Scan barcode
bunrab's review against another edition
4.0
More milfic than space opera, but something for everyone. some oldies - Game of Rat and Dragon has been one of my favorite stories since I first read it some 55 years ago when I was 9; my dad was something of an SF magazine hoarder, so I read much of Cordwainer Smith's stuff from the magazines where they were first published. Obviously tastes vary - nothing in the Enders Game series has ever appealed to me and the story in here is no exception.
lyleblosser's review against another edition
4.0
excellent peaks into some favorite universes by their creators
durantedianne's review against another edition
I read this hoping to find more space opera authors that I liked as much as Elizabeth Moon and Lois McMaster Bujold. Enjoyed the Anne McCaffrey Ship That Sings story, and may follow up on 1-2 others.
skylar2's review against another edition
2.0
While there are some gems here (Reynolds' Night Passage, Smith's Game of Rat and Dragon, Okorafor's Bingo, Brackett's Stark and the Star Kings, Nye's Imperium Imposter, Bujold's Borders of Infinity), mostly these were far too military sci-fi, far too romantically- inclined (not sure why it goes with military sci-fi but it does), and far too little like short stories (most of the stories couldn't be appreciated without knowing the overarching series).
vanjr's review against another edition
3.0
Good solid anthology. As expected some stories resonated with me more than others. I plan to read others in this "series".
texile's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed almost every story, which is unusual for an anthology. I've even got several new series that I want to try.
markyon's review against another edition
3.0
Infinite Stars is a mighty tome that has an ambitious purpose – to bring together a range of disparate worlds from Space Opera and Military SF into one hefty tome. The result is impressive, if not entirely successful.
I suspect that most readers are going to buy this because there’s a place here that they recognise. There are fourteen new stories and novellas, of some of the most well-known universes out there. The roll call is quite impressive. For example, there’s a new Honor Harrington Universe tale by David Weber, a new Dune story by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set within the time frame of the original novel Dune, a new Ender's Game story by Orson Scott Card, a new Lost Fleet story by Jack Campbell, a new Vatta’s War story from Elizabeth Moon, a Lt. Leary story by David Drake, and a new Revelation Space story by Alastair Reynolds, all in print for the first time.
There’s also a sprinkling of old classics that have earned their place here amongst the new. Cordwainer Smith’s The Game of Rat and Dragon (1955) (given as The Game of Rat and Dragons in the Contents) is one of the editor’s personal favourites and is, just like much of Smith’s work, short and memorable, justifiably deserving its place here. Then there’s Lois Mc Master Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan novella, The Borders of Infinity (1989), which, although not Miles at his absolute best, should persuade new readers to investigate further. Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang (1961) is, unsurprisingly, here, as is the unusual choice of Duel on Syrtis (1951) by Poul Anderson, a more traditional and more obscure SF tale that is good but not his best. Oldest of all is Leigh Brackett & Edmond Hamilton’s Stark and the Star Kings, which combined their two independently-famous worlds into one sword-and-sorcery story. It shows its age a little, written decades before its publication in 2005, but at least it shows us the subgenre’s origins.
At the other extreme, much more up to date is the 2016 Hugo & Nebula Award-winning novella that is Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti (2015) whose non-American viewpoint may be rather refreshing.
Personally I enjoyed Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle’s addition to the Motie Universe, Codominium: Reflex, which is a tale set before The Mote in God’s Eye (1974). First published in 1982, Reflex is, if I remember rightly, part of the book that was famously excised during a major rewrite of the novel.
If the book’s purpose is to summarise the eclectic variety that Space Opera and Military SF has to offer, then it is a fair effort. The broad range of work old and new, showing not only where it has been but where it is going to, deserves applause. The emphasis is on the well-known and the popular rather than on the significant-yet-obscure, and I am sure that this will ensure it is a well-received read. It is more akin perhaps to David Hartwell’s anthologies (an acknowledged influence here) than the Vandermeers, where Infinite Stars gains by breadth but not necessarily depth. Even with a book of over 600 pages, there will be moans about what is missed, I am sure – even the editor in his introduction bemoans the lack of an S A Corey Expanse story, for example – but there’s enough to keep most readers very happy, even when not every story is going to be liked by everyone. To be fair, that is usually the risk of any anthology.
My biggest issue with the collection is that what may be seen by many readers as a strength may also be a weakness. Reading the various tales of various lengths and ages, I kept feeling that with the stories, and particularly the newer ones, that I was missing something. Some of the worlds I knew well, but with those I didn’t I couldn’t shake the feeling that, as much as I enjoyed them, I was missing something. Many of the collection feel like they are not complete tales, that they are part of something bigger. When I finished Cordwainer Smith’s The Game of Rat and Dragon, for example, I felt a definite end. Others – the Weber, the Ender’s Game, the Dune story and more besides - reminded me of that old pulp magazine stand-by where you would read an “exclusive extract” of something bigger that was about to be published. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed most of what I read, very much so, but ultimately I couldn’t shake the feeling that many stories were an incomplete part of a whole, or a bridging link between one thing and something else.
