mikimeiko's review

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4.0

I wasn't sure if I was really in the right headspace for a short story collection (and it did take me a while to get through it) but it was a very interesting collection, with many good short stories in it. I look forward to reading more from some of the authors!

nakedsteve's review

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4.0

Full disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book (thus the review prior to publication) for free from tor.com. (Seriously: if you're not taking part in their sweepstakes, you really should. Odds of winning are actually quite high.)

What we have here is an anthology of new Science Fiction, with the "Hard" classifier thrown on there for good measure. This is supposed to mean that there's some scientific or possible futuristic element that's crucial to the story.

As is typical whenever I read an anthology, I wish I'd review the stories independently. Yet again, that didn't happen, so this review is less good than it should be...

At any rate: The stories here are reasonably high quality, and enjoyable to read, but few of them really stuck in my memory. (Though the first and last stories were quite good.) Tragedy is a minor sub-theme as well, which is probably possible only in shorter works these days. (Can't make an 11-book series out of a tragedy...)

4 of 5 stars.

daveversace's review

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4.0

A strong issue of Aurealis. I particularly liked the disturbing social implications of the setting revealed in S G Larner's 'Searching for Cidalisa' and Annika Howells' 'Obsidian River' built up the creep factor nicely. The reviews were a pleasant surprise too - I think I'd like to read all the books covered this month.


katebrarian's review

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4.0

Overall, I really liked this collection of stories. Even the stories I didn't love really started to grow on me after I finished and thought about them a bit. The authors tend to skew white American, but it's still pretty representative of the non-white non-male sci-fi writer. And, something that surprised me, how many queer characters there were considering that being queer was not a plot point in any of the stories! Good job, hard sci-fi.

It started and ended on really strong notes. The first story, The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever by [a:Daniel H. Wilson|33773|Daniel H. Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1298332667p2/33773.jpg], made me so sad. It's really good. And the same author as [b:Robopocalypse|9634967|Robopocalypse (Robopocalypse, #1)|Daniel H. Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327885891s/9634967.jpg|14247828] which has been on my radar forever so I should probably just read it already.
The final story, Recollection by [a:Nancy Fulda|4037363|Nancy Fulda|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1297962807p2/4037363.jpg], is also pretty sad. It's about the downsides of being one of the first to be cured of Alzheimers. It ends hopeful though. These two stories are among the most human in the collection and both hit me right in the feels.

A Slow Unfurling of Truth by [a:Aliette de Bodard|2918731|Aliette de Bodard|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1261567215p2/2918731.jpg] reminded me of Alastair Reynolds in that the reader is flung into a completely different world and made to understand it just through reading more. In a good way.

The Circle by [a:Liu Cixin|5780686|Liu Cixin|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1339387737p2/5780686.jpg] was awesome, though a lot of reviewers have said that it's taken almost directly from his book The Three Body Problem, which I haven't read, so I still liked the story.

I liked the concepts explored in Every Hill Ends with Sky by [a:Robert Reed|57814|Robert Reed|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-3fbaf32fc1fc48e6ffaf3f63a026f0ff.png].

There weren't any stories I really hated. Lady With Fox ([a:Gregory Benford|22645|Gregory Benford|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1224059011p2/22645.jpg]) was too weird for me. Habilis ([a:Howard Hendrix|6673101|Howard Hendrix|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-ccc56e79bcc2db9e6cdcd450a4940d46.png]) had an ok concept but the structure of the story was confusing. It kept jumping back and forth in time from one conversation between two people to a different conversation between the same two people, and the paragraph breaks didn't necessarily indicate that we had shifted from one to the other.

Short stories are the best, and these were good. And I like the cover!

gottabekb's review

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5.0

This is a solid collection of 17 hard sci fi short stories. My favourite was "Siren of Titan" but all of the stories have stuck with me in some way.
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