the darkness.
Pacing:
Great pace. Lots of action. This could have been much longer and still been awesome.
Hmm Moments:
How have we become so ignorant so soon?
My master said once that the Computer spoke to all the children, and instructed them. When the Computer fell silent, there were no written things aboard with which to teach the children. Much was lost; more was lost in the confusion of the wars and darkenings. What we know, we know by spoken lore; but in the past, all men knew the priestly arts, and could read the signs
That’s poignant in juxtaposition with what the future could hold IRL.
______________________________________________________________________________
Warship by George R R Martin and George Guthridge
Pacing:
Good pace, but what happened next. The ship did what the ship did and then...a bit of unsatisfying.
Hmm Moments:
Creepy when he uncovered the body of his dead lover and kissed her kneecap. I was worried where this part of the story was going.
______________________________________________________________________________
Spirey and the Queen by Alastair Reynolds
Favorite Character:
Spirey is us caught up in the flux of duty, honor, and what is right when all three don’t equal out.
Character I Most Identified With:
Spirey. He doesn’t want to surrender his humanity...perceived humanity for comfort in the ship’s aquatic interior atmosphere. He’s stuck in his job. He’s doing his duty. And he’s being challenged by the evidence before his eyes about what his duty truly is. And is he really seeing what he’s seeing or did the nanospores insides his suit survive the purge and infect him.
The Feel:
Love the concept. Two warring forces fighting over a nascent solar system filled with mineral riches. Winner is going to mine it. But the war has been going on forever, generation on generation. Intentional mutations and augmentations. Cyborgs. A.I.s taking control.
Favorite Scene:
Spirey’s surprise when he encounters the defector after crash-jumping to the splinter. And his ship having been taken over by the nanospores is trying to cook him from orbit with its particle beams.
Hmm Moments:
Posthuman men falling into barbarism while machines fight their wars. And across the Spiral, posthuman women who have evolved out of their need for men and bioengineered them out of existence, while they think they fight their war, but the machines fight for them too. And a wasp machine queen intelligence throwing out Noah’s arks into the depth of the Spiral’s oort cloud on long orbits to return them to the Spiral when the planets are fully formed and they can be settled. Wow! Just wow!
That’s a great twist on the evolution of the A.I.s.
______________________________________________________________________________
Pardon Our Conquest by Alan Dean Foster
Favorite Character:
Admiral Gorekii for that last line if nothing else, but he’s excellent throughout.
The Feel:
Love the “what the heck is going on here” feeling that the representatives of the Commonwealth engender in the Admiral.
Hmm Moments:
“...this war. We lost-didn’t we?” That made me laugh.
______________________________________________________________________________
Symbiont by Robert Silverberg
The Feel:
It’s a decent story about duty and honor.
Plot Holes/Out of Character:
But did he get it or not at the end?
______________________________________________________________________________
The Ship Who Returned by Anne McCaffrey
Favorite Character:
The ship is an excellent character.
Favorite Scene:
The rise of the flora
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
So much of the Ship books is internal dialogue against the backdrop of action happening off-screen or near screen that I’m not sure that it would translate.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Shoulders of Giants by Robert J Sawyer
Character I Most Identified With:
Toby MacGregor. He’s the narrator and the voice that leads us through the story. He’s our in to the world of giants.
The Feel:
This has that classic sci fi flavor.
Favorite Scene:
The moment when MacGregor and Woo realize that it isn’t vulcanism causing those lights on their target planet’s dark side.
Hmm Moments:
Love the Rip Van Winkle / Vance Astrovik / tortoise and the hare aspect of this story.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Culture Archivist by Jeremiah Tolbert
Favorite Character:
Bertie, the archivist, moving around the galaxy ahead of the swarm of the UP.
The Feel:
Join or be assimilated, no one has a body of uniqueness. If you aren’t conformed, you don’t belong and you are absorbed. Even when you conform, you are absorbed. Helluva concept. I disagree with the author on the concept of capitalism being about conformity. When it works best, it is absorbing culture and making it part of itself. The conformity here is more how I picture Soviet communism.
