The Ross 248 Project

Humanity has a future amongst the stars. One such star system is the Ross 248 system which sits 10 light years away from Earth. As a red dwarf star Ross gives off less intense radiation than our sun, but is much dimmer. The creators of the anthology, Les Johnson and Ken Roy (real scientists who've also done some real great fiction) chose this because it was suitable for their purposes. They modeled the system on the Trappist-1 planetary system, which gives the readers (and importantly the writers) a shared universe with firm rules to play in. In doing so they draw on real science, and extrapolations of other existing scientific ideas to create the fascinating world of The Ross 248 Project.

In the 27th Century, so the premise goes, four starships; Ceres' Chariot, Copernicus, Guardian E, and 34-of-Kristie, arrive within decades of one another within the Ross 248 system and begin establishing habitats for the various peoples of humanity. By the 25th Century, in the background, there's a few distinct groups. Regular humans from Earth and her Lunar colonies, Cerites who are the genetically modified peoples that live on Ceres, Artificial Intelligences which propagate through careful selection of futures, and members of the Space Patrol, a transnational military arm of Earth and her colonies which exists to protect people from the dangers of space or the domination of space as a tactic against other factions. These are the different groups populating the stories.

Below I will be posting largely spoiler free reviews of these stories!

Garden of Serpents (Patrick Chiles): Arriving at Ross 248e, a small planet optimistically named Eden, the Space Patrol vessel Guardian E heads into this seemingly good to colonize world to set up a beach head so the scientists can get down to business. The soldiers go first to make sure there isn't anything that decides humans are tasty with whatever the local variant of ketchup is. Private Chandler makes his way down with his fellows and at first its nothing but a boring patrol, and then members of his unit begin to disappear without a trace. Well paced and full of a subtle edge of threat, I enjoyed this one because it set the tone for the potential dangers of an alien world right off the bat. It also has a good communication between soldiers, with a good sense of duty mixed in. The ending is suitably thrilling, and one which I think may take readers by surprise!

The only critique I might personally offer is that, tonally, it seemed off with the rest of the anthology. There was nothing wrong with the story at all however. Chiles characterization and prose are excellent.

And a Child Shall Lead Them (Stephanie Osborn): The Cerites from the Solar System are setting up their own little colony on the airless moon Liber and Arinna, a Cerite who has not yet reached adulthood to earn the 'C' prefix to her name like her parents C'Ekeko and C'Eiru, or her awkward suitor C'Helios, is working on her study of the star Ross 248 itself. It's difficult as a child among her people to be taken seriously, and occasionally she resents that fact. However, she does know a lot about stars, but will it be enough to convince them that something potentially disastrous is coming? The "disaster movie" vibe of this story was terrific in the best sense of the word. It has enough legwork put in by Osborn that the growing sense of unease hits you early on, and then the pel mel scramble as the story builds is gripping to read. My biggest problem was leaving my lunch break and not finishing it in one sitting!

Once again, nothing wrong with the story, as it is functionally amazing and well plotted with its highs and lows. However, without a concrete understanding of Cerite biology going in immediately the reader may be somewhat lost as they could find the flow confusing without knowing the ins and outs of Cerite society. That said, it sets up the Purple Parrot Bar, a water cooler which will show up again and again in this anthology!

Philosophical and Material Foundations of the Space Patrol (Brent Ziarnick): Less of a story and more of a treatise on this universe's Space Patrol, its founding, and what it represents as an institution and its goals. I loved this one because it takes real history and ideas and fleshes them out into what an institution could be and why it might be called for. In case no one had picked it up, the Space Patrol is based off Interplanetary Patrol from Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet novel, with similar goals and a relative detachment from national governments as well. It is institutionally further fleshed out with more for readers to understand. While I enjoyed it, I did hope we got a bit more of the "future history" to set up this institution, but it comes only in the broadest sense. Still well written from a philosophical perspective and worth checking out in the anthology just for its ponderings.

