Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction

Galactic Center #5.5

by Robert Silverberg (Editor, Contributor), David Brin, Orson Scott Card

Far Horizons is the science fiction equivalent of Robert Silverberg's bestselling fantasy anthology Legends. For both books, Silverberg invited some of the most renowned authors in the field to write a new story based on their most popular series or settings. For instance, the first story in Far Horizons is Ursula K. Le Guin's "Old Music and the Slave Women," which takes place in the same Hainish universe as her famous novels The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Dan Simmons wrote a piece set in the realm of Hyperion, Anne McCaffrey turned in a Helva story from the world of The Ship Who Sang, and so on.

Like Legends, the list of writers in Far Horizons reads like a Who's Who of the genre: Le Guin, Joe Haldeman, Orson Scott Card, David Brin, Simmons, Nancy Kress, Frederik Pohl, Gregory Benford, McCaffrey and Greg Bear, as well as Silverberg himself. And like Legends, the authors take a page or two to introduce their stories so that newcomers won't be totally lost. The average story in Far Horizons is, as you might expect, a significant cut above the average SF story, although this anthology is not quite as successful as its predecessor. Authors like Le Guin and Simmons have come up with some first-rate stuff, but Card and McCaffrey have produced stories that are mediocre at best. Overall, though, the book has far more ups than downs, and serious readers won't want to miss this one. Those new to the world of SF will also find Far Horizons an invaluable reference when they're looking for good authors to read. --Craig E. Engler
* 1 • Introduction (Far Horizons: The Great Worlds of Science Fiction) • essay by Robert Silverberg
* 5 • Old Music and the Slave Women • [Hainish] • novella by Ursula K. Le Guin
* 53 • A Separate War • [Forever War] • novelette by Joe Haldeman
* 89 • Investment Counselor • [Ender Wiggin] • novelette by Orson Scott Card
* 119 • Temptation • [The Uplift Series] • novella by David Brin
* 175 • Getting to Know the Dragon • [Roma Eterna] • novelette by Robert Silverberg
* 207 • Orphans of the Helix • [Hyperion Cantos] • novelette by Dan Simmons
* 259 • Sleeping Dogs • [Sleepless] • novelette by Nancy Kress
* 295 • The Boy Who Would Live Forever • [Heechee] • novelette by Frederik Pohl
* 343 • A Hunger for the Infinite • [Ocean/Galactic Center] • novelette by Gregory Benford
* 379 • The Ship That Returned • [The Ship Who Sang] • novelette by Anne McCaffrey
* 419 • The Way of All Ghosts • novelette by Greg Bear

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Collections

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

There are many authors in the database with this name.

Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

*****"Old Music and the Slave Woman" - Ursula K. LeGuin.
Yes, I checked this book out from the library because I saw that it had a LeGuin story I hadn't read before! And yes, this alone was worth the price of admission. (Well, since it was from the library there wasn't a price, but, you know...)
Set in the world of the Ekumen. The egalitarian interplanetary alliance has come to this corner of the galaxy. Ideas of freedom have spread, causing riots and rebellion in a society based on racial slavery. An ambassador of the Ekumen is kidnapped by those who hope to use him as a political mouthpiece, and imprisoned.
A mere recital of the events of the tale can't come even close to LeGuin's succinct but thorough exploration of the evils of social injustice, tempered by the further evils that can happen when lofty ideals meet imperfect human reality. There's more here to think about than in a dozen angry political screeds, and much more of worth.

*** "A Separate War" - Joe Haldeman.
A story which fills in a 'gap' covering what happened to one of the main characters in 'The Forever War' when the two protagonists were separated. A heterosexual woman from our time period deals with losing her lover, is trained for officership in a space military, and comes to terms with living in a homosexual future. I didn't enjoy this as much as I remember liking 'Forever War,' but it was OK.

** "Investment Counselor" - Orson Scott Card.
This story introduces Ender Wiggin (of 'Ender's Game') to the AI, Jane. Ender has just turned 20 and must figure out how to deal with his huge and hugely complicated trust fund. Jane presents herself as a piece of accounting software. While 'Jane' is the star of the show, here (by far the most intriguing and likable character in the story), the piece doesn't answer enough questions about her to really stand on its own - it feels like a piece of deus ex machina. The custom of 'speaking for the dead' as described here, is unconvincing - a better job has been done elsewhere in Card's work.

** "Temptation" - David Brin.
I've read Brin's first 'Uplift' trilogy, but years ago. I remember thinking they were pretty all right, but haven't gotten around to the second trilogy. This short story set in that world, didn't really do it for me. It had a bit too much jammed into not enough pages, and the action and philosophy didn't quite mesh. Rather a lot of time is spent in setting up a reasonably interesting sci-fi scenario - and then it's sort of dropped: "Wait! Something new has come along! Now we are going to be faced with a philosophical dilemma having to do with the nature of reality and free will!" The terms in which the dilemma is discussed also seemed somewhat out of character for the individuals involved, as they'd been presented up until then. I also just didn't find his sentient dolphins to be very compelling characters.

** "Getting to Know the Dragon" - Robert Silverberg.
Since Silverberg's the editor, I guess he gets to put in whatever he wants! I haven't read any of Silverberg's other 'Roma Aeterna' alternate history stories, but I didn't find this one to be among his best work. Again, there are two parts to the story that don't really mesh that well. The main character, a scholar and 'Renaissance' man in a world dominated by the Roman emperor, has to deal with being co-opted into manic Imperial plans for grandiose architectural projects. The same character then reads a journal, recently unearthed from archives, telling the story of the hero Emperor Trajan's journey around the globe. Like Captain Cook or Columbus, his supposedly heroic journey was actually marked by cruelty and barbarism. The take away seems to be that a 'decadent' and peaceful society may be better than a supposedly 'progressive' one. I'm fine with that premise, but the story just didn't fully win me over.

*** "Orphans of the Helix" - Dan Simmons
For some reason, the introduction to/description of this story didn't really grab me - but I actually really liked the story itself. It effectively advertised Simmons' Hyperion books, which I haven't yet read - but definitely want to. A bit reminiscent of a Star Trek episode, this short story has the AIs of a colony ship wake some of the crew to deal with a problem they've encountered - a far-flung colony is being harassed by a seemingly automated alien 'harvester' ship. Very enjoyable.

*** "Sleeping Dogs" - Nancy Kress
Set in the world of her 'Sleepless' novels, this short story makes a bit of a side-note on how her theoretical new bio-technologies might affect the lower echelons of society. A 'trailer-trash' type family illegally purchases some genetically modified puppies. Tragedy - and revenge - ensues. Not bad, but it didn't fully transcend stereotypes.

*** "The Boy Who Would Live Forever" - Frederick Pohl
I believe this story was later expanded into a novel of the same name. It's part of the 'Heechee' saga, which, due to the silly name, I always feel ought to be absurd and comic, but is actually fairly earnest sci-fi. This is very much in the vein of 'classic sci-fi for boys.' A young man (and his buddy) are willing to stake everything on a gamble of a mission - setting out randomly in an alien ship and hoping to find something of monetary value. But what he finds exceeds his wildest dreams...

*** "The Ship that Returned" - Anne McCaffrey.
Really, more like 2.5. The brain-ship Helva (of 'The Ship Who Sang' series) is experiencing grief after the death of her elderly partner, but finds herself a mission and some coping strategies to help her deal with it. McCaffrey's very old-fashioned ideas regarding interpersonal relationships are very much on display here, but, as with most of her work, the writing style is breezily entertaining.

* "The Way of all the Ghosts" - Greg Bear
Maybe it was just my state of mind, but this story completely failed to keep my attention. I haven't read any of the associated material, so maybe that has something to do with it. The premise - a team of misfits sent to deal with some kind of problem involving a tube-shaped pocket universe and alternate timestreams - seemed much more interesting than the snoozy actuality.

