A good short story is a hard thing to achieve. A good science fiction short story is nigh on a miracle, given that the genre benefits from world building and explanations of the ‘otherness’ presented. And so, while not all of the fourteen tales here – curated by Jonathan Strahan, editor of many excellent collections – quite hit the mark for me, this is an excellent collection of stories that are never less than interesting.

And also difficult to review, as most short story collections are!

The whole thing starts with some very strong entries. Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance felt like a slight tale, and yet managed to turn a simple set up into a nicely satisfying journey. Extracurricular Activities was probably one of my favourites from the collection, largely because of the excellent characterisation of Jedao – and then, of course, his mother (not even appearing directly) and the gift of goose fat that impacts the tale more than you’d think!

Yoon Ha Lee is one of several big names here – most of the authors, in fact. I was perhaps most excited by the T Kingfisher appearance, especially with a rarer (it seems) sci-fi offering. Metal Like Blood in the Dark still has strong fairy tale vibes, but expertly woven with sci-fi themes. And then there are offerings from the likes of Arkady Martine, Aliette de Boddard, Anne Leckie, Becky Chambers, and more.

It’s common for me to find short stories – well, just too short. While all are well-written, a few felt frustratingly abstract – excellent ideas, but I really wanted them in longer form to really click with them. Belladonna Nights, for example, sort of left me feeling I was missing chunks.

On the flip side of that, A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime also feels like you’re being thrown into the middle of a much bigger universe, but by taking the humorous verging on farcical approach, it’s shortness makes it work rather than overstaying its welcome.

There is such a mix here: funny, dark; first, third and even second person narratives (yeah, not a fan of the latter); some wholesome, some cheeky, some – I’ve used dark already, haven’t I?; tales based on themes as old as religion, or as new as entirely alien species. If you like sci-fi, there is almost certainly something here to appeal, and while that also means there’s probably something that doesn’t quite appeal, the ratio seems very positive! Definitely worth dipping into.

Space Opera is the sub genre that pulled me into the greater science fiction pantheon. It always promised a sweeping narrative that jumped across the galaxy, luring you in with interpersonal drama paired with sparkling, or sometimes, barely held-together starships. Its call always has been, and always will be intoxicating to me. My biggest issue is that sometimes, I feel they can be overly long and favor worldbuilding so much that the rest of the picture suffers as a whole. Now, this is not endemic to the genre, but I’ve been burned quite a few times in this arena. But luckily Jonathan Strahan has just the solution – short stories. New Adventures in Space Opera is an eclectic showing of many authors and their various approaches to Space Opera.

I was a little skeptical at first. How would anyone pack the scope, the grandeur of space opera into the neat little package that is the short story? Well, folks, my skepticism proved to be baseless; the stories collected here rocked all my worlds. As much as I want to talk about every single one of them, it would exhaust you even more than it would me. I’d be quite energized myself to be honest. So I want to highlight 4 stories that really stood out to me as capturing both the feel of space opera in its grandiosity while showcasing the short story form.

All The Colours You Thought Were Kings by Arkady Martine is impressive from the get-go. It features an empire, nanotechnology, and political intrigue all wrapped up in a few pages. Martine has been a favorite author of mine since A Memory Called Empire, and seeing her flex her writing muscles is always a joy. And where she excels the most is situating the reader in a time and place with ease. You dive right into an imperial ceremony where the clone of the empress is preparing for a coup through a dueling rite of passage. The scope of the empire is on full display as the magnitude of the display is described intricately. Tension pulls the sentences taut as you dive deeper into the story. It’s also brutal in its brevity. The ending is one for the ages.

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime, by Charlie Jane Anders, was an absolute riot. The story is the right kind of insane absurdity in the face of absolute consuming horror that I crave. It’s a heist story where the main protagonists are caught between a hedonistic pleasure planet and an all-consuming fleshy presence that aims to assimilate all. It’s goofy fun and the characters are over the top in the best way possible. It felt very much like Anders had a lot of fun writing it, too as it had some incredibly great lines in the dialogue that had me laughing to myself. But underneath the fun were some good themes about figuring out who you were and finding the right people to help you on your journey. Definitely not my normal serious fare, but a real winner in my book (and this collection).

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck caught me off guard in all the ways I want to be when reading short, focused fiction. It’s the story of a janitor aboard a living ship as they go about their day-to-day. Before she knows it, she’s been informed that the ship will be salvaged for meat because she has grown too large for her shell. But the janitor and the mechanic aim to keep her alive and find her a new home. This is a beautiful story that really captures the mundanity and exploitation of invisible labor. The character’s relationship with the ship is wonderfully presented both in small interactions and through short summaries of a TV show she is watching. Tidbeck nails it by showing the “episodes” out of order, mixing up the plot and highlighting the non-linearity of people’s lives. These episodes are juxtaposed against the janitor’s hopes of traveling amongst the stars while being relegated to taking out the trash after she is whisked away from her backwater home. It’s an excellent piece that really gets at the heart of what media can do both on paper and for our lives. It should never be a blueprint for how we see ourselves, but it can help lead the way as we take our meanings from it.

Immersion by Aliette De Bodard is an incredible piece of fiction that uses its science fiction elements to tell a story about culture, identity, empire, and belonging. It’s the kind of short story that is really hard to describe to someone else without entering into a monologue that no one can escape from. De Bodard plays with perspective shifts from paragraph to paragraph, adding layers to the story and themes. It’s a little confusing at first, but starts to really sink in and deliver a real punch at the end. Her writing is fierce and methodical, cutting to the heart of the issues she wants to explore. Not a single word feels wasted, and it makes the whole experience fulfilling. While I am sympathetic to the themes she wrangles with, her presentation makes them so much more tangible and reveals things in a way that reading textbooks and news about it can’t really exhibit. I know the story is over ten years old, but it really was the highlight of the collection for me.

If you are looking for a collection that showcases space opera without having to invest all your energy into a single story – this is it. New Adventures in Space Opera was exactly the kind of jolt I needed in this space.

Rating: New Adventures in Space Opera – A Rollicking Good Time
-Alex


An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.