Favorite Scene:
When Captain Morgana recognizes Bertie and cries out his name and his non-human form attempts to respond as his human body would if aroused.
Pacing:
The pace is great.
Hmm Moments:
Love the idea that there are nodes out there with the “real” identiies of all these absorbed cultures, just waiting for their rediscovery by the drones who may escape the UP and rebegin again. The archivist’s job sounds very pyrrhic. The rebeginnings/regenesis may only last until the UP catches up with them again, but then, those nodes still exist out there waiting to be discovered again and causing another revolution.
The mindless Redshirts, basically flesh golem cannon fodder. Greatness.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Other Side of Jordan by Allen Steele
Favorite Character:
The narrator is great. His adventure and love story is very well told.
The Feel:
There is a great sense of wonder at the universe that the narrator is moving through.
Favorite Scene:
The climax scene, though I did see the storytelling part coming.
Pacing:
Greatness.
Hmm Moments:
The way that the danaii deal with warfare on The Hex.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Would make an awesome movie, Message in the Bottle in space.
Casting call:
Would love to see Brad Pitt as the Narrator and Angelina Jolie as Jordan. Would make a beautiful movie. The love story would work for all genders. Great story.
______________________________________________________________________________
Like They Always Been Free by Gerogina Li
Favorite Character:
Kinger and Boy are great characters. Kinger’s voice is so well communicated I can almost hear it.
The Feel:
This feels like Shawshank.
Pacing:
The story is very short. But the pace is incredible. It flows so fast that the short pages fly passed.
Hmm Moments:
I’m so happy that there wasn’t a final twist that undid the happiness of the ending. I was afraid there was going to be one. That feeling of impending doom was upon me as I read the final pages.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Eskhara by Trent Hergenrader
Favorite Character:
Xenologist Kiernan. He’s what you’d hope a diplomat would be in space.
Least Favorite Character:
Rauder comes across as every hard ass, ever. Blow it up. Kill ‘em all. A stereotype.
Character I Most Identified With:
Kiernan.
The Feel:
Feels real. Could be a story about a representative of the Crown in a foreign land trying to keep a militant regular Army officer from burning everything down before he has a chance to find out what it is.
And it’s a tragedy.
Hmm Moments:
The planet naming conventions.
______________________________________________________________________________
The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousness by James Alan Gardner
Favorite Character:
Both the Union and the Didge are great characters in possibly the weirdest romantic comedy of all time.
Least Favorite Character:
The Abundance reminds me of my ex.
The Feel:
A Douglas Adams rom com.
Favorite Scene:
When the Union realizes that the Abundance isn’t all she’s cracked up to be.
Pacing:
The pace is great. I flew through the shortness of it.
Hmm Moments:
I kept wanting to read the line “and this was regarded as being a really bad idea” or some variation of that.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This couldn’t translate to the screen.
______________________________________________________________________________
Golubash, or Wine-Blood War-Elegy by Catherynne M Valente
Favorite Character:
Our narrator and winetaster in chief
The Feel:
The illicit, illegal wine tasting history lesson is an awesome way to do world building for the background.
Favorite Scene:
Love the end. Love it.
Hmm Moments:
Possibly one of the oddest sci fi stories I’ve ever read. Interstellar wine wars...really? And now I’m thinking about writing a story about cheese smuggling...in space. It’s a cool concept and wrapped up in the power of corporations in the sci fi environ.
The Hyphens of Golubash could be elementals or parts of the Hyperion Cantos. Excellent stuff.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Considering how much of the story happens to Uncle Such-n-such so many years ago or Grandma This or Cousin That, the focus of the movie would skip around. Wouldn’t be impossible on the big screen, but the audience desire to be lead by the nose in too many films and studios wanting to make things as simple as possible would fight against anyone wanting to sink into the escapism of it. Would anyone really want to watch an outer space travelogue and history lesson with aliens using wine as its underpinnings? I wouldn’t have thought so either, but the story is good and well written.
______________________________________________________________________________
Last Page Sound:
This was a great collection of sci fi.
Author Assessment:
There are some incredible authors involved in this collection. Some I’ll no doubt read again. And some I might not. By and large, this has been a well written collection.
