What a fantastic group of stories! There wasn’t a single one that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve never read Helldivers, but I downloaded it as soon as I was done reading this story. I guess that’s cheating a bit since I’m going into it already knowing what happens to X, but it was intriguing enough that I wanted to know more. Something about Redshift reminded me a lot of Alastair Reynolds, but I can’t put my finger on why exactly. Maybe it was the mention of the bioship. In any case, that story was my favorite out of all of them.

Although all the stories were wildly different, they all had the theme of human nature in common. It’s interesting to see how each author used the idea of it to a different end. This was a fantastic collection and I highly recommend it so fans of SFF!

Huge thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

When I was offered an advance copy of the new science fiction anthology “Shadow Lab,” through Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley, I was a bit hesitant. I’d only heard of one author in the collection, Nicholas Sansbury Smith, and my experiences with similar collections in the past had often been disappointments. However, I agreed to do so and was pleasantly surprised. Smith’s story was the best in the collection, but five of the other six stories were enjoyable or better. Further, the anthology contains tales to please fans of any science fiction subgenre.

“Shadow Lab” comprises seven stories, edited by Brendan Deneen, himself an accomplished science fiction author. I’m not sure what Deneen’s contribution to the anthology was other than lending his name. The book has no introduction, editor’s note, forward, or story description and only a one-paragraph biographical sketch of each author as an afterword. The stories speak for themselves, however.

“Shadow Lab” begins with its best work, the novella-length “The Lost Years” by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. It’s a variant of the stranded astronaut scenario in Andy Weir’s “The Martian,” except here, the main character is abandoned on a post-apocalyptic Earth. The author only provides scattered bits and pieces of backstory because “The Lost Years” is part of the author’s “Hell Divers” series (which I have not read). This story is easier to understand for those familiar with the series.

As “The Lost Years” begins, the remaining survivors of World War III live in a giant ark-like airship named “The Hive.” The crew periodically sends skydivers to the planet’s surface to scavenge needed supplies. The protagonist, a man named X (for Xavier), crash lands on one mission and must find a way to survive until rescue. He must avoid the usual toxic environment and various deadly mutant creatures now inhabiting the Earth’s surface. The story recounts X’s years on the planet, aided eventually by a dog he befriends. Although I would have preferred a more detailed backstory, “The Lost Years” has plenty of action and offers an intriguing look at a futuristic scientific facility X finds and lives in for much of the story.

“Lineage X” by Edward Cho presents a futuristic caste system that governs society. The titular Lineage X is an agency that assigns everyone a one- to four-star rating based on their ancestry and any skeletons in the family closet. Four stars have cushy jobs and all the luxuries society can provide. One and two stars are blue-collar and administrative workers, doomed to a menial existence. The narrator’s wedding is put on hold when his fiancée is reclassified as a one star because of some unspecified transgressions her ancestor committed. The story is far more enjoyable for the detailed picture of the star-rating-governed society than the actual plot. However, the author delivers a terrific surprise ending.

“In Her Eyes” by Rebecca Webb is a story that could have been a “Twilight Zone” episode. A woman buys a pair of spectacles at a secondhand store. She learns that, when she wears them, she relives the experiences of previous owners of the glasses. Eventually, she identifies a bit too closely with one previous owner, an adventurous woman with no inhibitions. “Incarnation” by Marie Hoy-Kenny could also be a “Twilight Zone” episode. In a scenario reminiscent of the movie, “Groundhog Day,” a woman relives the same day over and over, interacting with the same four people. However, their stories are different every time. One time, she and the others were office workers. The next, she’s an executive in charge of the others. Later, they all work in the same bar. Some readers might guess the story’s explanation, but it’s good.

In “Red Ice” by Tom Radford, the titular substance is frozen water mined from the surface of Mars and returned to Earth by a multi-billionaire. He intends to bottle it and sell it to the rich and powerful as the ultimate luxury beverage. Some people believe the red ice is hazardous and are trying to stop it from being offered to the public. A woman named Cerise breaks into the bottling plant to steal a sample. Readers won’t be surprised to learn red ice isn’t the harmless status symbol the entrepreneur claims. However, the ultimate revelation of what red ice does makes for an entertaining finale.