Space is so wide and endless. This is why stories set there can go wherever they like, or so I like to think. In New Adventures in Space Opera editor Jonathan Strahan brings together fifteen stunning stories by fifteen brilliant authors, thereby completely redefining the possibilities of space for me. Thanks to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I will have to admit that, while I consider my Sci-Fi reading quite broad, I had never fully considered how "Space Opera" might differ, as a sub-genre. as such, I found Jonathan Strahan's introduction very insightful. There he argues that, in short space opera is a 'romantic adventure set in space and told on a grand scale'. What "romantic" here means is, I believe, up to the author but what I found was true in each of the stories in the collection was that they contained a deep yearning for something. Sometimes another person, sometimes a way of life, sometimes a place. Adventures abound, however, in this collection, and each does reach an impressive scale within the limits of a short story. Another interesting element of the introduction is how Strahan tracks the development of this sub-genre, how it took on the galactic-empire framework in the '50s, but then built upon this and began to become more diverse and actively critical of imperialism and colonialism in the decades that followed. The diversity of the stories included in New Adventures also supports this and in almost all you can find the traces of this deconstructing of empire and its influences, as well as LGBTQIA elements. Besides that, however, there is also the sheer inventiveness which blew me away. Some stories in this collection are irreverent, in a "Guardians of the Galaxy" way, while others are almost mythical, some never touch down on a planet while others hop between moons and worlds like there's no tomorrow. I can honestly say that this edition has made me a Space Opera-convert.

'Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance' by Tobias S. Buckell is a delightful start, about a robot, a stowaway, and the question of what makes us us. 'Extracurricular Activities' by Yoon Ha Lee is a heist story, with surprises and twists and insights into the oddities of cultures and sexualities. 'All the Colours You Thought Were Kings' by Arkady Martine, whose inclusion alongside T. Kingfisher and Lavie Tidhar first attracted me to the collection, is also stunning and ends in a way that had me on the edge of my seat. It is about empire, love, treason, and all things in between. 'Belladonna Nights' by Alastair Reynolds is a surprisingly tragic tale about endless travels through space, memory, and communion. 'Metal Like Blood in the Dark' by T. Kingfisher was a very surprising story to me, almost a fairy tale about a robot brother and sister who find themselves alone in space. 'A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime' by Charlie Jane Anders, meanwhile, is utterly delightful as well as gross as well as sweet. It surprised me from the first page, until I found myself oddly touched by the end. 'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard is potentially my favourite story from the entire collection. It is a stark tale about identity, colonialism, and technology which made my heart ache. 'Morrigan in the Sunglare' by Seth Dickinson suffered a little from coming directly after 'Immersion', but its discussion of war and comradeship was also strong. 'The Old Dispensation' by Lavie Tidhar was mind-expanding, depicting a galactic empire grounded in Jewish theology and story telling. This one also had me on the edge of my seat as it explored faith and identity. 'A Good Heretic' by Becky Chambers is a very touching story about who you truly are, the potential pressure of traditions, and daring to be one's self. 'A Voyage to Queensthroat' by Anya Johanna DeNiro made me a fan of this author, because it was not only a delightful mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, but also very inventive in its structure. 'The Justified' by Ann Leckie was another favourite, combining the divine with bloody vengeance and Egyptian mythology! 'Planetstuck' by Sam J. Miller focuses on a sex worker in a universe that is truly endless, full of star gates, except to where our main character truly wants to go. It is an intriguing, warm, and heart-breaking story about not being able to go home. 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck is an excellent closer to this collection, focusing on a space ship that is an office building that is also a sentient life form.

Usually my go-to caveat with short story collections is that not every story will be a hit and that one should expect this, going in. For New Adventures, however, I have to say that I enjoyed each story. Naturally, some did affect me a little more than others. As I said, 'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard was heartbreaking and will remain with me for quite a while. Arkady Martin'es 'All the Colours You Thought Were Kings' was gorgeously descriptive and made me determined to reread A Memory Called Empire ASAP and then get onto the second. Karin Tidbeck's 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' and Anya Johanan DeNiro's 'A Voyage to Queensthroat' were also very intriguing from their structure, the way the authors played with genre and format, alongside crafting beautiful stories. 'Morrigan in the Sunglare' by Seth Dickinson and 'A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime' by Charlie Jane Anders, while not entirely my cup of tea, were still excellent reads that made me curious to read more by both. Overall, I think New Adventures is a perfect example of a well-curated collection, because it made me want to explore even further, find more stories that fall under Space Opera, and give each of these authors money for more of their works.

New Adventures in Space Opera is a delightful collection in which I took something away from each story. While some stuck with me more than others, each served to more fully fill in my idea of what Space Opera can be. The possibilities are endless in space!

Having enjoyed the The New Space Opera, co-edited with the late great Gardner Dozois, I was thrilled to read this newest installment in the series. I don't read as much SF these days as I used to when I was a teenager, but character-oriented Space Opera is my favourite subgenre. I love short story anthologies, as I find they're great for reading slumps - they provide a change of pace, near-instant satisfaction, and are a wonderful way to discover new-to-you authors! And they are perfect for that perennial Mood Reader problem of not being sure what you want to read next 😉

Like every anthology, there were some stories that didn't work well for me but overall this was an very enjoyable reading experience.

Of the eight stories I loved, five were written by authors who were completely new to me (and all were so fabulous that I would love to read a whole novel about that world) and I can't wait to check out more of their work!

Total stories: 15
Ratings breakdown:
5 ⭐ 6
4 ⭐ 2
3 ⭐ 6
2 ⭐ 1
1 ⭐ 0

The standout stories for me were:

4. Belladonna Nights
Alastair Reynolds 5 ⭐
A meeting of memories.

5. Metal Like Blood in the Dark
T. Kingfisher 5 ⭐
Two AIs learn how to survive, the hard way.

6. A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime
Charlie Jane Anders 5 ⭐
Goofy galactic hijinks. Perhaps takes a little inspiration from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

7. Immersion
Aliette de Bodard 5 ⭐
Technology and the consequences of cultural reductivism and appropriation.

10. A Good Heretic
Becky Chambers 4 ⭐
An alien hosting technology is imperfect and raises ethical questions.

12. The Justified
Ann Leckie 5 ⭐
An Ancient Egypt-inspired world rife with godly intrigue. The little banner standards were adorable!

13. Planetstruck
Sam J. Miller 4 ⭐
A planet-hopper gets a chance to return to their long-lost home, but is it worth the cost?

14. The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir
Karen Tidbeck 5 ⭐
HERMIT CRAB SPACE SHIPS!!! A lowly engineer learns to be Captain of her own Destiny.

