Esta recopilación de relatos de ciencia ficción de Tobias S. Buckell tiene un sabor clásico pero con algunas novedades como el siempre presente anticolonialismo de su obra, alegatos contra el racismo y una nada velada crítica al capitalismo, sobre todo en referencia al pago del aire en las colonias espaciales.


Io, Robot

Homenaje a Asimov que va más allá del simple nombre del relato, un comienzo un tanto flojo para una antología que va de menos a más.

A Jar of Goodwill

El protagonista de esta historia es un amigo profesional y le contratan para que ejerza su labor en un entorno bastante peligroso, pero se ve obligado a aceptar el contrato debido a su deuda de aire, como he mencionado antes. Me gusta cómo ha enlazado Tobias la avaricia de algunos de los implicados con la buena predisposición de otros. Entretenido.

Pale Blue Memories

Una historia alternativa con colonización de Venus incorporada y con un apabullante mensaje sobre la esclavitud y el colonialismo. Y salen nazis.

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance

Uno de los cuentos más conocidos del autor, que por esa misma razón da nombre a la antología. Protagonizado por un robot que se encuentra ante una decisión digna de las leyes de la robótica de Asimov, pero con una resolución brillante. Quizá el mejor de la antología, aunque eso depende del gusto de cada uno.

The Mighty Slinger

Escrita en colaboración con Karen Lord, con mucho aire caribeño, este relato es un homenaje al equivalente a nuestra “canción protesta”, pero con mucha más repercusión que otros ejemplos que se me vienen a la cabeza.

Sunset

Buckell nos cuenta un relato tierno e intimista sobre la relación entre un veterano de guerra y un joven que está empezando a conocer el mundo. Que el veterano sea una nave espacial da una nueva dimensión al relato, pero la relación subyacente en la misma.

Chi’s Cargo

La importancia de unos pocos gramos en los cálculos orbitales es la base de todo el relato.

Destination Day Blues

Los relatos sobre naves generacionales tienen unos cuantos tropos bastante establecidos, como ya comenté en la reseña de Braking Day. En este caso, un asesinato es el detonante de la historia, con una investigación del sheriff que no saldrá como se esperaba. Muy atractivo.

The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex

Esta historia ya la reseñé aquí.

Five Point Three Milligrams

Cuando se cae demasiado en la rutina, cualquier cambio puede traer consecuencias. Pero claro, cuando tratamos de mecánica orbital, la diferencia más nimia puede significar la vida o la muerte. Un relato contra la especialización extrema y las alteraciones de ADN.

By the Warmth of Their Calculus

Un relato en contra de otro más antiguo muy desesperanzador. Se ve que dejó mucha huella en Buckell.

DW

El elemento disruptivo sobre el que gira la historia es la presencia de un gato en una estación espacial. No me ha dejado mucha huella, que digamos.

The Very Last Curator of What Little Remains of the Western World

La apropiación cultural, vista desde el colonizador que ha sido colonizado. Buen relato con un mensaje bastante duro.

A Girl and Her Rover

La nostalgia como vehículo del relato, en un emplazamiento histórico, nos muestra cómo lo que una vez fue extraordinario se convierte en banal con el paso del tiempo.

The Longest Distance

La dilatación temporal es la base del relato, en el que el narrador viaja hacia los confines mientras sigue hablando con quien dejó atrás, conformando un colofón excelente para la antología.

Me han gustado especialmente las notas adjuntas por el propio autor a cada una de las obras, que dotan de contexto a los relatos en relación con la propia experiencia del autor. Creo que se trata de una buena recopilación que será del gusto de los lectores de ciencia ficción más tradicionales.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me access to an early copy of this book*
Why I Read It: A science fiction short story collection that caught me eye because of title, but also it seemed like it was hopeful and slice-of-life based on the synopsis provided.

Overall Thoughts: These stories had multiple features in common, such as robots or taking inspiration from other sources (usually ones I dislike), and dark tone/ endings (which I was not expecting). So because of this I find that several of the stories blur together. As a result this is an okay but mostly forgettable collection, with only 4 stories that I would consider standouts.

