Space Stations

Rating:
Summary: The Stars are the Limit, and this Anthology Reaches them!
Review: After my last exploration into SF anthologies, which left me rather disappointed and jaded, this was balm for the beleaguered reader's soul. A stunning collection of stories about space stations that manages stick to theme, but range widely in variety from the funny, to the chilling, to fascinating and heartwarming. This book has something for every SF reader, and will especially appeal to those "hard" SF readers who are looking for some quality short stories.

Out of the fourteen stories in this collection, I've been trying to pick a favorite, and keep coming up with several-which is, admittedly, a good sign. "Dancers At the Gate" by James Cobb is a wonderfully imaginative story about the technical innovation of a wormhole and a unique solution between two separate cultures to fix it. Also at the top of my list is the anchor piece of this collection, "Station Spaces" by Gregory Benford. The author's unique prose style won't work for everyone, but it certainly creates a space all it's own in marvelous imagery. "The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson" by Timothy Zahn is a delightfully humorous adventure tale of a run-down station's moment of glory. Other stories are nearly as good: Michael Stackpole's "Serpent on the Station" features his Purgatory station universe in an amazingly astute story that deals with faith and alien relations. "First Contact Café" by Irene Radford is a bizarre look at mankind's first dealings with an intergalactic mediator in negotiations. "Countdown" by Russell Davis is a rather short and pointed tale about life and death, and is surprisingly poignant for all its brevity.

Out of the collection I found "Orbital Base Fear" to be one of my least favorite-it just didn't grab my interest. "Black Hole Station" by Jack Williamson was interesting, but a little too pat a tale for me, but the concept was still a good one. I found "The Franchise" by Julie Czerneda to be well told but a bit too long for it's conclusion. But, overall, the quality is strong, the story telling imaginative and fresh and the stories are in keeping with the theme, but sufficiently varied in their approach. I consider this to be an example of a five-star anthology.

Readers who like this collection may also enjoy NEWER YORK edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans, MICROCOSMIC TALES edited by Isaac Asimov and, for a truly unusual themed anthology, check out CARMEN MIRANDA'S GHOST IS HAUNTING SPACE STATION THREE edited by Don Sakers.

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad



Rating:
Summary: A Wide Assortment of Station Stories
Review: Space Stations is an anthology of stories about outposts in the void. It contains fourteen stories written specifically for this volume.

In The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson by Timothy Zahn, the Park Service fights invaders with obsolescence and neglect. In Redundancy by Alan Dean Foster, an AI is smarter than expected. In Dancers of the Gate by James Cobb, two wormhole stations are saved by a shared interest in big band music. In Mikeys by Robert J. Sawyer, the support team stumbles into an artifact. In The Franchise by Julie E. Czerneda, refugees from the Quill menace reopen a lost station.

In Follow the Sky by Pamela Sargent, a ward of the state gets an urge to roam. In Auriga's Streetcar by Jean Rabe, a salvage operator finds evidence of aliens on an abandoned station. In Falling Star by Brendan DuBois, an ex-astronaut returns to his hometown to be met with antipathy. In Countdown by Russell Davis, the station commander has stayed behind while the computer counts down to auto-destruct. In Serpents on the Station by Michael Stackpole, a Catholic priest finds herself among alien hedonists.

In First Contact Cafe by Irene Radford, the station manager encounters a new type of alien from Texas. In Orbital Base Fear by Eric Kotani, the support team warns of a storm, but the primary team tries to land anyway. In Black Hole Station by Jack Williamson, a man searches for his father on an abandoned research station. In Station Spaces by Gregory Benford, the team terraforming Luna merge humans and computers into something different and dangerous.

Although the common theme in these stories is space stations, the authors have approached the subject from many directions. Two of the stories -- Mikeys and Orbital Base Fear -- actually have the same initial scenario, but diverge rapidly thereafter. In Falling Star, the space station is not even evident except in the background.

Not one of these stories is a dud. The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson is filled with subtle humor. Redundancy is a real tear jerker. Mikeys is a winner of an underdog story. Any reader of science fiction will surely find something to like in these tales.

One of the best stories, in my opinion, is Dancers of the Gate, for its high tech ambiance and its offbeat solution to a problem. However, this story has a technical blooper, a geosynchronous station above the planetary north pole. See my guide on Orbits in Science Fiction for the reason why this is not possible.

Highly recommended for anybody who enjoys science fiction tales about living and working in space.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Rating:
Summary: A Wide Assortment of Station Stories
Review: Space Stations is an anthology of stories about outposts in the void. It contains fourteen stories written specifically for this volume.

In The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson by Timothy Zahn, the Park Service fights invaders with obsolescence and neglect. In Redundancy by Alan Dean Foster, an AI is smarter than expected. In Dancers of the Gate by James Cobb, two wormhole stations are saved by a shared interest in big band music. In Mikeys by Robert J. Sawyer, the support team stumbles into an artifact. In The Franchise by Julie E. Czerneda, refugees from the Quill menace reopen a lost station.

In Follow the Sky by Pamela Sargent, a ward of the state gets an urge to roam. In Auriga's Streetcar by Jean Rabe, a salvage operator finds evidence of aliens on an abandoned station. In Falling Star by Brendan DuBois, an ex-astronaut returns to his hometown to be met with antipathy. In Countdown by Russell Davis, the station commander has stayed behind while the computer counts down to auto-destruct. In Serpents on the Station by Michael Stackpole, a Catholic priest finds herself among alien hedonists.

In First Contact Cafe by Irene Radford, the station manager encounters a new type of alien from Texas. In Orbital Base Fear by Eric Kotani, the support team warns of a storm, but the primary team tries to land anyway. In Black Hole Station by Jack Williamson, a man searches for his father on an abandoned research station. In Station Spaces by Gregory Benford, the team terraforming Luna merge humans and computers into something different and dangerous.

Although the common theme in these stories is space stations, the authors have approached the subject from many directions. Two of the stories -- Mikeys and Orbital Base Fear -- actually have the same initial scenario, but diverge rapidly thereafter. In Falling Star, the space station is not even evident except in the background.

Not one of these stories is a dud. The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson is filled with subtle humor. Redundancy is a real tear jerker. Mikeys is a winner of an underdog story. Any reader of science fiction will surely find something to like in these tales.

One of the best stories, in my opinion, is Dancers of the Gate, for its high tech ambiance and its offbeat solution to a problem. However, this story has a technical blooper, a geosynchronous station above the planetary north pole. See my guide on Orbits in Science Fiction for the reason why this is not possible.

Highly recommended for anybody who enjoys science fiction tales about living and working in space.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Rating:
Summary: Excellent anthology
Review: The timing of this fourteen collection anthology is perfect with the President's recent proposal to return to the moon and manned missions to Mars along with the exploratory bots already on the Red Planet. The tales are linked by some form of a station not on earth, but not all built by humans. Each tale is fun to read more so because of what is happening on Mars. The authors are a who's who from B to Z and each one holds their weight (though gravity might differ depending on locale). Outer space junkies will enjoy SPACE STATIONS whether it is trading in a café or a frontier fort on the verge of battle. The links besides the edifices in outer space is that all the tales are new and the quality high (it is beyond our stratosphere) with some so excellent readers will find it worth landing on Deimos.

Harriet Klausner