Nevertheless, despite my quibbles, Infinite Stars is a great collection of stories old and new. Whilst it may not be the “definitive” collection of stories it claims to be on the cover, there’s enough there to act as a primer and keep a fan very happy.
I suspect that most readers are going to buy this because there’s a place here that they recognise. There are fourteen new stories and novellas, of some of the most well-known universes out there. The roll call is quite impressive. For example, there’s a new Honor Harrington Universe tale by David Weber, a new Dune story by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set within the time frame of the original novel Dune, a new Ender's Game story by Orson Scott Card, a new Lost Fleet story by Jack Campbell, a new Vatta’s War story from Elizabeth Moon, a Lt. Leary story by David Drake, and a new Revelation Space story by Alastair Reynolds, all in print for the first time.
There’s also a sprinkling of old classics that have earned their place here amongst the new. Cordwainer Smith’s The Game of Rat and Dragon (1955) (given as The Game of Rat and Dragons in the Contents) is one of the editor’s personal favourites and is, just like much of Smith’s work, short and memorable, justifiably deserving its place here. Then there’s Lois Mc Master Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan novella, The Borders of Infinity (1989), which, although not Miles at his absolute best, should persuade new readers to investigate further. Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang (1961) is, unsurprisingly, here, as is the unusual choice of Duel on Syrtis (1951) by Poul Anderson, a more traditional and more obscure SF tale that is good but not his best. Oldest of all is Leigh Brackett & Edmond Hamilton’s Stark and the Star Kings, which combined their two independently-famous worlds into one sword-and-sorcery story. It shows its age a little, written decades before its publication in 2005, but at least it shows us the subgenre’s origins.
At the other extreme, much more up to date is the 2016 Hugo & Nebula Award-winning novella that is Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti (2015) whose non-American viewpoint may be rather refreshing.
Personally I enjoyed Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle’s addition to the Motie Universe, Codominium: Reflex, which is a tale set before The Mote in God’s Eye (1974). First published in 1982, Reflex is, if I remember rightly, part of the book that was famously excised during a major rewrite of the novel.
If the book’s purpose is to summarise the eclectic variety that Space Opera and Military SF has to offer, then it is a fair effort. The broad range of work old and new, showing not only where it has been but where it is going to, deserves applause. The emphasis is on the well-known and the popular rather than on the significant-yet-obscure, and I am sure that this will ensure it is a well-received read. It is more akin perhaps to David Hartwell’s anthologies (an acknowledged influence here) than the Vandermeers, where Infinite Stars gains by breadth but not necessarily depth. Even with a book of over 600 pages, there will be moans about what is missed, I am sure – even the editor in his introduction bemoans the lack of an S A Corey Expanse story, for example – but there’s enough to keep most readers very happy, even when not every story is going to be liked by everyone. To be fair, that is usually the risk of any anthology.
My biggest issue with the collection is that what may be seen by many readers as a strength may also be a weakness. Reading the various tales of various lengths and ages, I kept feeling that with the stories, and particularly the newer ones, that I was missing something. Some of the worlds I knew well, but with those I didn’t I couldn’t shake the feeling that, as much as I enjoyed them, I was missing something. Many of the collection feel like they are not complete tales, that they are part of something bigger. When I finished Cordwainer Smith’s The Game of Rat and Dragon, for example, I felt a definite end. Others – the Weber, the Ender’s Game, the Dune story and more besides - reminded me of that old pulp magazine stand-by where you would read an “exclusive extract” of something bigger that was about to be published. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed most of what I read, very much so, but ultimately I couldn’t shake the feeling that many stories were an incomplete part of a whole, or a bridging link between one thing and something else.
Nevertheless, despite my quibbles, Infinite Stars is a great collection of stories old and new. Whilst it may not be the “definitive” collection of stories it claims to be on the cover, there’s enough there to act as a primer and keep a fan very happy.
dray's review against another edition
4.0
Quite an anthology, and quite a few stories. A few were duds but the majority were excellent reading, opening the door to explore wider full novels by some of the authors. recommended.
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
Schmidt, Bryan Thomas, ed. Infinite Stars: Definitive Space Opera and Military Science Fiction. Titan-Kindle, 2017.
Definitive is a bit strong, but this is a very good anthology that represents most of the best players in military space opera. It has a very good historical introduction by Robert Silverberg and 24 stories by some of the best writers in the field. If you are a fan of the genre, you will find enough new stories and a few new writers to keep you interested. If you are new to it, you will find stories from most of the writers of the great military science fiction series—Orson Scott Card, Lois McMaster Bujold, David Weber, Elizabeth Moon, and Alastair Reynolds to name a few. There weren’t many that were either too familiar or too amateurish to interest me. Worth the time.
Definitive is a bit strong, but this is a very good anthology that represents most of the best players in military space opera. It has a very good historical introduction by Robert Silverberg and 24 stories by some of the best writers in the field. If you are a fan of the genre, you will find enough new stories and a few new writers to keep you interested. If you are new to it, you will find stories from most of the writers of the great military science fiction series—Orson Scott Card, Lois McMaster Bujold, David Weber, Elizabeth Moon, and Alastair Reynolds to name a few. There weren’t many that were either too familiar or too amateurish to interest me. Worth the time.
More...