Somebody's World (Laura Montgomery): Yes, in space, we will still have lawyers. Laura Montgomery writes an interesting depiction of salvage rights in another solar system. I must sadly say I did not really enjoy this story. Not that it was boring, as it offered some tantalizing mysteries, but the argument between the lawyers of whether they had the right to settle the planet, who owned it, ect, seemed so trite. It didn't help that there does not seem to be a large oversight body which can definitively come down on what the law is, even the Space Patrol seeming nebulous in that regard. Without a sense of stakes, who benefits, or why this is the most important thing for us to be doing, the story felt wound together from twine with my suspension of disbelief constantly at a dangerous breaking point. Perhaps someone with more background in law than myself would be riveted, but it just wasn't for me.

Kraken Rising (Daniel M. Hoyt & E. Marshall Hoyt): Set on the water world of Poseidon, we get a front row seat to some intense machinations between scientists. The brilliant, but distractible, scientist Adam believes he can turn the water world into a planet humans can easily inhabit quickly. His old friend and colleague Sabrina, is at odds with his data, and the project managers of the whole endeavor see no point in trying to run a messy colonization effort that stands a not inconsiderable chance of also ruining the planet for life for centuries if it goes wrong. Unfortunately, Adam decided he knows better. It's a race against time to see who can reach him first and, hopefully, make sense of his plans. Its a fun story told in flashbacks, present action scenes, and with some running scientific explanations. I loved this story because it was two well established characters and a deteriorating friendship all against the backdrop of a potential doomsday device going off! The action was solid, and the imagery they evoked of a water world always trapped in a slight crimson storm painted a haunting, yet beautiful, picture in my mind. The Hoyts knocked this story out of the park, one of my favorites in the anthology!

Terraforming Planets Under a Red Sun (Matthew S. Williams): Another essay versus a story. However, this one is great for prospective science fiction writers who enjoy info which could be invaluable to world building. Williams writes a great essay chock full of useful scientific information.

Dim Carcosa (D. J. Butler): Private Investigator Prashanth Satyadeva on Toe Hold is having trouble. First, he has a series of strange and unrelenting dreams that claw at his mind when he sleeps, depriving him of rest. Secondly, the daughter of the colonies one coffee consortium (and thus fabulously wealthy family) has gone missing and no one knows where she may have gone. That means he has to navigate the currently decaying colony to try and track her down. But life on Toe Hold is difficult as a resource shortage and crammed living space is making people much more tribal than they may have been even a decade ago. Can he navigate the various factions on Toe Hold, keep his head on his shoulders, and figure out what is wrong with his head? A really clever detective story, and I'm a sucker for science fiction crime stories. With a readers deeper understanding of the issues in Ross 248 by this point, there's a lot to enjoy as Prashanth works his way through the corridors of the various habitats. If you understand the title reference, you'll find this story extra fun!

Echoes of a Beating Heart (Robert E. Hampson): Childhood can be hard, especially when you're not technically a child. Davey is a young Artificial Intelligence growing up with a human family on Eden while his mother (the AI that 'birthed' him, Juno) resides aboard a ship. His human 'parents' Hans and Molly are helping socialize him with humans. However, Davey, like any child, is bored and a bit moody. What can his whole family do? Fortunately, a new family moves into the dome where he resides and they soon begin getting together and researching the planet itself. They start their own adventures, and like any children on the cusp of being teens, get into trouble. As someone who is never particularly moved by stories about AI, I have to commend Hampson for how he wrote about a hypothetical development and childhood of AI. It made for an extremely compelling story of maturing, fitting in, and how what are effectively two different life forms can interact and thrive in the same environment. The friendships and family bonds formed are quite touching, and you see the work put in by all participants to keep the children, mechanical and biological, safe and thriving. Definitely one of the best in the anthology.

1-of-Antonia (Monalisa Foster): Taking a bit of a break from the Ross 248 system, we travel back to Pluto where AIs have their own little culture. It is also where humans go to immerse themselves in virtual reality. How this works is well explored by Foster as a man refuses to leave his virtual world and an AI, the titular heroine, is tasked with bringing him out. It's a bit off kilter at first getting run back to the Sol System, but the story it establishes works to immerse you more in how virtual reality is placed into this setting. I did enjoy the way this story played with how the lure of virtual worlds could be addicting, maybe even semi-soul destroying.