2.7 rounds up to 3 - LeGuin rescued this book from being a 2.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Some of my favourite series and authors writing shorts in their respective universe. What else do you want?

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the late 1990s, Robert Silverberg requested all-new stories from a list of the top living SF writers, set in the story-space of their most famous series. This anthology was the result, and for those of us who have already read most of those famous works, it is an amazing collection. Almost all of them fall into the category of novelette or novella rather than short story, and went on to be collected and anthologized elsewhere. Many of them have in recent years been published as individual ebooks. Overall, I found the anthology to be a sequence of pleasurable returns to universes I have previously enjoyed exploring. However, if you are not widely read in 1980s and 90s science fiction, this would not be a recommended place to start.

Ursula Le Guin’s Hainish universe – “Old Music and the Slave Women” – Le Guin assembled four interrelated novellas set on the worlds of Werel and Yeow, , during their Ekumen-inspired revolution against a slavery economy, into her book Four Ways to Forgiveness. This novella is also set there, sequentially after those, and is the same nature of story, and is sometimes called the fifth way to forgiveness. I have read it before, in a Le Guin collection. In the story, Esdan is the chief of intelligence of the Ekumen Embassy, but is kidnapped during a civil war on the planet. He is held and tortured on an ancient slave estate (Le Guin had recently visited a historic plantation near Charleston SC), as the forces of the rebellion close in. He meets the houseslaves, and his fate joins theirs. (5/5)

Joe Haldeman’s Forever War universe – “A Separate War” – By the end of Haldeman’s blockbuster The Forever War, soldiers and lovers Marygay Potter and William Mandella are separated by centuries of time dilation, but there is a postscript of a birth announcement of their child on a distant planet in the distant future. The sequel novel, Forever Free, starts from there. This novella is the story of what happened to Marygay immediately after they were separated and how their lifespans were realigned. I have read it before, in Lightspeed Magazine. Marygay is trained as executive officer on board an infantry warship, headed for a Tauran world. The human crew, most born centuries after her and William, are foreign enough – but what they encounter four hundred years elapsed time later is totally unanticipated. There is also an exploration of sexual orientation as not strictly binary. (5/5)

Orson Scott Card’s Ender universe – “Investment Counselor” - This short story is set during the elapsed millennia between the extermination of the Hive Queen in Ender’s Game, and Ender’s arrival on Lusitania in Speaker for the Dead. Ender turns twenty and is subject to taxation, needing an accountant. He meets the AI Jane, who becomes his advisor in all things. He also takes up the career of speaker for the dead. The story gives character background on Ender, but doesn’t say much in itself. (3/5)

David Brin’s Uplift universe – “Temptation” – This novella is set in time after Heaven's Reach, the final novel in Brin’s second Uplift trilogy. It’s not clear whether Brin will ever continue the series with further novels, but this longish novella could be the basis of one. The all-dolphin crew of the starship Streaker has left a small group of crewmembers behind on Jijo. Those left behind consist mostly of individuals for whom the recently-uplifted mental status of the species is breaking down, but also a few caretakers as well. Jijo is a world that has been declared fallow for a period of geological duration, and deliberately unpopulated by the multi-species multi-galactic civilization. However, this has not stopped members of six intelligent species from quietly taking refuge there, and building their own 6-species culture, which is the topic of the second Uplift trilogy. These new dolphins may become the seventh to join. Some plot tension is developed for the kidnapping of one caretaker by two fun-loving reverts, and the search for them. However, before this is resolved adequately, she and one of the searchers separately encounter a vast and mysterious biological entity living at the bottom of the ocean. Brin uses this to eventually set up a choice between a future of fantasy or a future of realism – that reflects on the difference between science and postmodernism. (4/5)

Robert Silverberg’s Roma Eterna universe – “Getting to Know the Dragon” – In Robert Silverberg’s Roma Eterna alternate history, the ancient Hebrews were not led out of Egypt to Palestine by Moses. Christianity never happened, and the Roman Empire persisted in one form or another for thousands of years. The stories of Roma Eterna were not published in chronological order, and this novella is set in Roman Year 2543. After this anthology was published, more stories were written, and finally in 2003 were assembled into Silverberg’s fix-up novel Roma Eterna. In the story, historian Tiberius Ulpius Draco (“Pisander”) works for the addled heir to the throne of Rome - Caesar Demetrius. Rather than pursue his research into his own ancient and noble ancestor, he must humor Demetrius’s fantasies of architectural monstrosities. The story gives a portrait of the disappointing life of a minor historical figure filling in one spot of a huge historical span, and has a few ironic twists. (3/5)

Dan Simmons’ Hyperion universe – “Orphans of the Helix” – Set after The Rise of Endymion, which was the fourth and final volume in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, this story can also stand alone as a hard-sf far future space opera. In it, the AIs of the colony starship Helix, bring a set of nine sleepers out of suspended animation, to deal with a world they have encountered. A population of space-adapted posthuman Ousters and Templars inhabit a tree-ring around one star of a binary pair, and are requesting the aid of the starship. The panel of nine must make ethical choices, perhaps risking their own people, as they pursue the threat to the posthumans. The setting is filled with technical and scientific speculative goodies, many of which have been developed throughout the Hyperion Cantos, yet are adequately explained within the story. The ending however, calls back to the prior novels without an internal explanation, and seems like it could be the initiation of a new novel (non-existent at this time). (5/5)

Nancy Kress’s Sleepless universe – “Sleeping Dogs” – Set to the side of the main story of Kress’s Beggars in Spain, the first in the novel sequence, this short story concerns a young woman growing up among the resentful Sleepers. Sleepers are the unproductive majority of the population who have not been genetically modified to never sleep – the Sleepless. Carol Ann’s drunken father has purchased a pregnant dog bearing illegally genetically engineered pups, which he intends to rent out as 24-hour guard dogs. But the genetic engineering has varying side-effects on different mammalian species, and Carol Ann schemes to exact revenge from the breeders whose identity is unknown to her. This eventually brings her into contact with the leaders of the Sleepless humans. The biology here is sketchy, as the only commonality across species seems to be that the side-effects are bad. (3/5)

Frederik Pohl’s Heechee universe – “The Boy Who Would Live Forever” – Set to the side of the main story of Pohl’s Heechee Rendezvous, in the middle of sequence of novels, this novella concerns a pair of impoverished boys from Istanbul who grow up sharing an impossible dream of achieving great wealth on a run of one of the found alien spaceships on Gateway. An unexpected inheritance makes it possible. The well-detailed accounting of their experiences in Pohl’s rich worldbuilding, pulls the reader along through relativistic effects. (4/5)

Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center universe – “A Hunger for the Infinite” - This novella takes place in the universe of "The Galactic Center Saga", detailing a galactic war between mechanical and biological life. Written after the series, it is positioned between Furious Gulf (book 5) and Sailing Bright Eternity (book 6). Here, the pilots had made it to True Center of the galaxy in order to destroy something, anything, important to the Mechs, where they are harvesting humans for purposes of their art. It is the story of the Mech, Mantis, and a bargain he makes with a human leader, Paris, during the decline of humans. Having only read the first two books of the series, and that many years ago, I did not pick up on all the concepts and threads coming out of the prior series. You should probably not read this story as a stand-alone. (3/5)

Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang universe – “The Ship Who Returned“ - The original novel The Ship Who Sang was a fix-up of five stories published 1961-69, and McCaffrey extended it to a five book series in the 1990s, along with two more novels by other authors. They feature Helva, a cyborg whose human brain has been implanted in a space ship. This story is set after Helva’s long-term “Brawn” Niall Parollan has died, so many years after the first novel. While returning home with Niall’s body, and a clandestine cybernetic simulation of his personality, they are redirected to the endangered colony of Ravel. It is a world populated by an all-women religious sect, that Helva has previously rescued. The natives are strangely unconcerned about the threat from Kolnari pirates that Helva is trying to save them from. I found the plotting to be very slow, and conceptually this is more youthful science fantasy than science fiction. (2/5)

