Reach for Infinity

Sunflower Cycle #2 - Hotshot

by Jonathan Strahan (Editor), Greg Egan (Contributor), Aliette de Bodard (Contributor)

Reach For Infinity (Infinity Project, Vol 3) The latest in the Infinity anthology collections edited and comissioned by multiple award-winning anthologist Jonathan Strahan. What happens when humanity reaches out into the vastness of space? The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with a sense of wonder. That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories and lies at the heart of Reach for Infinity: an original collection of new short science fiction from the biggest and most exciting names in the genre.
Contents:
* Introduction (Reach for Infinity) (2014) • essay by Jonathan Strahan
* Break My Fall (2014) / novelette by Greg Egan
* The Dust Queen (2014) / novelette by Aliette de Bodard
* The Fifth Dragon (2014) / novelette by Ian McDonald
* Kheldyu (2014) / novelette by Karl Schroeder
* Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars (2014) / novelette by Pat Cadigan
* Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts (2014) / shortstory by Karen Lord
* Amicae Aeternum (2014) / shortstory by Ellen Klages
* Trademark Bugs: A Legal History (2014) / shortstory by Adam Roberts
* Attitude (2014) / novelette by Linda Nagata
* Invisible Planets (2014) / shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi
* Wilder Still, the Stars (2014) / novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan
* The Entire Immense Superstructure': An Installation (2014) / shortstory by Ken MacLeod
* In Babelsberg (2014) / shortstory by Alastair Reynolds
* Hotshot (2014) / novelette by Peter Watts
* About the Authors (Reach for Infinity) (2014) • essay by Jonathan Strahan

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy

339 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2014

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer:

I'm not reading the entire collection. I'm reading only Peter Watts story, Hotshot.

This wonderful reviewer here: Claudia's Review has pointed out that this is not a standalone story. She's even provided a link to the author's website for the other stories (free to download) as well as the suggested reading order. Thank you!

As a matter of fact, this is the first story in the timeline for Watts' Sunflower cycle, starting off the mission from Earth and aiming for a little trip across SO MUCH TIME. :) The benefits of a black hole drive, no? :)

It really goes into the reasons for leaving and the reasons to stay on mission. Pretty interesting commentary about people, too. :) As a short story, it was pretty tight. :)

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read only Hotshot by Peter Watts so far, as part of Sunflower series.

Publication order is: The Island (2009), Hotshot (2014), Giants (2014) and The Freeze-Frame Revolution (June 2018).

Best to be read in this order: Hotshot, The Freeze-Frame Revolution, The Island, Giants.

This is the one in which we learn about the mission start of Eriophora and more about Sunday. We also get to know Kai as "he"/"him" when later, in The Freeze-Frame Revolution is "se"/"hir". I need another story about his/hir transformation. Peter Watts, do you plan to write it?

Can be read on his site: http://rifters.com/real/shorts/PeterW...

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall rating: 4

I was initially skeptical about this anthology of science fiction short stories, as I’d gotten it primarily to read Peter Watts’ “Hotshot” after I’d perused his stunning novella, “The Freeze Frame Revolution”. But I decided that since I had the book, I might as well read the other stories in it. I’m glad I did, because it turned out to be a wonderfully varied collection by a diverse group of talented authors. The audio was equally well done, as the audio readers were as diverse as the stories (and well cast, I might add). Also, the collection as a whole had a greater impact than any of the individual stories (although many of the stories were awesome). The whole shebang was a class act.

See below for my comments on the individual stories.

I didn’t comment on the individual readers, as I didn’t always know who was reading which story. But the entire cast was excellent. The narrators included Denice Stradling, Alex Wyndam, Michael Orenstein, Courtney Patterson, Vyvy Nguyen, and Michael Welch.

“Break My Fall” by Greg Egan.

3

A convoy of ships is using a way to get to Mars that involves step by step jumps from one asteroid (rock) to another. (I think; I didn’t totally understand the explanations of the technology and science. Need to reread this one perhaps). There’s a solar storm which causes one of the ships to break lose from its tether (to the convoy? to the asteroid? I’m not sure). The passengers of one ship, lead by their captain, team together to rescue the ship in distress and save its occupants from certain death. There are vividly drawn and likeable characters, including a very bright ten year old girl, Darpana. Most of the characters are South Asian (Indian I think), except for the captain, Heng. Heng’s background is unclear. The plot is less interesting than the characters. I never felt a palpable sense of danger.

“The Dust Queen” by Aliette de Bodard.

3

This story involves Fire Watch, a terraforming colony over Mars (they aren’t allowed to set foot on the planet, apparently). The Dust Queen is an elderly woman who is famous for her performances involving Martian dust clouds (I was vague on the details of her art and how it was done). She wants a “rewiring” of her brain’s memories. The young woman called upon to do the “rewiring” is reluctant because it might mean the end of the Dust Queen’s long career and may erase the Dust Queen’s memories of her performance art. The characters are all Vietnamese. The Dust Queen was born in Vietnam. The young rewirer, of Vietnamese ancestry, has never been to Earth. The audio reader was probably VyVy Nguyen, as her pronunciation of Vietnamese names and words was flawless. The story was only mildly compelling though. I didn’t connect with the characters all that much. I’m not a huge fan of this writer, but her work is unique, original, and sometimes even poetic. I did like the ending. This story, in a very roundabout way, was a mournful meditation on memories, old age, and death. But “roundabout” is the key word here. I generally find this writer’s work to be a bit too indirect, opaque, elliptical, and difficult to follow. Also, excessively elaborate and exotic. Maybe because she’s compressing too much into a short story. (Though, of course, in the hands of a writer like Borges, cryptic can work very well). I don’t think her style is that suitable for science fiction. It might work better in fantasy or poetry. Or in a novel. I think some paring down would increase the impact of her writing a lot. But that’s just my opinion. Also, perhaps I didn’t follow the text closely enough as I listened to the audio. But I just didn’t like this enough to reread it.

