Science Fiction: Beyond The Stars - Unimagined Realms

(Drivebycuriosity) - I like science fiction. Unfortunately most science fiction novels disappoint. Often a writer has an interesting idea which carries a story about maybe 100 pages or less, but when she stretches the plot the story gets thinner and thinner and the text has too many fillers.  Just a minority of authors is capable to keep the tension over hundreds of pages. Therefore I usually skim collections of science fiction short stories in order to find some gems.

I just finished reading the anthology  "Beyond The Stars - Unimagined Realms" edited & curated by Patrice Fitzgerald (amazon). The book collects 12 stories by different authors  (print version 285 pages)

I have 2 favorites:
 "Fractals" by G.S. Jennsen, written in first person. A female captain of a space ship on a deep space exploration has to respond to a bizarre cosmic signal (this is a spoiler free blog) A fine piece of hard scientific scifi & space opera with a surprising twist spiced with quantum & astrophysics.

"Entanglement" by Joseph Robert Lewis, also in first person. A woman is exploring the atmosphere of Jupiter by being mentally connected (entangled) with a drone which leads to a bizarre encounter. Evolution & quantum physics!


I also enjoyed "The old fighting Goose" by Sean Monaghan, again told in first person. The narrator and his partner are struggling to survive in a wrecked space ship while being attacked. Serious military science fiction.Hitchcock in space!

"Klevor Barnes and the Stinky Cats" by Mark Sarney is a hilarious tale about space pirates and strange contraband.

The rest of the stories contains also interesting ideas and may cater different tastes. In the moment of writing the Kindle edition cost just $2.99. A bargain!