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A review by blkmymorris
Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction by Ian Whates
3.0
Like it any anthology, it's hit and miss, but many of the ideas don't feel fully fleshed out, but the hits are delicious.
The first story by Paul Cornell reminded me that he wrote comics and why I don't usual read his stuff (except Young Avengers: Dark Reign). It was the usual Earth bound humans and their first (sexual) encounter with another species. it's a bit boring because it's pretty predictable and hetero-normative. The sex is described in an interesting way, but there's not much new or interesting in this story.
Next up is Nancy Kress with her usual dissect of how technology can be used to divide the haves and have-nots. This time it's personal, which makes it feel a bit thin and the end too vague and personal.
"Shall Inherit" is another cliche story about an ecological disaster leading to an Ark sent to space. The twist is that the Ark will be filled with autistic kids and it's from the perspective of the father of one of these kids. The best bit is the DJ/blogger/streamcast that serves as exposition. that was fun. The author handles voices of his characters very well.
"Feast and Famine" is the first piece of hard sci-fi and I enjoyed it greatly. a space crew examines another downed craft and see if it contacted life. It's suspenseful and nicely plotted. I felt the protagonists anxiety.
"Whatever Skin you Wear" was a sweet virtual reality type story involving a couple. It's actually one of the better stories on handling gender and identity.
"Pearl in the Shell" takes a look at music and copyright in the future. It's not my sort of thing, but it plays well with some neat ideas. It felt like a fully realized world, but I just wasn't invested in the characters or the world like I was with the story that preceded it.
"The Time Gun" is a fun time travel story. The end was a nice twist. It reminded me of Vonnegurt with the plot and the humor.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is one of my favorite authors and this story just reminded me. It time travel as viewed by an academic who cares more about her research that the possible effects of viewing the past would have on history itself. the quotes and the last scenes are just wonderful. I can't say more without feeling like I would take away from the humor or the relationships and how they affect the outcome. I might be blathering.
"Bonds" might be the worst story in the book. It's more like a giant outline of book. There's only a few scenes. It's more about the idea of the story than actually events and how it affects people and their lives. It went beyond being predictable and was more like reading the author work out a rant with vague characters.
"Ticking" was predictable, too, but the characters were fun. The voice of the characters weren't as clear, but it was your usual story of technology turning on humanity and a small band of survivors with a few that have useful skills.
"Before Hope" was another story that threw you into a dystopian future in space amidst a workers rebelling against the upper class. It was a fully realized world that I wouldn't mind visiting in a full novel.
Kay Kenyon does sort of the same thing in "The Spires of Greme" without the class conflict. It's a dystoopian America and the rebellion is barely that. By the time the story ended I wanted more of the last characters standing. The description of the land and events were evocative and beautiful.
"Manmade" by Mercurio D. Rivera was beautiful for the exploration of humanity and what it means even at its worst. There were a lot of directions that story could have gone in and I was delightful surprised in how he structured this relatable world and the plot.
Martin Sketchley's "Circle of Least Confusion" was one of the collection's hopeful stories. It takes a simple and familiar sci-fi idea of an alien artifact and how it affect as couple who finds it and makes a sweet little story.
"Far Distant Suns" is a hard sci-fi story of witnessing a sun rise on an alien planet. A solid story despite barely having no characters and no dialogue.
"The Lighthouse" feels like it was cobbled together from parts of other stories. It's complete but It left me cold. I'm not sure why. Mayeb because I found the ending cliche despite the story''s lovely language.
Martin McGrath's "The Last Dance" is the other hopeful story. It has a tinge of dystopia, but it's focus is on relationships and it's a small beautiful story.
"Still Life with a Skull" was an interesting concept and I love the images presenting in the story, but I'm not sure what happened. I loved the frequent use of gender neutral pronouns, like hir and se.
Vandana Singh's "With Fate Conspire" was an interesting a beautiful story. I want to read more by her. I could go on and on about the themes and the language and the characters, but
The first story by Paul Cornell reminded me that he wrote comics and why I don't usual read his stuff (except Young Avengers: Dark Reign). It was the usual Earth bound humans and their first (sexual) encounter with another species. it's a bit boring because it's pretty predictable and hetero-normative. The sex is described in an interesting way, but there's not much new or interesting in this story.
Next up is Nancy Kress with her usual dissect of how technology can be used to divide the haves and have-nots. This time it's personal, which makes it feel a bit thin and the end too vague and personal.
"Shall Inherit" is another cliche story about an ecological disaster leading to an Ark sent to space. The twist is that the Ark will be filled with autistic kids and it's from the perspective of the father of one of these kids. The best bit is the DJ/blogger/streamcast that serves as exposition. that was fun. The author handles voices of his characters very well.
"Feast and Famine" is the first piece of hard sci-fi and I enjoyed it greatly. a space crew examines another downed craft and see if it contacted life. It's suspenseful and nicely plotted. I felt the protagonists anxiety.
"Whatever Skin you Wear" was a sweet virtual reality type story involving a couple. It's actually one of the better stories on handling gender and identity.
"Pearl in the Shell" takes a look at music and copyright in the future. It's not my sort of thing, but it plays well with some neat ideas. It felt like a fully realized world, but I just wasn't invested in the characters or the world like I was with the story that preceded it.
"The Time Gun" is a fun time travel story. The end was a nice twist. It reminded me of Vonnegurt with the plot and the humor.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is one of my favorite authors and this story just reminded me. It time travel as viewed by an academic who cares more about her research that the possible effects of viewing the past would have on history itself. the quotes and the last scenes are just wonderful. I can't say more without feeling like I would take away from the humor or the relationships and how they affect the outcome. I might be blathering.
"Bonds" might be the worst story in the book. It's more like a giant outline of book. There's only a few scenes. It's more about the idea of the story than actually events and how it affects people and their lives. It went beyond being predictable and was more like reading the author work out a rant with vague characters.
"Ticking" was predictable, too, but the characters were fun. The voice of the characters weren't as clear, but it was your usual story of technology turning on humanity and a small band of survivors with a few that have useful skills.
"Before Hope" was another story that threw you into a dystopian future in space amidst a workers rebelling against the upper class. It was a fully realized world that I wouldn't mind visiting in a full novel.
Kay Kenyon does sort of the same thing in "The Spires of Greme" without the class conflict. It's a dystoopian America and the rebellion is barely that. By the time the story ended I wanted more of the last characters standing. The description of the land and events were evocative and beautiful.
"Manmade" by Mercurio D. Rivera was beautiful for the exploration of humanity and what it means even at its worst. There were a lot of directions that story could have gone in and I was delightful surprised in how he structured this relatable world and the plot.
Martin Sketchley's "Circle of Least Confusion" was one of the collection's hopeful stories. It takes a simple and familiar sci-fi idea of an alien artifact and how it affect as couple who finds it and makes a sweet little story.
"Far Distant Suns" is a hard sci-fi story of witnessing a sun rise on an alien planet. A solid story despite barely having no characters and no dialogue.
"The Lighthouse" feels like it was cobbled together from parts of other stories. It's complete but It left me cold. I'm not sure why. Mayeb because I found the ending cliche despite the story''s lovely language.
Martin McGrath's "The Last Dance" is the other hopeful story. It has a tinge of dystopia, but it's focus is on relationships and it's a small beautiful story.
"Still Life with a Skull" was an interesting concept and I love the images presenting in the story, but I'm not sure what happened. I loved the frequent use of gender neutral pronouns, like hir and se.
Vandana Singh's "With Fate Conspire" was an interesting a beautiful story. I want to read more by her. I could go on and on about the themes and the language and the characters, but