Stranded is a short story collection about being stranded in space. The three stories are written by Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis, and James Alan Gardner. Though each story deals with the same subject matter, they are each unique. The third story in the set is "Stranded" by Anthony Francis.
"Stranded" follows the adventures of a group of teenage space faring refugees and an ultra-advanced centauress named Serendipity. They meet on an unexpectedly hostile world which has been left fallow for a thousand years. The refugees are the leavings of a spaceship, once well populated, now run by a group teenagers having a civil war along gender lines. They crash while trying to find a place to repair their ship. The centauress is suffering from living in the shadow of a family members and wants to make her name out in the frontier, so she space hops until she is on a world that has long been ignored and buys it with her inheritance. Only to find that it has a history.
I think my favorite part of the whole story is the interplay between the Serendipity and her family. There is nothing as hard as trying to live up to the expectations you think others have of you. It must have been unbearable to try and carve out a spot in a family tree full of the exceptional. Behind that, the descriptions of space travel.
I gave this story a 3.5 out of 5.0 because while I found the story compelling and the characters interesting, it just didn't grab me the same way earlier stories in the book did. I find myself liking "A Strand in the Web" more. The entire book, all three stories, was well-crafted and interesting.
Pick up STRANDED at Belle Books HERE
Showing posts with label Stranded. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stranded. Show all posts
Monday, September 22, 2014
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Book Review: Stranded: A Strand in the Web by Anne Bishop
Stranded is a short story collection about being stranded in space. The three stories are written by Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis, and James Alan Gardner. Though each story deals with the same subject matter, they are each unique. The second story in the book is by Anne Bishop "A Strand in the Web".
The characters in "A Strand in the Web" are somewhat typical teenagers doing a less than typical job. They are on assignment to repopulate a world, starting from the ground up. Many years previously, humans had left living on earth and moved into space. Now as part of their 'Atonement' for something done long ago, they refurbish worlds that have been destroyed. They do this through Restoration. The group we are following are Restorers yet, but they want to be and this assignment to bring back a portion of the planet will get them closer to their goal.
Willow, our focal character, is assigned to care for the trees of this project. Something which is made harder by the incompetence of several other team members. After being unceremoniously removed from the team following an altercation, she finds herself on a new project, restoring an island as a Restorer (a position she doesn't yet have) would. She initially brings in only one teammate, here friend Stev, but they end up as almost a full team when her friends Thanie and Whit join them.
The idea of bringing back an entire planet is intriguing and looking at it from the nuts and bolts perspective gives you a new appreciation for how hard it is to get things back in 'balance', a term that is used often throughout the story and a concept that each character strives for their projects.
Throughout the story, I was struck by the sincerity of the characters and their beliefs. From Willow who is a strong as the tree from which she derives her name to Stev who tries everything to be a good friend and somehow maintain a touch of distance. The characters as much as the idea intrigued me. 4.5 out of 5 You can pick up Stranded from Belle Books HERE
The characters in "A Strand in the Web" are somewhat typical teenagers doing a less than typical job. They are on assignment to repopulate a world, starting from the ground up. Many years previously, humans had left living on earth and moved into space. Now as part of their 'Atonement' for something done long ago, they refurbish worlds that have been destroyed. They do this through Restoration. The group we are following are Restorers yet, but they want to be and this assignment to bring back a portion of the planet will get them closer to their goal.
Willow, our focal character, is assigned to care for the trees of this project. Something which is made harder by the incompetence of several other team members. After being unceremoniously removed from the team following an altercation, she finds herself on a new project, restoring an island as a Restorer (a position she doesn't yet have) would. She initially brings in only one teammate, here friend Stev, but they end up as almost a full team when her friends Thanie and Whit join them.
The idea of bringing back an entire planet is intriguing and looking at it from the nuts and bolts perspective gives you a new appreciation for how hard it is to get things back in 'balance', a term that is used often throughout the story and a concept that each character strives for their projects.
Throughout the story, I was struck by the sincerity of the characters and their beliefs. From Willow who is a strong as the tree from which she derives her name to Stev who tries everything to be a good friend and somehow maintain a touch of distance. The characters as much as the idea intrigued me. 4.5 out of 5 You can pick up Stranded from Belle Books HERE
Friday, September 19, 2014
Book Review: Stranded: A Host of Leeches by James Alan Gardner
Stranded is a short story collection about being stranded in space. The three stories are written by Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis, and James Alan Gardner. Though each story deals with the same subject matter, they are each unique. The book begins with James Alan Gardner's piece "A Host of Leeches".
"A Host of Leeches" is about a young girl, Alyssa, who finds herself stranded on a space station which is the retirement home for advanced, sentient, weaponry after she has come down with a highly contagious plague. There are no other people in the story, only the sentient robots.
One of my favorite parts is the description of the situation:
On top of that, she is dragged into a power struggle between two of the robots: The General and the Lorelei. Each are highly advanced intelligences with quite different ways of doing things and Alyssa as the anomaly in the situation is requested by the General to take down the Lorelei. All because he cured her of the mystery plague. We find out later he was lying through his speakers.
What really happened was aliens had come to Earth and infected Alyssa, and many others, with themselves. They are communal cells, which behave something like algae. They infected the humans because on their world, that's what they do. They ride other low intelligence lifeforms for their own purposes. Except all it did was make the humans very sick. They finally removed themselves from Alyssa when they realized how close to death she had come. Giving her the cure the General claimed he had done. With the plague mystery solved, they are left with the small problem of what to do with the communal cells, but I'll let you read the story to find out what happens and why the leeches are an important component.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and it's a fairly quick read. Gardner does a fabulous job of giving an amazing situation enough touch points to keep you in the story. 4.5 out of 5.
Pick up the book from Belle Books HERE
"A Host of Leeches" is about a young girl, Alyssa, who finds herself stranded on a space station which is the retirement home for advanced, sentient, weaponry after she has come down with a highly contagious plague. There are no other people in the story, only the sentient robots.
One of my favorite parts is the description of the situation:
"Herds of intelligent battle-tanks roaming the grassy plains. Nuclear bombers and fighter jets basking in the sun. Gunboats in the rivers, artillery on the shore, and mole-machines underground. Lots of smart self-aware robots whose codenames include the world 'megadeath'."
On top of that, she is dragged into a power struggle between two of the robots: The General and the Lorelei. Each are highly advanced intelligences with quite different ways of doing things and Alyssa as the anomaly in the situation is requested by the General to take down the Lorelei. All because he cured her of the mystery plague. We find out later he was lying through his speakers.
What really happened was aliens had come to Earth and infected Alyssa, and many others, with themselves. They are communal cells, which behave something like algae. They infected the humans because on their world, that's what they do. They ride other low intelligence lifeforms for their own purposes. Except all it did was make the humans very sick. They finally removed themselves from Alyssa when they realized how close to death she had come. Giving her the cure the General claimed he had done. With the plague mystery solved, they are left with the small problem of what to do with the communal cells, but I'll let you read the story to find out what happens and why the leeches are an important component.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and it's a fairly quick read. Gardner does a fabulous job of giving an amazing situation enough touch points to keep you in the story. 4.5 out of 5.
Pick up the book from Belle Books HERE
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