Greg Bear’s The Way universe – “The Way of All Ghosts“ – Greg Bear’s trilogy begins with Eon, and concerns an artifact contained in the asteroid Thistledown, which arrives in our Solar System in the early 21st century. The geometry of The Way is an infinitely long tube, and it is inhabited by a multi-species civilization that includes humans from an alternate distant future. Breaches in the tube lead to alternate universes with differing laws of physics. The Hexamon civilization is at war with a rival race known as the Jarts, from far away in the tube. This novella brings back Olmy Ap Sennen in a newly rejuvenated body, but with an aged and tired mind. He is partnered with several damaged individuals to investigate why waves of metaphysical revision have swept through the corridor and through the capital city. The narrative consists of a hundred pages of non-sequitur dialog between unreliable narrators while the rules of physics and time vary. It can be difficult to follow, although the ending is ultimately conclusive. (3/5)

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

1999 anthology of then all-new stories by SF stars, edited by Robert Silverberg. All-star cast, and it has some real winners. Here is the ToC and story details:
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?73148
Note that inexpensive used copies are readily available.

• Old Music and the Slave Women • novella by Ursula K. Le Guin. One of her best works in her great Ekumen series. I've read this story at least twice before. 5 stars! If you have any interest in Le Guin and have missed this one, well. Now is the time! There is a copy online, courtesy of the University of Utah: http://ereserve.library.utah.edu/Annu...
• A Separate War • [Forever War] • novelette by Joe Haldeman. Another 5-star story that will repay your effort to find this anthology! Not online, sfaict, even though it is listed as being published in Lightspeed. There are other reprints: see isfdb.
• Investment Counselor • [Ender Wiggin] • novelette by Orson Scott Card. A fun, lightweight return to Ender Wiggin's life after wartime. After many years of relativistic travel, he is legally 20 and liable for taxes on his trust funds. Fortunately, Jane, a sentient financial counselor, appears on his computer.... 4 stars. Not online.
• Temptation • [Uplift] • novella by David Brin. A new adventure on the Jijo of Brin's Uplift War, wherein we learn that the mighty Buyurs never left, and have a new scheme to dominate the next stage of Jijo's evolution. 4.5 stars! Not online, but other reprints (see isfdb).
• Getting to Know the Dragon • [Roma Eterna] • novelette by Robert Silverberg. It's always hazardous when the editor decides to buy one of his own stories. Indeed, this is the weakest one so far. Well-written but my attention kept wandering. Weak 3 stars.
• The Boy Who Would Live Forever • [Heechee] • novelette by Frederik Pohl. Previously read. OK, I did re-read it. A bit silly for a quarter-century old story, but the Big Reveal: Heechee have been hiding out in the great Black Hole at the center of out universe, for reasons left unclear. Good story, 3.5 stars, better if you haven't already read it.
• A Hunger for the Infinite • [Galactic Center] • novelette by Gregory Benford. The Galactic Center novels were one of the high-points in my reading of Benford's hard-SF books (are they all hard-SF?). I have good memories of them, and this story brings back the Mantis, a relentless collector of humans, in its quest to collect one of the last humans' most-effective leaders. In a way, this is a good companion-piece to Janna Levin's " Black Hole Survival Guide", which I recently read. A 5-star story! Not online.
• On The Orion Line [Xeelee] by Stephen Baxter. Hugo Novelette Nominee (2001). "A junior crewman on a warship that penetrates a ghost blockade finds their ship and bodies under attack through the bending of the laws of physics." A brief life burns brightly! 4+ stars. Not online.
• The Ship Who Returned • [The Ship Who ...] • novelette by Anne McCaffrey. Decent enough, but slight. 2.5 stars.
• The Way of All Ghosts • [Thistledown] • novelette by Greg Bear. A rather grim retelling of William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land," with more surrealistic horror than I really needed. But it did work out, and it's not like we'll be getting any more Bear. 4 stars, I think, but a read-once story.

As with all anthologies, I liked some stories more than others. But all were worth trying. I recommend the anthology. 3.5+ stars, rounded up.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Gran idea de partida, resultados discutibles.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. Recopilación de once relatos, escritos para esta antología coordinada por Silverberg (que también participa con un texto), que retoman sagas o líneas narrativas bastante conocidas en la Ciencia-Ficción de la mano de sus respectivos autores para ofrecer visiones de aspectos no tratados en las mismas o para añadir algo más a eventos o personajes ya conocidos en sus páginas (incluye una breve introducción al “universo” al que pertenecen cada una), lo que supone un concepto de partida más que interesante pero que después resulta ser algo irregular y no necesariamente cercano a las expectativas generadas desde lo global (dejando de lado el conflicto entre conceptos de traducción correspondientes a varias líneas narrativas traducidas durante varios años, que era todo un desafío) aunque con momentos más que bienvenidos en lo particular.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Gran idea de partida, resultados discutibles.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. Recopilación de once relatos, escritos para esta antología coordinada por Silverberg (que también participa con un texto), que retoman sagas o líneas narrativas bastante conocidas en la Ciencia-Ficción de la mano de sus respectivos autores para ofrecer visiones de aspectos no tratados en las mismas o para añadir algo más a eventos o personajes ya conocidos en sus páginas (incluye una breve introducción al “universo” al que pertenecen cada una), lo que supone un concepto de partida más que interesante pero que después resulta ser algo irregular y no necesariamente cercano a las expectativas generadas desde lo global (dejando de lado el conflicto entre conceptos de traducción correspondientes a varias líneas narrativas traducidas durante varios años, que era todo un desafío) aunque con momentos más que bienvenidos en lo particular.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this collection some of the greats of science fiction and fantasy were asked to revisit worlds and series they established before. They were given a chance to tie up a loose end or pick up an idea that occurred to them years after the series ended.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes the old adage holds: Art is doing what you like until it's done and then leaving it alone.

[John Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.3) The Benford addition was well met….the rest?
Let’s just say these masters should’ve kept these short stories away from their epic space operas.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of science fiction short stories (from 1999) was not quite what I expected. There are many science fiction writers who have created whole new worlds and galaxies and concepts through a series of novels;. This collection consists of stories from those same authors, dealing with some aspect or facet of the worlds they created. Thus, besides being a great read, these stories are a great introduction to those science fiction novel series that I haven’t read yet.

In a review of short stories, I can only note those stories that I myself liked. These include “A Separate War” by Joe Haldeman (based on his series The Forever War), “Investment Counselor” by Orson Scott Card (based on his Ender series), “Getting to Know the Dragon” by Robert Silverberg (based on his Roma Eterna series), ”Orphans of the Helix” by Dan Simmons (based on his series The Hyperion Cantos), and “The Ship That Returned” by Anne McCaffrey (based on her series The Ship Who Sang).

All of the stories in this collection were good, in different ways; and I found them to be very good, thought-provoking bed-time reading, one story at a time.

[Brad Guy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far Horizons is a collection of SF novellas by 11 different authors, edited by Robert Silverberg. All of the authors are considered Big Names in their field, and each story takes its place within a larger universe created by that author. So for example, Orson Scott Card presents a novella within his Ender Wiggin series, Joe Haldeman within his Forever War, etc. The collection can provide a dual purpose: For those who are not familiar with a given series, it gives a quick and easy jumping off point. And if you are familiar with a series, it gives one more taste. In my case it was a little of both. I'd like to give a little capsule review of each of these stories.