Hoping for another installment to this unofficial series in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the eARC and chance to review

An excellent collection of new, shorter science fiction stories. Drawn from a wide range of authors -- some of who were well-known to me, others who were totally new to me -- this collection does a fantastic job of showing how much scope "space opera" has. It also makes it very clear that the (sub-)genre is alive and well, and in very good hands. Definitely a must-read for fans of short SF and also space opera in general.

This is an excellent collection with some great writers. There was one I particularly liked at the beginning that had action and mystery, and one with a character I'd grown to love who didn't realize she was going through the same cycle again and again. There were families and betrayals and grand schemes. i can't always define space opera, but I like to t because it brings so much emotion. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Although I’m a huge space opera fan, my reaction to this collection matched my response to the genre as a whole - those stories I enjoyed I absolutely adored, and those I disliked I found nearly intolerable. I wasn’t surprised by my reactions to authors I’d read before (Becky Chambers and Arkady Martine's selections were true highlights for me) - but I shan’t name names for my lower-ranking stories. I found some new authors whose work I’d love to explore further, which is my favourite part of a good anthology - using it as a jumping off point to exploring new (to me) authors' work. Of these, Anya Johanna DeNiro 's A Voyage to Queensthroat was one of my favourite tales in the entire anthology - I could quite happily read an entire series set in this universe.

The Collection Overall:
New Adventures is, in my opinion, an unusually strong collection of short stories. I found I really liked the way that this collection was balanced and organized--there wasn't really that collection-typical inclusion of something very long and literary and boring by an acclaimed author that can't be ignored. Instead, each story was refreshing and entertaining and did a decently good job of highlighting the new era of space opera this collection was centered on. I especially enjoyed the balance of voices, giving a good mix of serious and epic tones versus more comedic and "low-brow" narrators.

My only complaint is that a Few too many of these stories consisted of the same generic introductory premise (usually a Queen, usually named after some sort of flower or nature, usually with an elaborate court of Space Rituals...) that did not quite distinguish themselves. I think one or two of these could have been weeded and replaced with something that could expand on the themes of the collection in a more unique way.

Individual Story Reviews:
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance
⭐⭐⭐⭐
It took me several tries to get into this story, but once I finally it was wonderful. My favorite concept for machine intelligence is the SOMA question. This story brought such an interesting and character-full twist to that dilemma.

Extracurricular Activities
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love a good fast-talking improbably-indestructible special ops with a certain je ne sais quoi. And this did not fail to deliver! Despite a pretty simple premise and mystery, it was thoroughly entertaining all the way through on the merits of its very charming cast.

All The Colors You Thought Were Kings
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This piece has some of the best tension I've ever read, and I love how it builds and breaks and rebuilds again. The complexity of these characters' relationships are truly impressive for such a short story. I only wish the glimpses of the greater picture had been a *tad* bit clearer, for the stakes felt a little flat.

Belladonna Nights
⭐⭐⭐
Hm. I liked the tone and concept of this piece, but it felt quite empty. I didn't connect with the characters or their grief in any meaningful way, which made their situation quite… uneventful. That said, the ending was compelling in its quietness—good for Gentians.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I’m quite fond of the fairy tale voice of this story. I like when sci-fi, especially mecha sci-fi or similarly big and metal and math-y sci-fi, puts on the trimmings of a more magical genre. I did, however, think the opera of it all was missing. Just a bit too quiet and hidden to really feel genre appropriate.

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Now this is a space opera, and a fun one. I have a great fondness for slapdash and silly worlds, where the world building is mostly based on what would be hilarious. I think this story did a great job of combining that with genuinely sympathetic and interesting characters. It was the perfect length and pace, too.

Immersion
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really loved this story a lot, despite finding the pacing a little clunky and the writing a touch too forthright. I think this is one of the most successful examples of capturing the Imperial part of the space opera and its effect on the characters. I would love to see this expanded.

Morrigan in the Sunflare
DNF
I don't like Seth Dickinson. I find his writing to be particularly pretentious and overwrought, and that his choice in main characters always ends in him sticking his nose into places he doesn't belong. I'm not wasting any more of my time on him.

Old Dispensation
⭐
I found this world dense and annoying, in the sense that it approaches an almost techno-babble attitude to the politics and zealotry at work here. It was difficult to work through and not truly a text that I found necessary, at this political moment, to spend much time on at all.

A Good Heretic
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This world was fairly limited, but I loved to experience it through this character's eyes. In contrast to the last story, the blasphemy Mas faces was clear, despite the alien world. Her inner conflict feels grounded and relatable, making Mas herself quite a sympathetic character.

A Voyage to Queensthroat
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was a spectacular world-building job. The scope of the empire and the weight of history were so well crafted, despite never leaving a town too small for a name. I really loved these characters and the beliefs they carried.

The Justified
⭐⭐⭐
This one started out a bit underwhelming as this collection has a Lot of space operas with a very similar voice and premise, but I really liked the way the story developed. I think I would have liked this better earlier in the collection, when I was less burnt out on this type of opera.

Planetstuck
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oh, lovely. This was a masterclass in short story world-building—plucky and entertaining, but full enough that it felt like the plot reached far beyond just this snippet. I loved the characters and the simplicity at the heart of the conflict. Really, really excellent.

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have always thought that peaceful relationships with living ships were a bit unrealistic, so I loved that aspect of this story. I also really enjoyed the connections to the space exploration TV show and how it shaped Saga’s opinions and decisions about her ship. It was an interesting, quiet space opera.

As all anthologies there are stories that resonate with you more than others.
Belladona Nights was one of my favorites, it was a sad story and at the same time very profound.
The first time that I read Kingfisher was with Metal Like Blood in the Dark and it wasn't my favorite.
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance was so interesting! Love it!

Over all, I like this anthology because of its different kind of styles. It helped me reinforce my opinions on some of these authors and discover new one.

Note: I received a free unpublished proof of this book, for a limited time, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

Well, as someone who runs a Hugo Awards space, I had to request this one, as most of the contributors are former Hugo nominees and winners. Yes, I realize that the legitimacy of the Hugo Awards has come into question over the last few years with regards to who is getting shortlisted and winning, due to what happened at Chengdu and the chance that the bad actors on the 2023 organizing team did similar things in previous years that we didn’t hear about. That said, I am of the opinion, however controversial, that anyone whose work is popular enough to be read by enough speculative fiction fans and nominated for such a thing is probably a somewhat good writer.

