As the title suggests, this is a collection of some of High's many short stories, together with an essay by one of his editors. High was active from the 1950s right through to his death in 2006, and this collections spans decades. Naturally his older stories are old-fashioned, and they're unlikely to appeal to readers who aren't old enough to have grown up with this style of writing; but for those of us who are it's a pleasant walk down memory lane. As far as I remember I'd never read any of his short stories, but I read several of High's novels when I was a teenager, and this collection makes me want to find out what else of his has been brought back into print by the SF Galaxy imprint. If, like me, you loved his writing way back when, get a copy of this - there are some gems to be had.

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76) Colin Kapp -- Patterns of Chaos

Another of the books that I greatly enjoyed as a teenager but haven't read for some years. Fortunately it turns out that this is one I still enjoy. A man wakes in the middle of a vicious attack upon a city by a starship, dragged from unconsciousness by a voice inside his head. He has no memory of who he is and what he's doing there, but the voice in his head is no hallucination. The first priority is to get him up and moving to where he's supposed to be -- because Bron is a deepcover agent with a telepathic link back to his base, and being amnesiac doesn't excuse him from the job he was sent to do. Within a few hours, the planet he's on will be destroyed by hellburners, deadly missiles that can tear a planet apart. And in those hours, the Destroyer fleet will raid, taking slaves and goods, and most particularly anyone with expertise in chaos theory -- the concept that the patterns of chaos can be read to predict the future. One of the first things Bron learns about himself is that he has a synthetic personality embedded to allow him to pass as one of those experts, making him a target for the raiders - and a Trojan horse.

Which would be an interesting story in its own right, and the initial phase of the book is a very good story of a deepcover agent rediscovering who he is a bit at a time, while in the middle of the most dangerous job he's ever done. But Kapp takes it to a new level, as Bron comes to understand that the hellburner was aimed at him. Specifically him, personally. And that it's been on its way for 700 million years...

This is a solid piece of 1970s space opera, with a plot on the grand scale combined with some fascinating details to flesh out the universe, and some well-realised characters. It's short by modern standards, but that's all to the good, as it's a tightly written story. An entertaining way to pass a few hours.

LibraryThing entry

55) Una McCormack -- Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods

I bought this one because I've known the writer for years and have admired her writing since back when she was writing fanfic in My One True Fandom. It should be assumed that I am not capable of giving an unbiased opinion, but this book is full of squee for me. The characterisations for Eleven, Any and Rory feel right, and there are some nice secondary characters in this tale of a town where ever since Roman times, if you go into the woods today, you're not only sure of a big surprise, you'll never come out again. The Tardis crew have a good idea of what's going on, but in order to fix the problem before the woods eat more than just the odd stray, they're going to have to find the physical source. And the only way to do that is to take the Tardis to just before a disappearance and have someone with a beacon follow a disappearee. What could possibly go wrong?

LibraryThing entry

44) Gary Russell -- Torchwood: The Twilight Streets

Sixth of the Torchwood tie-in novels, set late in second season and with a lot of canon references. And my most favourite of all the canon references is the return of Idris Hopper, the Mayor's secretary from the Doctor Who episode Boom Town. :-)

There is a small block of streets in Cardiff, built by a Victorian businessman as model housing for his workforce. And never occupied for more than a few weeks at a time. Things happen to the people who try to live in Tretarri. Jack doesn't know why, because Jack can't get in. He gets a three day migraine every time he tries. But now the Council is renovating the block, with full-on gentrification and street parties to show off the results. Not just on the rate-payers' money, either -- private sponsorship is paying for the celebrations. But the block becomes more than a minor mystery for Jack's off-duty hours when it becomes apparent that Bilis Manger is behind the plans for change. And Bilis is still using visions of the future to prod the team into action.

It seems simple enough. Another round of stop Bilis Manger and save the world. But the old man's relationship with Good and Evil is rather more complex than that...

Really enjoyed this one. It's got an interesting plot, some excellent character development, and entertaining interactions between the various characters. All the regular characters get some page space, and there's some good stuff on the Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys and Tosh-Owen relationships. Also a delightful little scene in which Ianto tells Torchwood's Little Miss Sensitive (yes, he calls Gwen that) some home truths about what it's really like to be bisexual. :-> There's a lot of stuff referring back to canon, but most of it is tied into the story in such a way that it enhances the story for those who've seen the episodes without excluding those who haven't. It also includes a good in-universe explanation for why the Tardis crew didn't encounter Torchwood during the events of Boom Town (the external reason, of course, being that Torchwood the series was still a twinkle in RTD's eye at the time). The reason for the AU future's potential existence got a bit woolly in places, but the story in that timeline is really well done, if possibly over-angsty for some fans. Which is why I liked it, of course. :-)

Oh, and a word of praise for cover artist Lee Binding, who has done a lovely job in depicting some key elements of the story.

