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A review by kovost
A Metal Box Floating Between Stars and Other Stories by Jamie Lackey
2.0
This is longer than I meant for it to be.
In all fairness, when I started making notes and made the decision to loosely “review” each story as I went, I wasn’t aware there were so damn many because I’m about as observant as a potato going on a bird sighting and fly through the first index pages without paying attention. I was expecting maybe five or six short stories, not nineteen tiny stories, but by the time I realized I had dug my hole like a dumbass, I had to accept that it’s always been my fate to dig my own grave and follow through because I already came this far. It’s like looking at your half-dug hole and being like, “Well I’m going to die anyway so I might as well finish.” because your pride feels attacked at the idea of stopping halfway.
So here I lie. RIP, I guess. I was a true dumbass, bless my withering soul.
Anyway, I hate that I rated this so low when I was so excited about it.
The reoccurring problem was that I was left feeling like the most of the stories were incomplete. I didn’t expect novel-length details and grand character development because I’ve read enough short story compilations to know that it would be a miracle to pull that off, but I also didn’t expect to feel like I read half of a story almost every time either. Most of them felt like they were just really long summaries of the concept rather than actual stories. Other than a couple of few (you can probably guess which ones if you bother reading below), I fell consistently near the ‘it was okay’ mark.
I think this might have been a quality vs. quantity problem because I can’t help but feel like if Lackey had put more effort into some chosen stories, they wouldn’t have felt so hollow. You have to realize, it’s nineteen short stories crammed into 150-ish pages, which isn’t much room to do anything. I would rather read a book with five well-written, developed short stories than nineteen super tiny stories lacking depth. I don’t want a skeleton; I want the whole damn body. I could have bounced a tennis ball off a concrete wall with some of them and just heard an echo in return. Like that bouncy hollow thud you hear when people are playing racket ball. I basically played racket ball with some of these stories.
And thing is, I actually liked the writing, too. Lackey’s prose is blunt and to the point, lacking any kind of purple prose that a lot of people are used to with the more popular books, but it’s descriptive and interesting without it. It was a good and refreshing writing style that I enjoyed immensely in the stories that I actually liked, but unfortunately, when you pair that with the undeveloped stories, it’s actually a bit of a downfall. It seemed to just showcase the fact that some of these stories didn’t have much to give past their general plots as I said.
All in all, I wouldn’t say it was bad. I would just simply say that it had the potential to be way more than what it was.
(Sidenote: I honestly don’t think I’ve ever said the word interesting so many times in one review; I swear I have a better vocabulary than that and this review is not a good example.)
—————
A Metal Box Floating Between Stars — 2.5/5
I’m about 99% sure the premise was actually supposed to be focused on Futaba and Dan’s growing relationship through email in between their shifts from their pods on their way to a station, but I ended up being way more invested into Fluffy the bot. The romance was okay for what it was considering it’s a short story.
What Comes After — 2/5
It’s a bittersweet story about a cancer patient that finds a way to upload her consciousness, except it creates two of them and changes the world for other people. There’s not much depth to this one because it’s incredibly short and gives you very little time to get to know the characters or anything past Point A: Cancer and Point B: A World-Changing Program. It was okay, but I can’t help feeling like I read a summary rather than a story with this one.
Losing Home — 3/5
This one was unique and interesting to read. There’s a race of creatures (I suppose? I didn’t get full details on that one, but that’s what I’m going to assume) that have these worms that infest and take people over. Jen loses what’s left of her family and meets Eric in a senseless mission. It had the potential to be longer, but I did like and appreciate what I read.
Broken Promises — 2/5
Humans make contact with a very questionable alien race of bugs. It goes about as well as you would think. Olympia becomes obsessed with communicating with this species that lacks emotions and lives in a hierarchical society while Lucas—her husband—and the Captain are wary and afraid of what they’re capable of. The plot was interesting, but the execution left much to be desired in some way. It was alright.
What Waits Out There — 2.5/5
R and S are—wait for it—actual clones that are romantically involved. R is chosen for a one-way deep space exploration because that’s what they, as in the clones, were created for and there, she meets a monster that takes on the face of S and tempts her. It was a bit disorienting as it took me a bit to realize it was going back and forth in tenses, but it was interesting.