“The Fifth Dragon” by Ian McDonald.

3.5

The story of two young women, Achi, a British ecologist of Syrian descent and Adriana Corta, a Brazilian mining engineer, who both get jobs on the moon. They become very close friends. Interesting story, told by a much older Adriana who’s looking back. I’ll say no more about it to avoid spoilers.

Kheldyu by Karl Schroeder

3.5

I haven’t figured out the title, but the story is good. I’d say fun, but that adjective doesn’t exactly fit as the ending is not entirely happy.

Gennady, a freelance nuclear arms inspector and jack of all trades at handling dangerous situations, is hired by Achille Marceau, a wealthy young heir and entrepreneur. Achille wants to restart a project he’s mothballed. He wants to build solar updraft towers in the Siberian wilderness to generate electricity and remove CO2 from the air. His idea is to sell carbon to industries that generate greenhouse gases. He’s built one such enormous tower in Siberia as a proof of concept. It’s been shuttered for five years, and he wants to start it up again. He hires Gennady to check that the tower is safe before the rest of his people enter it. Lots of unexpected surprises and er....complications show up, and they lead to danger and action. I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers.


REPORT CONCERNING THE PRESENCE OF SEAHORSES ON MARS by Pat Cadigan

3.5

The colonists on Mars rebel against their pompous and obtuse Earth overlords..in an unexpected way. Cute and funny story with a surprise ending. Narrated by a woman named Rose Polat Feenixity. She and her dignificant other, Beau, have a wicked and goofy sense of humor. For example, an annoying Earth diplomatic, speaking through a large robot head (a “sp-eye-der”) earns the nickname Shelob.

HIRAETH: A TRAGEDY IN FOUR ACTS by Karen Lord

4

Lunar born Janik has an accident as a child and requires visual implants. He then has more augmentation and becomes part human and part cyborg. Hiraeth is a lunar disease characterized by extreme emotions and madness. Really good story. I’d like to read more by this author.

AMICAE AETERNUM by Ellen Klages

4

Lovely, poignant story about a little girl, Corry, and her best friend, Anna. I don’t want to say too much to avoid spoilers.

TRADEMARK BUGS: A LEGAL HISTORY by Adam Roberts

4

A sly and dryly humorous story, cleverly framed as a dull academic paper on the legal history of “Trademark Bugs” which are germs produced by Big Pharma in the near future (time period 2030-2099). Roberts, a British writer who obviously knows a lot about the law, outlines a scenario in which Big Pharma, having run out of real diseases to control, manufactures new ones (as well as drugs to cure them). So people are forced to either pay for the drugs or let the supposedly mild diseases run their course. In this fashion, the Big Pharma companies reap huge profits and basically take over the world, replacing governments, taxation, the military etc. “Bayer has undertaken pre-emptive strikes against the factories of the MPMU, following intelligence reports that they were working on trademark-infringing cures for the weapons of the Bayer forces. ‘Killing and maiming is one thing,’ said Bayer vice-chairman Hester Lu. ‘Wars have entailed that for thousands of years. But violating commercial copyrights and trademarks is quite another, and such behaviour will not be tolerated, in peace or in war’.”

(The Pharma companies have sidelines too. “Bayer developed anti-addiction medication, which it sold alongside its own-brand tobacco, stimulant and euphoric products.”)

The story also shows that outcomes in the so-called justice system depend on who can afford the priciest lawyers, not on what’s just, right, fair, or even legal. Even research outcomes which are quoted are heavily skewed, depending on who’s paying the bills. All of this is couched in dry as dust legal prose (punctuated by the occasional shriek of moral outrage, all the funnier because of the contrast with the rest of the story). Brilliantly done with that trademark low key British wit.

ATTITUDE by Linda Nagata

3.5

Juliet Alo is a young woman recruited to play for Team November, in Attitude, a global sports craze played in a stadium on the first city in Space, Stage One. Zaid Hackett, the CEO of Stage One is using the revenue from worldwide viewing of Attitude games to fund the construction of Stage One. One of the game’s mottoes is “Integrity is everything.” (Stage One’s motto is “Our Only Export is Entertainment”). The sport is then rocked by a cheating scandal. It’s sorted out in the end, but things get a bit dicey for a while. A fast paced, action oriented story with Juliet as the reflective narrator at its core.

INVISIBLE PLANETS by Hannu Rajaniemi

Rating = ?

More a poem than a story. Some lovely dream like language. Must reread.
Not sure how to rate.

WILDER STILL, THE STARS by Kathleen Ann Goonan

3.5

Lovely, lyrical, long story. Starts close to the 130th birthday of the narrator, May, July 2080. May lives in the D.C. area. She takes an interest in some young, homeless APs ( Artificial Persons). She takes four of them (Amanda, Jack, Olek, and Xia) into her spacious house. They amaze her. They have incredible abilities, and yet seem so human. She loves them.
Then an anti-AP backlash starts on earth...