LibraryThing entry

Note: I received this as a review copy from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.

Omnibus edition of the Starfarers Quartet, published as an ebook reprint edition. The basic concept is a near-future setting where a space habitat is being built and fitted out for the first attempt at an interstellar voyage, using a recently discovered piece of cosmic string in the Solar System as a means of accessing almost instantaneous travel to another solar system. The habitat is set up as a university campus under international control.

In the first book, the station's purpose is being politicised, with an attempt by the US government to commandeer the habitat and re-purpose it as a military station for use in a peacekeeping mission on Earth, nominally under international control but in reality completely controlled by the US. The university faculty vote to continue their mission as planned, even if it means making an emergency run to the string and out of the solar system.

The second book begins with the Starfarer's arrival in the Tau Ceti system, accompanied by a parting shot from the military cruiser which had been sent to stop them. The alien contact team who were the main focus of the narrative in the first book now get to do their job for the first time. The third and fourth books continue the story of the Starfarer crew's attempts to interact with Civilisation

I found the first book somewhat frustrating to begin with, as I found the writing style a little hard to get on with, particularly the way a lot of point of view characters were simply dropped into the narrative with their own chapter and then abandoned for a while. It made the book feel very bitty to begin with. But once I had a handle on who all these people were and how their individual stories started to weave together, I found it fascinating.

The first book ends on something that is both a bit of a cliffhanger and resolution of the main plot. It could be read as a standalone. The next three books each end with resolution of that book's piece of the story arc, but leave the reader expecting to see more arc -- and unfortunately that includes the last one. It felt to me as if the author had left too many loose ends dangling at the end of the quartet, even though we do see the resolution to the main question of whether they will both make it safely back to Earth, and whether they will be able to leave the Solar System again once they have returned.

Some of those loose ends *really* needed tying up, to the point where I found it seriously irritating that they weren't. It's not billed as a mystery, but one of the plot threads certainly came over to me as being a mystery, with clues being dropped that the Starfarer crew had got something wrong -- and it was never resolved as to whether they had or not. It may be just that I was misreading the author's intentions and she *had* intended for the wrap-up somewhere in book 2 or 3 to be the Final Wrap-up of that thread, but if that was the case she should have refrained from making suggestions that there was a further secret behind the one unveiled. It left me feeling as if the final bit of that storyline in the last few pages was missing a significant part.

That niggle aside, I found the books very enjoyable to read once I'd picked up enough of the character threads in book 1 to follow what was going on. There is wonderful, wonderful world-building with a description of the maiden voyage of Earth's interstellar ship, and the things it finds Out There. And while the number of characters introduced in a very chop and change manner is confusing at first, it makes for a great depth to the characterisation over the course of the four books.

Some particular points of note -- this series has both good science and good emotional development. And on the latter front, the people side of it includes the three members of a poly partnership amongst the lead characters - in a world where legally binding romantic partnerships of any sort are mildly unusual. This isn't thrown in for titillation, but forms part of the world-building. And while we're on the subject of diversity, the lead characters aren't non-stop Default White American.

While I've rated this 3 stars overall, that's partly a reflection of my disappointment with the ending. I'd happily recommend that people download the first book, available as a free sample from BookViewCafe, and try it to see if they like it enough to buy the full quartet.

Book 92

Anharitte is the port city on a feudal planet whose location makes it an important hub in interstellar commerce. The Free Traders' local agent, Tito Ren, is charged with ensuring that things run smoothly. Alas for Ren, a powerful wizard is educating his slaves well beyond what is needed for them to do their tasks, and it's clear that the wizard is intent on brewing exactly the sort of social disruption that could cause trouble for trade. It's also clear to Ren that the wizard is no wizard, but an import like himself, using advanced technology to create his magic. Proving this to the local authorities is another matter, and Ren embarks on a little local war with the Imaiz, a careful balancing act that he keeps within the accepted practices of the society he's working within. Ren's problem is that he finds himself ever more in sympathy with the Imaiz's goals, while still wanting to keep faith with his employers.

It's a short novel by current standards, but there's plenty packed into it, from the entertainment of the cat-and-mouse game, to the careful description of Anharrite's culture, to the depiction of Ren's growing moral quandary. This is one of the books I happily re-read every so often.

LibraryThing entry

An entertaining themed anthology, published in 1981 but containing stories dating back as far as 1938. Some stories have dated, many are still great reads, all clearly justified their selection at the time. I've been reading this on and off for several months, but got through about half of it last month, so my review of the individual stories is going to be a bit patchy.

The anthology is set out in sections covering different degrees of catastrophe, from the end of the universe down to the end of our current civilisation without the loss of humanity itself. Each section has a short intro by Asimov, who also provides a general introduction and endpiece for the anthology.

( the individual stories )

http://www.librarything.com/work/1367187