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In 2011 Solaris revived the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction series with Solaris Rising . I greatly admired the book and really enjoyed it. In my conclusion to the review I said I hoped that the book would be a success so there would be more instalments in the series. Evidently it was, as here I am with a review for Solaris Rising 2. The collection of authors is quite different from the last one with some names I wouldn't have expected in an SF setting, such as Adrian Tchaikovsky.There wer...
Another solid and diverse collection of contemporary science fiction.
As with any anthology, some stories are better than others -- or perhaps it's more fair to say that some stories will speak to particular people more than others. There are quite a few good stories (for me, "Whatever Skin You Wear" and "The First Dance" stood out), and the rest are okay, nothing I'd particularly call bad. There were a couple unfortunate missteps; the very first story ("Tom") uses "tranny", which I've come to see as a perjorative, and I'm not sure whether it's usage was supposed
Like it any anthology, it's hit and miss, but many of the ideas don't feel fully fleshed out, but the hits are delicious.The first story by Paul Cornell reminded me that he wrote comics and why I don't usual read his stuff (except Young Avengers: Dark Reign). It was the usual Earth bound humans and their first (sexual) encounter with another species. it's a bit boring because it's pretty predictable and hetero-normative. The sex is described in an interesting way, but there's not much new or int...
There were some good stories, and science fiction is not dead. Yadda yadda.The first story, or one that was very close to first, ruined a perfectly good story with a completely frivolous, unnecessary use of the word 'tranny'. :PA story shortly after that was all about sending kids with Asperger's into space to save the human race. It made no sense whatsoever. And while I am not on the autism spectrum or know anyone very closely who is, it struck me as not a very good portrayal. Very Othering.Ano...
Another instalment of new SF short stories demonstrating the breadth and depth that the genre has to offer in 2013. This contained some familiar authors but many more that weren't, as it should be with anthologies of this kind.Of course, with such a diverse range of themes and all new stories, you're never going to like all of them. I don't know if it was just me but I felt that the quality of the stories generally improved as the collection went on.Environmental catastrophy features features in...
As with most short story collections, there are a wide range of styles and approaches to what is touted as “groundbreaking science fiction.” Straight science fiction isn’t my first choice, so it was really nice to dive back into the genre with tastings of a wide range of subject matter and authors. This is also a finalist for the Philip K Dick award, (http://www.philipkdickaward.org/) though collections of short fiction don’t often win awards. With such a cross section, there’s bound to be mixed...
An adequate but unremarkable collection. The one story that really stood out for me was Nick Harkaway's "The Time Gun".
Nice collection of sci-fi shorts with an impressive range of themes, styles and settings. There's always some that work more for you than others in any collection, but I found this to be made of mostly hits, with a few "I don't know what the hell that was but the writing was good". Here are a few of my update notes to give you an idea of my more immediate reactions. "'Whatever skin you wear' - as weird as Gaia Online on steroids and simultaneously cute as hell.""Oof, Ticking reads like a late-ni...
Fun, adequate. Short stories never have enough time to breathe or develop a premise and a character clearly. I will keep reading them, but there was nothing in here I can especially recommend.
Science fiction anthology with a variety of tales to suit a variety of tastes. In 'Tom' by Paul Cornell, marine aliens arrive and make themselves at home, much like dolphins that can live on land too, and we go and clean up the seas.Gated communities live expensively in domes while poor people and eco-terrorists gather outside; self-replicating nano-machines which gobble up an oil spill and just keep going threaten Earth and for some reason all the people with autism are to be sent away and save...
I seem to have had a bit of a short story binge recently, probably on account of the inordinate period of time between novels from my usual preferred authors. Short stories are a great way to encounter new authors and make the perfect vehicle for science fiction; there’s should be no room for padding or tedious info-dumps, just taut craftsman-like storytelling.Perhaps it is because I found ‘The Edge of Infinity’ collection so compelling, but the stories in this compendium are a bit of a mixed ba...
Most of these stories take place in interesting worlds, but the emotional narratives at the core of most of the stories just isn’t that powerful, or the worlds aren’t sketched with sufficient precision to stay with a reader. One that stood out for me is ‘Before Hope’, Kim Larkin-Smith, sketching a moment of worker resistance against a system of brutal oligarchy. I’d love to read a longer novel set in this universe. ‘Whatever Skin You Wear’, by Eugie Foster, stands out for another reason. (view s...