Ursula Le Guin presents Old Music and the Slave Women, a novella set within her Ekumen novels. In spite of these novel's fame, (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, etc.) I have not read any of them. Old Music and the Slave Women is about an ambassador for the Ekumen, a galaxy spanning government, to a planet where slavery is still in force. The planet falls into civil war, and our ambassador finds himself kidnapped, tortured, and used by various factions. I found Le Guin's writing to be clear, accessible, and very readable. In spite of the story's grim nature, it left me wanting to read more of her work. I give this story 3 stars.

Joe Haldeman gives us A Separate War, which tells the same events in the second half of The Forever War, as told from Marygay Potter's point of view. I've been a fan of Haldeman for decades, and although I haven't read every story in his Forever War series, I felt this was a good addition. I also give this 3 stars.

Orson Scott Card presents Investment Counselor, a story of how Ender Wiggin solves his tax woes. If this sounds like the dullest of premises, remember this is Orson Scott Card we're talking about. It takes place shortly after Ender's Game, long before Speaker For the Dead. In the later novels Andrew has a computer based companion named Jane, this is the story of how they met. Compared to the tremendous gravity of Ender's Game, this story is a light romp, much more entertaining than the subject matter would suggest. Again, 3 stars.

Temptation, by David Brin, is set in his Uplift universe. It's a story of several uplifted dolphins, stranded on the planet Jijo, taking place some time during the events of the novel Brightness Reef. I like David Brin, but he can be pedantic. This story is a little worse than usual, reading like an elementary school morality play. He presents the dolphins with a choice between a false paradise and a difficult reality. And although Brin tries to make it sound like a difficult choice, the correct path is never in doubt, the illusory paradise never seems like a real threat. For this I can only give 1.5 stars.

Robert Silverberg himself presents Getting to Know the Dragon, set within his Roma Eterna series. Of all the series in this collection, this is the only one I knew absolutely nothing about. It is an alternate history in which the Roman empire never fell. This story takes place in what would be the mid-19th century, wherein a Roman nobleman comes across the diary of one of his ancestors from a couple centuries past. His ancestor was a great ruler who completed the first circumnavigation of the world. He commits great deeds, but also terrible atrocities. The protagonist learns that his ancestor was not the mighty hero he once thought. At first I didn't care for the story. It rambles all over the place, introducing and dropping characters and threads for no obvious reason. But in the end Silverberg ties everything together in a marvelous little bow. His writing style is enjoyable enough, still it did not leave me with any desire to read further into this series. 1.5 stars.

Orphans of the Helix, set within Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. I've heard great things about Hyperion, Endymion, and the other books in this series. I've even got a couple of them on the shelf, waiting to be read. So I was excited to read this novella, as an introduction to the series. And the story served its purpose! I now know that I can get rid of those other books without bothering to read them. This was easily the worst story in the collection. A colony ship full of Catholics of various flavors decides to stop at a planetary nebula where they receive a distress call. There they find a civilization of Catholics of a different stripe, living in giant space trees. They are being preyed upon by an alien machine, which autonomously gobbles up their most valuable settlements every few decades. The starship Helix discovers the predatory machine is operating on behalf of an alien society, (not Catholic, for some reason), which lives inside the atmosphere of a nearby red giant star. When the aliens learn what their machine has unintentionally done, they offer to extinguish their entire race. Fortunately it doesn't come to that, and arrangements are made that benefit both parties. I suppose if you liked the Hyperion Cantos, you'll like this story too. I can only give it 1 star.

Nancy Kress presents Sleeping Dogs, set within her Sleepless series, (Beggars in Spain, etc). The series explores what happens when genetic engineering produces fundamentally superior humans, set within a remorselessly capitalist society. The gap between haves and have-nots grows exponentially, with dangers to both sides. Sleeping Dogs tells the story of a destitute girl trying to escape her home in Appalachia, and gain revenge upon those whom she believes have harmed her. The story is of course far more complicated than that, but she is too invested in her resentment to see that, and cannot overcome her own grudges. I found Kress to be a brilliant writer, deftly navigating slippery territory. The story could easily have fallen into well worn tropes, Capitalism bad- hard upbringing builds character! But Kress is clever to avoid that, and tells a believable story about how real people might respond to muddy situations. 3.5 stars.

Frederik Pohl gives up The Boy Who Would Live Forever, set within his Heechee series. I've read all the books in the series, and thought I had read this story too, happily I had not. It starts in the slums of Istanbul around the same time as the first novel, Gateway. Thanks to relativistic travel, it spans the events of entire series, and ends more or less where the novel Annals of the Heechee ends up. All in the space of about 50 pages. Our protagonist begins homeless and penniless, and ends up wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Which is sort of like the plot of Gateway, but the path between those points is quite different. Pohl has always been one of my favorite authors. This story, written rather late n his career, shows that he never lost his touch. 4 stars.

A Hunger For the Infinite, by Gregory Benford, is set in the latter part of his Galactic Center series. I've read the entire series multiple times, and recommend it to anyone who likes hard SF. I'd also read the first part of this story, and was pleased to learn the part I'd read was preamble to a larger story. 30,000 years from now, after humanity has spread to the center of the galaxy, we find ourselves outclassed by mechanical intelligences, billions of years old. Humans are driven from our glittering palaces orbiting the black hole at the center, trapped on planetary surfaces, and hounded nearly to extinction. One of those mechanical life forms, the Mantis, has made a special study of humans, in the same way we study butterflies. The way the Mantis thinks is so different from the way biological life has evolved to think, it cannot grasp our motivations. It does not understand our aversion to pain, our need to reproduce, the way we pare down the input to our senses to that which matters. It devises an experiment in which it pinches off a part of itself and becomes human, riding deep within the mind of a newborn boy. As the boy grows to become a man, then a leader of men, the Mantis quietly learns. When it comes time for the Mantis to harvest this information, the man denies it its reward. 4 stars, and the best story in the book.

The Ship That Returned, by Anne McCaffrey, within her Ship Who Sang series. I didn't care for this, but I've never been a big McCaffrey fan. There's a little too much bodice-ripping romance for my taste. Alright, no actual bodices were ripped, but the cardboard characters and trope driven plot were enough to make me consider skipping past it. Helva is the mind of a woman operating a star ship. Her faithful companion of many years, the lecherous Niall Parollan, has recently died of old age. Helva runs a program simulating his presence while she slowly sates her grief over his loss. Meanwhile, as she aimlessly wanders the wild space-lanes, she happens across a fleet of murderous space pirates. The pirates are headed for a pastoral planet of space nuns, (yes, space nuns), intent on rape and pillage. Helva sneaks past them to warn the planet. It turns out the nuns revere Helva as a saint in their canon, due to some good deed she had done on their behalf years ago. When she tries to warn the nuns of the impending pirate invasion, they tell her not to worry. In fact, they spend 15 or 20 pages telling her not to worry. It gets a little tedious. Eventually the space pirates land, and are promptly eaten alive by the planet's native vegetation. Helva speeds off to galactic headquarters to find herself a new boyfriend, the end. 1/2 star.

Finally, The Way of All Gosts, by Greg Bear. This is set within his Eon series, sometimes called The Way Series. I've read all three books in the series, Eon several times. The series revolves around a space ship made from a hollowed out asteroid, called Thistledown. Seven vast, consecutive chambers were carved from Thistledown over the course of centuries, each more advanced than the previous one. The seventh isn't a chamber at all, but an anomaly in space and time- a cylinder 50km in diameter and infinitely long. The people of Thistledown travel down this cylinder, the Way, building cities and outposts all along. In the surface of the Way gates may be opened to alternate universes. Most are empty, some lead to strange worlds and abundant resources, others are actively hostile. The Way of All Ghosts is the story of one of those. A gate has been opened into a universe of perfect order. All mathematical "constants" are variables, time, distance, the strong and weak forces, gravity, etc. The universe is self aware of these variables, and has complete knowledge of all their parameters. No time exists, for all time is a single function. When people open a gate into this universe, the universe invades the Way in an attempt to understand this New Thing. Weirdness ensues, as only Greg Bear can write it. It seems like Greg spent some time thinking deeply on the nature of chaos and order, took about a weeks worth of mescaline, then wrote this story. I don't say that as criticism, I really enjoyed this story. 4 stars.