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) (J. L. Curtis): Another detective story, but with a buddy cop addition. Nik and Bear, two members of the Patrol, one human and one AI, are tasked with taking over the banking system on the world of Nordheim in the emerging colony of New Hope. There they will run transactions, and most importantly, police errors in the system which could spawn disasters. Unfortunately for them, at New Hope there seems to be many disasters, but small. Why are they only showing up now, and who is behind it? Why would someone want to sabotage a thriving new colony? Curtis runs the angles well here, with a fun mystery that obscures the outcome for readers. Is it a rebellious AI? Some shady human faction? Curtis leads you through this with lots of clever worldbuilding, funny characters and high stakes. Definitely one of the best installments in the anthology!

A Field of Play (K. S. Daniels): Once again back in the Solar System at Pluto, we have our first all AI cast working for human good. Yato and Noburu, the 'children' of the AI Chandra, are tasked with running a simulation of the future for a wealthy client. In doing so they make some disturbing discoveries about humanities trajectory and fall into the robotic version of despair. How can you make your imperative to protect humans align with what looks like the mathematical certainty of human caused self-destruction? Daniels writes a convincing voice for AI, while also presenting them with a fascinating problem to solve. I absolutely can't spoil this one because it has elements that bring much of the anthology together!

Not Too Tired (Les Johnson & Ken Roy): The story by the men who put it all together! Unfortunately, I can't go very deep into details as it picks up almost as a direct sequel to Field of Play with narrative elements which takes from almost every other story. Needless to say, you combine the hard science these two authors have with some well driven conflict set up over the arcs of these smaller stories, and you arrive at some excellent drama to end the anthology off on!

As usual, Baen has delivered us an anthology packed to the brim with excellent stories. Filled with hard science fiction, and a few fantastic elements, you have an anthology that delivers all the perils of settling a new star system from the comforts of your home. If you love space colonization stories, don't miss this one!

World's Long Lost

It is rare that two of my favorite ideas like science fiction and horror get combined so well, but the new anthology from Baen, edited by Christopher Ruocchio and fellow blogger and writer Sean Korsgaard titled World's Long Lost has really managed to scratch that itch! I had been looking forward to it for many months now, and it's fabulous to finally get to run through these pages! Korsgaard does the opening blurbs, and he builds the stories up quite well, while expounding on the central themes to the overarching anthology. The stories themselves are a fabulous mix of creepy, mysterious, and downright horrifying.

I will be endeavoring to write spoiler free reviews, so feel free to read on ahead, and I promise only minor spoilers if necessary!

To start out, we have The Wrong Shape to Fly by Adam Oyebanji, which starts out as an embarrassed collector of the artifacts of dead civilizations is divesting themselves of a piece misidentified as that belonging to a dead civilization which could not possibly have had the technology described. Academics were far too eager to identify a pet theory rather than look at the evidence. Now an art dealer is embarking on a journey to the edge of civilized space to ponder his own theory. It's not creepy in the way many in this story are, but the reveal at the end just blew my mind with the subtle hints and tensions Oyebanji was able to build on. A superbly strong opener!

Mother of Monsters by Ruocchio is a short story set in his own Sun Eater series. Ever battling against the forces who despise humanity like the Cielcin, the hapless soldier Valen discovers there are worse things than even those that eat human flesh. Things hide in the dark which can warp human minds, tangle with the laws of physics, and damage conscious itself. Told part by interrogation and part by flashback, it's a chilling look at alien intelligences and the ways they don't necessarily care about what our puny minds think of how the world is supposed to work. Genuinely chilling end, which makes me merely want more in that universe!

Next up is Rise of the Administrator a story by M.A. Rothman & D.J. Butler, which details the rise of the mysterious administrator. Set against the background of the discovery of incomprehensible ancient runes and sandstone of unusually indestructible properties, it also tells the tale of an extradimensional being which has risen beyond our plain of understanding. It's a sort of prequel to Time Trials, which details the machinations behind this alien administrator's decision to test humanity in such a way. The reasoning, and extremely destructive outcomes, are laid out in a sort of dispassionate bureaucratic manner which is both alien, and extremely terrifying in its mundanity. To learn more, you must go read Time Trials!

