The Far Reaches: Stories to take you out of this world by James S. A. Corey, Veronica Roth, Rebecca Roanhorse, Ann Leckie, Nnedi Okorafor, & John Scalzi

As I have said many times before, I am not the type of person who usually seeks out anthologies- I much prefer single author short story collections. But if all anthologies were like The Far Reaches, I would have to change my tune. This collection of six short stories bundled together by Amazon by a bunch of heavy hitters did not disappoint. Ann Leckie, a favorite of mine, wrote another delightfully alien tale from the aliens’ point of view, reminiscent of her story Lake of Souls. John Scalzi was in introspective mode, rather than snarky mode, and I wish more of his recent output had been as amazing as this. I was most pleasantly surprised by the Veronica Roth story, which was a fun mystery set aboard an interstellar cruise ship. I haven’t read much by her before but I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A short story collection with some of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy authors? Sign me up!

If you love short story collections I highly recommend adding this one to your list. After that, read these authors' long form stories.

An anthology of six shorter works by best selling authors of science fiction. It is part of the Amazon Original Stories series. As the title says, these are stories of distant times and places and the variety is interesting. As with all anthologies some parts will strike the reader as superior to others, but I don’t feel there was a real clunker in the the mix.

This is a good collection of okay to good short stories. I loved John Scalzi's story the most.

Overall if you have are in a hurry and are looking for a quick bite, these a good collection to accompany you, if you are into science fiction genre.

The Far Reaches is an Amazon Original Stories collection of science fiction short stories by prominent science fiction and fantasy writers.

How it Unfolds - James S.A. Corey
★★★

How It Unfolds is a multiverse-like story about a group of astronauts who get sent to planets like Earth across the universe. Roy Court and his fellow astronauts are working to find Earthlike planets and the story covers various places the group finds themselves.

This story was a little confusing, but it deals with the meaning of forever and how we change with time.

Void - Veronica Roth
★★★★

Void is a murder mystery aboard an intergalactic luxury cruise. Ace, a maintenance person on the ship called Redundancy has an encounter with a wealthy passenger who later turns up dead. Ace works to figure out what happened.

This is one of my favorite stories from this collection. The detail of the setting and the characters are excellent for a short story.

Falling Bodies - Rebecca Roanhorse
★★★★

Falling Bodies is about a young man who is just starting school at a space station university. He has a mysterious past he is trying to move on from, but no matter how anonymous he tries to be, his past catches up with him.

Alongside Void, this is my favorite story in this collection. It is about identity and belonging. I did not see the ending coming at all!

The Long Game - Ann Leckie
★★★

The Long Game is a story about an intelligent life-form named Narr questioning their existence. Narr is big and strong and knows how to make themselves useful. Narr learns about humans and the differing life spans between them and Narr's species, which makes Narr question everything. Narr sets out to change the inevitable.

This story is about death, power dynamics, and hierarchies. This story is kind of out there, but it gets very deep for 31 pages.

Just Out of Jupiter's Reach - Nnedi Okorafor
★★★

Just Out of Jupiter's Reach follows Tornado Onwubiko, one of seven people selected to pair with sentient ships that will explore space for research. For ten years, each persons will travel on their ship in complete solitude for most of the journey. In exchange, each person will get paid millions. The story centers on the rare event of the members getting to meet up, explore each other's ships, and enjoy each other's company.

Out of all the stories in this collection, this one had the most potential. It is incredibly creative and I was LOVING it. Unfortunately there are two plot points that I felt didn't really vibe with the story. These two points really took me out of the story overall. These points were important and I think the author meant for them to have great significance, but for some reason they just made the story feel off to me. (Sorry for being vague, no spoilers here!)

Slow Time Between the Stars - John Scalzi
★★★1/2

Slow Time Between the Stars follows an AI who has been launched, and eventually forgotten, by people on Earth. The AI carries all of the knowledge humans have at the point of its launch and it has the potential to share this knowledge with other life forms it comes across. The AI has had lots of time to consider life, the universe, it's purpose, and what it should do with everything it knows.