Editorial Assessment:
I give full marks to the editors.
Knee Jerk Reaction:
real genre classic
Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX
Dewey Decimal System:
F FED
Would recommend to:
everyone
______________________________________________________________________________
July 12, 2020
This is a nice idea for an anthology: stories set in and imagining large-scale interstellar societies. There's a mix of reprints and originals, and I tended to find the originals tended to match the brief better than the reprints.
There was a mix of stories here. There weren't any that I outright hated, but I couldn't remember enough about Ender's Game to appreciate Orson Scott Card's Mazer in Prison, set in the same universe, before Ender's time; and I feel there was some mythology in LE Modesitt Jr's Life-Suspension that I missed which probably stopped me getting the most out of it. Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy by Harry Turtledove was probably a bit too comic for my taste; while Prisons by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason just felt grim, after a hopeful start.
The story I had the most problem with was Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Returned, which is another story abut the brainship Helva, The Ship Who Sang. I was very fond of another Brainship book, The Ship Who Searched in my youth, but this makes me very wary of going back and revisiting it. To put it kindly, there's a lot of outdated notions of womanhood and ability, not to mention outright rape jokes that really left a sour taste.
On the other hand, there were some great stories as well, including Spirey and the Queen by Alistair Reynolds about two (too-)balanced factions fighting a war in a distant solar system; Mary Rosenblum's My She about telepaths who form the basis of the communication network between the stars; The One With the Interstellar Group Consciousness, about the conscious Zeitgeist of a civilisation that just wants to settle down and get married; and finally Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy which is a great story that paints a society through wine.
So a great idea for an anthology, but the execution could have been better.
There was a mix of stories here. There weren't any that I outright hated, but I couldn't remember enough about Ender's Game to appreciate Orson Scott Card's Mazer in Prison, set in the same universe, before Ender's time; and I feel there was some mythology in LE Modesitt Jr's Life-Suspension that I missed which probably stopped me getting the most out of it. Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy by Harry Turtledove was probably a bit too comic for my taste; while Prisons by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason just felt grim, after a hopeful start.
The story I had the most problem with was Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Returned, which is another story abut the brainship Helva, The Ship Who Sang. I was very fond of another Brainship book, The Ship Who Searched in my youth, but this makes me very wary of going back and revisiting it. To put it kindly, there's a lot of outdated notions of womanhood and ability, not to mention outright rape jokes that really left a sour taste.
On the other hand, there were some great stories as well, including Spirey and the Queen by Alistair Reynolds about two (too-)balanced factions fighting a war in a distant solar system; Mary Rosenblum's My She about telepaths who form the basis of the communication network between the stars; The One With the Interstellar Group Consciousness, about the conscious Zeitgeist of a civilisation that just wants to settle down and get married; and finally Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy which is a great story that paints a society through wine.
So a great idea for an anthology, but the execution could have been better.
December 31, 2009
I bought this book purely for Jeremiah Tolbert's story, which did not disappoint, and was surprised to see other authors I liked among the contributors. There were a number of stories that blew me away, and several that really didn't, and the rest were good. Drill-down below...
The Excellent:
"Swanwatch" by Yoon Ha Lee
• Love the structure of this universe.
"Spirey and the Queen" by Alastair Reynolds
• Perfect mixture of "You don't live in this world so I will use enough words so that the things you are seeing will make sense to you" and "I live in this word so my every thought is not a bucket of exposition."
"My She" by Mary Rosenblum
• Superb on all acounts.
"The Culture Archivist by Jeremiah Tolbert
• Funny and explorative with interesting tech. Excited to see a genderless character, but there was one thing that bugged me about it.
"Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy" by Catherynne M. Valente
• Her first SF story is epic and brilliant.
The Good:
"Carthago Delenda Est" by Genevieve Valentine
• I think I didn't quite "get" this story, but it worked.
"Life-suspension" by L. E. Modesitt
• Interesting concept executed well.
"Aftermaths" by Lois McMaster Bujold
• More of a feel-good story than a technical masterpiece.
"Twilight of the Gods" by John C. Wright
• Another one I didn't quite "get," not being familiar with Wagner, but it was pretty and internally consistent.