Coming from Les Johnson (of Saving Proxima fame) we have Mere Passers By which sees an exploratory vessel USSS Alligator stumble across what should, by all rights, be an impossibility. Planets held together in a way which defies our understanding of physics. Even more unsettling is the lack of any indications of a technological society in this system. This merely raises disturbing questions of, what kind of technology could do this? Would they even notice our existence? Do we even want to meet them? Unsettling in it's own way, the story really pulled me in and got me quite excited (if a little terrified) by the idea of what could be out there in the universe.

Erica Ciko writes perhaps one of the best pieces in the story with a clear Lovecraftian theme. Never Ending Ever-Growing sees the contractors of "Verdant Dreams" responding to a distress call on the planet Vaenmyr, where the thriving rich settlement has gone mysteriously quiet. The terraforming agency which sterilized the planet to standard for human colonization needs its' crown jewel up and running again, but the aliens they thought they wiped out might not be so dead after all. It's an amazing sweep of horror which catches you off guard and sucks you right in. One of the most unsettling and mesmerizing in the whole anthology!

They Only Dig at Night by Sean Patrick Hazlett is another short, but spooky, story that wouldn't look out of place as a piece from Tales from the Cryptkeeper or another TV horror serial like the X-Files. Ostensibly two old pals who work at the same company are sitting down to coffee and one is trying to get a transfer, but as the conversation goes on, much more disturbing things come to light. Is it a good idea to try and monetize something you don't understand?

Howlers in the Void by Brian Trent combines some of the best of Lovecraftian fiction with classic scifi. After a run in with alien pirates, Captain Shayne Dunsay discovers that he may have found the origins  of strange artifacts which can be found throughout space. The question is, does he want to know what made them? Marooned on an alien world, he and what remains of his crew must fight past increasingly strange encounters and hostile weather in order to stand any chance of making it out alive.

Gray Rinehart presents us with what I consider an amazing combination of Michael Creighton style adventure and exploration, and Stephen King or Lovecraftian style horror. The Building Will Continue chronicles the unravelling of a series of academic expeditions on a world whose inhabitants built fantastic artifacts, and then simply vanished. The engineer Leland has terrible nightmares, and the whole crew soon seems to be equally infected by them. As his team are slowly driven mad by whatever haunts these ruins, Leland finds himself questioning whether it could all be caused by innocuous seeming life forms which infest the area. But can he find the secret before he is consumed by his dreams?

re: something strange by Jessica Cain delivers horror at its best. In a series of increasingly strained, chaotic, and horrifying phone calls and texts, we see a seemingly insignificant discovery of an ancient statue devolve into a horror show. The story is made all the more tense by the fact the two people talking are jilted lovers who broke it off in questionable circumstances. The reader can wonder whether anything real is even happening, or whether this is all a desperate plea for attention. By the end, you'll really be wondering just what happened! A genuinely freaky story it really belongs in this anthology and was one of my favorites.

The Sleepers of Tartarus by David J. West sees the dying special operator Cormac on a one way ticket to a lonely asteroid which is now believed to be undergoing militarization by a hostile power. With a deadly cancer eating him away, he really doesn't care and only wants to complete one last mission. However, when he arrives, he winds up with more than he bargained for as the asteroid is not quite what it seems. A tale of adventure and mild cosmic confusion, this one really deserves your love as I can't say anything without some major spoilers! If you can, dive in and read it and I guarantee you won't be disappointed! West turns this one on its head!

Dark Eternity by Johnathon Edelstein is one which, I admit, I did find difficult to get into. It lays out its background and the world lovingly, with excellent attention to detail and world building, but I feel I lacked an overall context for it. The story was told well, and I genuinely enjoyed each little piece of information fed to me from the narrator Kalonde, but without a fuller understanding of his work, I don't think I appreciated the genius of the ending as much as I could have.