Stories: I've omitted a few of the stories from this review because I cannot recall anything about them other than that they are almost identical to other stories in this collection.
Io, Robot: a riff on I, Robot by Asimov, which I don't like, humans ask a robot for help when they are stranded but through semantics it convinces itself they are actually robots and uses the law of robotics to justify refusing them help. Clearly a riff on I, Robot by Asimov, which is a book I kind of hated, but this puts a dark, maybe humorous, spin on the original. Can't say I enjoyed it, but it's at least something different. Also, this is a good story to start the collection off with because all of its features (robots, dark tone, drawing inspiration from another source) can be found in most of the other stories in the collection.
A Jar of Goodwill: Super capitolistic aliens rule the galaxy and a companion bot (who is not a sex bot) is "recruited" to a exploration mission. A couple of interesting moments regarding how far people are going to go in order to earn something when they're near the bottom of society but the writing was so dry and it came a bit too late in the story that I mostly didn't care.
Pale Blue Memories: A man whose ancestors were slaves crash lands on Mars during WW II and becomes imprisoned. I mostly struggled with this one because during all the moments that were supposed to be impactful, I was just confused. I don't understand anything about this: why was it set on Mars, why was it set during WWII, and what was the point of this because every time I thought I had it, the story then flipped itself on its head and the thematic narrative seemed to change. At best I can say this story is about endurance, but even then I'm not too sure. Disappointing based on what other reviews had to say about this one.
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance: Similar plot as Io Robot with a machine being manipulated into helping a criminal on the run due to the Law of Robotics, and I feel exactly the same way about this one as I did about Io, Robot. The title might be a riff on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which is a book I hated, so that didn't exactly endear me to the story.
The Mighty Slinger: Follows a washed up rock band across time and space. I had high hopes because this was co written with Karen Lord but it was just mediocre. There were a couple of moments that intrigued me but like the previous story, the time skips and lack of cohesion ultimately left this one feeling very muddled.
Sunset: One of the better ones though it did take me getting to the end to appreciate it. The best parts were discussion on how the discovery of this ship could impact an impoverished town with multiple perspectives (always want some nuance) and a moment healing at the end. The relationship between the boy and ship, which was the driving force of the narrative, was kind of nice but sparse.
The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex: Aliens do tourism in New York. Too contemporary for my tastes, which is a problem I frequently encounter with urban fantasy and I think it was trying to be comedic but it landed flat for me. To sum up, this story was fine and I appreciate that it's one of the lighter stories, but didn't work with my preferences.
By the Warmth of Their Calculus: A crew has carefully planned out how they will survive their galactic journey, but when stowaways are discovered onboard, there is much debate over what to do about them. One of the better stories in the collection, this story apparently takes inspiration from the story "The Cold Equations" which I haven't read. As I mentioned earlier, I like stories that provide nuance where you can see valid points on both sides, but I am glad that, apparently unlike the source material, this story ends on a more hopeful note.
A Girl and Her Rover: A girl doesn't want to leave her home on the Moon so she goes on a quest with her robot dog to find a piece of history. The last story in the collection and what I remember best from this one is how sad I felt after reading it. Unfortunate that the collection ended on a bit of a downer.
Destination Day Blues: A detective story that occurs on a generation ship right before an important holiday. At the start I was dismissive of this as just another run of the mill murder mystery, but if readers stick with it, the story does make it worth their while because of the important commentary it makes as things draw near the end.
The Longest Distance: The communications between a couple as one undergoes a mission across the galaxy and the other remains on Earth. A beautiful and bittersweet story that does make me invested in these characters lives and relationships. There was something very human about this story, and with it's epistolary style it immediately stood out to me from the pack, which is different from the other ones I liked where the endings are what really made them work for me (ironically I don't remember the ending of this one). Based on that, I think I can say that this one was my favorite story in the collection.