“Redshift” by Nick Herbert has a similar title to the previous story, but it’s an entirely different type of story. The narrator is a young woman who’s an outer space racing junkie, taking part in a cross-galaxy rally through the most dangerous areas of the known universe. When her ship is damaged and becomes inoperable, she and her robot co-pilot go in search of another abandoned spacecraft she can use to survive and finish the race. This story has the least amount of hard science or speculative futuristic elements in the anthology. It’s just a survival adventure, but it’s suspenseful and entertaining.

The only story I didn’t like was the last one in the collection, “Clouds” by Brian Francis Slattery. Alien spaceships land on Earth, and the seemingly benevolent inhabitants offer people the chance to become a different, improved life form. I don’t want to give too much away here, but I also don’t want readers to think this is a variant of the classic “Twilight Zone” episode, “To Serve Man.” It’s just difficult to describe what the aliens are offering in a sentence or two and what happens to the people who take them up on the offer. While I can’t explain the story briefly, I can sum up my reaction: a massive shoulder shrug. I know the author’s point, but it didn’t elicit any response from me.

Anthologies like “Shadow Lab” that don’t offer a common theme to their stories often have works that vary wildly in tone and quality. Each of these seven stories is entirely different from the others, besides sharing the broad classification of science fiction. However, six of them are quality works with a few minor flaws. Any anthology should be proud of an 86% success rate. “Shadow Lab” will entertain science fiction fans and introduce many of them to some talented new writers.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.

The following review was published or updated in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines in November and December 2024:

Booking a full year of reading

Review by Tom Mayer

If only us readers could just spend our days … reading. What would a year look like? Here, the editors of Home for the Holidays present their yearlong list of books, culled from the past 12 months of reading and reviewing. A few of the titles you’ll immediately recognize, and you’ll likely have more than few in your own library. But just in case you missed a title or two, we’re showcasing the whole year’s worth of books that we’ve read and reviewed, month by month.

Except for the first title, the list is simply a list. To find the reviews of many of these titles, visit our newspaper parent, The (Athens) News Courier at enewscourier.com — with a slight caveat. Our newspaper webmasters are currently working overtime to improve our content management system, the foundation of any website, and while many of our archives are now found there, it may be a few weeks before everything is fully re-uploaded — including the most recent editions of Limestone Life and Home for the Holidays. For now, though, enjoy our literary stroll through 2024.

And about that first title: Not every college professor can make statistical analysis approachable, let along interesting to their students and the general population, but Athens State University emeritus professor of psychology Mark Durm is not every college professor. After spending nearly five decades teaching thousands of students, the “ol’ psychology professor” decided that he’d best get around to writing the one book out of his nearly 100 published pieces that’s he always wanted to write. Call it a legacy piece, but what it really is is a “best of” Durm’s peer-reviewed, book reviews, non-peer reviewed and magazine articles from his 47 years in higher education.

The result is “Professional Publications of an Ol’ Psychology Professor” (Dorrance) with full previously published articles ranging from studies on the effects of glasses on a child’s self-esteem to his ever-popular parapsychology pieces, Durm presents his internationally recognized efforts with a twist.

“It’s a different kind of book because it doesn’t talk about the research, it presents the research,” the professor says from his second-career office at Durm Properties in Athens, about a half-mile from where he first presented that research in person. “I’ve spent hours on all of these articles, especially in the peer-reviewed journal articles.”

And so, articles on divorce, sex, religion and other topics now populate the pages of Durm’s most recent book in an effort to both continue his teaching and satisfy what has been a lifelong wonderment.

“You know, most people don’t understand statistics, so it’s all in there,” Durm said. “What I’m trying to do is a more critical approach to ‘just don’t believe everything you’re told.’ … It’s things that were in my life that I wanted to see if they were so, by using a psychological analysis.”

And like any good professor, Durm didn’t do that research on his own — or take all of the credit. Among the co-authors of many of his articles in the book were students — many of who he’s lost touch with, but all of whom who he credits by name in his acknowledgements and for each of who, if they look up their ol’ mentor, he has a signed book ready to hand over. For the rest of us, you can find the book at any online bookseller — just as you can with the remainder of our list, presented by the month in which the book was published, read and reviewed.