‘The Entire Immense Superstructure’: An Installation by Ken McCleod

3.5

Bizarre and mildly amusing tale about an eccentric artist, Verrall. After 6 months in the Antarctic Art Project (or something like that) he turns up threatening to commit seppuku
with a laser pointer on the canopy at Harrod’s. He claims it’s an artistic statement, but is sent to a psychiatric clinic. He checks himself out of there (without his contact lenses,
so he has no way to connect to the cloud). He wanders into the Wikipedia of Things (aka the WikiThing) which seems to be a sort of liminal (but also physical) space for those who wish to escape from the surveillance state of the Cold Revolution. He ends up in Equatorial Guinea where he then creates a massive art installation from an extinct volcano.
I’ll leave the ending as a surprise. It’s all told by Wilson, his more normal coworker (manager?) from the Antarctic Art Project (or whatever it’s called) or in Verrall’s journals? Letters? Verrall’s prose style is tedious and wordy (Wilson describe his writing style as "prolix"). The story was original, but a lot of it’s confusing and Verrall himself (though not insane as charged) is tedious when he writes, though more interesting when he shuts up and takes action.

IN BABELSBERG by Alastair Reynolds

3.5

A strange, entertaining, and mildly funny story about an encounter between a debonair
robot named Vincent who speaks with Cary Grant’s voice and a beautiful robot
named Maria who challenges Vincent’s version of some events.
Kind of a robotic Casablanca. Vincent is making the rounds of international
podcasts and talk shows to promote his book about (among other things) finding some
dead colonists on Saturn’s moon Titan. In NY, Vincent admires his namesake’s famous painting, Starry Night, at the Museum of Modern Art. Then he does an interview with The Baby,
who’s been modified to revert to the form of an infant. After that, he flies to Germany to be
interviewed by Derek, a terrifying, full sized Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Derek, hilariously, has the vocabulary of a 3 year old and says
things like, “SIT. NOT MAKE DEREK CROSS. CROSS DEREK WANT KILL.” (This is
the best part of the story). I’m not a huge Alastair Reynolds fan, but I
enjoyed this imaginative story.

HOTSHOT by Peter Watts.

3.5

This story is why I got the book. I’d just read Watts’ amazing novella “The Freeze-Frame Revolution” and this story was supposed to provide some backstory for the novella. It does..a bit anyway.

It gives us scenes from Sunday’s childhood and adolescence (mostly her education for her space mission) and from the base camp behind Mercury. (Sunday is the main character from the novella). We also re-encounter a few familiar figures from the novella, including Kai.

******************************************
Update: the Goodreads app deleted my entire review.
Had to reenter and reedit the entire thing.
Sorry for any errors this may have caused.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good collection of originals, by the reliable Jonathan Strahan. Overall, 3.5-ish stars, rounded up. This was the third in his "Infinity" series, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?3...
TOC (etc) for this one: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?4...

● Break My Fall • novelette by Greg Egan. Egan devises a new-to-me scheme for interplanetary transport. A mishap dooms a ship. The crew, and a clever 12-year-old girl, must devise a rescue plan — and fast. 3.7 stars.
● The Dust Queen • short story by Aliette de Bodard. Not read yet, & likely won’t. I have a blind spot for her stuff.
● The Fifth Dragon • novelette by Ian McDonald. Previously read. Romance & empire-building on Luna. 3.5 stars.
● Kheldyu • [Gennady #5] • novelette by Karl Schroeder. Gennady gets involved in a complex carbon-capture scheme in the remote Putorana Plateau in arctic Siberia. 3.7 stars
● Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars • novelette by Pat Cadigan. A virtual visit to the Mars colony by the US Special Envoy. She isn’t happy with the spaced-out colonists. The old pro delivers in this polished performance. 4 stars.
● Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts • short story by Karen Lord, https://www.apex-magazine.com/hiraeth... Hiraeth is a near-fatal cafard afecting cyborged ex-humans the further they get from Earth. Slow start, gets cookin’ at the end. 4 stars.
● Amicae Aeternum • short story by Ellen Klages. https://www.tor.com/2015/03/05/amicae... A young girl spend her last morning on Earth with her BFF. Nice, 3.7 stars. Many reprints: I first read it in Dozois #32, 2015.
● Trademark Bugs: A Legal History • short story by Adam Roberts. Big Pharma takes over the world! A clever satire, and half-credible too. 4.6 stars!
● Attitude • novelette by Linda Nagata. A championship game in space, with millions of euros riding on the outcome. Is it an honest game? 3 stars.
● Invisible Planets • short story by Hannu Rajaniemi. 6 vignettes about 6 odd planets. The framing story is a “darkship” on a very long voyage, and the story does have a cute resolution. OK+, 2.5 stars.
● Wilder Still, the Stars • novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan. An astronomer and four Artificial People go to Mars. Or perhaps further out into our galaxy? A wonderful story; another chapter in SF’s long-running conversation on what it means to be human. 4.5 stars.
● 'The Entire Immense Superstructure': An Installation • short story by Ken MacLeod. A performance-art piece moves into the Wikipedia of Things. Hijinks ensue. 3.8 stars. Audio: http://arcanetimes.com/arcaneradio/20...
● In Babelsberg • short story by Alastair Reynolds. Odd story about the avatars of two AI space probes meeting on a future talk-show circuit. Reread, 3 stars.
● Hotshot • [Sunflower Cycle] • novelette by Peter Watts. https://rifters.com/real/shorts/Peter... Still unread.

[Joris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reach for Infinity is a strong collection of hard science fiction, focused more on ideas than on characters or emotions. The stories explore deep questions about physics, mathematics, consciousness, and the limits of reality itself. Some of them are genuinely mind-bending and require real attention, but that is also part of the appeal. Not every story lands equally well, and a few feel more like thought experiments than finished narratives, but overall the book offers exactly what it promises: ambitious, intellectually demanding science fiction that takes its science seriously. For readers who enjoy speculative ideas pushed to their limits, this is a satisfying collection.