"Warship" by George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge
• Good concept done well, but a little overstated.
"Like They Always Been Free" by Georgina Li
• It's hard to find a good really short story and this one definitely makes the grade, but the intensely personal voice was a little hard for me to follow.
"Eskhara" by Trent Hergenrader
• Good structure and timely concerns.
"The One With the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses" by James Alan Gardner
• Fairly clever, amusing and sweet in a heteronormative romcom sort of way.
The Decent:
"Terra-Exulta" by S. L. Gilbow
• An interesting idea, but the format bugged me and it wasn't subtle enough for its length.
"Prisons" by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason
• I couldn't tell what this one was trying to say, and it felt split somehow.
"Different Day" by K. Tempest Bradford
• Love the concept, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
"Pardon Our Conquest" by Alan Dean Foster
• I didn't get this one, but I may have been missing info from the other works in the milieu I hadn't read.
"The Ship Who Returned" by Anne McCaffrey
• Again, missing context since I haven't read the books.
"The Shoulders of Giants" by Robert J. Sawyer
• Great concept, not enough character development.
"The Other Side of Jordan" by Allen Steele
• Great concept skimmed over in favor of a fairly cardboard love story.
The Not Worth It:
"Mazer In Prison" by Orson Scott Card
• I enjoy much of Card's fiction and dearly love several of his books, but I really didn't need to read this story. It doesn't stand on its own and doesn't contribute much to its contextual works.
"Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" by Harry Turtledove
• If Steve Eley had read this, I probably would have liked it, but by itself it's kind of thin. Punny, but again, I didn't need to read this.
"Symbiont" by Robert Silverberg
• Silverberg's written a zillion stories, but all the ones I've read seem to take a concept that could be interesting, give it a few quirks--a few good lines, a nice twist, a funny scene--but just not do much with it. This one was not an exception.
The Excellent:
"Swanwatch" by Yoon Ha Lee
• Love the structure of this universe.
"Spirey and the Queen" by Alastair Reynolds
• Perfect mixture of "You don't live in this world so I will use enough words so that the things you are seeing will make sense to you" and "I live in this word so my every thought is not a bucket of exposition."
"My She" by Mary Rosenblum
• Superb on all acounts.
"The Culture Archivist by Jeremiah Tolbert
• Funny and explorative with interesting tech. Excited to see a genderless character, but there was one thing that bugged me about it.
"Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy" by Catherynne M. Valente
• Her first SF story is epic and brilliant.
The Good:
"Carthago Delenda Est" by Genevieve Valentine
• I think I didn't quite "get" this story, but it worked.
"Life-suspension" by L. E. Modesitt
• Interesting concept executed well.
"Aftermaths" by Lois McMaster Bujold
• More of a feel-good story than a technical masterpiece.
"Twilight of the Gods" by John C. Wright
• Another one I didn't quite "get," not being familiar with Wagner, but it was pretty and internally consistent.
"Warship" by George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge
• Good concept done well, but a little overstated.
"Like They Always Been Free" by Georgina Li
• It's hard to find a good really short story and this one definitely makes the grade, but the intensely personal voice was a little hard for me to follow.
"Eskhara" by Trent Hergenrader
• Good structure and timely concerns.
"The One With the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses" by James Alan Gardner
• Fairly clever, amusing and sweet in a heteronormative romcom sort of way.
The Decent:
"Terra-Exulta" by S. L. Gilbow
• An interesting idea, but the format bugged me and it wasn't subtle enough for its length.
"Prisons" by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason
• I couldn't tell what this one was trying to say, and it felt split somehow.
"Different Day" by K. Tempest Bradford
• Love the concept, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
"Pardon Our Conquest" by Alan Dean Foster
• I didn't get this one, but I may have been missing info from the other works in the milieu I hadn't read.
"The Ship Who Returned" by Anne McCaffrey
• Again, missing context since I haven't read the books.
"The Shoulders of Giants" by Robert J. Sawyer
• Great concept, not enough character development.
"The Other Side of Jordan" by Allen Steele
• Great concept skimmed over in favor of a fairly cardboard love story.