(Generally speaking. Obviously when there is a cheating scandal/voting bloc sort of deal, like in the mid-2010s, which leads to nominations being manufactured by people explicitly asking an organized group to nominate their work, that doesn’t mean the same thing. Same for “Finalist A” who stuffed the 2024 ballot box, whoever they are.)

I’m reviewing this one story-by-story because it’s an anthology.

Introduction: From the New Space Opera to Here… by Jonathan Strahan—This isn’t a story, but it’s an awfully good introduction. Strahan, thirteen-time nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor (Short Form), has edited numerous speculative anthologies and really, really knows his science fiction history. This introduction provides a thorough explanation of what, exactly, “space opera” is as a genre, which acts as both a useful primer for the uninitiated and a pool of good recommendations and further pathways to go down for the seasoned fan.

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. Buckell—I’d never read any of Buckell’s work before this one, but suffice to say it’s a very strong start to the anthology. I am of the opinion that the first work in a short story collection, like the first song on an album, really needs to punch you in the face and drag you in. It can’t be too long, it can’t be too slow-burning and complicated, it can’t drag you into the most complex worldbuilding that can be stuffed into a 20-page story, because the average person is reading one of these books front-to-back and you need to pace it somehow. This story succeeds in that goal. It’s the “Crucify” at the beginning of “Little Earthquakes” by Tori Amos of this whole thing. The only minor note I need to make is that I don’t think it is actually related to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig, though I have not read that so I can’t be certain. This isn’t a caveat or a strike against it; I just think that fans of that novel who are expecting this to be a one-to-one tribute or parody won’t find it here. As a delightfully quippy pop-culture-reference title, I think it fits the story well. This story can also be found in Buckell’s Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories, his 2023 collection which was nominated for a 2024 Locus Award, and Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies, a 2017 anthology. The story itself got 3rd place for Best Short Story in the 2018 Locus Awards, and Buckell has won the World Fantasy Award for a separate collection alongside his Hugo and Nebula nominations, all for different works.

“Extracurricular Activities” by Yoon Ha Lee—This story makes a lot more sense if you’ve read Ninefox Gambit, which explains Lee’s multi-Hugo and Nebula-nominated Hexarchate world in full and introduces the character of Shuos Jedao. That said, I don’t think that you need to have read that book in order to understand the plot of this story. Unlike some other anthology stories I’ve read which make no sense unless you are familiar with the author’s pre-existing universe, I think this story can be read and comprehended as a standalone. This one didn’t personally grab my interest that much, but that is largely because original short stories tend to capture my attention more, which isn’t a value judgment and doesn’t influence my opinion of whether it is a good story overall. Suffice to say it’s very good and if you liked this one, you’ll probably enjoy Ninefox Gambit and the sequels, though I haven’t read the sequels yet so I can’t say much about them other than that they are set in the same world and presumably have the same characters/style.

“All the Colours You Thought Were Kings” by Arkady Martine—Three-time Hugo nominee Arkady Martine (best-known for A Memory Called Empire, 2020 Best Novel winner and its sequel, A Desolation Called Peace, 2022 Best Novel winner, both of which were also nominated for Nebula and Clarke Awards) has returned with another breathtaking space yarn about politics, rebellion, and empire. If you, like me, gobbled up the 2010–2015 gamut of young adult dystopians, even the ones like The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau or Pawn by Aimee Carter that never really took off, you’ll love this. It’s like The Hunger Games or Divergent but more lyrical. It was originally published in “Shimmer,” a magazine that unfortunately ended its run in 2018.

“Belladonna Nights” by Alastair Reynolds—It’s not a good anthology until there’s a story that makes me cry. Or so I tell myself. I can’t explain why this story made me cry, as that would essentially be explaining the whole plot. It’s atmospheric, evocative, and overall very good, and I see why two of Reynolds’ other short fiction endeavours were nominated for the Hugo for Best Novella. It’s the kind of thing I like to read every so often when I need to gaze into the void, not unlike the song “Stolen Season” by S. J. Tucker or the fantastic YA short story “The Flicker, The Fingers, The Beat, The Sigh” by April Genevieve Tucholke. If any filkers are out there—it’s very Ose. Like, textbook Ose. I vote that this one gets a Sad Space Song written about it next. Given that Reynolds is highly acclaimed, well-known, and has been nominated for more things than I can count, I am naively holding out hope for this Sad Space Song adaptation. This story was originally printed in Weight of Words, an anthology based on the art of Dave McKean, and I found out from reading that book’s page on Fantastic Fiction that it takes place in the world of Reynolds’ other book House of Suns. So now there are two more things added to the infinite TBR.

“Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher—This story won the 2021 Hugo for Best Short Story after it was originally published in “Uncanny,” and I’m glad I finally got around to reading it after intending to do so for so long. I think it’s a good story and works as one of those solid cornerstones that holds an anthology together in-between the more envelope-pushing or complicated selections. Frankly, though, I don’t really see why they keep giving T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon Hugo nominations. It’s not that her work isn’t good, but it is the sort of thing I read when I’ve had my fill of that nasty, anfractuous squid-beast called Literature that makes me question life decisions I made at the age of 8 and would rather stuff my face into the verbal equivalent of a nice blueberry pie. Again, not a bad thing; it just so exemplifies its niche of cozy fantasy that I don’t think it really represents the key tenets of speculative fiction the way that I think award-winners should. This isn’t to say there are no deeper messages, challenging idea, or scary moments, but stylistically-speaking it feels like a dark ride with well-worn animatronics next to Hersheypark’s Sidewinder; one of those musicals like “Shrek” or “Frozen” that high schools put on because conservative parents might object to “Chicago” or “Hair”. But at the end of the day, those complaints have more to do with the fan viewpoints that lead to Kingfisher’s work being “safe enough” for awards in lieu of something more challenging, not her work itself. I love the precious, metal-eating, near-cannibalistic robots in this story, and I think you will too.

“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders—I’ll admit my only familiarity with prolific winner of Hugos and, like, 5 other things Charlie Jane Anders before this was All the Birds in the Sky, a delightfully quirky book that somehow takes what is effectively “39 Clues for adults, but with more magic stuff” and turns it into a genuinely emotional story. Hence I wasn’t disappointed with this selection, which effectively utilizes the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” formula in a way that doesn’t feel overly derivative. It’s fun, uplifting, heartfelt, and has the general feel of an Odyssey of the Mind skit written by a bunch of drunk uni students with their heads in the gutter. Like Kingfisher’s work, I think some people lean towards it safeness and coziness rather than its more challenging ideas, but I again see this as a criticism of fans and not the author. This one also started in Cosmic Powers and I now want to read the rest of that anthology too.