There were a couple stinkers in the collection. But because of the preponderance of great stories, I give it 3.5 stars.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Contains the stories:

Old Music and the Slave Women [Hainish] by Ursula K. Le Guin -
A Separate War [Forever War] by Joe Haldeman -
Investment Counselor [Enderverse] by Orson Scott Card - 3/5 - Me Ender,
You Jane (and Ender's first Speaking)
Temptation [The Uplift] by David Brin -
Getting to Know the Dragon [Roma Eterna] by Robert Silverberg -
Orphans of the Helix [Hyperion Cantos] by Dan Simmons -
Sleeping Dogs [Sleepless] by Nancy Kress -
The Boy Who Would Live Forever [Heechee] by Frederik Pohl -
A Hunger for the Infinite [Ocean/Galactic Center] by Gregory Benford -
The Ship That Returned [The Ship Who Sang] by Anne McCaffrey -
The Way of All Ghosts [The Way] by Greg Bear -

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novellas and short stories from some of the greatest science fiction 'worlds' of all time. I love some of these worlds, so it is great to revisit them, but unfortunately, it is not a good starting point for the series I'm unfamiliar with - the intro to most gives a synopsis of the plots of the books in the series - including spoilers. I'm bouncing through the book reading stories as the mood hits. (Ones read so far are in bold.)

UPDATE: I've decided not to finish the entire book - I don't want to read the stories set in the universes that I'd still like to read the series. I don't want spoilers for them. So, I'm marking this as finished and moving on...

Contents:
The Ekumen: Old music and the slave women / Ursula K. Le Guin
The Forever war: A separate war / Joe Haldeman
The Ender series: Investment counselor / Orson Scott Card
The Uplift universe: Temptation / David Brin
Roma Eterna: Getting to know the dragon / Robert Silverberg
The Hyperion cantos: Orphans of the helix / Dan Simmons
The Sleepless: Sleeping dogs / Nancy Kress
Tales of the Heechee: The boy who would live forever / Frederik Pohl
The Galactic center series: A hunger for the infinite / Gregory Benford
The ship who sang: The ship that returned / Anne McCaffrey
The Way: The way of all ghosts / Greg Bear.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting anthology format that succeeds on all levels of reader appreciation.

Bring together a group of well respected Science Fiction authors who have created classic series. But as the editor Robert Silverberg explains it is just not about another story with familiar characters but a story that may have not been told or further and deeper exploration of a character.

This is very successfully done by the authors. And the bonus for the reader is that if you have read any of the series you are immediately back in the authors world, and more importantly if you haven't read that series you may find that you like what you are reading and a new reading opportunity has been identified for you.

Each story has a preamble, written by the author, that details the books in the series and how the current short story fits into that series.

Details as follows:

Ursula K. Le Guin - The Ekumenical series

Joe Haldeman - The Forever War series

Orson Scott Card - The Ender series

David Brin - The Uplift Universe series

Robert Silverberg - The Roma Eterna series

Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos series

Nancy Kress 0 The Sleepless series

Frederik Pohl - Tales of the Heechee series

Gregory Benford - The Galactic Center series

Anne McCaffrey - The Ship Who Sang series

Greg Bear - The Way series

Recommended

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting idea for an anthology, in which Robert Silverberg asked a number of authors to contribute a novella that adds something to a series that they've written. And he gets some impressive contributors. Unfortunately, I haven't read a number of the series' in question and I found the quality varied, although, of course, YMMV.

We kick off the collection with one of the strongest stories, Old Music and the Slave Women set in Ursula K. Le Guin's Ekumen. This tells the story of Edsan, attached to the Ekumen embassy on a planet undergoing a full-scale uprising of its slave society against the masters. Le Guin's characterisation is masterful and understated and her prose sharp and readable. A great opening story.

Next up is A Separate War by Joe Haldeman, set in his Forever War series, which tells the story of Marygay Potter after she was split up from William Mandella towards the end of the war, and her own adventures before they reunited. I don't remember a huge about about The Forever War but this story is pretty self-contained and I got to like the character of Marygay quite well. I'm not the first to find the sexuality within the Forever War series very weird; the idea of heterosexuality being banned never entirely feels real. But other than that, I enjoyed this story quite a lot.

Orson Scott Card revisits his Ender universe with a fairly slight story called Investment Counselor which tells how Ender met the AI Jane, who is important from the second main book onwards. I don't think this adds a huge amount to Ender's story, but it's fairly light and fun, as Ender comes of age and finds himself trying to untangle the set of trust fund investments set up on his behalf so that he can pay the appropriate amount of tax.

Next up, David Brin returns to his Uplift universe in Temptation, about a group of uplifted dolphins who had been left behind on a planet while their ship had to flee its pursuers. I have read the (first) Uplift trilogy but it was a very long time ago. I liked the idea that the uplifted dolphins are a very new sentient species though, and that under sustained stress, they're liable to fall back to pre-sentient behaviours. Brin does a fairly good job of making these non-humans feel relatively alien, too.

Robert Silverberg then adds his own story in his Roma Eternal series, Getting to Know the Dragon, about an alternate history where Rome never fell. An historian living in the Renaissance gets his hands on the personal travel journal of an emperor from a few hundred years earlier, who was the first to circumnavigate the world. Looking back on that period nostalgically, he finds that the reality doesn't match the rose-tinted glasses. This isn't a series that I've read but it's perfectly readable, although alt histories aren't really my favourite genre.

Dan Simmons' contribution to his Hyperion universe is Orphans of the Helix, which is a story that I've read before, in Simmons' own collection Worlds Enough & Time. Set after the end of the main series, it's a story that I enjoyed a lot.

Nancy Kress contributes Sleeping Dogs from her Sleepless series, another one that I'm not familiar with. The idea of genetic engineering to remove the need for sleep is interesting, but the idea that it would turn the recipients into immortal supermen seems a bit far-fetched. And this story, about the terrible consequences of doing the same alteration to dogs, left me sort of cold.

The next story is The Boy Who Would Live Forever by Fred Pohl, set in his Heechee series. I've only read the first in that series, but this seems to take place somewhere after that, possibly at the same time as a number of the other books, as we see events from the point of view of the eponymous boy as he makes his way to Gateway and has various adventures while bigger things seem to be going on around him. This was really the first story that felt incomplete, like it was a small part of a larger story.

A Hunger for the Infinite by Gregory Benford is a disturbing piece set in an endless war of humans and machines across the galactic core. One of the AIs has been taking "harvested" humans who fell in battle and mutilating them, while keeping them in a sort of horrible half-life, in an attempt to create art. But it's frustrated because it feels that there should be more to it. It's an odd story, that I'm not entirely sure I followed, but it was hard to get past the body horror of the Hall of Humans for me.

I skipped Anne McCaffrey's The Ship That Returned as I've read it before in a different collection and didn't like it.

And finally, we have Greg Bear's The Way of All Ghosts, set in The Way. I loved Eon but failed to really get into this story. It felt sort of dream-like, and there was a degree of body horror which I don't like and I still have really no idea what happened at the end.

There's a number of strong and interesting stories here, but also a number that failed to grab me, whether that's because I wasn't familiar with the series they came from or something to do with the writing. A mixed bag, but the strong stories make it worth it.