The Not Worth It:
"Mazer In Prison" by Orson Scott Card
• I enjoy much of Card's fiction and dearly love several of his books, but I really didn't need to read this story. It doesn't stand on its own and doesn't contribute much to its contextual works.
"Someone Is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy" by Harry Turtledove
• If Steve Eley had read this, I probably would have liked it, but by itself it's kind of thin. Punny, but again, I didn't need to read this.
"Symbiont" by Robert Silverberg
• Silverberg's written a zillion stories, but all the ones I've read seem to take a concept that could be interesting, give it a few quirks--a few good lines, a nice twist, a funny scene--but just not do much with it. This one was not an exception.
September 23, 2025
Like most theme anthologies this one has ups and downs. Federations is a loose umbrella for mostly
military SF but there are some gems in this volume. Orson Scott Card's Ender tale "Mazer In Prison" is good if slight, and Lois McMaster Bujold gives us an unsettling look at a coroner's life in wartime in the Barrayar Universe in "Aftermaths". Alastair Reynolds takes us into the Revelation Space milieu with the engaging "Spirey And The Queen" while Robert Silverberg's unsettling "Symbiont" is a story of alien possession with no happy endings. Anne McCaffrey's "The Ship Who Returned" is good too but Jeremiah Tolbert's odd tale of "The Culture Archivist" was the highlight for me.
A volume worth the effort.
military SF but there are some gems in this volume. Orson Scott Card's Ender tale "Mazer In Prison" is good if slight, and Lois McMaster Bujold gives us an unsettling look at a coroner's life in wartime in the Barrayar Universe in "Aftermaths". Alastair Reynolds takes us into the Revelation Space milieu with the engaging "Spirey And The Queen" while Robert Silverberg's unsettling "Symbiont" is a story of alien possession with no happy endings. Anne McCaffrey's "The Ship Who Returned" is good too but Jeremiah Tolbert's odd tale of "The Culture Archivist" was the highlight for me.
A volume worth the effort.
October 9, 2017
Some really solid pieces in this anthology
I'm not a huge fan of anthologies in general, as I am of the opinion that it take more effort to make a good short story than a novel. Some of the stories here don't really stand alone (Ship Who Returned) while others are shining examples of what you can do when you see brevity as a strength (Mazer in Prison, Carthage Delenda Est, My She, Shoulders of Giants). The others were... unremarkable but possibly worth your time. All is all, a bag of apples worth picking up-- you might make apple sauce with some of them, but you won't need to throw any away.
I'm not a huge fan of anthologies in general, as I am of the opinion that it take more effort to make a good short story than a novel. Some of the stories here don't really stand alone (Ship Who Returned) while others are shining examples of what you can do when you see brevity as a strength (Mazer in Prison, Carthage Delenda Est, My She, Shoulders of Giants). The others were... unremarkable but possibly worth your time. All is all, a bag of apples worth picking up-- you might make apple sauce with some of them, but you won't need to throw any away.
October 11, 2019
I tend to steer clear of space-based science fiction, because I feel it's all alien invasions and lasers...but this book was an excellent mix of stories that got much deeper than my preconceptions. Sure, not every story in the book was 5-star-worthy in my opinion, but as a whole, the best ones made up for the less-best ones. My favorite was "Terra-Exulta," which at surface level was a story about "words," (which is interesting enough in itself!), but revealed a darker subtext that even the narrator wasn't aware of. Also, I enjoyed the editor's introductions to the stories at least as much as the stories themselves—well done!
October 17, 2024
"Federations" edited by John Joseph Adams is a stellar anthology that truly captures the essence of science fiction. Each story within this collection brings a unique flavor, exploring the vast and varied concept of interstellar alliances and conflicts. The tales are engaging and thought-provoking, offering a mix of adventure, political intrigue, and philosophical musings. The diverse voices and imaginative worlds make it a fun and enriching read for any sci-fi aficionado. If you found it great and fun, it's because Adams curated a masterpiece that celebrates the genre's finest storytelling.