[Ian Mond · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s It About

It’s the third anthology in Jonathan’s Strahan’s Infinity series. This one collects 14 short stories from writers like Ellen Klages, Adam Roberts and Karen Lord. It focuses on humanity taking the next big step forward – whether that be colonising Mars, coming to terms with Artificial Intelligence or the challenges of travelling in a generation ship.

Should I Read It?

Absolutely yes. While Jonathan might be a friend, I say without prejudice and bias that he is a magnificent anthologist. His strength – more than coming up with strong, clear, interesting themes – is finding a diverse range of high quality writers who bring different styles, perspectives and insights to the book.

Reach For Infinity only underlines this strength. While the theme of taking that next big step, of reaching for infinity, implies a collection of Hard SF stories about terraforming and slingshotting around asteroids – which the anthology does feature – Strahan mixes things up by including pieces that use the theme as a catalyst rather than a driver for the plot. Consequently, we get pieces that deal with the trademarking of pathogens (Adam Roberts), drug taking in sport (Linda Nagata), the fragility of memory (Aliette de Bodard) and the right to reproduce (Pat Cadigan).

And to top it all off, there are least five award worthy stories in the collection – which I’ll mention below in the Commentary.

Representative Paragraph

Because it made me laugh – this from Ellen Klages marvelous, Amicae Aeternum:

"Twenty Reasons Why Being on a Generation Ship Sucks, by Corrine Garcia-Kelly

1. I will never go away to college.

2. I will never see blue sky again, except in pictures.

3. There will never be a new kid in my class.

4. I will never meet anyone my parents don’t already know.

5. I will never have anything new that isn’t human-made. Manufactured or processed or grown in a lab.

6. Once I get my ID chip, my parents will always know exactly where I am.

7. I will never get to drive my Aunt Frieda’s convertible, even though she promised I could when I turned sixteen.

8. I will never see the ocean again.

9. I will never go to Paris.

10. I will never meet a tall, dark stranger, dangerous or not.

11. I will never move away from home.

12. I will never get to make the rules for my own life.

13. I will never ride my bike to a new neighborhood and find a store I haven’t seen before.

14. I will never ride my bike again.

15. I will never go outside again.

16. I will never take a walk to anywhere that isn’t planned and mapped and numbered.

17. I will never see another thunderstorm. Or lightning bugs. Or fireworks.

18. I will never buy an old house and fix it up.

19. I will never eat another Whopper.

20. I will never go to the state fair and win a stuffed animal."

Because it displays the breadth of imagery and imagination on display in this anthology – this from Peter Watts’ Hotshot:

"Not just a sea: an endless seething expanse, the incandescent floor of all creation. Plasma fractals iterate everywhere I look, endlessly replenished by upwells from way down in the convection zone. Glowing tapestries, bigger than worlds, morph into laughing demon faces with blazing mouths and eyes. Coronal hoops, endless arcades of plasma waver and leapfrog across that roiling surface to an unimaginably distant horizon."

Commentary

There are no duds in Reach For Infinity. While that doesn’t mean every story blew me away, there are at least five pieces I think should be considered for award season. They are:

Report Concerning The Presence of Seahorses On Mars by Pat Cadigan

Wilder Still, the Stars by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages

The Fifth Dragon by Ian McDonald

Trademark Bugs: A Legal History by Adam Roberts

Of the five, my favourite, without any hesitation or doubt, is the Klages. I’m ashamed that I haven’t read more of Ellen’s fiction because on the occasions I’ve been exposed to her writing I’ve fallen deeply and madly in love with the work. I remember having the same reaction to Goodnight Moons, Klages’ contribution to Jonathan’s Life on Mars anthology (also recommended). This story is simple in its plot and execution and yet it has depths. Two girls get together before dawn one morning because one of the girls – Corrine Garcia-Kelly – is about to embark, with her parents, on a generation ship. After this day, they will never see each other again. As the representative paragraph above indicates, Corrine is not keen on taking the journey. This puts her at odds with a number of us in the genre world who talk about Hard SF concepts like generation ships with a sense of awe and wonder. Klages, through the unvarnished perspective of Corrine, deconstructs the whole endeavor, injecting genuine human concerns and fears into the generation ship narrative. That might sound a bit cold and analytical, but the relationship between the two girls, as they spend these last few hours together, gives the story its vibrancy and heart.

If I had to pick a second favourite, it would be Adam Roberts’ Trademark Bugs: A Legal History. As with Ellen, my exposure to Adam’s work is unforgivably minimal (though Kirstyn and I did discuss his novelette Anticopernicus on the Writer and The Critic podcast. It’s very good). This story hits all my literary buttons in that it plays with structure and form while also saying something profound and disturbing. Written as a legal document, Robert’s describes a world where all diseases have been cured compelling pharmaceutical companies, in a bid to maintain and grow their market share, to infect the planet with their own pathogens which only they have the cure for. Sounds utterly evil, doesn’t it. And yet the brilliance of this story is how Roberts’ – by detailing the legal challenges against Big Pharma – nearly convinces us that maybe the planet would be better off if we allowed the pharmaceutical industry to takeover the world economy. Admirably, Robert’s never strays from the legal format. The language is cold and dispassionate and yet also entirely compelling. Magnificent stuff.