This is my favourite kind of science fiction, sci-fi the way I love it: futuristic and realistic, warmly human, and full of diversity. Caribbean-born author Tobias S. Buckell’s collection is full of the weird and wonderful—from a girl on the moon with her robotic dog, to a rover waiting for humans on Io, worldships, space elevators, sentient starships, Independence Day-style invasions (of a sort), space cats, and more.

Buckell explores “race” and caste, gender, relationships across the stars, alien minds, childhood, and, most memorably, empire and colonialism, in a story where a white man is one of the last artefacts of Western civ, and is an exhibition in a museum.

There are author notes included to explain the genesis of each story, which is interesting for budding writers. Buckell is prolific, and works with many other authors, which no doubt is one of the reasons for his success. I am also delighted with his non-Eurocentric worldview, which comes across in these stories.

This is an excellent collection, and showcases why Buckell has won so many awards. I can’t pick a favourite; this is the work of an amazing writer. Buckell’s stories are immersive, and full of intelligence and humour. Even if you’re not a sci-fi fan, this collection is accessible, and so much fun to read. I will be re-reading it many times.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Apex Book Company for the ARC

Enjoyed this book of short stories by Tobias S Buckell. First time reading him, and this was a great introduction. Will definitely be looking up more from him. #ZenandtheArtofStarshipMaintenanceandOtherStories #NetGalley

A solid collection of stories. The author has a good imagination, and handles the art of short fiction well. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

I greatly enjoyed this collection of stories about space. There’s lots of interesting thoughts on life and the tolls of space travel in here, as well as thoughts on how important things like weight and air become. Buckell’s love of the genre is clear and there’s notes after the works on the process of the stories (which is always something I enjoy reading).

Personal favorites were: IO Robot, Destination Day Blues, A Girl and Her Rover

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

I just loved this. Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance is Tobias Buckell's love letter to science fiction and all that it offers: the hope and the what-ifs and the invitation to envision a world different from the one we have now. That it is, in fact, a love letter shines through in the writing and is obvious to the reader starting from the introduction, which is written by Buckell himself and is utterly charming:

"If you love reading about brave, hard choices made in the cold of vacuum, flip ahead and try a random page of this book. Because there are whole worlds out there to explore. Let's visit a few places that are far, far away from today, and this place, right here, right now. Earth is a beautiful home, one I hope we learn to take better care of. But in this collection, it's just one point of tiny light in a vast cosmos of possibility."

I had read some of Buckell's short stories prior to picking up this collection and enjoyed what I'd read, but most of what I had already encountered fell under the heading of speculative fiction or maybe fantasy (would Shoggoths in Traffic count as weird fiction or as a fun fantasy/horror mashup? No need to pick just one...). If you adore sci fi, as I do, this collection has the tropes and ideas you've come to love: Dyson spheres, first contact, generation ships, post-humans... and explorations of the nuances of what those changes could mean, for us and for other sapients.

There are 15 stories in Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance (what a name! and the titular story is *chefkiss* excellent--apparently the name came before the story, and I'm glad the author waited until he had a story to go with it that could carry that title) and only one of them, The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex, was a re-read for me. I like that story, but the others here shine brightly enough that I wouldn't even necessarily say that it's indicative of the rest of the collection.

Things I particularly liked:
I am a predictable sucker for the phenomenon of a call-and-response type conversation that happens between works and authors separated by years and geography. One example of this kind of conversation is The Ones Who Stay and Fight, Jemisin's gorgeous and sharp-edged response to Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Two of the stories in this collection are a response to Tom Godwin's 1954 classic SF story "The Cold Equations," and I relished them.

I also absolutely love it when short stories in anthologies or collections are accompanied by a note from the author speaking to the work and either where it came from or what it means to them--but it drives me bananas when these notes precede the stories, because they nearly always contain some form of spoiler or insight that keeps the reader from being able to unwrap the story and enjoy it free of expectations. Each of the stories collected here is accompanied by an explanation or a note about its genesis from the author, and each of them--*thank you*--follows the story in question. (Why is this so infrequent?)

