There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

A Metal Box Floating Between Stars and Other Stories, offers a wide range of themes and levels of emotional intensity. I'm a big fan or short story collections. Whichever long novel I'm involved in, for a change of pace, I will read a few short stories within one of the short story collections or Sci-Fi anthologies I'm simultaneously reading. With A Metal Box... of almost twenty stories, there is a wide enough verity to satisfy just about any specific reader's taste. Likewise the number of stars I would give to each story varies across the board. Overall, this collection rates a solid four stars.

This was a fantastic collection of scifi short stories. They range from cute and humorous to unsettling creepy. Some fill you with optimism and hope for future generations and space explorations whereas others have you clutching your pillow and remembering those terrifying words from Alien, "in space, no one can hear you scream." Definitely worth reading.

I found myself pleasantly surprised by this collection of short stories. Starting off with the charming titular story - quite a wide range of stuff explored here - from aliens to clones to assassins to nanobots to off-world colonisation. My favourites are the aforementioned titular story and The Retired Angel of Death. Overall I found these nice caps to read at the end of the day when all you want is a good yarn. Recommended! Definitely put this author on my radar.

I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the stories. Most of them were very captivating and I was hooked instantly, often I was surprised that the story ended already, I would like to know what happened next.

4 shiny stars for this collection of short sci-fi stories.

[I was given a free digital copy through NetGalley]

Usually, my choices of reading are longer pieces of work, so when I saw that there was a collection of science fiction short stories, I had to dip my toes in the water. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, and somewhere in the back of my head, my novel-brain was probably expecting all of these stories to be connected, but the only connection these stories had was the genre and that was really refreshing for me. Sometimes they would be about love, sometimes it was family or war, and a lot of times there were aliens. I never quite knew what I would be getting into despite the titles. Lackey has a very special and distinct voice for telling these tales, and I would definitely recommend the collection to anyone wanting to take a step back from the heavy novels of science fiction, or if you’re just looking for an interesting short read.

For me, a good short story should leave me tingly. This collection had many stories that did just that. I rated each story individually, and would overall recommend this collection.

A Metal Box Floating Between Stars - 5/5. The title story is a sweet, stasis pod romance, set on a colony ship in space.

What Comes After - 5/5. A woman changes what mortality means while finding a way to cure herself of cancer.

Losing Home - 5/5. Terrifying worm parasites. I was squirming through the whole story.

Broken Promises - 5/5. First contact with an intelligent, alien species. The ominous vibes of this story left me on edge.

What Waits Out There - 4/5. A clone, R, is sent out into deep space where there is something lurking.

Painting the Sky with Shooting Stars - 4/5. Clones prepare for their job assignments in space. A lovely, short character study.

For Your Time - 5/5. Very short, very thought provoking.

Abram’s Choice - 5/5. A boy is taken from his parents by alien slave masters on a distant colony planet. He has a choice to make about who or what he is loyal to.

Day by Day - 4/5. A dying woman undergoes a life changing procedure.

Larva Mother - 4/5. A mother protects her children.

Remembering Jacob - 4/5. Aliens and humans learn to communicate in an unexpected way.

Rainbow Spores - 3/5. A scientist searches for a cure to a deadly fungus her mother created. I liked the idea of turning normally innocuous rainbows into something scary.

Real Life - 4/5. A story about grief and virtual reality.

Our Pills Help - 3/5. Collective consciousness.

The Ambivalence of Memory - 3/5. A choice to forget.

The Dedication of the Alma Pillay Monument - 3/5. A woman is compelled to complete a collection.

The Retired Angel of Death - 3/5. A retired assassin on a culinary journey.

Songs of Rotting Petals, Dances of Wilting Leaves - 2/5. I reread this twice and still was not sure about it.

The Beautiful Purple Sky - 4/5. An alien invasion that might not be so bad.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

What a collection this was! I think out of all the stories maybe two didn't hit the mark for me, but were still good reads. The rest I absolutely loved.

Jamie Lackey certainly has mastery of the short story. The stories in this book are short yes but they feel complete. The reader is not left lacking or expecting more, which is sometimes the trouble with a short story.