JANUARY

Unbound (Blackstone) by Christy Healy NG/F

The Devil’s Daughter by Gordon Greisman NG/ARC

FEBRUARY

Almost Surely Dead (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Amina Akhtar NG

The Chaos Agent (Gray Man 13) (Berkley) by Mark Greaney NG

The Lady in Glass and Other Stories (Ace) by Anne Bishop ARC

A Haunting in the Arctic (Berkley paperback) by C.J. Cooke NG

Ghost Island (Berkley) by Max Seeck

MARCH

Hello, Alabama (Arcadia) by Martha Day Zschock

The Unquiet Bones (Montlake) by Loreth Anne White

I am Rome: A novel of Julius Caesar (Ballantine Books by Santiago PosteguilloMarch 5: Murder Road (Berkley) by Simone St. James

The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry (Holiday House) by Anna Rose Johnson

Ferris (Candlewick) by Kate DiCamillo

After Annie (Random House, Feb. 27) by Anna Quindlen

Crocodile Tears Didn't Cause the Flood (Montag Press) by Bradley Sides The #1 Lawyer (Little, Brown and Company) by James Patterson, Nancy Allen

Lilith (Blackstone) by Eric Rickstad

Life: My Story Through History (Harper One) by Pope Francis

APRIL

Matterhorn (Thomas & Mercer) by Christopher Reich

Friends in Napa (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Sheila Yasmin Marikar

City in Ruins (William Morrow) by Don Winslow

The House on Biscayne Bay (Berkley) by Chanel Cleeton

Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week (Peachtree) by Sarah L. Thomson

For Worse (Blackstone) by L.K. Bowen

A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoini

The Clock Struck Murder (Poisoned Pen Press) by Betty Webb

The Book That Broke the World (Ace) by Mark Lawrence

The Forgetters (Heyday Books) by Greg Sarris

Lost to Dune Road (Thomas & Mercer) by Kara Thomas

Warrior on the Mound (Holiday House/Peachtree) by Sandra Headed

Pictures of Time (Silver Street Media) by David AlexanderBare Knuckle (Blackstone Publishing) by Stayton Bonner

Murder on Demand (Blackstone Publishing) by Al Roker

Home is Where the Bodies Are (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose

MAY

Matterhorn by Christopher Reich

The Hunter's Daughter (Berkley) by Nicola Solvinic

The House That Horror Built (Berkley) by Christina Henry

In our stars (Berkley) by Jack Campbell

Freeset (book 2) (Blackstone) by Sarina Dahlan

Southern Man (William Morrow) by Greg Iles

Camino Ghosts (Doubleday) by John Grisham

JUNE

Specter of Betrayal by Rick DeStefanis

Lake County (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

Serendipity (Dutton) by Becky Chalsen

Shelterwood (Ballantine) by Lisa Wingate

The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra’s Needle (Holiday House) by Dan Gutman

Jackpot (Penguin) by Elysa Friedland

The Helper (Blackstone) by M.M. Dewil

Winter Lost (Ace) by Patricia Briggs

Shadow Heart (Blackstone) by Meg Gardiner

Lake Country (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

The Out-of-Town Lawyer (Blackstone) by Robert Rotten

Love Letter to a Serial Killer (Berkley) by Tasha Coryell

Sentinel Berkley) by Mark Greaney

JULY

Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Modern Olympic Age (Blackstone) by Todd Balf

The Night Ends with Fire (Berkley) by K.X. Song

Echo Road (Montlake) by Melinda Leigh

It’s Elementary (Berkley) by Elise Bryant

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman

Back In Black (Blackstone) edited by Don Bruns

The Recruiter (Blackstone) by Gregg Podolski

AUGUST

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman ARC

Not What She Seems (Thomas & Mercer) by Yasmin Angoe NG

Fatal Intrusion by Jeff Deaver/Isabella Maldonado

Death at Morning House (HARPERTeen) by Maureen Johnson

Fire and Bones (Scribner) by Kathy Reichs

Some Nightmares Are Real (University of Alabama Press) by Kelly Kazoo

The Brothers Kenny (Blackstone) by Adam Mitzner

Blind to Midnight (Blackstone) by Reed Farrel Coleman

The Wayside (Blackstone) by Carolina Wolff

Enemy of the State (Blackstone) by Robert Smartwood

You Will Never Be Me (Berkley) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (W.W. Norton) by Adam Kirsch

We Love the Nightlife (Berkley) by Rachel Koller Croft

Talking To Strangers (Berkley) by Fiona Barton

An Honorable Assassin (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton possible interview see email

Dungeon Crawler Carl (1 of 6 but see next two months) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

SEPTEMBER

Fatal Intrusion (Thomas & Mercer) by Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

When They Last Saw Her (Penguin) by Marcie Rendon

American Ghoul (Blackstone) by Michelle McGill-Vargas

First Do No Harm (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton

A Quiet Life: A Novel (Arcade) by William Cooper and Michael McKinley

One More From the Top (Mariner) by Emily Layden

No Address (Forefront Books) by Ken Abraham.