Painting the Sky With Shooting Stars — 3/5
This is another story about clones and their creation being for deep space exploration, but this one focused on the relationship between a clone, Helen, and what the other clones call an Earther, Tony, and how kind of doomed it is because once Helen graduates, she’ll never be back on earth. I’m not sure if this story is connected to the one before it, but the similarities make me want to think so. This one was incredibly bittersweet because it’s pretty much a star-crossed lovers scenario, but the heart wants what the heart wants so they continue until the very end.
For Your Time — 4/5
This one is my absolute favorite and I’m not saying that because it was written in second person (and well, at that). The moral of the story is that in this world created, you can trade in thirty years of your life—thirty years you won’t get to live, not including weekends or holidays—for a hefty sum of money to live the rest of your life as freely as you want. It’s your choice on whether or not you value enough money to do anything you ever wanted more than you value your time spent on this planet. It’s an ethical dilemma that makes you think.
Abram’s Choice — 3/5
This was another story with an ethical dilemma. Abram was chosen to be a slave to an alien creature named Krit’t at a young age; he was taken away from his parents, never to be seen again. Over the years of being a slave to about twenty, he develops a complicated relationship with Krit’t because though he still follows his species’ traditions regarding humans/slaves, he seems to have a genuine interest and I guess you could say care for Abram. This puts Abram in a tough position when they stumble upon a ship because he, too, strangely enough, loves Krit’t. I definitely liked this one considering it dealt with a complicated concept, that being Stockholm Syndrome, and I do wish it had been longer.
Day by Day — 2.5/5
The concept itself was interesting. Lucy is dying so she undergoes a nanobot treatment that alters her biochemistry. So she starts this adventure to rediscover all the foods she likes and dislikes whilst simultaneously making a new life because her religious parents don’t believe in the treatment and she lost touch with friends when she was sick. The overall idea of it was intriguing, but given the weight, something was missing and it felt weirdly hollow.
Larva Mother — 2/5
I... okay. Okay so that’s a thing that just happened. This was kind of similar to a previous story, Losing Home, in that it’s an alien species that uses human hosts but instead of being more or less possessed by some weird worm, the Motyl uses human women capable with the right genetic makeup of carrying their eggs. Efrain comes to rescue his mother that’s being used as a host, but Majka sees these... uh, larva/nymphs as her actual babies. It’s a weird one and I’m starting to think it weirded me out so much because I hate the idea of bugs hatching inside of things, especially human bodies but maybe I’m biased. My heart tells me to rate it one star but objectively, it was okay.
Remembering Jacob — 3.5/5
Samuel has lost his significant other, Jacob, who traveled with him to an alien planet almost a decade ago. The entire piece is told through journal entries as Samuel copes with his loss whilst also trying to figure out what the Betherin want from him after they’ve actually absorbed Jacob’s body; it’s the most progress that they’ve made with this strange species in eight years, but it’s hard for Samuel. I liked the formatting of this and the concept was wild. For being slightly impersonal, there was a deep angst rooted in this one that I appreciated a lot.
Rainbow Spores — 2/5
Janice’s mother, Constance Jones, started a spore plague in an attempt to create a cure for brain tumors and now Janice is trying to destroy it before it takes more lives. When someone’s infected, they become, uh, sexually ravenous and unlike themselves, entirely willing to go as far as sexual assault/rape if they don’t find a willing partner. I feel the need to say that the most that happens in the actual story is a kiss without consent, but it’s still there.
Real Life — 3/5
Joan is more or less addicted to a pod that puts her in a virtual reality after she loses Tony, someone very important to her. She’s heartbroken and willing to kill herself in this virtual reality to escape the pain and loneliness. It’s an interesting concept because it addresses people’s coping mechanisms, especially the ones that would rather ignore it than face it and sort through it. It still could have had more to it, but it was good for what it was.
Our Pills Help — 1/5
To be honest with you, I have no idea what this is. I think (and I can’t even be positive), it’s about a society where the people are connected but there’s another kind of people that give them pills to separate them when they don’t want to be and the tables turn. If that sounded extremely vague and confusing to you, don’t worry: I read it and same. This one was a little too vague for me.