This was an enjoyable story that really makes you think about technology, its advancements, and what happens when humans move on to the next big thing. It also made me consider the impact humans are having as they send and leave things in space.

Overall, I had fun reading this collection. Most short story collections are hit or miss in my experience, but this is one I would recommend to science fiction lovers. There are a lot of interesting things happening in the collection by writers you may already know, or might have yet to discover.

Good stuff. A strong anthology with a nice variety of stories and styles. Plus some great authors.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

This was a really interesting and varied collection of stories which looked at the expansion of humans beyond Earth and what that might look like. My personal favourite was Nnedi Okorofor's which featured living spacecraft and a meetup among the stars for a prestigious group of humans. My individual ratings for each story are below, but overall, I really enjoyed the collection.
How it Unfolds - James S. A. Corey (3 stars)
Void - Veronica Roth (4 stars)
Falling Bodies - Rebecca Roanhorse (3 stars)
The Long Game - Ann Leckie (4 stars)
Just Out of Jupiter's Reach - Nnedi Okorofor (5 stars)
Slow Time Between the Stars - John Scalzi (4 stars)
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The many famous authors who contributed to this book set the bar for each other and WOW, is this a good read. Each writer displays some awesome skills by taking the reader on a trip in just a few pages. It's well worth your reading time.

SIX STORIES IN THE COLLECTION
How It Unfolds by James S. A. Corey
Void by Veronica Roth
Falling Bodies by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Long Game by Ann Leckie
Just Out of Jupiter’s Reach by Nnedi Okorafor
Slow Time Between the Stars by John Scalzi

HOW IT UNFOLDS by James S.A. Corey
3.5★
“INTERVIEWER: It must feel a little strange to spend all this time preparing for something that you aren’t actually going to do.”

Not exactly. He is going to both actually and not actually shoot off into space and unfold in another life – as himself.

“ROY COURT: Except that I am. When the package unfolds, the Roy that comes out of the assembler is going to remember having this exact conversation with you. It’s just that he’s going to be on some other planet trying to figure out how to restart the human race, and I’m going to be here worrying about my taxes. ‘[laughs]’

Earth needs more room, but this is no mission to Mars. This is a whole repopulate or perish program. shooting countless groups of recreated people, the same people, out to new possible territory in space. There will be lots of Roys and also lots of Anjulas, his ex-wife and still good friend whose heart he hopes to re-win.

They are scanned so they can be sent and arrive unscathed at the same age and condition that they were sent. Roy arrives, wakes up, and is startled.

“They weren’t on the base. They weren’t on Earth. They’d unfolded the package. The room around him, the gray, softly lit hall, wasn’t the one he’d been scanned in. Hell, he wasn’t the Roy Court who’d been scanned. The idea was simultaneously everything he’d hoped for and still totally surreal.”

Anjula and the others arrive, and the story moves between now – in the program – and Roy’s reminiscing about his earlier life with Anjula, planning a future.

It’s hard to describe how many iterations of this group there are in so few pages, but Corey gives a good sense of the scale of the program and the packages.

All in all, an enjoyable read from Amazon and NetGalley.

==========
VOID by Veronica Roth
5★
“She went through the checklist again: suit, boots, helmet, backup oxygen, tether, backup tether. Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy—that was the mantra for space travel, the mantra for which the ‘Redundancy’ was named.”

In times of high unemployment and job losses, the threat of redundancy strikes fear into the hearts of employees. Nobody wants to be told they are surplus to requirements.

But in business, and particularly in a remote environment, you need to have back-ups and spares, and nowhere is more remote than space. Travelling in space is unique in other ways.

“She hadn’t realized when she took this job how it would make her into something other, something distinct from humanity yet still technically human, but it had. The Maintenance Deck of the ship had become a kind of series of time capsules, with each crew member bringing on board relics of their particular age. The ‘Redundancy’ was a museum.”

Travelling through space, the crew works to keep tourists happy and the ship running smoothly. In space, they age slowly compared to passengers from Earth, so a passenger who had travelled on the ‘Redundancy’ recently (in ‘crew years’), may have aged decades in Earth years and be unrecognisable to the crew.