[Daniele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valutazione singoli racconti:
Vecchia Musica e la schiava - Ursula K. Le Guin **
Guerra Eterna - Joe Haldeman ***
Il consulente finanziario - Orson Scott Card ****
Tentazione - David Birn * (abbandonato)
Roma Eterna - Robert Silverberg ***
Gli Orfani di Helix - Dan Simmons ***** (ho letto il libro quasi solo per questo racconto)
Cani dormienti - Nancy Kress **
Il ragazzo che vivrà in eterno - Frederik Pohl ***
Desiderio d'infinito - Gregory Benford *
L'astronave che tornò - Anne McCaffrey ***
Lo stile di tutti i fantasmi. Una leggenda di Thistledown *

[Meter]

The best story, by Gregory Benford, about the center of the universe and the alien that made art out of mangled, still living, human bodies.

Most of the rest were like samples of books that belonged to trilogies, or side stories to them. If you already read these and loved them, then maybe you 'd like this. I think this was the format, but I didn't know what was going on.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10 en 2007

Recopilación de relatos cortos de distintos autores. Y atención a los autores :

Anne McCaffrey
Dan Simmons
David Brin
Frederik Pohl
Greg Bear
Gregory Benford
Joe Haldeman
Nancy Kress
Orson Scott Card
Robert Silverberg
Ursula K. Le Guin

Monstruos y monstruas de la CF que sin embargo entregaron trabajos discretitos. iene cosas mejores, todos ellos.

[Radu Stanculescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the few short-story compilations that I liked, probably also because most of the stories were related to series I've read. It also made me add a couple more series to my to-read list, so it was definitely worth it.

[Cuauhtemoc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent anthology, with some excellent and some not so bad works.

My favorite authors in this work: Ursula K. Le Guin, Joe Haldeman and, Dan Simmons.

[Sainte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of sci-fi stories and novellas by some of the best ever sci-fi writers. Now I have to go read all of Ursula LeGuin's books and Robert Silverberg's too.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting premise. Established authors each write an original story set in their personal universes. Favourite is Ursula LeGuin (of course). "Old Music and the Slave Women."

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old Music and Slave Women - passado no universo Ekumen de Ursula K. LeGuin, este conto surpreende pela subtileza da autora na inversão de papéis. Acompanhamos as desventuras de um astuto embaixador da organização galáctica num planeta consumido por uma guerra civil. A sociedade planetária imaginada por LeGuin é decalcada no sul americano dos tempos do esclavagismo e a guerra civil um conflito sem quartel entre a sociedade esclavagista e os antigos escravos e seus apoiantes, que lutam pela abolição do aberrante regime. A intrigante inversão feita pela autora num tema que, para um escritor americano, é politicamente muito intenso, está na cor da pele. Os esclavagistas são negróides e os escravos brancos. De resto, espelham-se as injustiças e incertezas numa história à qual se se retirassem culturas e espécies alienígenas ou ansibles manteria o mesmo espírito.

A Separate War - Não consigo perceber se a visão de Haldeman de um futuro onde relações homossexuais são a norma e a heterossexualidade um desvio perverso tido como curável na adolescência é fina ironia ou trai uma profunda mas inconfessa homofobia. Suspeito que seja a segunda, pelo esforço que o autor coloca em mostrar que esse futuro é uma utopia distópica (e sim, sei bem o que fiz: por utopia distópica quero simbolizar uma visão de perfeição aberrante para quem esteja de fora). Esta falha conceptual não chega para estragar o brilhantismo da ficção militarista de Haldeman, essa sim uma fina ironia inspirada na catástrofe do Vietnam. À parte os parágrafos que desperdiça a explicar as inconsistências da sexualidade futura, este conto interliga muito bem os acontecimentos da série Forever War e continua hoje como um plausível e bem concebido cenário de guerra futura, uma das mais clássicas vertentes da FC.

Investment Counselour - Orson Scott Card leva-nos ao momento em que Ender Wiggin, ao mesmo tempo herói e criminoso de guerra, decide o que vai fazer com o resto da sua vida. Ao chegar a um planeta de fronteira, vê-se na necessidade de contabilizar a riqueza acumulada no tempo real das viagens relativísticas e depara-se com um funcionário particularmente corrupto. Só que tentar desviar um pouco dos vastos fundos de alguém protegido pela armada militar pode tornar-se potencialmente letal. A morte violenta na prisão deste funcionário motiva Ender a tornar-se alguém que fala pelos falecidos, que busca as verdades das suas vidas e medita na recordação. É intrigante que surja um personagem inesperado, com o seu quê de deus ex machina, na forma de uma simpática inteligência artificial suficientemente potente para dar a volta às burocracias das declarações de rendimentos. Fazia-me jeito uma coisa assim. Lembro-me vagamente de ler Speaker for the Dead há uns anos, e mesmo com este conto continuo imune ao unverso ficcional de Ender's Game.

Temptation - David Brin é um eterno optimista que consegue pintar as piores distopias com cores rosáceas... e meter no meio dos textos longas diatribes que nos demonstram os mais elementares erros do senso comum. É o caso deste conto, passado no universo uplift. Golfinhos inteligentes são abandonados num planeta usado como refúgio pelas espécies sentientes das galáxias, enquanto os seus companheiros de aventura prosseguem uma odisseia estelar no convoluto universo das espécies alienígenas elevadas artificialmente à inteligência. Os golfinhos deparam-se com um conjunto de artefactos avançados onde lhes é feita uma proposta tentadora: juntar-se a uma nova forma de viver no universo, utilizando tecnologia avançada para que cada um mergulhe no seu mundo utópico favorito. Parece o sonho de qualquer ser sentiente, mas estes depressa se apercebem da armadilha contida nestas utopias. A liberdade de ser, de conseguir ou falhar, dependente das condicionantes ambientais, é algo de fundamenal ao ser, que se perde ao mergulhar de forma acrítica em mundos de fantasia. Brin aproveita um conto longo para uma reflexão sobre a importância do pensamento crítico sobre a felicidade da superstição e importância da liberdade individual. Com golfinhos inteligentes, que faz todo o sentido no universo deste autor cuja prosa auto-consciente nos dá momentos interessantes.

Getting to Know the Dragon - Robert Silverberg leva-nos ao seu mundo da eterna Roma, uma história alternativa onde o cristianismo não se chegou a formar e o império romano manteve-se até aos tempos actuais. O interessante destes exercícios são os voos de história imaginária com que os autores nos mimam, e o inteligente Silverberg delicia-nos com uma plausível cronologia do que teria sido o mundo com o império romano a manter-se, interrelacionando-se com a China, as índias, Pérsia e Japão ou tentando e falhando uma conquista dos impérios inca e azteca. Nos dias do conto um inventivo académico divide o seu tempo entre acompanhar as fugazes loucuras do herdeiro do trono imperial e o seu estudo do imperador Trajano, não o original, claro, mas um mais tardio que, decalcado em Fernão de Magalhães, deu novos mundos ao mundo levando uma frota romana a circum-navegar o planeta. Mas ao analisar o diário deste intempestivo imperador o académico descobre que ficar a conhecer a realidade de uma personagem histórica pode destruir ilusões.

Orphans Of The Helix - De cair o queixo, este conto de Dan Simmons passado no universo ficcional dos Cantos de Hyperion. Space opera pura, de vistas vastas, diversidade de concepções de possibilidades culturais pós-humanas e alienígenas, aventura pura, sempre com a vastidão das civilizações galácticas como pano de fundo. Tendo eu um carinho especial pela space opera, fico à partida encantando, mas surpreende como contido dentro deste conto curto está um mundo ficcional vastíssimo.

