Shepherd Moon

Space: 1999

by John Kenneth Muir

A new officially licensed collection of short stories. The distant past and possible futures. Mysteries revealed and new threats emerging. Shepherd Moon is the first anthology of short fiction featuring classic, present, and future authors spanning the entire history of Moonbase Alpha in its ongoing odyssey of adventure. Includes contributions by E.C. Tubb, Brian Ball, John Kenneth Muir, William Latham, Michael A. Faries, Stephen Jansen, Emma Thomas, and others.

Genres: Science Fiction, Media Tie In, Anthologies

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John Kenneth Muir (born 1969) is an American literary critic. He has written as of 2023 thirty two books, many in the fields of film and television, with a particular accent on the horror and science fiction genres. He has been described as one of the horror genre's "most widely read critics", and as an "accomplished film journalist". He is the creator of the 2023 audio drama Enter the House Between, as well as the new novellas based on the series.

Reviews

[Raja99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: This book contains my first paid fiction sale, a four-way collaboration. (Well, it'll be paid when the check arrives; I declined the publisher's offer of receiving money through Paypal. Later: I received the check a little earlier than promised, and got the balance by Paypal almost instantaneously afterwards.)

This is the first official, licensed anthology of short fiction set in the Space: 1999 universe. Rather annoyingly, the book doesn't have the name of any of its contributors on the cover; nor does it name the editor anywhere. (Since William Latham acted as the editor for our collaboration, I suspect he edited the book as a whole, but that's just a guess.)

The book assumes some familiarity with the characters and settings of Space: 1999; since I memorized the series in my childhood, I'm not sure how accessible it would be to non-fans.

The book contains a foreword by publisher Mateo Latosa and the following nine stories:

"The Touch of Venus" by John Kenneth Muir
"Fallen Star" by Albert Leon, Ken Scott, Lindsey Scott-Ipsen, and Raja Thiagarajan
"Cargo" by Brian Ball
"Futility" by John Kenneth Muir
"Dead End" by E.C. Tubb
"Remembering Julia" by Stephen Jansen
"Mission Critical" by Michael A. Faries
"The Astelian Gift" by Emma Burrows
"Spider's Web" by William Latham

It also contains a two-page "About the Authors" section.

Here are my ratings (on the Goodreads scale) of the stories. I'll try to avoid spoilers.

"The Touch of Venus" (3 stars). This details a painful story in the background of one of the main characters.

"Fallen Star" (4 stars--but I can't be objective). This tells the tragic, but heroic, story of the death of a well-beloved character who was only seen once in the series.

"Cargo" (3 stars). Set during breakaway, this is the story of the reconciliation of a guilt-ridden character with someone who has reason to hate him. (I deducted a star because it's inconsistent with—and partly undermines—the events of one of the TV episodes.)

"Futility" (5 stars). This is my favorite piece of short (prose) fiction in the Space: 1999 universe. It delivers the heady mix of SF, horror, and thoughtful philosophy that the series had at its best.

"Dead End" (3 stars). An solid story of humans tested nearly to destruction.

"Remembering Julia" (3 stars). A suspenseful story of a hostage situation shortly after breakaway.

"Mission Critical" (3 stars). A short slice of life in Year Two.

"The Astelian Gift" (4 stars). An excellent, literate, story of one of the main characters before she joined Alpha. There's a strong hint of tragedy for readers familiar with the character's introduction; I'm not sure what non-fans would make of it.

"Spider's Web" (3 stars). A somewhat harrowing story of a well-liked character in extreme circumstances. I found it a bit puzzling at first; I'm assuming it ties in with Space 1999 Survival which—believe it or not—I haven't yet read.

[Tom Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the TV series from the seventies, this collection of short stories covers a range of periods, some first season, some second, and at least one appearing to occur within the continuity established in the Powys book range.

As with any short story collection, the quality varies, but these are all for the most part solid tales. What I found appealing was the humanity in the stories, something that was sometimes lost to either action or philosophical pondering on TV. Most stories felt accessible, with even the one following a character from the book continuity being easy to establish context and follow.

Ultimately, I can recommend this to fans of the TV show and find that it inspires me to continue the journey through Powys Media's literary version of the show.

[Kerry Nietz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powys Media has been slowly building a library of books based around the 70s-era science fiction show, Space 1999. Shepherd Moon is one such book, an anthology of short stories. Gathered here are writings by some of the luminaries of the Space 1999 following—EC Tubb and Brian Ball, for instance—but also some previously unknown talent. Thankfully all the stories are entertaining and the writing strong. For someone like me for which the television show was an early introduction to science fiction (I was too young to catch Star Trek when it first aired) this book is a welcome revisit to the world (er… moon, I mean) of the series. My personal favorite is probably the last story where a tentacled and door-hugging monster from a first season episode plays a significant role, but every story fills in a small fissure in the history of Moonbase Alpha. Fun for any sci-fi fan or Space 1999 devotee. I recommend it!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

These short stories are a bit hit and miss; and one, written collaboratively by three remote authors should have been edited as a complete story, not as is evident from the published work, as individual chunks. The issue here is that tenses flip from past to present and back again, sometimes in the same paragraph. This really jarred while reading to the point where I gave up on the story altogether. Another story, written by original author Brian ball messes with established continuity and has passages which had to be read twice (and similarly ignored because they made no sense) and introduced seemingly unrelated characters without any context; the characters were IMO not believable anyway, written as cockney labourers in space; what the..?. Standout stories though were both by John Kenneth Muir.

In short, it's a patchy set of stories and I'm a bit bemused by them all.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of nine stories based on the mid-seventies SF series.

Five terrific stories, one really rotten story, and one so-so story.

What about the other two? In a single collection, two stories with a similar plot thread: a woman on drugs to stave off past horrors. Alone, either would have been a good story. But to include both in a nine story collection was a mistake. It would have been much better to save one for the next set and substituted another. The effectiveness of the stories was muted by having them both together, to be read almost on top of each other.