Thanks to Apex Book Company and Netgalley; I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review and my opinions are entirely my own. I enjoyed this thoroughly enough that I already have two friends in mind to get copies for.

Overall, this is a very solid collection of short stories from Buckell. Nothing overly ground-breaking, but some fun explorations especially around the recurring Geth setting of hyper-capitalist aliens. The title story -- Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance -- is definitely a standout and I can see how it made the title. I had a good time with it, but I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to re-read.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance." Unfortunately, I am not going to finish the collection. I had high hopes for sci-fi short stories, but the first three I read didn't keep my attention. I wish the author the best of luck in his future works.

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories by Tobias S. Buckell is his 7th short fiction collection. It consists of 15 science fiction stories, some previously published in various anthologies, while others were previously available through the author’s Patreon.

I first learned of Tobias’ work through LeVar Burton Reads podcast, where I listened to LeVar narrate 2 of Tobias’ short stories: “Shoggoths in Traffic” (published in the short fiction collection Shoggoths in Traffic and Other Stories) and “The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex” that was first published in 2019 in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color and is reprinted here.

Tobias S. Buckell is a prolific author, but (in my opinion) short fiction is where he excels. Short stories are notoriously tricky to write, however, Tobias successfully mastered this art and manages to present rich and tantalising stories, that are simultaneously completed and yet brimming with potential to become something more if the opportunity arises. Drawing inspiration from the Caribbean (where he was born and raised) and the Western African traditions Tobias S. Buckell brings new perspectives and breaths new life into classic science fiction themes (as can be seen in “Pale Blue Memories”, “Chi’s Cargo” and “By The Warmth of Their Calculus”). His focus on generational stories (“Destination Day Blues”, “The Longest Distance”, “Five Point Three Milligrams” to name a few) gives the reader a galactic adventure that turns into an intimate exploration of humanity.

Although the stories collected in Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance are science fiction, through the genre of science fiction Tobias S. Buckell (like many authors before him) explores not only the issues that trouble humanity today, but also the issues that we could face in distant future(s). The stories in this collection are diverse, wondrous, memorable, superbly written and most importantly enjoyable to read. I wholeheartedly recommend everyone to check out Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance along with Tobias’ other short stories collection.

Side note: This collection fills prompt no. 9 (HARD MODE) of the r/Fantasy 2023 Book Bingo Challenge.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Buckell and I started publishing short fiction around the same time, so while we've never really been in the same place at the same time long enough to say that we know each other well, I sure know what to look for in his work. So if this is your first Tobias S. Buckell collection, what should you expect (that he totally delivers here)?

Clear prose. Transparency is not the sole virtue prose can have, but it sure is a virtue prose can have, and Buckell's has it. When you're in the mood to never have to read a sentence three times to figure out what the author is on about, these are good hands to put yourself in and know that the story will be primary.

Strong roots. Buckell knows his genre. Several of these stories are responses to genre classics, and genre furniture abounds. Do you like stories about robots? aliens? generation ships? jungle Venus, for heaven's sake? Buckell has you covered here. But those aren't the only ones of his roots that are giving him a strong grounding here. One of the stories here has a hero with an ethnic and racial background very similar to Buckell's own Caribbean-American biracial heritage, giving the character a depth and context that absolutely makes the story. The single collaboration in the volume--with Karen Lord, whose work I love--describes in its authors' notes how these two writers of Caribbean heritage decided to go deep into their own loves and backgrounds, only to find the story incredibly popular and resonant. Which it should be. It's a great piece.

New twists. Even people who want their science fiction to come with familiar genre furniture could just reread their old favorites if that's all they wanted. Buckell is intensely thoughtful about the shapes of these stories, the ways in which the old takes don't quite satisfy, the ways he can make them his own. Even when you're reading another of his several alien stories, it's never "oh yeah, another one of those" but rather "oh, interesting, that's a different place to take it."