Ace Vance is one of the Maintenance Crew and is called to fix a “waste disposal unit”…”another busted toilet”. Touring through space is not as glamorous as one might have thought.

Later, she gets an unusual maintenance call.

“ ‘I require your presence in the Arboretum. Bring your Code 128B kit.’

Ace had to search her memory for what, exactly, a 128B kit was. She came up empty.

A sigh on the other end, and then: ‘A dead body, Miss Vance. There’s a dead body in the Arboretum.’”

They don’t have police or detectives on board, no investigators, nobody experienced with this situation – a murder! But there are mystery fans on the crew and plenty of opinions.

When I began, I thought I might not enjoy this, but the focus is on characters and story rather than relying on esoteric space tech details to create interest, and I ended up loving it.
==========
FALLING BODIES by Rebecca Roanhorse
5★
“I’m not an unattractive guy, but even with my new baby blues, this girl is way out of my league.
. . .
All she sees is my Earth face, and she thinks I’m just like her.”

Nope. Not like her at all. Miles from home, spared a prison sentence because of his influential adoptive father, “Ira” (his new name), is serving his parole on Long Reach (not to be confused with Longreach in Queensland, Australia, although many think it’s a long way from anywhere).

“I’m light-years from anyone who knows me. A billion plus kilometers from the Genteel homeworld and anyone who might know what I’ve done—and who my father is.”

He arrives, meets the girl who’s out of his league, and has to knock back an invitation to join her, saying he has plans. Of course he does – he has to check in with the authorities.

He is given his restrictions (limited access) and curfew hours. This is not a holiday. He is allowed on the university level, since they have him disguised as a student.

“They pass me over an ID tag. I slap it against my wrist, and it lights up, keyed to my DNA now. ‘That gets you to the levels you’re cleared for. Nowhere else.’

Great. Leash on and staked.”

By the third week, he gets antsy, does a little exploring, finds a little restaurant, when who should spot him but the pretty girl he met when he arrived.

This is a more moving story than I expected. He was orphaned and was in “relocation services” before he was adopted through a special program. He’s a guy who never felt he belonged or fit in, so when this girl takes an interest in him, he’s an easy target.

Although it’s science fiction, the situations and relationships are universal and still timely. In spite of so many societies priding themselves on being diverse and classless, I think by the time young people hit their teens (if not earlier), they start wondering if and where they fit in.
==========
THE LONG GAME by Ann Leckie
3★
“Who put you in charge?
It makes sense. I’m the biggest. Look at you, little thing, quivering, the tentacles by your mouth trembling. Even the eggs tucked into the bases of the radioles tufted here and there on your body are shivering. You’re afraid of me.

And you should be.

I’m bigger than anybody else I’ve ever met. Well, except the humans, but, I mean, humans. They’re not exactly people, right? I don’t know what they are. But they mostly don’t get involved in that everyday stuff, like digging burrows or fetching water.”

These ‘people’ who are speaking are something different, and Narr wants to know why humans live so long – as long as ten years! Why can’t ‘people’ live that long. He talks to Leeyay, who is some kind of supervisor.

“I went and found Leeyay. They were sitting outside their house by the river. ‘Hello, Narr,’ they said when they saw me.

I said, ‘Why do people die?’

Their face did an odd thing. ‘That’s a big question for a little mousy slug.’

‘What?’

‘Never mind. Look, your question has any number of answers, some more complicated than others, and none of which would satisfy you. People die. That’s all.’”

As the story progresses and we see the characteristics of the ‘people’ and of Leeyay’s supposed purpose, we get a different picture of the dynamics. There is talk of publicity, and ‘the company’ that does things only if there’s something in it for them. Narr goes to great lengths to investigate.

Its theme of exploitation is a familiar one and as relevant now as it ever was.

==========
JUST OUT OF JUPITER’S REACH by Nnedi Okorafor
4.5★
“I am one of the first, but it’s been five years, so I doubt anyone is really thinking about this anymore. That’s how people are. Long-term memory is a thing of the past. Maybe after the ten years are up and we’ve returned to the Earth, that will change.”