“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard—This story won the 2013 Nebula Award and 2013 Locus Award for Best Short Story, alongside numerous other nominations, and it lives up to the honors. A futuristic tale about culture, colonialism, identity, and how we perceive others, it is as uncomfortable as it needs to be while nevertheless defiantly hopeful. Originally published in “Clarkesworld” magazine in 2012, it remains relevant over a decade later and is definitely worth a read. I haven’t read Aliette de Bodard’s other work yet, but this story has solidified my desire to read it.

“Morrigan in the Sunglare” by Seth Dickinson—While I’ve heard of Dickinson’s work before, including his Masquerade series, the books of which have been nominated for multiple awards, I’d never actually read any of his stories before. This one didn’t stand out to me as much as the others, if only because it had an unfair disadvantage in not playing on some specific themes that other stories in the collection utilized. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Dickinson’s use of character to explore themes around love, loyalty, and the morality of war and killing, and it’s a solid “middle of the book” story, which is where some anthologies start to lose steam. This story began its life as another “Clarkesworld” publication in 2014. I should really get on the “Clarkesworld” bandwagon now, if only because I absolutely adore their list of story themes that they don’t want people to submit.

“The Old Dispensation” by Lavie Tidhar—Having recently finished Tidhar’s wonderful 2023 novel The Circumference of the World, I was excited for this one. Tidhar’s impressive record, boasting a World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and British Science Fiction Association Award, demonstrates his work’s appeal to a wide audience even though he isn’t a household name or Hugo favorite in the US. This story refers heavily to Jewish texts, religion, and mythology, and while I was able to understand some of the references based on my cursory reading on the religion, I am not Jewish, nor have I studied the religion seriously, so there are no doubt a lot of ideas, references, and nuances that I missed here. From my limited perspective, I enjoyed the vivid pictures painted by Tidhar’s storytelling and I think he presents some interesting ideas about divisive ideologies. No doubt this one will be much talked-about, if it hasn’t already since being published on Tor in 2017. I think it’s worth a read.

“A Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers—I liked the creatures in this one a lot, especially the main species that I pictured as some odd combination of guinea pigs and spider monkeys. I also liked the idea of talking cuttlefish-like creatures going into space and getting around by riding in little carts. Ultimately, though, this dystopian story’s message about thinking differently and finding community with others who understand you is heartwarming, uplifting, and comforting to me as someone who sometimes has trouble understanding other people. I especially liked the implication that thinking differently doesn’t mean that you’re overly individualistic and dislike other people or the community, just that you may need to build community in other ways and places. My familiarity with Chambers’ style from her multi-award-nominated novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate piqued my interest in this one, but I wasn’t fully sold on it until a few pages in. It reads a bit like a typical teen dystopia in the beginning but is ultimately a lot more rewarding. Originally published in Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, it has pointed me to yet another anthology to read at some point. Based on the description of that anthology, I believe it takes place in Chambers’ Wayfarers Universe, as a “new Wayfarers story” is one of the main selling points of the book.

“A Voyage to Queensthroat” by Anya Johanna DeNiro—I’d never heard of DeNiro before this story, but her writing style—reminiscent of T. Kingfisher in its simplicity that belies a great deal of heart—makes me want to read more of her work. This book reads a bit more like fantasy than space opera in that there are not as many flashy spaceships and laser guns as in some of the other stories, but don’t let that deter you. It’s still a great short story about living the life you choose for yourself and making your own decisions in a repressive society. Interestingly, this is the only story in the book that was originally published in “Strange Horizons”. With a bit of searching, I found that she was on the 2021 Otherwise Award honor list for City of a Thousand Feelings, and I predict that her work will grow more popular in coming years.

“The Justified” by Ann Leckie—I was a little bit confused by this one at first, but after getting into it a bit and realizing it was inspired by Egyptian mythology, I really liked it. It’s not connected to Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, for which she is more well-known and has been nominated for many awards, but I think it will be of interest to readers of that series because it’s a vivid, fast-paced story taking place in space. If you like the mythology angle, it was originally published in The Mythic Dream, an anthology of mythology-inspired stories.

“Planetstuck” by Sam J. Miller—A bittersweet story about family, loss, politics, exile, and waterslides. Wry, clever, laugh-out-loud funny, and searingly heartbreaking at the same time. Miller’s another well-known author I’m not personally very familiar with, but this story made me enjoy his style. While the events of this story are fortunately not relatable to me, the way he writes characters makes you feel compassion for them, so while I can’t truly understand how they would feel in this situation they are highly sympathetic. This one was published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in 2023 so is somewhat more recent than some of the others, but I don’t think it will lose its relevance anytime soon.

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck—This lovely story about found family, bad TV, traveling between worlds, and—wait, that would be a spoiler!—was the perfect finishing touch to this anthology. Fun, bittersweet, cozy, and ultimately hopeful, I loved the concept and the execution all the way through. The Norse mythology reference in the title didn’t hurt either, though that’s not particularly relevant to the story, which takes place in a futuristic world. This story itself, originally published on Tor, was actually nominated for a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award in 2020, receiving 3rd place. Suffice to say the main reason I loved this book had to do with my zodiac sign, and I think people should read it.

Overall, I liked this anthology a lot; there was a good mix of tone, theme, setting, character, and atmosphere. It leans a bit on the “heartwarming” side for people who are really into more serious military space opera or space horror, and I wouldn’t call any of these stories “hard science fiction” since they don’t focus on the technology very much, but it’s exactly what it says on the tin with regards to the “space opera” genre designation. I think anybody who likes space opera for what it is will enjoy this anthology.

There is almost literally a galaxy of stars in this collection, wow, and SO MANY banger stories!! It's clear to me by now that I love space opera, so these were all right up my alley. Some were more to my taste than others, which is the case with any multi-author collection, but overall it's a stunning collection that really showcases everything space opera can be!