I could spend another 1,000 words discussing the other three pieces. But for the sake of brevity (though that horse has probably bolted) I’ll note that:
Pat Cadigan’s short story looks at the rights of reproduction in an environment where resources are scarce. It’s a warm and funny piece with a knock-out ending;

Ian McDonald is probably the first writer in history to marry together the Hard SF concept of deteriorating bone density in low gravity environments with a love story. McDonald proves that genuine Hard SF doesn’t have to be bereft of real people and raw emotion; and

Kathleen Ann Goonan’s story is an old idea – society struggling to come to terms with sentient Artificial People. However, the point of view of the piece – a 130 year old woman who has been and seen it all – gives the story its unique voice. Like the McDonald, it’s a very human piece, one that’s not afraid to wear its emotions on its sleeves.

I’m not sure if an anthology has ever won the PKD Award (anyone know?). But having now read two and a half of the nominated books, Reach For Infinity sets a high benchmark.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reach for Infinity is the highly recommended third anthology of hard science fiction short stories in the Infinity series edited by Jonathan Strahan. The first two are Engineering Infinity and Edge of Infinity.

In the 14 short stories Strahan includes, he writes: "Many of the stories take place on Earth in the next hundred years, looking at points in time where people, or a person, look to make a critical difference and push forward towards something greater. Some of them take snapshots from places – deep within the future colonies of Mars or perched in the chromosphere of the sun – where humanity as a whole is pushing its boundaries and stretching its limits in order to achieve more. All of them are about, one way or another, reaching for infinity from within and without."

This collection presents a good variety of stories by accomplished authors from the hard science fiction genre. While all of the stories included are beyond a doubt well-written and great examples of the short stories you will find in hard sci-fi today, as in any anthology, some resonated more closely to my own preferences than others. All in all, this was a good collection and I enjoyed it immensely. To be honest, it was refreshing to tackle a shorter collection like this versus the usual huge and unwieldy "best of" collections that Strahan (and others) also edit.

Contents
Introduction by Jonathan Strahan
Break My Fall by Greg Egan
The Dust Queen by Aliette de Bodard
The Fifth Dragon by Ian McDonald
Kheldyu by Karl Schroeder
Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars by Pat Cadigan
Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts by Karen Lord
Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages
Trademark Bugs: A Legal History by Adam Roberts
Attitude by Linda Nagata
Invisible Planets by Hannu Rajaniemi
Wilder Still, the Stars by Kathleen Ann Goonan
‘The Entire Immense Superstructure’: An Installation by Ken MacLeod
In Babelsberg by Alastair Reynolds
Hotshot by Peter Watts

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Solaris via Netgalley for review purposes.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the stories written by women first, and enjoyed each. The Dust Queen by Aliette de Bodard is excellent, as is Wilder Still, The Stars by Kathleen Ann Goonan. Wilder Still is superb and I'd like to read it as a novel covering the crew's ongoing adventure. 14 stories, 6 by women is a good assortment. I'm not accustomed to reading short stories, but I'm learning that, like most things, the story ends. Just a little faster than a novel. And reading a collection like this opens a world of writers I haven't read, and can find other writing. We all reach the point in a life when we've read all our favorites - some over again - and we don't have a lot of time to wait for the next work. Ideal time for discovering other talent we missed. This collection is a finalist for the 2015 Philip K. Dick award.

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 1 out of 5]

At one point I was going to rush and buy all anthologies supervised by J.Strahan.
This one made me rethink that strategy.
Half a week after I finished it I could not remember a single idea or character from it. All I could remember was longing for each particular story to be over.

[Chris Bissette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still don't quite know how to review anthologies. Do I talk about each story individually? Do I talk about the ones I liked? Talking about stories I didn't like feels like singling them out in a way that talking about a novel I disliked doesn't. It's a weird thing.

A couple of days ago I read a story in Clarkesworld by Peter Watts called The Things which immediately became one of my favourite things I've read this year. I hadn't read any Watts and I decided to look into his work. In doing so I learned about his 'Sunflower Cycle', a series of linked short stories about the voyage of a ship designed to build jump gates. I decided to read them all, in chronological order rather than publication order, and that lead me to Reach For Infinity.

This anthology contains near-future hard SF stories about humanity's first attempts to extend beyond our solar system and colonise space. Here's the table of contents:

Break My Fall, Greg Egan
The Dust Queen, Aliette de Bodard
The Fifth Dragon, Ian McDonald
Kheldyu, Karl Schroeder
Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars, Pat Cadigan
Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts, Karen Lord
Amicae Aeternum, Ellen Klages
Trademark Bugs: A Legal History, Adam Roberts
Attitude, Linda Nagata
Invisible Planets, Hannu Rajaniemi
Wilder Still, the Stars, Kathleen Ann Goonan
‘The Entire Immense Superstructure’: An Installation, Ken MacLeod
In Babelsberg, Alastair Reynolds
Hotshot, Peter Watts
14 stories is a good amount for an anthology. Any less and it feels a little empty (though you'd obviously hope they're all bangers); any more and you're often into quantity over quality territory. There's a good mixture of shorter pieces and longer here, too, with a couple of novelettes hidden among the shorts.

As with all anthologies this was a bit of a mixed bag for me, though I enjoyed it more than I didn't. I DNFd two of the stories because they just weren't for me. I also found myself a little disappointed by Alastair Reynolds' In Babelsberg. It wasn't bad but it was just a little silly for my tastes. I think it's the first Reynolds story I've read that I haven't enjoyed (though I haven't read much of his short fiction at all, being much more familiar with his novels) and that was a surprise. The Watts story - the reason I picked up the book in the first place - was good, though it's one of the 'harder' stories in the book and I struggled to follow it when it got into more technical aspects. His writing is strong, though, and even if I didn't always understand it I still enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed Aliette de Bodard's The Dust Queen and Ian McDonald's The Fifth Dragon, and I'm going to seek out more work by both of those authors. The Dust Queen isn't the only story here that explores the mental and emotional effect on humans of leaving earth behind, but it's the one that does it best. The Fifth Dragon is a really interesting take on the logistics of colonising the moon under capitalism, and the human impact of that.