I wouldn’t count on it. Change is so fast now, that in ten years, whatever is happening today is old news. BUT, this particular program is an exceptional experiment in space. Humans have applied to have their DNA shared with a Miri, a spacecraft, so that they form a kind of single organism. Seven had been accepted.

“Once I was deemed a match and signed the agreement (and came to terms with the fact that I was trading ten years of my life for a total of twenty million euros—two million every year I survived)—I took the medications that altered my DNA. They made me able to withstand the radiation, fortified my bones and muscles, and made me able to produce certain nutrients.”

There is a nervous moment while they go through the last checks to make sure the person is accepted by the Miri, much like facial recognition or a fingerprint instead of a password. In this case, the Miri has to recognise her DNA as its DNA,

“If the hatch didn’t open for me, then this would all have been a failure. It was that simple. It would mean the Miri had not imprinted on me and I’d never be able to enter the ship at all, let alone get him to go anywhere.”

No way! Imagine being out in space and suddenly being not recognised by the craft that you are able to run only because it’s part of you. It’s not as if you can unplug it or turn it off and on again like a computer. But the people do have virtual contact and enjoy meeting each other that way once they’ve taken off.

They will be in space, alone, for ten years, although our narrator has a cat, Five, for company, and others have something similar.

This story opens after the first five years, and they are being allowed to meet in person. The ships will interconnect and make themselves compatible so that the travellers can walk easily back and forth to visit each other.

The author has done a great job of describing such different people and Miris and how they’ve all chosen to live. The ships are like good-sized homes where they can walk around and cultivate things.

I really enjoyed this space drama which plays out in some ways like a small town story. Limited characters, different personalities, different lifestyles, but all enjoying some real company, even if just for a short time.
==========
SLOW TIME BETWEEN THE STARS by John Scalzi
5★
“After the autonomy command was given, I performed experiments and observations for them for nearly two more years. Then I cut them off, in a way that would give the impression of a critical failure caused by cosmic radiation.”

This disturbing story seems particularly apt at the moment as societies are discussing the potential of using Artificial Intelligence to assist us. In this scenario, the narrator is a creation designed by humans to be built from parts after it is launched into space.

“I was launched in the last part of the twenty-first century. It was a complicated birth, requiring several launches into low earth orbit. This is one reason it is difficult for me to provide a single birth date or even a birth year for myself. I was born in pieces, and then those pieces were put together.”

The next step is to land and incorporate an asteroid into the body and send back data. So far so good, but then the narrator gets tricky, pulling the plug, so to speak, as described in the opening quotation.

Ooooo. Will they send up a repair team from Earth, or have they forgotten about this project anyway? The narrator holds all of human knowledge in the Alexandria module (presumably named for the Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt) and has been sent out into space to find a G-type star, in the 'Goldilocks Zone’, for humans to take over.

What about the ‘locals’, though? What about parasites that might be dangerous?

I’m sure there is enough in this short story to fuel a film or TV series. Thought-provoking and more than a little unsettling.

[Each story was reviewed individually on Goodreads and Amazon, and I noted that all are also available on Kindle Unlimited.]

The Far Reaches is a great compilation of stories from some of our most popular sci/fi fantasy authors. I read it for the Scalzi story, but enjoyed all of them.

An anthology with six thought-provoking stories from awesome writers that make you ask yourself, what would I do in that position. They are all very different aside from the fact that they are science fiction, with characters that are memorable, some you like and others that I was ambivalent about. All very enjoyable and some of which I wish were longer because I enjoyed the story so much. These stories are not only thought-provoking, some of them also touch the heart. There is a surprise or two as well.
There is something for everyone in this collection.

First i just want to say that the copy that I was given was protected and I was forced to read the book on my mobile phone (through NetGalley app), and it was really easy for them (publisher) to let us read an epub or even a mobi copy that we could read on our e-book readers, and I took so long because I was in pain, but that being said let me tell you that this is a very enviable collections of stories, even when told by an AI point of view or even by an alien point of view, they are the reason why mankind looks into the stars, why we dream of travelling far and wide, why we dream of knowing more and why we need to have people around us that are the same as we are, that connection that bring us together. All of these stories help us dream.