The Ambivalence of Memory — 3/5
Humankind does what humankind is doomed to do more than likely, and instead of dealing with it, they apparently make a deal with an alien race to erase their memories. Some choose to forget what happened in April of 2018 and carry on, and some choose to remember and go on. The narrator chose to forget whatever horrible thing it was but this decision is not one that they remember making. This another inflection of how humans can be in their coping mechanisms.
The Dedication of the Ama Pillay Monument — 2.5/5
Ama comes from a family of collectors, but when she’s a little girl, she goes against what her father tells her and takes a piece of their valuable metal because it calls out to her. Then she spends her years trying to get her hands on them all and when she’s seventeen, she finds the final piece in the hands of Adhir Copley. The concept given was interesting as it alternated between Ama and what I presume to be a speech about her because she’s an important person to someone, but the execution was a bit lackluster and could have done with some more explanation.
The Retired Angel of Death — 3/5
This one actually made me laugh and not really because it was meant to in the sense that it was purposefully comedic, but in the sense that the concept was so wild that it was startlingly hilarious to me. Brittney is a retired assassin gone food photographer basically. She travels around the galaxy trying all the foods recommended in food magazines and takes pictures of them simply because she can. She’s more or less tricked into something but still handles it with the poise and apathy of a trained assassin. It was just a really amusing story that surprised me.
Songs of Rotting Petals, Dances of Wilting Leaves — 1/5
Yet another one that was too vague for me and annoyed me more than anything. I’m about 99% it’s a story told from the point of view of a flower or... something. Maybe just something. I don’t really have any patience for stories so vague and out there, they don’t even really make sense so *Simon Cowell voice* it’s a no from me.
The Beautiful Purple Sky — 3/5
I feel like I’m repeating myself if I say ‘interesting concept’ but it was. A ship comes to earth and changes a select few, altering their minds but not in such a way that they have no free will. At least, according to them. I think it’s a matter of opinion considering they did what the ship told them to do and they did it no matter what in the end. It seemed like a heavy play on religion to me what with the optimistic faith in something unseen. I teetered between two and three stars on this one because it was an intriguing take on human nature and psychology.
In all fairness, when I started making notes and made the decision to loosely “review” each story as I went, I wasn’t aware there were so damn many because I’m about as observant as a potato going on a bird sighting and fly through the first index pages without paying attention. I was expecting maybe five or six short stories, not nineteen tiny stories, but by the time I realized I had dug my hole like a dumbass, I had to accept that it’s always been my fate to dig my own grave and follow through because I already came this far. It’s like looking at your half-dug hole and being like, “Well I’m going to die anyway so I might as well finish.” because your pride feels attacked at the idea of stopping halfway.
So here I lie. RIP, I guess. I was a true dumbass, bless my withering soul.
Anyway, I hate that I rated this so low when I was so excited about it.
The reoccurring problem was that I was left feeling like the most of the stories were incomplete. I didn’t expect novel-length details and grand character development because I’ve read enough short story compilations to know that it would be a miracle to pull that off, but I also didn’t expect to feel like I read half of a story almost every time either. Most of them felt like they were just really long summaries of the concept rather than actual stories. Other than a couple of few (you can probably guess which ones if you bother reading below), I fell consistently near the ‘it was okay’ mark.
I think this might have been a quality vs. quantity problem because I can’t help but feel like if Lackey had put more effort into some chosen stories, they wouldn’t have felt so hollow. You have to realize, it’s nineteen short stories crammed into 150-ish pages, which isn’t much room to do anything. I would rather read a book with five well-written, developed short stories than nineteen super tiny stories lacking depth. I don’t want a skeleton; I want the whole damn body. I could have bounced a tennis ball off a concrete wall with some of them and just heard an echo in return. Like that bouncy hollow thud you hear when people are playing racket ball. I basically played racket ball with some of these stories.
And thing is, I actually liked the writing, too. Lackey’s prose is blunt and to the point, lacking any kind of purple prose that a lot of people are used to with the more popular books, but it’s descriptive and interesting without it. It was a good and refreshing writing style that I enjoyed immensely in the stories that I actually liked, but unfortunately, when you pair that with the undeveloped stories, it’s actually a bit of a downfall. It seemed to just showcase the fact that some of these stories didn’t have much to give past their general plots as I said.