Another story that stood out to me was Adam Roberts' Trademark Bugs: A Legal History'. It takes the form of an academic essay recounting the history of lab-grown pathogens and the way pharma companies reshaped global economies and society by releasing them, selling the cure, and wielding the legal system aggressively to pursue their interests. It's a fascinating piece of writing, and I suspect it hits differently now in a landscape where COVID has happened than it did in 2014. I tried to read Roberts' By Light Alone many years ago and bounced off it, but this story makes me think I should revisit him now that I'm older.

This was a good read. It seems that this anthology is the third in a thematically-linked series, and I may have to pick up the others at some point.

[El · Rating 3 out of 5]

The range of quality of these short stories was immense. I did appreciate the scientific ideas in each, however presented them more competently than others.

My favourites were In Babelsberg, Amicae Aeternum, and Attitude. The Dust Queen, Immense Structure, and Seahorses on Mars were also fun.

Wilder Still, the Stars, on the other hand, had an interesting premise but was so all over the place it felt like a first draft and the narration was painful to read. Some of the others I found a little slow, or confusing.

The Fifth Dragon is good, but is told much better in the backstory chapters of the Luna: New Moon novel. It was the reason I started this book though, and I’m glad of it. The whole thing was worth the read overall.

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that watch as humanity extends into space. As with most anthologies, some stories were spectacular and some didn't speak to me at all. I appreciated the extrapolation and acceptance of alternative life views, and I always like an excuse to dabble in hard scifi, which I don't normally gravitate to.

One of the Philip K Dick award nominees, worth reading but as always, the nature of a collection of short stories from multiple authors rarely completely satisfies, there's always a story or two that doesn't resonate with the reader, which will most likely eliminate this as a contender.

[Ned Cunningham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty bad and uninspiring.

Lost all faith after the Karl Schroeder story which DOES NOT TAKE PLACE IN SPACE AT ALL.

Notable good stories:
The Fifth Dragon
Hiraeth
Invisible Planets
Attitude
In Babelsberg

[Odo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best anthology of original SF stories in years.

[Paul Weimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://skiffyandfanty.com/2014/06/19/...
My review at Skiffy and Fanty

[Martial Trevett · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are very high tech hard core science fiction stories. I found all but 2 very boring.

[Trike · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any short story collection, this is a mixed bag, but quite good overall. All of these stories were written in 2013 and most are still relevant today, ten years later.

BREAK MY FALL by Greg Egan ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
A really good story about a convoy of ships heading out to colonize Mars by using stations placed in strategic orbits to enhance the slingshot maneuver in order to shorten the trip. Something goes badly wrong. Unfortunately, the story leaves us hanging without a proper ending, but up to that point it’s quite compelling.

THE DUST QUEEN by Aliette de Bodard ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Excellent story about an artist who manipulates Mars dust for shows that’s really all about going home again.

THE FIFTH DRAGON by Ian McDonald ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Superb story about workers on the moon and the society that has evolved there. Unlike the Egan story, this one has a complete arc that is immensely satisfying.

KHELDYU by Karl Schroeder ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
A story about biohacking the environment in order to stop global warming and how being stupidly competitive with other companies which are trying something different is bad for everyone. Really underscores the stupidity of ego, especially on the corporate level.

REPORT CONCERNING THE PRESENCE OF SEAHORSES ON MARS by Pat Cadigan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Cadigan once again brings the heat about a person’s right to choose, this time about men giving birth to babies on Mars. You have to read it to get it. But it’s really fucking good. She still has those sharp cyberpunk swords used to skewer the controlling class. It really *is* hard to keep a colony under one’s bootheel, isn’t it?

HIRAETH: A TRAGEDY IN FOUR ACTS by Karen Lord ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
Bit of an odd one, but quite short and punchy. I’m not entirely sure I get it, but the gist is about a cyborg on the run, striving to be free.

AMICAE AETERNUM by Ellen Klages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
What do you leave behind when you ship out to the stars on a generation ship? What if you’re a little girl who is being forced to go because her parents want to? Yes, it is the exact same story as the Penny arc from the 1998 Lost in Space movie, but done better.

TRADEMARK BUGS: A LEGAL HISTORY by Adam Roberts ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Oh dear god, the future of designer diseases where BigPharma releases diseases into the wild and then charges people to get the cures, and how they manipulate the government into making it all legal. This feels all-too-plausible after seeing real-life nonsense like Citizens United (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-wor...) which gave corporations the ability to spend whatever they want on elections, strengthening the idea that corporations have the rights of persons (but none of the responsibilities) (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpo...). Truly terrifying, all the more so because this is written in such a matter-of-fact way as if it’s a law school summation.

ATTITUDE by Linda Nagata ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Space sports being space fixed? Say it ain’t so, Jo!

INVISIBLE PLANETS by Hannu Rajaniemi ⭐️⭐️ 2/5
This is an artsy-fartsy story of the type I don’t vibe with, as the kids say.

WILDER STILL, THE STARS by Kathleen Ann Goonan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Hatred of artificial beings standing in for the bigotry against the fill in the blank. Effortlessly excellent.

‘THE ENTIRE IMMENSE SUPERSTRUCTURE’: AN INSTALLATION by Ken MacLeod ⭐️ 1/5
I have no idea what this is about.