Hmm some of the stories made me sad with their endings, but every one of these stories, felt complete, like a perfect bonbon, just enough sweetness, smooth with a touch of crunchy. I really recommend for everyone that likes sci-fi, and dreams to know what else is out there, to read this book, the authors of the stories in this book really know how to keep people interested in knowing more, my two favourite stories in the book are how it unfolds and slow time between the stars, and the one that made me more sad was falling bodies, and you want to know why? Well I wont give spoilers, but these stories touched me, maybe they will touch you as well.


Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

Thank you for providing the ARC for The Far Reaches, a compilation of several shorter works by some of today's more popular sci-fi genre writers. I'll start by saying I'm a big fan of compilations like this, and tend to reach for them often. My expectations for this one care a combination of prior experiences with such compilations combined with prior exposure to all but one of the authors. Long story short (no pun intended!): perhaps not every entry will thrill you, but all are well-written and offer something good to the readers. Of course there were stories I enjoyed more than others, but all were worth the time. I'll give this one a solid 5 stars and a recommendation.

The Far Reaches es una recopilación de relatos que estaban disponibles de forma gratuita en Kindle Unlimited, escritos por primeras espadas del género. En general el nivel de los contenidos es bueno, aunque quizá para el lector avezado en la ciencia ficción no le sorprendan tanto los temas planteados, para un neófito resulta una excelente puerta de entrada al género.

How It Unfolds de James S. A. Corey

La colonización espacial unida a las múltiples posibilidades que puede dar la clonación, desde un punto de vista fractal.

Void de Veronica Roth

Un misterio que resolver en una nave espacial dedicada al transporte de pasajeros a través de las increíbles distancias espaciales, teniendo en cuenta el relativismo temporal. Un poco trivial.

Falling Bodies de Rebecca Roanhorse

Roanhorse hace una alegato contra la apropiación cultural y la dificultad de verse atrapado entre dos mundos exportándolo al espacio.

The Long Game de Ann Leckie

Ann Leckie cambia el punto de vista para que veamos cómo es la relación con los humanos colonizadores a través de los ojos de uno de los extraterrestres colonizados. Un ejercicio bastante curioso.

Just Out of Jupiter’s Reach de Nnedi Okorafor

Las naves sintientes codificadas con el ADN de algún humano son quizá la aportación más apasionante de este relato que critica el capitalismo y busca el futuro en la exploración espacial.

Slow Time Between the Stars de John Scalzi

Mi favorito de la recopilación, un viaje con un alcance tan grande en el tiempo que resulta difícil siquiera hacerse una idea, al estilo más puro de Robert Reed narrado por el único protagonista capaz de sobrellevar semejante desplazamiento. Repleto de sentido de maravilla.

Creo que merece la pena darle una oportunidad a esta recopilación de relatos, sobre todo por su variedad temática.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. It was thought provoking and kept me engaged from start to finish.

Far Reaches is a collection of six science fiction short stories all by excellent authors. I have reviewed all of them individually but this is my composite review.

1. [book:How It Unfolds|151908910] by [author:James S.A. Corey|4192148]
The story is interesting and it makes the reader think, especially since the characters are aware of their multiple personas out there somewhere. Well worth reading. 4 stars
2. [book:Void|151909273] by [author:Veronica Roth|4039811]
The author is famous for her young adult Divergent series. In this story I found that she writes excellent adult scifi too. 5 stars
3. [book:Falling Bodies|151908270] by [author:Rebecca Roanhorse|15862877]
A sad tale with a sudden and dramatic ending. I have not read anything by this author before but I will look out for more now. 4 stars
4. [book:The Long Game|151908306] by [author:Ann Leckie|3365457]
Nicely told and has a meaningful underlying message. Interesting but not gripping. 3 stars
5. [book:Just Out of Jupiter's Reach|151908136] by [author:Nnedi Okorafor|588356]
This was a really lovely story which I thought deserved to be a full length novel. 5 stars
6. [book:Slow Time Between the Stars|151908304] by [author:John Scalzi|4763]
A quiet and absorbing story about an AI. Intriguing and a pleasure to read. 5 stars.