A Metal Box Floating Between Stars and Other Stories is a fantastic collection of SF/F short stories that feature everything from assassins turned Instagram foodies to creepy parasitic foot worms. Also bug aliens. Lots and lots of bug aliens. What really ties these stories together though is the focus on human connection and emotion. While most of these stories are set in second worlds, the driving conflict is rarely the SFF elements but how the humans in the story interact. Lackey's writing style brings out very thought-provoking and evocative pieces, that leave the reader thinking, 'would I have made the same choice?'.

In several stories, there are evil aliens that act as the conduit for the plot but the real conflict comes between characters and how they react to each others' behaviors. For example, The Beautiful Purple Sky has aliens that brainwash humans to be sympathetic to their cause (taking over Earth), but only enough for the brainwashed humans themselves to conquer the planet for the aliens. Yet, the meat of the plot is between a woman who has been brainwashed and the rest of her family who have not.

Five standouts from this collection:

A Metal Box Floating Between Stars - a cute slice of life about the budding romance between two scientists traveling through deep space and alternating deep sleep cycles
Painting the Sky With Shooting Stars - a bittersweet story about a girl who really wants to be a space trash collector and the boy she leaves behind
Broken Promises - a disturbing and sad story about the destruction of a relationship ft. bug aliens
The Retired Angel of Death - a story about a retired assassin turned space-Instagram foodie
Songs of Rotting Petals, Dances of Wilting Leaves - A very creepy story about enslaved sentient plants (?) with some really gross plant imagery

Overall, I rate this collection a 4/5. As all short story collections go, there were some I liked more than others but I there wasn't one I thought was bad. Some were definitely more abstract and confusing than others though. There are also several stories in here that would make fantastic Sci-Fi movies.

Reivew to be posted on my blog on Friday, 17 August 2018

A short collection of short science fiction stories. Usually I can read the heck out of short stories but these came across as below average. I wasn't impressed but I'll give it a three in case other readers feel differently.

Really enjoyed this collection of sci'fi short stories. The voice was engaging and narrative, while replete with sufficient science-y detail, was not impenetrable and didn"t get in the way of the storytelling. I'm pickg about short stories but this was a great collection. A nice break from longer works.

ARC Copy...I very much describe it as weird collection of stories ranging from the obvious weird and surreal to even more weird of the sci-fi kind dealing with exploration, alien encounters, etc.

This book contains 19 short speculative/SF stories that include everything from family, semi-sentient AI (Fluffy the cleaning bot is absolutely adorable!), odd-ball aliens, space exploration, clones, assassins, alien invasions, zombie fungi, to a whole range of other strange and wonderful combinations and original ideas. The writing is beautiful and concise, the stories original and thought-provoking. The stories contained in this book are also more uplifting and hopeful than many current SF/F stories out there. I enjoyed this book a great deal.

I realized it’s been a minute since I’ve read some science fiction and, since I do believe in a diverse literary diet and since this one so conveniently popped up on Netgalley, it just had to be read. I’ve never heard of the author, but glad to have discovered her. She’s definitely talented, at least going by these stories. The collection itself is very small, 19 stories that last maybe 150 minutes at most, but it’s a time well spent. The first one had me thinking this might be romance leaning, but no, this is definitely definitively sci fi and speculative fiction, with many of the genre’s accoutrements, namely aliens. In fact almost all of my favorite stories in here featured aliens and first contact themes. (I never remember the actual story titles, but also the clone one was great.) Lackey’s writing style is economic and evocative at the same time, perfect storm as far as combos go. It’s like being given these brief windows to strange singular worlds and being left with wanting more. No dilly dallying here, no lingering, no overwriting. Lackey is a very efficient storyteller and I very much enjoyed the stories she tells. They showcased abundant imagination and originality and managed to be just as haunting and poignant as the title. Dreamy, interesting, entertaining tales. Recommended for anyone who looks up at the stars marveling. Or anyone who looks down at their Kindle looking for a good story. Thanks Netgalley.