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dance64's review against another edition
3.0
To be honest, my overall enjoyment of these stories was more of a two star rating all around, because I was pretty bored for the most part. However, I will say I think this mainly had to do with the fact I don't read a lot of hard sci-fi. I like more speculative sci-fi (if that's a thing), something that's not too hard to jump in and understand the technology and concept. Despite this, I do want to get more into reading hard sci-fi, and I thought short stories were a good way to do this because I wasn't diving into a full-length book where I was more than likely going to get incredibly lost. And while I was bored, I did find I really enjoyed the concepts of these stories and was frustrated that I wasn't able to get more of these worlds that were being shown to me. The more I read of this collection, the more I was beginning to understand and even appreciate what the others were doing. I'm not saying I'm now an expert on hard sci-fi (absolutely not), but the book has sparked a new interest and desire to dabble more into the genre, which was the whole reason I picked it up in the first place.
liacooper's review
5.0
ive said it before, Jonathan Strahan puts together some of the best hard scifi anthologies out there and this one was a smash hit start to finish showcasing 15 stories by 15 extremely talented currently writing scifi authors.
gotoboston's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting collection. I'm not a huge fan of short stories. I find it's just difficult to get into a short story. It's so compressed and contained that I just have no interest in the characters. That said, there was a few stories I particularly liked. Rescue Party by Aliette de Bodard was particularly interesting. Actually, some of the terms and the name seems oddly familiar. I get the feeling I may have read a short story by this author before.
I also quite enjoyed Devil in the Dust by Linda Nagata. I actually would be interested in a longer novel with these characters and world. There was some interesting concepts here and I wanted more of the characters and the world building. It gave me a bit of a Day After Tomorrow vibe without the Groundhog Day aspects. The whole soldiers fighting an impossible war vibe though was strong.
Mutata Superesse by Jason Fischer & Sean Williams also should get a shout out for it's weird format. Still, it was the most entertaining in terms of humor and I was intrigued by the concept behind it. This was one of the few stories out of the collection that felt suited to being a short story.
And lastly, Something in the Air by Carolyn Ive Gilman was the kind of the weird speculative science fiction that I tend to enjoy. The concepts are rather more edgy than some of the other stories, but I always did like the more intensely theoretical stories. Especially if the concepts are explained well and I think this one did a fairly good job.
Anyways, the rest of the stories were okay. I didn't hate them or love them. They were just short little bites with little else to define them. The four above stories are the ones that just really caught my attention, and I may keep an eye out for their names.
I also quite enjoyed Devil in the Dust by Linda Nagata. I actually would be interested in a longer novel with these characters and world. There was some interesting concepts here and I wanted more of the characters and the world building. It gave me a bit of a Day After Tomorrow vibe without the Groundhog Day aspects. The whole soldiers fighting an impossible war vibe though was strong.
Mutata Superesse by Jason Fischer & Sean Williams also should get a shout out for it's weird format. Still, it was the most entertaining in terms of humor and I was intrigued by the concept behind it. This was one of the few stories out of the collection that felt suited to being a short story.
And lastly, Something in the Air by Carolyn Ive Gilman was the kind of the weird speculative science fiction that I tend to enjoy. The concepts are rather more edgy than some of the other stories, but I always did like the more intensely theoretical stories. Especially if the concepts are explained well and I think this one did a fairly good job.
Anyways, the rest of the stories were okay. I didn't hate them or love them. They were just short little bites with little else to define them. The four above stories are the ones that just really caught my attention, and I may keep an eye out for their names.
mburnamfink's review against another edition
4.0
Strahan is quickly becoming one of my favorite anthology editors; a man capable of assembling impressive contemporary talent. This collection is themed around emergency in space, in the Apollo 13 style "Failure is not an option" improvisations. It's an inspired prompt, one that allows a crew of genre masters to rapidly develop setting and character and throw them into the ringer. Special award to By The Warmth of Their Calculus by Tobias Brucknell for a resolutely analog spacefaring culture, and one that tells the classic short story The Cold Equations to get stuffed.
I found two stories unreadable, which brings this down a peg, but it's hard for an anthology to bat 100, and with short stories, there's no harm in bailing.
I found two stories unreadable, which brings this down a peg, but it's hard for an anthology to bat 100, and with short stories, there's no harm in bailing.
gs_jennsen's review
4.0
An uneven anthology with several fascinating highlights
Anyone who reads short story anthologies know the quality of stories will be uneven. Further, different styles appeal to different readers. For me, the highlights of MISSION CRITICAL were:
- "The Empty Gun" by Yoon Ha Lee (which I enjoyed enough to go buy Ninefox Gambit)
- "Genesong" by Peter F. Hamilton (an emotional, poignant departure from Mr. Hamilton's usual style)
- "Something in the Air" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (a flawed but fascinating twist on concepts of quantum entanglement and the nature of reality)
- "Lost in Splendour" by John Meaney (an often amusing take on generational divides and the things that make all of us human)
- "The Fires of Prometheus" by Allen M. Steele (a touching tale of living and dying in space)
Anyone who reads short story anthologies know the quality of stories will be uneven. Further, different styles appeal to different readers. For me, the highlights of MISSION CRITICAL were:
- "The Empty Gun" by Yoon Ha Lee (which I enjoyed enough to go buy Ninefox Gambit)
- "Genesong" by Peter F. Hamilton (an emotional, poignant departure from Mr. Hamilton's usual style)
- "Something in the Air" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (a flawed but fascinating twist on concepts of quantum entanglement and the nature of reality)
- "Lost in Splendour" by John Meaney (an often amusing take on generational divides and the things that make all of us human)
- "The Fires of Prometheus" by Allen M. Steele (a touching tale of living and dying in space)
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