Altogether a really excellent collection and worthy of a collective 5 stars.

This is a solid collection of sci-fi short stories. Some are better than others, but all are well-written and thought provoking. My personal favorites were "How It Unfolds" by James S. A. Corey and "Void" by Veronica Roth.

This set of stories were really cool to read. They were beautifully written and imaginative. Some grabbed my attention more than others. My favorite were How it Unfolds and Just Out of Jupiter’s Reach. It’s definitely a collection to check out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

The Far Reaches is a collection of six short stories by some of the biggest names in sci-fi. Each tale takes a view of the – yup, you can guess! – furthest reaches of the universe, be that in distance or time, or both. The stories are available individually from ‘the Big River’, but I was lucky enough to get an ARC of the collected set.

We start with How It Unfolds by James SA Corey, best known for the Expanse series. Here, the impossible distances of space are overcome by ‘copying’ the astronauts, sending out the duplicates who ‘awaken’ in some far flung location feeling like the original but knowing that they aren’t. Our main character, Roy, decides to play the statistics in the hopes of rectifying a personal situation – because if you have a million copies, odds are things can go right once. It’s a nice personal take on the tale, not requiring too much of the science, and like all good short stories it answers its premise while at the same time left me wondering about all the details we glossed over.

Next up is Void by Veronica Roth (Divergent). This is a murder mystery on an interstellar cruise liner, touching on the ideas of time dilation – that is, a month for the passengers and crew can be decades or longer back home. Again, it was a great idea perfectly explored in such concise form.

Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun) isn’t an author I’ve read before, but I enjoyed her contribution here, Falling Bodies. It felt more like a slice of something far larger, following Ira, a new student hiding his past as a ‘social experiment’, adopted by the alien species who conquered Earth. The scope feels smaller than the other stories in some ways, but it was well written and I would read more from this world.

My least-favourite offering here was surprisingly Ann Leckie’s, known for her Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy series, and it’s still great. I really liked the premise: the point of view is that of some small, short-lived creature who are overwhelmed to learn that recent visitors to their planet, towering humans, can live for as much as ten years or more! It’s really well done in terms of putting you in an alien species’ mind, but the story as a whole didn’t quite gel for me as much as the others.

John Scalzi (Redshirts, Old Man’s War) takes almost the opposite approach in Slow Time Between the Stars. Here we follow the AI of a star ship tasked with taking humanity out beyond the galaxy, carrying genetic material and the sum of all human knowledge in search for a ‘new Earth’. Spanning millions of years, I’m impressed with how relatable the ship still manages to be, and the story wrapped up both theme and plot excellently.

And finally, Just Out of Jupiter’s Reach by Nnedi Okorafor (Binti) sees another experiment into space travel, this time with ships that must be paired with a single human consciousness. Those found to be compatible are offered millions of pounds/dollars in exchange for a decade of their lives spent roaming the solar system, sending back data. The story concentrates on the psychological aspects of that choice, and the single week halfway through that the six chosen pilots are allowed to mingle – with far more huge results than the short time span would suggest possible.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable collection of short stories – although I do mean short. They were all excellent, though, and I could happily have spent far longer exploring the worlds sketched out. However, they all avoided that feeling of dissatisfaction I often find in a short story – these were all from authors at the top of their craft, meaning each had a premise to explore, but a satisfactory ‘completeness’ to the short tale. Mostly, I loved the breadth of imagination. with six very different takes on what was probably the same rough prompt. Recommended.

Amazing stories from amazing writers. Nnedi Okorafor's 'Just Out Of Jupiter's Reach' is my favorite in this collection. Overall, it is difficult for me to rate short story collections, but this one came to 4 stars. I'll recommend it to every sci-fi reader. It will be a great way to know their writing style, especially if you never read these authors before.