Review: Action-packed and high-concept stories that pack a lot of punch. Definitely recommended.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 3, 2011
(Cross-posted from the Adarna SF book blog)This is a solid, well-written, and intelligent science fiction anthology. I'm giving the stories themselves four stars out of five. My main gripe is with the minor editing errors, but I'll get to that later in this review.The stories move fast and pack a lot of punch. This collection contains both action-packed and high-concept stories. It has thrilling race and chase sequences while it explores classic sci-fi themes such as artificial intelligence, cloning, and first contact.It's difficult to pick my favourites, but "The Breath of Heaven" has to be one of them. It's about artificial intelligences gone "rogue" on the human space colonists. It turns several tropes upside down, and it's told from the POV of a very sympathetic AI character. The ambiguity in the artificial intelligences' directives leads them in the search for the ideal human operator, and consequently puts them in conflict with the imperfect colonists they're supposed to be answering to.I'm also fond of "Dead Men Don't Cry" and "Backlash". The former is a whodunnit murder investigation in the context of Earth vs. Colonies politics, and the latter is an action-packed time travel story with some interesting characters. "Monument" is a poignant reflection on first contact; while it's a bit of a downer, I think it's the most likely scenario. "A New Kind of Sunrise" is a set on a planet where human colonists have lost technology, and have become nomadic tribes who must cope with the extreme climate that comes with a brutally hot sun. The author has an upcoming novel set in this world, and I'd love to read it when it comes out.Fulda's writing is so tight that I think that you should only read this when you're alert. The world-building and character histories she covers in one paragraph would require an entire page from other authors. This is evident in the first few pages of "Pastry Run." So if you sample the book and the details fly over your head: get some sleep, then read it again. Trust me.I received my review copy from Smashwords, and there could be improvements to the editing. I noted about 13 errors. It included some typos, line breaks within sentences, and dialogue that clumped together in a paragraph which made it difficult to figure out who the speaker was. Maybe I'm just picky, but I found these distracting enough to dock off one star. It's possible Amazon copy does not share these, or that these errors have already been resolved, but I can only provide my rating from the review copy I received. Once the errors are fixed, consider this a four star review.This is a solid sci-fi book and it's definitely recommended. I'd just wait until a more polished version comes out before purchasing it at Smashwords.Note: A free review copy was provided by the author.