I particularly want to highlight Strahan's introduction, which does a really brilliant job of wrangling the slippery definition of what space opera is, has been, and could be—and defining the basic criteria he used to determine what stories to include in a space opera collection that is meant to explore the edges of the boundaries. "First, a space opera should primarily take place in space, either on ship or station, and only occasionally touchdown on a planetary surface. Second, it should take place in a populated universe. When the protagonist of the story ventures forth, they must encounter someone. And, finally, the stakes should be high...it should feel like the world might, emotionally or physically, be about to end." Clear! Straightforward! Much room for variation!

From this basic definition, Strahan goes on to elaborate how space opera evolved over time, the changing of trends, the moving away from colonialism and manifest destiny toward more diversity and a hard look at the impacts of empire. This sets the stage so beautifully for all the wonders that follow, stories that question the limits of humanity and consciousness, the intricacies of morality and resistance, the universality of emotion and compassion. Specific highlights for me were "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance" by Tobias S. Buckell, "Belladonna Nights" by Alastair Reynolds, "Metal Like Blood in the Dark" by T. Kingfisher, "The Old Dispensation" by Lavie Tidhar, "A Good Heretic" by Becky Chambers, "A Voyage to Queensthroat" by Anya Johanna DeNiro, and "The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir" by Karin Tidbeck. Almost every story was catnip to me, but these in particular stood out as stunners!

This was a fascinating journey of a collection, I can't wait to get a physical copy and have it on my shelf.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this. I just think sci-fi short stories aren’t for me. I love a good sci-fi novel, but I’m too scatterbrained for this many tales. It’s a shame because there are a lot of great authors in there. I just wasn’t up for the task.

I'm a fan of space opera, so I was very excited to see this new collection of short stories from some of the top names in the genre today. This very modern iteration of space opera uses the genre to explore themes of identity and morality in very different approaches. And it's very queer and sex positive. Two attributes one might not immediately associate with the genre.

Unsurprisingly, the standout stories in the anthology belong to Kingfisher and Chambers. (They are two of my favorite authors, so I'm probably letting my bias show here.) Kingfisher's "Metal Like Blood in the Dark" reads like a fairy tale. Think "Hansel and Gretel" with gundams. "A Good Heretic" from Chambers is set within her Wayfarers universe, but requires no previous knowledge of the novels.

This collection also introduced me to several authors I have not yet had an opportunity to read, but who are on my TBR. I loved the sex romp space adventure of "A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime" and the quieter introspection of "Immersion".

Not all of the stories were quite to my taste, but that is the beauty of an anthology like this one. Some stories will resonate more with some readers than with others.

This review will be posted to Goodreads on September 7, 2024 and to Instagram (@goodquietkitty) on September 8, 2024.

Space opera is one of my favorite genres, but it’s also known for long, sometimes meandering works that can feel like a slog to get through. I loved these quick hits, and I’m impressed by the caliber of author.

Like any anthology, there were some highs and lows here, but what was particularly impressive is that even the lows were good; they just weren’t really for me. But the writing was great across the board, some stories just resonated with me more than others.

A handful of these stories were not new to me, but it was fun to reencounter them anyway.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tachyon Publications!

Are a good deal of these stories reprints? Yes, AND they're some grade A space opera short stories. Even if you come across this and you've already read it in another place, be willing to look at it again - surprise rereads are still a treat to me. Highly recommended collection.

Anyone who has been reading my reviews for any length of time knows that I love space opera. This sub-genre of science fiction is what caused me to fall in love with the field in the first place, all those years ago. Space Opera has been around for a long time, and the term was at one point a derogatory one. That has changed, and Space Opera itself has evolved over time. I'm not going to go through all of that here. You can get a good summary of the evolution of Space Opera from editor Jonathan Strahan's Introduction. Strahan knows a thing or two about Space
Opera, having edited The New Space Opera and The New Space Opera 2 with Gardner Dozois in 2007 and 2009, respectively. This volume is a reprint anthology, and indeed I've read of few of these stories in the past. I liked them then, and I still like them now.

My favorite story is "Belladonna Nights", by Alastair Reynolds. The story takes place millions of years in the future in the universe of Reynolds' novel HOUSE OF SUNS. In the story, lines of shatterlings make circuits of the galaxy over a span of several hundred thousand years, then gather at a reunion location (agree to by all the lines of shatterlings) to insert their memories into a shared repository of knowledge. Shaula has returned for one of the reunions, looking forward to seeing her friend Campion who seems to be avoiding her. Campion starts leaving Belladonna
flowers at her doorstep, which turns out to be a reference of a protocol to abandon one reunion site and selecting another. This is a powerful story of loss and grief, and the ending leaves the reader as sad and Shaula is.

"Metal Like Blood in the Dark", T. Kingfisher's Hugo Award winning short story, is the story of two man-made machines who grow and learn, much like children do. They are eventually captured by a being who is out for revenge against other members of his race for something that it perceives as a slight. Whether it really is a slight is not the point here. The story really is about self-discovery, personal growth, treachery, and loyalty. Its Hugo Award was well deserved.

Two stories that I read previously to the publication of this book and I found terrific were Karin Tidbeck's "The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir" and Sam J. Miller's "Planetstuck". Tidbeck gives us a tale of ship that isn't a ship. Rather, it's a ship that is powered, for lack of a better term, by a living creature inside a building. The creature continues to grow, and must find a new building to occupy before it can fly again. It's a really touching story about an alien and the people that come to care for it. "Planetstuck" is the story of Aran who travels the galaxy trading sex for information (and sometimes just as often looking for a quick tumble with random men) which he sells to interested parties. Travel across the galaxy is via portals that are open between systems, and there is an ideological war brewing between people who travel via the portals - offworlders - and those who think it's better to be isolated on a single planet. It's a terrific story that in many ways mirrors what's going on in our country today.

Another couple of terrific stories take place in universes that we as readers are likely familiar with. Becky Chambers gives us "A Good Heretic", a story set within The Wayfarers universe. The story follows Mas (a character from THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET) as she comes of age and goes out among the stars to start life as a Navigator. But something is wrong with her Pairing, and due to her upbringing feels as if she is a heretic and out of place where she is. It's a tale of uncertainty and identity, and whether it's okay to be who you really are. Another is Yoon Ha Lee's "Extracurricular Activities", which takes place in the Hexarchate universe, that of NINEFOX GAMBIT and its sequels. It's a relatively straightforward adventure story involving one of the main characters in the novels, Shuos Jedao. It's a story that proves that a narrative does not have to be complex to be a good, fun story.