IN BABELSBERG by Alastair Reynolds ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
Another robot story that doesn’t quite land how differently their minds work, but it’s a valiant attempt.

HOTSHOT by Peter Watts ⭐️ 1/5
This one I fully grokked, I just didn’t like it. Again with the fartsy-artsy junk I dislike.

A weak bunch to go out on, but overall quite a good collection.

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of original fiction is based around the premise of humanity spreading out into space. This is the third in the Infinity anthology series, with the first two being Edge of Infinity and Engineering Infinity.

For an anthology it feels short at just fourteen short stories, even though together they clock in at 352 pages – a decent size for a book. From well known authors and with Strahan’s seal on the deal, you’re confident in knowing that you’re going to have a worthy collection in front of you.

Break My Fall by Greg Egan

A group of people are setting out to inhabit Mars, and we’re lead by the man who runs the shuttle between Earth and Mars to get them there. We see how an everyday (well, I’m sure it takes longer than a day, yes) run goes slightly wrong, and the decisions that have to be made when lives are on the line. How do you choose when lives are at stake, but reacting shall only endanger more lives? Do you cut your losses and strive on, or does the part that makes us human require us to at least try to save those lives, when you’re their only hope?

I liked the technical aspect of this short – how company rules state only a certain amount of family can be on any shuttle at one time – in case something goes horribly wrong, so that the whole or a large chunk or family aren’t lost at once. I’ve been meaning to read Greg Egan for a while, and this just may push me along.

The Dust Queen by Aliette de Bodard

Technology exists that enables you to choose whether you want to choose memories to become more or less vivid. Doing such a thing can only mean sacrifices, whether it’s immediate or later on. This piece was surprisingly sentimental, which grounded it in an otherwise foreign setting and plot (clearly, as it’s depended on the technology). The writing is beautifully descriptive but other than that this piece left me a little cold for some reason.

The Fifth Dragon by Ian McDonald

Set on the moon during its development, we meet two girls from Brazil and Syria, who become friends and then something more during their posting. They’ve taken contracts to work on the moon for a stint, and then we also get to see them come to the time when they must decide whether they’ll stay on the moon, or return to Earth before their bodies lack the strength to withstand gravity.

Again, another sentimental story, though this one was rather more bittersweet, or managed to resonate with me more than the previous.

Khuldyu by Karl Schroeder

A contractor employed to tidy up certain events or people, rather in James Bond style. This is rather grand, an American style movie feel to the whole thing, however my attention kept slipping throughout as the characters felt flat and I just didn’t care for them. This almost felt like it’s a short story taken from a bigger world, so perhaps, having not read anything else staring this character, I’m missing out on the bigger picture.

Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars by Pat Cadigan

Colonists from Mars essentially funded by being part of a planet-wide reality show for those back on Earth, which leads to a certain amount of disregard. This piece shows how they would develop years away from Earth now, written with a light voice and witty characters, that makes it seem like there could be a whole series behind this one also – but in a better, more enticing way, that makes you eager to hunt out and read more.

I was particularly interested in the idea of Earth banning those on Mars to have kids, but due to the wording – females becoming pregnant – it of course leads to men attempting to have children of their own.

Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts by Karen Lord

A cyborg who struggles to understand his identity, and that of those around him. The choices he makes make the reader connect with the cyborg effectively.

In this, if you’re in space, you’ll eventually contract a disease where the only cure (or way to deal with it) is to make yourself less and less human. With a way that ties the ending to the beginning, this was probably one of my favourite pieces in the anthology overall.

Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages

A simple story that lasts with you, that shows that no matter how far afield humans may eventually get, simple things such as friendship shall still ring true, and that goodbyes are simply hard – no matter how much sense the decision may be.

This was another of the stronger pieces within the anthology, seeming so simple on the outside and yet resonating with the reader in a touching, sweet way.

Trademark Bugs: A Legal History by Adam Roberts

This one had a sense of humour that appealed to me, but I can see how some may not have liked it nearly as much as I do. Here we have a company who makes their money by curing people… after they’re the people who infected them in the first place!

Presented in dry, sarcastic humour in legal documents, this is a non-fiction fiction, much like World War Z or House of Leaves, it’s presented in a non-fiction style whilst, of course, being utter fiction – thank goodness!

The problem with this one is that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this hasn’t already happened, somewhere.

Attitude by Linda Nagata

A young-adult piece (whereas most of the other pieces here felt directed towards more of an adult audience), Attitude is a game that reminded me quite a bit of sports you see in Final Fantasy video games. That however, wasn’t enough to sell it to me, and this piece just didn’t manage to grab my attention.

Invisible Planets by Hannu Rajaniemi

A story inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

A sentient spaceship that thinks back upon the planets it has travelled to, and the things it has experienced. Told in an abstract form that somehow suits the sentient format, this seemed to be trying a little too hard to be absurd. It would have been interesting, effective and simply enough to find the beauty and enjoyment in things that make fact – but I think this one went somewhat over my head. I mean, it’s Hannu Rajaniemi – what do I know?

Wilder Still, the Stars by Kathleen Ann Goonan

A woman much older than we manage to live to now, combines her knowledge and experience, along with the friends and contacts she’s made in her 130 years, to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. We see an inspiring piece of work that takes care to describe the setting in a beautiful way.

This is a piece that makes you smile, and hope that more people would be willing to do something similar. Though having just watched Transcendence, it made me wonder about those that would oppose her, and wonder if this were fact, what other obstacles she would meet along the way.