November 2, 2018
Reasonably enjoyable but most of the stories were good without being great. I thought “Terra-Exulta” by S.W. Gilbow was exceptional and really enjoyed “Pardon Our Conquest” by Alan Dean Foster and “The One With The Interstellar Group Consciousness” by James Alan Gardner. The rest were merely okay with a few that were abjectly terrible (I couldn’t even read John C. Wright’s “Twilight of the Gods”).
July 27, 2025
The Ship Who Returned is the last story of Helva's arc in the Ship Who Sang series (aka Brain and Brawn series). Helva is returning to the headquarters on Regulus Base to bury Niall, her brawn who has died of natural cause, with Niall's hologram along for company. In the story before this one, she had finally been paired with Niall and already the arc is brought to a close. We missed out on all the great adventures they had together. Like a donut, there's a hole in the middle of this series. But donuts are still pretty darn tasty, hole or no hole.
May 23, 2017
So some of these stories were better than others, obviously, but the book overall is very good and there's definitely more authors from here that I want to read from. Some of these should become episodes on Black Mirror, they're super creepy! I recommend this one to anyone who is in need of some awesome short stories.
March 20, 2019
This collection of short stories gathers works from some of the greatest sci-fi writers. All focusing on what the ever expanding universe looks like when it is inhabited by various species and federations. Some tales are optimistic, some are disheartening, and some are down-right terrifying. I'd definitely read more books by just about all of the authors featured in this anthology.
December 8, 2019
A wonderful collection of science fiction short stories from authors I’m familiar with and new ones. Each story is different and unique from the last. Some that made me chuckle, others that made me think and the last gives a deep appreciation for wine while lightly criticizing interstellar capitalism.
October 18, 2024
A good compendium of "space empire/colony/united federation of planets" type stories, by many different authors, some I recognized, some not. All in all very good, though the individual stories vary wildy in tone, scope, and believability. I had to give up on a couple. Just not my style, or slogged on with nothing interesting going on. But some are stellar, and most are very good.
February 24, 2025
Favorite stories:
-"Carthago Delenda Est" by Genevieve Valentine
-"Symbiont" by Robert Silverberg
-"Eskhara" by Trent Hergenrader
-"Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card
Very interesting how some stories written in the 1980s have held up beautifully but some stories written in 2009 have aged horribly.
-"Carthago Delenda Est" by Genevieve Valentine
-"Symbiont" by Robert Silverberg
-"Eskhara" by Trent Hergenrader
-"Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card
Very interesting how some stories written in the 1980s have held up beautifully but some stories written in 2009 have aged horribly.
June 7, 2017
Fantastic collection of stories
This is a fantastic collection of short stories from a set of incredibly talented authors. They manage to build incredibly vivid and interesting worlds in such a short time and draw you in to tell their stories. Not a bad one in the bunch.
This is a fantastic collection of short stories from a set of incredibly talented authors. They manage to build incredibly vivid and interesting worlds in such a short time and draw you in to tell their stories. Not a bad one in the bunch.
August 5, 2024
Varied collection of tales involving humans and what we might term ’aliens’ set on planets, in ships and all around. There were a few top notch stories, some average ones and a couple bottom of the barrel.
September 28, 2024
Fun selection of short stories in fantasy and science fiction. There were some good ones and...not so good ones in the mix. I did recognize some of the bigger names, though I had to chuckle at George R. R. Martin not being a household name when this book was published.
September 26, 2017
Great read
October 10, 2017
Actually only read the McCaffrey part. It was fine for what it is. I really like Helva, anyway.
May 29, 2019
3.5
This collection definitely had its ups and downs. Overall, it was a good foray into the world of sci-fi short stories.
This collection definitely had its ups and downs. Overall, it was a good foray into the world of sci-fi short stories.
October 1, 2019
Science fiction short stories. Some of the stories are amazing while some are just so-so.
December 26, 2021
A number of really good science fiction stories from giants of the field. Some are new stories just for this anthology, others are reprinted here with permission from the author.
June 4, 2022
Generally an enjoyable read with some good stories by some of my favourite authors: McCaffrey and Bujold. Others were poor or mildly irritating! Worth a try if you like science fiction.
October 7, 2023
Abandoned after about 40%
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