If you haven't been reading Tobias S. Buckell, this is a pretty ideal place to start. If you have, at least some of the stories will probably be old friends--but I personally like to have stories I've enjoyed relocated to convenient collections for me to reread at my leisure, and also even I hadn't read all of these.

Exceptional! This collection of sci-fi short stories is extremely well written, includes wide ranging themes, a bit of philosophy and a lot of hard science. Definitely makes me want to read more from this author. I especially liked the author’s notes on what inspired the story and how it got written. Highly recommend

This was an excellent read.
A collection of 15 stories with a variety of different concepts: robots, clones, space colonization, sentient ship... even a cat in space. 
It was interesting to see the different possible futurs and different ways towards which the human race can evolve at political and cultural levels.
I always find that short stories are often very philisophical and this is so the case with this anthology.
I really like the introduction of the author who makes you dream of space, and the notes after each story sharing his inspirations behind each of them.

Three of the stories particularly moved me:
* Sunset. The story of a sentient starship retiring on a colonized planet who shares his last moments with a young boy.
* The Might Slinger. We follow a group of musicians who are cryogenized for years to then be resuscitated to present shows on the different planets of the solar system over decades. While trying to influence politically through their songs to save Earth.
* The Longest Distance. We follow the correspondence between a man on his way to explore a new colony, and a woman he met on Earth before leaving. With the fluctuation of time passing differently for each of them and the doubts concerning their choices made over time.

Among others of my favorites:
* Destination Day Blues. A detective story on a generational ship on its way to a new planet
* Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex. The adventures of a taxi driver transporting aliens visiting Earth as a tourist destination. 

I highly recommand. And I will look for other stories from this author, with who I connected with his creativity.

I posted a review on Goodreads and Instagram.

My main takeaway from this anthology was that I need to read more stuff from Tobias S. Buckell.

My only prior experience with his stuff was a short story he’d written in the *Africa Risen* anthology, which was one of my favorites from that collection. This is a selection of things he’s written for other anthologies or magazines, as well as a few that were written originally for his Patreon subscribers. They’re all definitely sci-fi rather than fantasy, and fairly hard as far as these things go. They ranged from very good to excellent; there wasn’t a single miss amongst them.

My favorites include:

- “Pale Blue Memories,” a retro-futurist story about an American rocketship crash-landing on Venus, and the survivors being enslaved by Venusians.

- The titular “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” about a person (who was once a biological person who chose to have their brain decanted into a construct body) manipulated into helping a mass murderer escape justice through their being bound by the Laws of Robotics.

- “Sunset,” about a sentient starship that crash-lands on a backwater world and befriends a local boy.

- “The Longest Distance,” a bittersweet story about a man traveling at relativistic speeds receiving messages (every day or two from his perspective, every decade or so from hers) from the woman he left behind.

- “A Girl and her Rover,” about a girl on the Moon trying to find the golf ball that Alan Shepard hit during the Apollo 14 mission.

The stories are mostly completely separate from each other, with one cluster of exceptions. There are three stories (“A Jar of Goodwill,” “Chi’s Cargo,” and “DW”) that share a common universe where humanity is dominated by the ultra-capitalist Gheda. The Gheda, to give one example, carefully track how much oxygen each individual human uses on their stations, and charge accordingly. Get too deeply into debt, and you’ll be seized and put in cryogenic storage until they have a use for you or your debt (which will continue to increase, due to the costs of cryogenic storage) is paid off by someone else. These three weren’t any lower in quality than the rest of the anthology, but I can’t call them favorites because they were incredibly, incredibly depressing.

Still, late stage capitalism dystopias aside, this was an excellent anthology. Highly recommended.

A fine selection of largely space-themed short fiction from Buckell, ranging from the well-known title story to several that have appeared exclusively on his Patreon. Buckell is comfortable writing at different lengths - from short-shorts to his excellent novels - and space stories are a sweet spot. These explore the solar system to deep interstellar space and range from near to far future. All are at least likable and most quite good.