Speaking of fun and silly stories, Charlie Jane Anders gives us "A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime". It's a story that's hard to describe, what with all the zaniness going on, but any story where Hall and Oates are invoked as gods (as in "thank Hall and Oates"), and there's a spaceship named the Spicy Meatball, is at the very least very fun.

I could go on describing each story, but this would end up being a long review. In my opinion, there isn't a bad story here, and in fact I feel that most of them are quite good. And why not, given the array of authors who have stories in the book. Arkady Martine, Tobias Buckell, Lavie Tidhar, Aliette de Bodard, Ann Leckie, Seth Dickinson, and Anya Johanna DeNiro are all either household names in the field or should be.

Jonathan Strahan is a well known and major editor in the field, and it is clear by looking at the sources of these stories that he has done his research when making selections and that he knows where to go look. There are stories here from Tor.com, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Clarkesworld, among other places. The Chambers story was originally published in an anthology called Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers: The Definitive Anthology of Space Opera, an anthology that has been sitting on my TBR for years that I haven't gotten around
to yet. And yes, I agree that to call itself a definitive anthology of Space Opera is a bit much. I mean, I have several anthologies of Space Opera here on my shelves, many of which could lay claim to that description. The point is, however, that Strahan is a fan of Space Opera and knows the field well. He searched far and wide to find some of the best Space Opera stories that have been published since The New Space Opera 2. This volume is a great addition to the library of Space Opera.

Wonderful stories with a fresh perspective on space operas. As someone who reads space opera frequently it takes a truely unique story to surprise me, and more than one story did that. My only disappointment was the Becky Chambers story was a previously published story, and that was one of the big draws for me to request this eARC.




***I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. ***

I will begin this a review with a plea to editors, publishers, and marketers: *please* include a list of authors when you publish an anthology. This one isn’t completely opaque, because they’re all listed on the cover, but you have to look at it enlarged and some of them are upside down, making it a bit of a pain. So to spare others this annoyance, the authors in order of appearance are:

* Tobias S. Buckell
* Yoon Ha Lee
* Arkady Martine
* Alistair Reynolds
* T. Kingfisher
* Charlie Jane Anders
* Aliette de Bodard
* Seth Dickinson
* Lavie Tidhar
* Becky Chambers
* Anya Johanna DeNiro
* Ann Leckie
* Sam J. Miller
* Karin Tidbeck

As for the anthology itself: this was great. I was familiar with some of the authors, and not others, as is usually the case. I got to visit some favorite universes and hopefully discover new ones. I read a few of the stories a few months ago as a palette cleanser between other books, and then when writing this review discovered (to my delight) that the T. Kingfisher book I read a few weeks ago was *not* in fact my first experience of her work; I’d read her story in this anthology, and loved it.

None of these stories were bad; there was nothing I had to force my way through. But to highlight my favorites:

* “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders. I don’t even know what to make of this story; it was a hilarious absurdist story about a heist & various other assorted hijinks, pleasure taken too far, and a solar-system-sized testicle and the cult that worships it.

* “Morrigan in the Sunglare” by Seth Dickinson. A few pilots are on a ship falling into a star, with insufficient power to pull out of it and no hope of rescue. This story is a reflection on dehumanization during war; both that which the pilots did to their enemies, and the price doing so inflicted on they themselves.

* “A Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers. Those who have read *The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet* (if you haven’t, go read it, it’s fantastic) might remember the navigator aboard the Wayfarer was a member of a species that had a symbiotic relationship with a virus that allowed them to navigate space-time. Somewhat unusually for Chambers, she revisits that species here.

* “Planetstuck” by Sam J. Miller. An interstellar sex worker has been cut off from his home planet, and his brother, after an isolationist sect destroyed all the FTL gates on the planet. He copes with the homesickness, the loneliness, and the simultaneously tantalizing and distressing possibility that there might still be a way to reach home.

* “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck. The engineers of a starship (which is basically a few crew quarters strapped to the back of a skyscraper-sized transdimensional hermit crab) work to help their ship, which is outgrowing its shell, find a new one.

* “Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher. My favorite of the anthology. An old man on a remote planet creates two AIs, and declares them to be brother and sister. But when the old man has to go for medical treatment and leaves them alone, they must struggle along on their own. When they encounter a third AI, they have to work out concepts like “lies” and “untrustworthy” and make decisions they were never prepared for.

Impressive line-up of authors. From the introduction: “Robert Silverberg identified two fundamental themes in science fiction: the journey in time and the journey in space. Space opera, he suggested, was a sub-genre of the journey in space, one that takes romantic adventure, sets it in space, and tells it on a grand scale.“

Great introduction! Usually I skim those, because I tend to find them boring and want to get on with it. This was good though. And, hey, based on one of the definitions in it, Dune is not space opera. Not set in space (much), for starters… Hm. We do have a galactic-empire scenario though. I still haven’t read any Larry Niven and I also haven‘t read Ender’s Game. Or Consider Phlebas. I do need to re-read Downbelow Station. I‘ll be reading #16 of Foreigner soon… My mileage with Miles Vorkosigan varies. Not sure if I want to tackle Revelation Space. Leviathan Wakes, YES! I love it! Ancillary Justice! All Systems Red! So good! No, Some Desperate Glory didn‘t do it for me… Yes, it won the HUGO… 🤷
Ok, I am excited and ready for these short stories. Here we go:

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. Buckell, 🚀🚀🚀½
An odd bot story. Devious little plan. Nicely out-maneuvered the bad guy!
Should I re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Don‘t really remember it.

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee, 🚀🚀🚀🚀
Hugo Awards 2018 Novelette Nominee
I‘ve read this in 2018. My review is here. I quite liked it back then. So far I haven‘t picked up Ninefox Gambit.

All the Colors You Thought Were Kings by Arkady Martine, 🚀🚀🚀½
Fighting an empire from within? Clones, succession, revolution, nanites.
Her novel A Memory Called Empire is very good.

Belladonna Nights by Alastair Reynolds, 🚀🚀🚀
Humans in a very far future, circling the galaxy. Space, big ideas. Perception, mind and memory, what constitutes reality? Hm.
My favourites of his so far were The Prefect and Blue Remembered Earth.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher, 🚀🚀🚀🚀½
2021 HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY
An old mean creates two sentient machines, Brother and Sister. They are guileless and joyful. Events drive them into space and Sister learns something. Nice!
Thornhedge just won the HUGO, check it out, it‘s very good…

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders, 💣
Over the top heist story. A couple of not-quite humans have to steal something. I’m sure it makes fun of a lot of typical SF tropes and it’s really clever, but it was just too silly for me and not my thing. I skimmed.