All in all, I wouldn’t say it was bad. I would just simply say that it had the potential to be way more than what it was.
(Sidenote: I honestly don’t think I’ve ever said the word interesting so many times in one review; I swear I have a better vocabulary than that and this review is not a good example.)
—————
A Metal Box Floating Between Stars — 2.5/5
I’m about 99% sure the premise was actually supposed to be focused on Futaba and Dan’s growing relationship through email in between their shifts from their pods on their way to a station, but I ended up being way more invested into Fluffy the bot. The romance was okay for what it was considering it’s a short story.
What Comes After — 2/5
It’s a bittersweet story about a cancer patient that finds a way to upload her consciousness, except it creates two of them and changes the world for other people. There’s not much depth to this one because it’s incredibly short and gives you very little time to get to know the characters or anything past Point A: Cancer and Point B: A World-Changing Program. It was okay, but I can’t help feeling like I read a summary rather than a story with this one.
Losing Home — 3/5
This one was unique and interesting to read. There’s a race of creatures (I suppose? I didn’t get full details on that one, but that’s what I’m going to assume) that have these worms that infest and take people over. Jen loses what’s left of her family and meets Eric in a senseless mission. It had the potential to be longer, but I did like and appreciate what I read.
Broken Promises — 2/5
Humans make contact with a very questionable alien race of bugs. It goes about as well as you would think. Olympia becomes obsessed with communicating with this species that lacks emotions and lives in a hierarchical society while Lucas—her husband—and the Captain are wary and afraid of what they’re capable of. The plot was interesting, but the execution left much to be desired in some way. It was alright.
What Waits Out There — 2.5/5
R and S are—wait for it—actual clones that are romantically involved. R is chosen for a one-way deep space exploration because that’s what they, as in the clones, were created for and there, she meets a monster that takes on the face of S and tempts her. It was a bit disorienting as it took me a bit to realize it was going back and forth in tenses, but it was interesting.
Painting the Sky With Shooting Stars — 3/5
This is another story about clones and their creation being for deep space exploration, but this one focused on the relationship between a clone, Helen, and what the other clones call an Earther, Tony, and how kind of doomed it is because once Helen graduates, she’ll never be back on earth. I’m not sure if this story is connected to the one before it, but the similarities make me want to think so. This one was incredibly bittersweet because it’s pretty much a star-crossed lovers scenario, but the heart wants what the heart wants so they continue until the very end.
For Your Time — 4/5
This one is my absolute favorite and I’m not saying that because it was written in second person (and well, at that). The moral of the story is that in this world created, you can trade in thirty years of your life—thirty years you won’t get to live, not including weekends or holidays—for a hefty sum of money to live the rest of your life as freely as you want. It’s your choice on whether or not you value enough money to do anything you ever wanted more than you value your time spent on this planet. It’s an ethical dilemma that makes you think.
Abram’s Choice — 3/5
This was another story with an ethical dilemma. Abram was chosen to be a slave to an alien creature named Krit’t at a young age; he was taken away from his parents, never to be seen again. Over the years of being a slave to about twenty, he develops a complicated relationship with Krit’t because though he still follows his species’ traditions regarding humans/slaves, he seems to have a genuine interest and I guess you could say care for Abram. This puts Abram in a tough position when they stumble upon a ship because he, too, strangely enough, loves Krit’t. I definitely liked this one considering it dealt with a complicated concept, that being Stockholm Syndrome, and I do wish it had been longer.
Day by Day — 2.5/5
The concept itself was interesting. Lucy is dying so she undergoes a nanobot treatment that alters her biochemistry. So she starts this adventure to rediscover all the foods she likes and dislikes whilst simultaneously making a new life because her religious parents don’t believe in the treatment and she lost touch with friends when she was sick. The overall idea of it was intriguing, but given the weight, something was missing and it felt weirdly hollow.