Sleeping Dogs - desigualdades e impactos imprevistos da engenharia genética são os grandes impulsionadores do universo Sleepless de Nancy Kress. Num futuro próximo as possibilidades da engenharia genética possibilitam a alguns diferenciar-se do normal humano, e o impacto disso desperta profundas clivagens entre instituições tradicionais, os humanos normais que se sentem ameaçados por aqueles que utilizam as vantagens conferidas pela modificação genética, e uma nova humanidade ostracizada pelas suas capacidades supra-humanas. É neste ambiente que Kress nos conta uma história de vinganças contra cientistas do sub-mundo da genética ilegal, périplo pelos dilemas e clivagens de uma sociedade tornada desigual pela tecnologia. Um tema que hoje está ainda mais actual do que na altura em que Kress nele se iniciou com Beggars in Spain, porque hoje as tecnologias biomédicas e de automação estão capazes de fornecer aqueles com maiores meios financeiros possibilidades inimagináveis há poucas décadas, e dividir o mundo entre uma rarefeita elite tecnocrática e massas empobrecidas. Se é que esta divisão não está já cimentada na contemporaneidade.

The Boy Who Would Live Forever - O universo Heechee de Frederik Pohl, com ponto de partida no brilhante e premiado Gateway, dispensa apresentações. É um dos exemplos máximos do que pode ser a space opera enquanto espaço ficcional e recreio de ideias, no caso o libertarianismo de fronteira assente na tecnologia que de que Pohl tanto gostava. Este conto elabora precisamente nessa visão romântica do espírito pioneiro, através das aventuras de três jovens que apostam tudo para chegar ao asteróide Heechee e partir nas arriscadas missões de exploração da tecnologia alienígena. Os eventos ultrapassam-nos, e resta-lhes arriscar uma viagem ao centro da galáxia, local de refúgio da civilização Heechee. O primeiro contacto com os intrigantes alienígenas é desconcertante, e o tempo num horizonte de acontecimentos do buraco negro corre mais lento. Pohl utiliza esta variante das aventuras de rapazes no espaço para interligar a evolução do universo ficcional Heechee.

A Hunger for the Infinite - e, de facto, é de infinito que se fala na série Galactic Center de Gregory Benford, onde a humanidade explorar o brilho do centro da galáxia mas depressa se vê ameaçada pela hegemonia da vida mecânica inteligente, que considera a vida biológica uma praga a exterminar. O intrigante neste conto está na visão de Benford sobre o que seria a curiosidade de uma inteligência não-humana sobre o que é o ser humano. A história centra-se no bizarro sentido estético de uma inteligência artificial que infecta um feto para renascer como criança humana. A frieza cruel da inteligência mecânica não é revista pelo seu aspecto humano, que prefere a aniquilação à reincorporação na matriz digital.

The Ship Who Returned - confesso que sempre equacionei Anne McCaffrey com histórias sobre dragões e desconhecia os seus esforços no campo da space opera. Que, a avaliar por este interessante conto, têm o seu valor. A lucidez da sua prosa faz deslizar uma divertida história sobre uma nave controlada por um cérebro humano feminino que se vê obrigada a intervir num planeta remoto para salvar uma civilização de freiras de um ataque de piratas espaciais. A forma como estes são derrotados sublinha o espírito feminino da força natural sobre a habitual visão masculina de batalhas espaciais carregadas de mísseis, lasers e testorena.

The Way of All Ghosts - Greg Bear encerra esta antologia com um exemplo do pior vício do conto de FC, algo até agora ausente nos textos que o precederam: um conto tão embrenhado no mais vasto mundo ficcional de que faz parte que se torna quase incompreensível para quem não esteja a par das suas iconografias. Como introdução à série Way é um desastre. O conto roça a incompreensibilidade, com tanto bombardeio de imagens confusas e conceitos que fariam todo o sentido para um conhecedor da série, mas nenhum para um leigo. Talvez por isso Silverberg o tenha colocado a rematar a antologia, vendo-se obrigado a utilizá-lo mas empurrando-o para as páginas finais, diminuindo o seu impacto desafinador.

[Salamanderinspace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second anthology I've read by Silverberg. I really didn't like the other--it was called "Legends," a fantasy anthology--but this one had some good stories. I don't know why I keep reading Silverberg; he's a conservative who inherited wealth and was wealthy his whole life, which I was not suprised to find out based on the values/philosophies of his work and the work he selects. Still, overall, I'm glad I picked this one up.

In the introduction Silverberg promises an anthology that cracks open and develops existing worlds with new turns of plot and character, enriching them and deepening them. He promises real changes and advancements of these stories. I can't evaluate the fulfillment of this promise very well, being only familliar with Leguin's world, of all the ones in the book. It did seem like most of the stories were really integrated into the timelines of the existing books--that is, they don't work as well as stand alone stories as they do additions. There is a little introduction to each story, describing the background, but it's not quite enough to ground you.

Old Music and the Slave Women by Ursula K. Leguin - Warnings for torture, slavery, rape. Heavy topics. A pretty dark story overall, but with hopeful notes. I enjoyed it. It wasn't particularly connected to the other Hainish books I've read, being set on a different planet, but it did seem to fit with the world and the tone of the other stories.

A Separate War by Joe Haldeman - Very hard to immerse yourself in it if you're not familliar with the worlds/novels from this author. An interesting study in soldiering and the horrors of war; dense worldbuilding. I appreciated some of the stuff he explored with prejudices about sexuality and birth.

Temptation by David Brin - What is it with 20th century sci fi and sentient dolphins? Whatever it is, I kind of love it. This story made me happy to be reading sci fi. It's full of wonder. Plotty, clear, with enough description that I sunk totally into the environment of the tale. I'm not sure I agreed with the philosophical biases of the story, but I loved the conversation around them. I considered adding his novels to my tbr but some googling revealed him to be a Politically Opinionated Republican (I think? libertarian? hard to say, but he has a lot of Bad Takes) and I don't have time for that nonsense.

Getting to Know the Dragon by Robert Silverberg - Set in a timeline where Rome never fell, this story recounts the adventures of a historian as he discovers some of his country's history. He finds a wealth of bloody imperialism and madness...probably my favorite story by Silverberg I've read, and the most socially conscious.

Orphans of the Helix by Dan Simmons - Pretty dense with undecipherable technical jargon. I think it's mostly made-up technical jargon, too. DNF on page 228.

Sleeping Dogs by Nancy Kress - The premise to this one was fascinating; what if people could be genetically engineered to not need sleep? Or more specifically, what if dogs could be? I really loved the protagonist. Definitely adding some Nancy Kress to my tbr.

The Boy Who Would Live Forever by Frederik Pohl - A beautifully constructed, down-to-earth space adventure. The protagonists are sweet and very human. Adding Frederik Pohl to my tbr.

A Hunger for the Infinite by Gregory Benford - Gorey. Horror tropes. DNF at page 354.

The Ship That Returned by Anne McCaffrey - Very dense world-building. Probably more enjoyable if you've read the series this is continuing. If you can power through, you'll be rewarded with a well-written story that deals with grief and some aspects of war/invasion. Likable, interesting protagonists.

The Way of All Ghosts by Greg Bear - Couldn't get into this one. Dense world-building, technical jargon. Male protagonist. DNF at page 432.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting collection of short stories and novellas, very different in type than any other short story collection I've read before. Each of them were long enough to probably be considered a novella, so that already set it apart from most short story collections. And in particular, every story was part of a larger pre-existing series of science fiction books. For some of these stories that was really great, because I've already ready part or all of the series they pertained to, and it gave me a little bit more narrative (sometimes from a different perspective) than already existed within the series. And for the novellas that were part of series I'd never read, they gave me very interesting glimpses into the wider "universes" they were a part of. In a few cases, this made it difficult to engage, as there were plenty of peculiar facts that I didn't have reference to. But in most cases, it wasn't hard to get into it at all and it provided for a very rich background and made me aware of a setting that was much larger than I currently had access to (within the pages of this book).

The types of stories were also a very wide range: everything from technology-specific (i.e. idea-driven but also somewhat well-grounded), to nearly fantasy because of the heavily extrapolated abstract concepts, to character- and plot-driven stories, and even one fascinating alternative history story. This provided a variety that was great and refreshing in such a long book. And because each of these novellas come from established authors with established series, almost every single one of them were excellently written with great narrative voice and great vision and insight. This has made me want to begin reading every series that was represented in this book (which I imagine was part of the goal behind this compilation).