Patrick Chiles delivers a sense of mystery and wonder in his Rocking the Cradle where a little bit of geology and a lot of language class pays off after a crew investigates what appears to be an alien ruin in a far solar system. The way Chiles unpacks the mystery at the heart of this story is slow, deliberate, and not something you wouldn't expect outside a techno thriller. The revelations are disturbing to ponder on at least. You wonder about the longevity of human civilization, and whether we have a way forward from traps of our own devising. Chiles doesn't scare you with aliens, monsters, or impending black holes, but some mundane and fundamental questions about how we manage. A wonderful story!

Giving Up on the Piano is a prize inclusion by Orson Scott Card, which compared to much of the anthology is a more mundane delivery of a creepy factor. Not the most terrifying inclusion, but a good capture of what can go wrong in suburbia. It wasn't my favorite in the anthology, but it did provide perhaps a bit of relief from the heavy going of many of the other stories with its more domestic setting and almost tragicomedy presentation.

Finally, we have Retrospective by Griffin Barber. This one is haunting just as much for it's vagueness vs what we actually see. The story is told as an interrogation of a soldier who touched an unknown alien artifact during a firefight. However, the exact nature of the artifact, what it did, and fully what happened to said soldier is left vague as even those discussing it don't seem entirely sure of exactly what they're dealing with. The ending is just creepy enough with how little you know despite all this that your mind can fill in the blanks in unpleasant ways! A great end for the anthology and really helps capture the spirit of it all.

With science fiction and horror being among my favorite types of story, I was enthralled by how well this was put together. There are so many good stories it's impossible to choose just one to love. All were well crafted with skill and and a love for the genre. This is one you should absolutely pick up!

Flashing Steel Flashing Fire: A Short Story Collection.

Well readers here I being you another excellent review. I have given some glowing reviews of the works of author Matthew Quinn's work before. Here though I offer you the opportunity to enjoy all of Quinn's published works, as well as three new stories as yet seen by the world in one easy reading location.

I present to you, Flashing Steel and Flashing Fire!

This is of course an anthology, making it one of Quinn's longest published works so far. I've reviewed some of the stories available in the publication already, so I think I'll just stick to talking about two of the stories contained herein.

The first new story I'd like to talk about is Nicor. Nicor is a sort of combination period piece combined with a horror story. Here we have the Vikings taking on an eerie mythological swamp beast in a battle to the death and they find their weapons and courage almost useless when fighting the beast. Its interesting as it's told through the POV of a young first time raider who has never been a-reaving before. His nervousness and uncertainty paint a vivid contrast to the experienced raiders he stands beside. With a fun twist at the end it's a delight.

Next we have Lord Giovanni's daughter. I have to admit that this one was the most difficult for me to read, not because it was a bad story, but because I have very little point of reference for the villainous reptilians who populated the story. Imagining them was difficult so it took me a while to properly get into it, but once I did we had the right amount of wit and creativity to make for a fascinating read!

The next new piece is the very interesting prologue to an aborted fantasy series called Lord of the Dolorous Tower. This one is interesting as it has a fascinating blend of post-apocalyptic fiction and high fantasy. The characters are essentially two lovable rogues from their village who go exploring an old tower. It offers some fascinating ground work for a world in which it is suffering from an asteroid strike. It deals with some fascinating magic and world building while giving us a great romp with these two explorers, though it is a wee bit dark I'll just say.

Finally we have the ending piece Westernmost Throne. It's a 'political' horror story which is fairly unique in and of itself. It follows the tale of a young political secretary who discovers she may be in just a tad over her head when her up and coming political boss turns out to be more than he seems... I won't say too much here as it needs to be read to be appreciated. This one certainly subverts expectations! I can say I quite enjoyed it and I think you will too!

Now that't it for all the new material, but it has a number of old favorites like Melon Heads and Illegal Aliens! If you've ever read any of Matthew Quinn's work before I highly recommend you pick this piece up! It's a fantastic anthology and as I've said before, Mr. Quinn does not disappoint.

So I heartily encourage you to go pick it up!