(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 "Alien Dimensions Science Fiction Short Stories #18". The little book (just 98 pages amazon) contains 9 short stories by different authors.
My favorite take is "Gene - Reality" by Neil A. Hogan. A very smart scientist is tinkering with superstrings, the basic elements of our universe (as far as we know), also called the "genes of the universe". Guess what will happen? The very short story (just 4 pages) is a real masterpiece and Isaac Asimov would have been proud of it.
I also enjoyed "Titan´s Spores" by Olga Werby. Three people are flying to Jupiter moon Titan to start terraforming the trabant. They have colonies of genetic engineered fungi on board which should change the moon`s atmosphere, but ........ (this is a spoiler free blog).
The collection has another strong horror story: "The Pride of Tau Ceti" by Gustavo Bondoni. A spaceship has suddenly stopped on an interstellar flight! Weird things are happening now, leading to sheer horror.
The rest of the stories are passable and might cater different tastes. In the moment of writing the Kindle version costs just $2.99 - a bargain.
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