There was only one exception to this (in my opinion) and that was the story, "Temptation" by David Brin, from the Uplift Universe. This was the singularly worst writing, worst point-of-view, cheesiest/shallowest characters, and bad plot ideas out of the whole set of novellas. I slogged through it but it really didn't get better. I know that David Brin may no focus on this group of characters in any of his other books, and they may very well represent some great writing... but after reading this novella, I'm not even slightly interested in the Uplift Universe series and I imagine I'll probably never even try them out. I'm even hesitant now to read any books he's ever written.

But that one was the exception. All the rest were either enjoyable and entertaining or downright fascinating. I would highly recommend this collection.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this for me was time traveling. A collection published in 1999 of revisits to worlds originally imagined from 1966 to 1998. The original worlds, where I did visit them, where around the year of publication, so everyone was fresh to me at the time and my reaction was time bound or time reflective. I am not now who I was then. Having said that I found my responses to these re-visits to old landscapes interesting.
Le Guin's "Ecumen" is like visiting a different part of a continent, through a tale from an out of the way region that adds some illumination to the whole.
Haldeman "Forever war" read this serialized in Analog before its publication in 1974. Not the same I think as the final print version, which causes me to think worth a re-read particularly as I enjoyed this side story with its happy ever after ending, which I suspect suggesting the sequels are worth a read worth a read.

Orsen Scot Card "Ender" Again read Enders Game as a short story in Analog 1977. Fun space opera, nice moralizing twist. Read the book when published years later and each sequel as published. [Enders Game 1985, Speaker for the dead 1986, Xenocide 1991, Children of the Mind 1996. Why I kept with the series was the development of Ender as a character and the plot development and the fact that Card is a good writer. Have to add I oppose just about everything he stands for in real life so that I like is writing is a surprise to me. The universe is huge with parallel stories of Bean and others [Shadow series which I've also read]. This short story fits in the chronology nicely, simple sweet plot, but Jane does appear like magic which is a bit flimsy.

David Brin "Uplift Universe" The 80's was the Brin decade for me. Read everything I could get my hands on. Uplift series was stellar! I'm still waiting for more and this the last published story was supposed to herald another novel and 1 suspect there are enough plot ideas for a trilogy.

Robert Silverberg "Roma Eterna". Never read any of this series although Silverberg is an undoubted SF master. An alternative history. This novella reads Ok, pleasant enough and intriguing
if one knows enough history to make links. But not enough to compel me to want to read anymore.
Why as editor he added this is a mystery to me, suspect he had it hanging around as opposed to writing it specifically for this compilation.

Dan Simmons "Hyperion". Started this but truth to tell I don't remember finishing it. Enjoyed the novella here, in and of itself. Nothing to tempt me back to the series. Some authors just don't work for me theme-wise. possibly its the underlying potential for horror his writing has but is absent here.

Nancy Kress "Sleepless" Read "Beggers in Spain" as a novella in a "Best of" Hugo or Nebula Awards. Enjoyed was Ok, interesting ideas but I never followed up. The synopsis before "sleeping Dogs" interests me and I may make a point of going back to read. Otherwise this again was just an Ok story.

Frederik Pohl "Heechee" Read as they were published. First two excellent but tailed off "Boy" a return to the writing strength of Gateway.

Gregory Benford "Galactic Center" Like Brin an essential 80's read. This novella adds to the understanding of the "Mantis" as a key plot character and allows for some speculation on what it means to be human.

Anne McCaffrey "The Ship" A YA author at best and she often is. Never read this series other than the original short story in an anthology I think. Nice story.

Greg Bear "Way" I like Bear but he often leaves me behind trying to understand the background plot. Remember struggling through Eon and Eternity and only retain a basic memory of the story. Playing with time will do that to one. This novella may draw me back to a re-read.

Overall an essential anthology for me and perhaps a gateway for those new to the genre to pick up a taste for some of the great SF of the recent past.

[Annie Lima · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely write scathing reviews, and I can't remember the last time I gave anything only two stars, but with this book, I'm afraid I have to. Actually, I'm only giving it the second star because it's well edited. I saw almost no typos or grammar errors.

Unfortunately, that's about all I can say in Far Horizons' favor. Almost every story here is long-winded and wordy, rambling on and on for pages and pages while saying very little. For the most part, they tell and don't show the events, and the characters aren't portrayed vividly (and closely) enough to make me care what happens to them. Many of the stories have little or no discernible plot. It's as though the authors were so eager to revisit the worlds and characters they'd created in their better-known books that they didn't stop to think about what they were actually writing and if it would be meaningful to anyone besides themselves.

These stories are supposedly standalones, but no. Most are confusing and largely meaningless to someone who hasn't read the books they're related to. Perhaps the stories would have been more enjoyable and made more sense if I'd read the authors' other works, but honestly, if the other works are this wordy, I'm not interested anyway.

I wish I hadn't wasted so many hours on this book. I kept telling myself that surely the next story would be better, but with a couple of exceptions, all were just as bad. At least one benefit of reading this is that now I know not to waste my time on any other books by most of these authors.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to count this as one of my books for the year because I only read some of the stories. The ones I didn't read were ones that I couldn't quite get into and so respectfully passed on them. I've found I'm much happier when I do that.

"A Separate War" - I liked the concept and maybe it was better for me because I haven't read The Forever War yet. The relationships felt real to me. 3/5

"Investment Counselor" - Oh, Ender. I forgot how much I enjoy Card's writing. It's been a long, long time since I read Ender's Game and I've been thinking about jumping back into the Enderverse and reading this story makes me think I should do that sooner rather than later. 5/5

"Sleeping Dogs" - An interesting idea. I've read scientific studies that basically indicate that people would go insane pretty quickly if they were sleep deprived. This is a world where people have gone sleepless (some of them, at any rate). If you don't have a dog, you might not think that they dream, but let me assure you, they do and it can be just as bad for a dog to be sleep deprived/dream deprived as it can be for a human. 5/5

"The Boy Who Would Live Forever" - My main beef with this story is that the Wrath of God plays a major part in the early part of the story but never exactly gets explained. I still liked it, especially the idea of existing in a black hole. 4/5

[Natasha Hurley-Walker]

DNF. I had trouble getting into this because I'm not actually all that excited to read about the not-critical-path adventures of not-critical-path characters set in larger SF universes. In particular, anything set between existing books is just not compelling, because you know who's going to survive to feature in later books. I might come back to this later and try picking out a few specific stories that I'll be more interested in reading. So far le Guin and Card's stories have been tab-A slot-B tedia (plural of tedium) for me, and Brin's dolphin story is just not gripping me enough to continue. They all make me want to go back and read the longer works instead!

[Rodzilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exceptionally strong entry from Le Guin ( as nearly always) and a weaker entry from Silverberg (the editor) round out a satisfying collection of short stories based on series published by each author. This is 1999, so note the 20 year gap. My take was that this collection functions as an advertisement for the publisher on the back catalog for each of these series. But for the most part, why not? A short story is not demanding of the reader, and most of them I enjoyed. A couple of duds were at least interesting, and none is available elsewhere (to my knowledge). So if you like a handful of these authors, well worth trying to get your hands on this.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1999, 'Far Horizons' is a themed sf anthology featuring 11 authors who have created very popular series/settings/universes and have contributed an additional story from that setting. Mostly this works well, but I found that it didn't for two out of the eleven and one of these, the Greg Bear story, required so much prior knowledge of the series that it didn't really make sense otherwise. On the positive side, the nine that worked did so with or without prior knowledge in my opinion and were better for it. The main positive will of course be having so many top writers in one spot.