Immersion by Aliette de Bodard, 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
2012 NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY
2013 LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY
I have read one novel and a few short stories from her Xuya universe. I like the world, more or less, but struggle with the writing. It is not easily accessible. I am unsure if this is a Xuya story as well. It‘s set on space station that has won it‘s independence from the galactic empire, influenced by Vietnamese culture. There is Quy, working at her family‘s restaurant and a women caught in her galactic avatar. It‘s about cultural identity and self and it‘s very good.

Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickinson, 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 with a 🍒 on top.
Wow, this one gave me goose bumps. War between Earth and her colonies. Fighter pilots. Killing, how to deal. Motivation. Loyalties. Brutal. Very, very good. So much happening in those few pages. Loved it.
There is also a MORRIGAN IN SHADOW, also published in Clarkesworld Magazine. It‘s novella length and I got that particular issue of Clarkesworld for it. I have to read what happens to the MC, Laporte, next. And if I like that novella just as much, I have to take a serious look at everything else by the author. So far I have read The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Recommended!

The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar, 🐙🐙🐙
“A space opera adventure set in a universe controlled and run by Jewish religious authorities. An enforcer is sent to a distant planet where he discovers an android who changes his mind about what is right and wrong.“
Parallel, linear timelines. The fate of the entire universe and the chosen people, a ruler, an investigator, Jewish tradition, angels… tentacles? Pretty odd. I don’t think I got the meaning of that ending.
The only full length novel I read by the author was Unholy Land. Not a total success, but interesting.

A Good Heretic by Becky Chambers, 🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
“…a short story by Becky Chambers that is part of the Wayfarers universe, taking place before the events of the main series. […] The story focuses on Mas, a Sianat …“
(text from the Wayfarers Wiki, be careful what you look at, there will be spoilers)
This was lovely. Becky Chambers is comfort food. Her writing makes me happy. Despite that I still have some unread backlog. So many books, so little time.
Apparently Mas appears in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I don‘t remember her, but it‘s been a few years since I read the first book in the Wayfarers series.

A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro, 🚀🚀🚀½
A trans woman in a broken apart Empire that has become unfriendly to her. Can she save herself and someone else? The pacing is a little uneven. I wonder if the bad guy has orange hair? I don‘t think I have ever read anything by DeNiro before.

The Justified by Ann Leckie, 🚀🚀🚀
A planet with a totalitarian ruler. Het is one of her enforcers. She was dissatisfied and left, but now she has been recalled. I liked Het and the end of the story, but otherwise did not care much for this.
Regardless, the Imperial Radch series is one of my favourites.

Planetstuck by Sam J. Miller, 🚀🚀🚀🚀½
A fairly crazy portal-hopping story. The homeworld of the MC has gone off the grid and is unreachable. Or maybe not? And what price would he have to pay? Good one.
This is from the author of Blackfish City. I liked that one. Different & imaginative.

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck, 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐
“Life on the transdimensional ship Skidbladnir is a strange one. The new janitor, Saga, finds herself in the company of an officious steward-bird, a surly and mysterious engineer, and the shadowy Captain.“
At first I thought that this is a very weird story, making no sense. Television, videotapes, telephones and electric lights on a space ship. But it can happen, if you fly through space in an office building merged onto an alien hermit crab thing. I fell in love with Skidbladnir and the story made me happy. What a crazy idea.

There is an „About the Contributors“ at the end. I was very pleased to read that Becky Chambers is working on a new standalone novel.

Bottomline, excellent anthology. Only one story I truly didn‘t like, some great authors, a lot of variety in writing styles, a lot of food for thought, fun and good feelings.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

With names like Becky Chambers, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee and Ann Leckie this was one anthology that I would not pass by. I'm glad I didn't as it had some great stories in it. I've ordered my thoughts per story and rating.

5 stars

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee
This story I immediately loved. Jedao is such a great character to follow. He is an undercover agent, an assassin of sorts. Which is all very cool and all but when your mom sends you things, you better listen. I loved the crew he ends up with. I loved the interactions that were between them. I loved his mom even if she was never on the page. I would love to read more with this character!

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck
Everything about this idea drew me in from the start. The idea of crab ships, of them growing out of their 'shell', using them as a means of transportation I found so great to follow. Would love to read more about these crabships.

4.5 stars

The Good Heretic by Becky Chambers
It has some interesting concepts. I am once again struck with how easy Chambers manages to write new species and their cultures in a way that makes it feel like I have a good grasp on it. It is never confusing without taking away any depth in the species.

4 stars

Belladona Nights by Alastair Reynolds
A really interesting concept of family lines and reunions. Of living long. But I felt like I missed a piece here and there. I would certainly love to read more about these lines and reunions quite a few years in the past.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher
This honestly read like a fairytale which honesty does not come as a surprise as it is by Kingfisher.

A Temporary Embarrasment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders
With a title like that one could imagine this was going to be a bit ridiculous. It was funny, it was ridiculous, but at times it went a bit too far and it stopped being funny. But for the most part it was a good read.

3,5 stars

Zen & The Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. Buckell
This story is an interesting idea of a person who traded his human body for an AI body. No free will but he lives forever and gets to travel everywhere. There is some question about if he still has humanity and morality in this one.

Immersion by Aliette de Bodard
This one is partially written in second person point of view. But also in third person point of view. I don't think the switching in such a short story did it any favors. It was well written otherwise but it was only a snippet of a story.

The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar
Interesting story that was very religious feeling. Not in a way that religion was excused but in this case the religion was more of a dictatureship. The religion seems to be based mostly on judaism.

Planetstuck by Sam J. Miller
Interesting idea. It was easy to read but there wasn't enough there to care about the characters.

3 stars

All the Colors You Thought Were Kings by Arkady Martine
This story is written in a second person point of view, so in you. I am not a fan of that so it took me quite a while to get into it. It does kind of work. Unfortunately I didn't care enough about the characters.

A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Honestly a longer story would do much more justice to this story. It has an interesting set of characters with female trans mc's.

The Justified by Ann Leckie
Again, an interesting idea. But I found the violence a bit too much for me with how how little depth we truly got. It felt meaningless to me.

2 stars

Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickenson
I found this one very confusing and I didn't actually care about anything that happened.