Lindsay’s Reviews > Galactic Empires > Status Update

"Verthandi's Ring" by Ian McDonald. Perhaps the purest attempt to fit the mandate of the volume with an actual galactic empire and what would be required for that to happen and how it would change us. Like a lot of post-singularity fiction I find it a little tough to relate to these very inhuman entities.

"Seven Years From Home" by Naomi Novak. Like the story before it, this deals with the tragic consequences of imperialist policies when they come up against native cultures strong enough or stubborn enough to respond. Beautiful and sad, and with the same sort of brilliant biological terror that this author pulled off in Uprooted.

"The Wayfarer's Advice" by Melinda Snodgrass. This is a short story set twenty years after the novel The High Ground which catches us up with aristo Mercedes and tailor's son Tracy. As with that book I would love to see more in this world and with these characters.

"Letter From the Emperor" by Steve Rasnic Tem. A shorter piece on loneliness amid a collapsing interstellar empire. Not great.

"Looking Through Lace" by Ruth Nestvold. Very readable story, although it's a little disappointing to see academic sexism in a far future story.

"The Man With the Golden Balloon" by Robert Reed - One of this author's Great Ship stories which I personally find very similar to Banks's Culture novels. I thought it was quite good and a little chilling although I have questions about the end.

"Invisible Empire of Ascending Light" by Ken Scholes - Evocative work that reminded me a bit of the Warhammer 40K back story.

"Section Seven" by John G. Henry - Military and religion are not the only way to maintain an empire and standardization is both a reason for an empire and a pillar of one.

"Utriusque Cosmi" by Robert Charles Wilson. Fantastic story at several levels at once, from tightly focused tragedy to cosmic destiny. Really brilliant, particularly at this length.

"The Impossibles" by Kristin Kathryn Rusch. This on the other hand, was absolutely brilliant. One of my favorites in the collection. The story is of a public defender in an alien-human court system where the defense almost never wins.