Larva Mother — 2/5
I... okay. Okay so that’s a thing that just happened. This was kind of similar to a previous story, Losing Home, in that it’s an alien species that uses human hosts but instead of being more or less possessed by some weird worm, the Motyl uses human women capable with the right genetic makeup of carrying their eggs. Efrain comes to rescue his mother that’s being used as a host, but Majka sees these... uh, larva/nymphs as her actual babies. It’s a weird one and I’m starting to think it weirded me out so much because I hate the idea of bugs hatching inside of things, especially human bodies but maybe I’m biased. My heart tells me to rate it one star but objectively, it was okay.
Remembering Jacob — 3.5/5
Samuel has lost his significant other, Jacob, who traveled with him to an alien planet almost a decade ago. The entire piece is told through journal entries as Samuel copes with his loss whilst also trying to figure out what the Betherin want from him after they’ve actually absorbed Jacob’s body; it’s the most progress that they’ve made with this strange species in eight years, but it’s hard for Samuel. I liked the formatting of this and the concept was wild. For being slightly impersonal, there was a deep angst rooted in this one that I appreciated a lot.
Rainbow Spores — 2/5
Janice’s mother, Constance Jones, started a spore plague in an attempt to create a cure for brain tumors and now Janice is trying to destroy it before it takes more lives. When someone’s infected, they become, uh, sexually ravenous and unlike themselves, entirely willing to go as far as sexual assault/rape if they don’t find a willing partner. I feel the need to say that the most that happens in the actual story is a kiss without consent, but it’s still there.
Real Life — 3/5
Joan is more or less addicted to a pod that puts her in a virtual reality after she loses Tony, someone very important to her. She’s heartbroken and willing to kill herself in this virtual reality to escape the pain and loneliness. It’s an interesting concept because it addresses people’s coping mechanisms, especially the ones that would rather ignore it than face it and sort through it. It still could have had more to it, but it was good for what it was.
Our Pills Help — 1/5
To be honest with you, I have no idea what this is. I think (and I can’t even be positive), it’s about a society where the people are connected but there’s another kind of people that give them pills to separate them when they don’t want to be and the tables turn. If that sounded extremely vague and confusing to you, don’t worry: I read it and same. This one was a little too vague for me.
The Ambivalence of Memory — 3/5
Humankind does what humankind is doomed to do more than likely, and instead of dealing with it, they apparently make a deal with an alien race to erase their memories. Some choose to forget what happened in April of 2018 and carry on, and some choose to remember and go on. The narrator chose to forget whatever horrible thing it was but this decision is not one that they remember making. This another inflection of how humans can be in their coping mechanisms.
The Dedication of the Ama Pillay Monument — 2.5/5
Ama comes from a family of collectors, but when she’s a little girl, she goes against what her father tells her and takes a piece of their valuable metal because it calls out to her. Then she spends her years trying to get her hands on them all and when she’s seventeen, she finds the final piece in the hands of Adhir Copley. The concept given was interesting as it alternated between Ama and what I presume to be a speech about her because she’s an important person to someone, but the execution was a bit lackluster and could have done with some more explanation.
The Retired Angel of Death — 3/5
This one actually made me laugh and not really because it was meant to in the sense that it was purposefully comedic, but in the sense that the concept was so wild that it was startlingly hilarious to me. Brittney is a retired assassin gone food photographer basically. She travels around the galaxy trying all the foods recommended in food magazines and takes pictures of them simply because she can. She’s more or less tricked into something but still handles it with the poise and apathy of a trained assassin. It was just a really amusing story that surprised me.
Songs of Rotting Petals, Dances of Wilting Leaves — 1/5
Yet another one that was too vague for me and annoyed me more than anything. I’m about 99% it’s a story told from the point of view of a flower or... something. Maybe just something. I don’t really have any patience for stories so vague and out there, they don’t even really make sense so *Simon Cowell voice* it’s a no from me.
The Beautiful Purple Sky — 3/5
I feel like I’m repeating myself if I say ‘interesting concept’ but it was. A ship comes to earth and changes a select few, altering their minds but not in such a way that they have no free will. At least, according to them. I think it’s a matter of opinion considering they did what the ship told them to do and they did it no matter what in the end. It seemed like a heavy play on religion to me what with the optimistic faith in something unseen. I teetered between two and three stars on this one because it was an intriguing take on human nature and psychology.