“The musk”?! THE STENCH! Lollll! These stories make me want to learn more about this world. It was giving me Star Trek but from the eyes of the Federation & aligned & non-aligned alien worlds & civilizations.

𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Twilight Imperium: The Stars Beyond
𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Twilight Imperium: Galactic Gossip 💀
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Various
𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿: Aconyte Books
𝗙𝗮𝘃 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿: Nu
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Normal
𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Anthology Novel
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Sci-fi
4.4/𝟱

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ True sci-fi stories 😍
~ Interesting & varied female leads
~ Excellent writing & exciting stories
~ Short but complete endings

🌱THE MEH
~ I have noting really to complain about 🤭

🪷☀️ 🪷

🌱THE STORIES
1~ Caught in a loop with ever changing alien ships, a captain has to figure out how to make contact & understand the messages the brand new alien species is using, or go crazy with the effort.
2~ An ambassador, sightly irrational & unhinged after a 5yr loss, re-encounters her assumed dead loved one, now representing the unknown Arborec species. As they converse, will she gain closure for her loss or endanger her Federation & the lives of all onboard?
3~ Lyra is tired of being a hired gun, & after a traumatic job goes back home to the parents she hasn’t visited in 10yrs. At home things have changed, with corruption & deceit running rampant. As she struggles to re-find her place in the Reef, will her or her family’s past catch up to them & destroy their home forever?
4~ A young Hacan trader embarks on an important business & diplomatic mission where he represents optimism for the future, apologies for the past & the careful speech of respect given & earned.
***5~ The Yassaril Guild of Spies sends a 2nd operative to investigate why info has ceased on a desolate planet filled with grey, militaristic & organized aliens. What she discovers there threatens to plunge planets into war & expose her hiding obsessed people. (I loved how this was written).
6~ When a group of strong & mean Colonists arrive on a paranoid about technology world and meet furry bushy beings, it’s only a matter of time before their Admiral & fur babies realize that all is not as it seems with forests & tech.

✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

As always I want to start by saying that I was given a copy of this to review as part of a @AconyteBooks book tour. My review is honest and left voluntarily. #NetGalley #AconyteBooks #TheTwilightImperium

If you love Space Operas, are a fan of the Twilight Imperium games and lore, or Tim Pratt’s brilliant Twilight Imperium trilogy also by Aconyte (or all three things) you will want or perhaps need to read this collection. As with most tie-in fiction it does obviously help if you enjoy the universe and canon they are based in but I do believe these short stories and Pratt’s trilogy can be enjoyed by those who may not have played the game or know a lot of the universe but of course it will help.

One thing I really am in enjoying about Aconyte anthologies to date is none seem to contain that one story that is just okay or perhaps not even very good at all. So far all of them have been brilliant but I do have my favourites. I particularly liked ‘A Ghost of a Chance’ myself and if I had to pick a favourite it might be that one but it’s so hard to narrow it down.

Each author clearly knows what they are writing about and working with and combine the source material with their own skills to create enjoyable and memorable short stories. Despite containing races and instances from the game and lore it is easy to read to these as a space opera or a stepping stone into Twilight Imperium. The stories all stand alone perfectly and capture the feel of the genre.

I will definitely be adding an hardcopy to my collection at some point once it is available and will be re-reading.

I do love me some space opera. I also love Tim Pratt's novels. So, reading the Twilight Imperium series is a no-brainer. "The Stars Beyond" is an anthology of stories by various authors, including Pratt, based on the novels and the game. I've not played the game, or read any of the online resources. While these stories work as good solid space opera standalones, I feel that you would need to have had some exposure to the Imperium in order to fully enjoy them.

My favorite stories were Tim Pratt's and Alex Acks, both authors whose work I've read and enjoyed before. The other authors were new to me, and I liked their stories as well. Most of the stories focused on the interactions between one or more of the species, with some stories providing background information about current conflicts or "origin" stories. I hope to meet some of these characters in a future Pratt TI novel (hint hint).

4 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy from Aconyte Books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

"The Stars Beyond" was a delightful collection of stories that take place in the universe of the "Twilight Imperium". Each story firmly featured one or more of the stereotypical empires from the series. Each story was nicely self contained and most importantly entertaining in that way that only space opera can be. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more in the same series.

I thank the editors, authors, and publisher for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this collection.

Space opera fans will probably like set of stories. These authors did a nice job of creating interesting tales. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

For those who are fans of Twilight Imperium, the game, and have read all the lore and joined fan sites and read the three novels already written in the Twilight Imperium universe, there's no question - you want this. These stories can stand independently if you haven't read the novels. The questions are: can someone who is slightly familiar with the game, but hasn't dived deeply into the universe enjoy this book? Can someone who has no idea what Twilight Imperium is, enjoy this book as a collection of loosely connected space opera? The answers are a qualified yes.

Yes, because many of these stories would stand on their own as space opera even if some newly-made-up races of aliens were in them rather than the established races of Twilight Imperium. Space opera is one of my favorite sub-genres, and that was what drew me to get the eARC of this book, thanks to NetGalley.

Qualified yes because some of the stories are better if one has read some of the abundant online material about the game. For example, the story "A Ghost of A Chance" features a privateer ship, attempting to cross an unknown space and encountering unknown aliens, quite readable as is - but better if you know that it is an "origins story" filling in how we first meet the Ghosts of Creuss, and that a couple of sentences near the beginning are actually straight from the official lore (at fantasyflightgames.com) to establish this connection. Other stories also fill in background of early meetings between races - but again, are readable as space opera even if you don't know about those races from the game.

A brief moment of humor: in one of the stories, some of the background characters are seen playing a game called "Nightfall Empire."

A warning: if you are new to Twilight Imperium via this anthology, reading it may draw you into playing the game, which can be quite the consuming hobby!

This is an interesting collection of short stories by authors about our galaxy. It's an entertaining read.

A breezy, tremendously fun space opera set in the world of Twilight Imperium, this was much funnier than I expected, and generally just a really entertaining read.

A solid anthology of space opera faction set in the universe of the Twilight Imperium game, which I have never played. While the restriction of writing “in universe” necessarily limits the authors, I thought that the contents were above average, particularly for this type of anthology. Veteran authors Tim Pratt and Alex Acks both provide creditable contributions but the other four authors also write capable adventures. The book does a nice job of fleshing out the universe and exploring different factions. A nice addition to the new line of fiction in the world and liable to persuade the reader to either come back for more or try the game itself.