Tiger’s Tale (Blackstone) by Colleen Houck

An Academy for Liars (Ace) by Alexis Henderson

Rewitched (Berkley) by Lucy Jane Wood

Gaslight (Blackstone) by Sara Shepard and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Counting Miracles (Random House) by Nicholas Sparks

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (Ace) by C.M. Waggoner

The Hitchcock Hotel (Berkley) by Stephanie Wrobel

In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (2 of 6 see next month also) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

OCTOBER

The Hushed (Blackstone) by K.R. Blair NG

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer (Berkley) by Maxie Dara

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (Norton) by WSJ Weekend review editor Adam Kirsch

Framed (Doubleday) by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey

This Cursed House (Penguin) by Del Sandeen

The Puzzle Box (Random House) by Danielle Trussoni

Two Good Men (Blackstone) by S.E. Redfearn

Dark Space (Blackstone) by Rob Hart and Alex Segura

This Cursed House (Berkley’s open submission)by Del Sandeen

Vindicating Trump (Regnery) by Dinesh D’Souza

The Book of Witching (Berkley) by C.J. Cooke

The World Walk (Skyhorse) by Tom Turcich

The Waiting Game by Michael Connelly  ARC, possible interview see email

Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoni

Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (3 of 6, with bonus material) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

Frozen Lives (Blackstone) by Jennifer Graeser Fronbush NG

Vincent, Starry Starry Night (Meteor 17 Books) intro by Don McLean

Paris in Winter: An Illustrated Memoir (PowerHouse Books) by David Coggins

NOVEMBER

The Waiting (Little, Brown) by Michael Connelly

The Teller of Small Fortunes (Penguin) by Julie Long

Shadow Lab (Blackstone) by Brendan Deneen

Trial by Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

Devil Take It (Heresy Press) by Daniel Debs Nossiter

SerVant of Earth (Ace) by Sarah Hawley

All the other me (Blackstone) by Jody Holford

The Perfect Marriage (Blackstone reissue re-edit) by Jenny Rose

DECEMBER

Trial By Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

The Close-Up (Gallery Books) by Pip Drysdale

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Methos

Leviathan (Lividian Trade HC) by Robert McCammon

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Method

Assume Nothing (Thomas & Mercer) by Joshua Corin

One example link:
https://enewscourier.com/2024/11/29/in-review-booking-a-full-year-of-reading/

I honestly really liked this collection. But I also happen to like Sci-fi like this a lot as well and I can see how someone that is more into horror, would have to slog through this.

Personally I thought it ws a great, creepy read.
I like that each story was so different, it gave me a fun mix up between stories and kept me guessing.
If they had been all the same, I don't thinn I'd have enjoyed it, I like being a little off kilter. But kept me reading more.

This had Outer Limits vibes, and that was one of my favorite shows, definitely reccomend this collection if you enjoyed that.

This is a captivating short story collection that delves into the intricacies of human emotion and the darker corners of the psyche. Each tale masterfully intertwines suspense and introspection, showcasing the author's knack for building tension while exploring profound themes such as isolation, regret, and the quest for redemption.

This book offers a mix of fiction stories that, some of them don't always hit the mark. The variety of genre-bending tales, from post-apocalyptic survival to sci-fi relationship drama, each with its unique spin. However, the collection's uneven pacing and varying story quality detract from the overall experience.

Some stories, like Nicholas Sansbury Smith's Hell Divers: The Lost Years, Part I, stand out with vivid world-building, but others feel underdeveloped or fail to fully engage. The anthology is a decent read for fans of speculative fiction, but it lacks the cohesion and impact needed to truly shine. A solid 3-star collection that could benefit from more consistent storytelling throughout

Eerie dark sci fi can be good, but I think you need to truly enjoy that genre to have a lot of fun with this book. If you're someone, like me, who has to be convinced to sit down and absorb it, this was an unfortunate slog - particularly the first story, which just never seemed to end. The vibes of this one are very "Alien" with a bit of "Twilight Zone". I think if you love those franchises, you'll enjoy this!

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Shadow Lab. What a great mix of short stories. I enjoyed most of them. Especially loved the first one and the last one. These short stories are science fiction but also scary good. Great summer read! 3.5 stars