‘The Entire Immense Superstructure’: An Installation by Ken MacLeod

An interesting beginning; we see the main character making a political statement by trying to kill himself publicly. This just goes to show that people always say that the future will be bigger and better and more fair, and that the shan’t be such a divide between the grossly rich and the insignificant poor, and that we’ll have more time to ourselves because technology will make everything easier… this is the piece that gives a much more believable view.

This was incredibly engaging, however I would have liked to see even more of the world as parts didn’t feel as developed or succinct as they could have. I could probably read a novel set in this world with this plot.

In Babelsberg by Alastair Reynolds

An incredibly effective piece, this feels like how the anthology should have ended. Here we have beautiful writing and description, yet it’s also so incredibly creepy that it stays with you, and holds your attention beautifully. And what an ending!

This piece asks the questions that most AI science fiction asks, and it does it well.

Hotshot by Peter Watts

Another piece that seemed to be set amongst their bigger works, Hotshot didn’t feel well-rounded to me, as though I’m missing details having not read previous works showing this character. Somewhat of a low to end on.

~

Overall this is a short, interesting anthology, however it didn’t manage to capture me as well as some others I’ve read this year.

To read this review with nicer formatting, as well as other reviews, please click here.

[Milliebot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publication date: May 27, 2014
Let me start off by saying I received a free copy of the e-book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book contains 14 short stories regarding humanity in space, reaching farther than the Earth and moon, struggling to create new communities and dealing with new technology. Strahan describes the collection in his introduction:

"Many of the stories take place on Earth in the next hundred years, looking at points in time where people, or a person, look to make a critical difference and push forward towards something greater. Some of them take snapshots from places - deep within the future colonies of Mars or perched in the chromosphere of the sun - where humanity as a whole is pushing its boundaries and stretching its limits in order to achieve more. All of them are about, one way or another, reaching for infinity from within and without."

Strahan also describes this book as a collection of "hard science fiction stories," which was a new term for me. I'm not very technical when it comes to genres so I looked to Wikipedia for more information and found this:

"Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both."

My thoughts:
Overall, I enjoyed the book - it was a nice change of pace, going back to science fiction - and "hard scifi" was a new experience for me. These stories definitely had a big technical focus and while sometimes it was hard to wrap my brain around the concepts or images being discussed, I really felt immersed in the future these writers created. I could imagine the technology in some of these stories coming to fruition at some point - though within 100 years seems like a bit of a stretch - and the problems some characters faced seemed very real. In some cases I was actually frightened, thinking about some of the worlds these writers created, because it's not a reality I would want to experience, but it seemed very possible. I thought the stories fit together well as a collection too - while I picked up on differences in writing style, it was clear all the writers were on the same wavelength and trying to write in the same universe. My biggest problem was probably my inexperience with the "hard scifi" genre - because it is supposed to be so technically detailed, and I'm not used to that, I did feel lost at times. I couldn't always picture the scenes or images the writers were trying to portray because there was so much jargon that I just didn't understand. But this isn't a criticism on the writers - I think if this was a genre I was more familiar with (or if I had a big interest in science and technology already) I don't think it would feel so overwhelming.

If you're a big scifi buff, especially someone who is into technical and scientific details, you should definitely check out Reach for Infinity. Strahan also references his two other collections in this intro, Edge of Infinity and Engineering Infinity so those might be worth checking out as well.

Some stories just didn't leave a big impression on me - though, as I said, they all fit nicely in this collection - so I don't have something to say about each one. Instead, I'm just going to share my thoughts on a few:

Break My Fall by Greg Egan - This story focuses on a group of people traveling from Earth to Mars. They're in a sort of convoy - multiple little ships traveling in a group - propelled through space by...asteroids? Unfortunately, this is one of the stories I had a hard time imagining - but it seemed like the ships latch onto some asteroids and use their rotation to propel to the next one. Anyway, a space storm arises and the crew has to make a decision about where to stop. When they do decide to dock at a station that can hold everyone from the convoy, one ship has an issue docking, and almost ends up lost in space. I don't want to give away the whole story, but I'll say that the ending left me puzzled. This might be because I couldn't really get a handle on the story from the beginning - but I honestly had no clue what to think of the ending.

Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars by Pat Cadigan - At first I was totally confused by this title, but as the story progressed it made a lot of sense. Cadigan gives us a peek at colony life on Mars and the restrictions that Earth has placed on the people living there, because they're funding the whole project. I got the sense this was an earlier stage of the project, not something those on Earth were sure about continuing. As a precaution, they put a ban on childbearing, but the laws were worded so that it only prevented women from having children - as a result, some men decided to experiment with pregnancy. My summary might sound disturbing, but the story was well written and I enjoyed the little troupe of characters we followed. Again, I was a little lost with some of the imagery, but otherwise I was engrossed in Cadigan's world and I would like this to be a full novel.

Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages - Klages tells a story of a girl saying goodbye to her best friend, as well as everything she's familiar with on Earth, because her parents have volunteered to be part of a space project that will bring their family into space and leave them there. The girl and her family will live aboard a massive ship until their death, helping to create future generations, who will also live and die entirely on the ship as it navigates across the universe. This story was incredibly depressing because I couldn't imagine being forced to participate in something like that. It also reminded me of Beth Revis's story Across the Universe, as if this were a sort of prequel.

Trademark Bugs: A Legal History by Adam Roberts - This story was probably hardest for me to understand because it was formatted to be a sort of legal essay, about cases against pharmaceutical companies that started manufacturing bugs (colds, diseases, etc) as well as the cures, so that people would become infected and be forced to purchase the remedy or suffer. Between the legalese and the format of the document, I felt a little lost, but I understood the overall message, and it scared me. To me, designer bugs like this seem way more possible than traveling to Mars and creating a livable community. In my mind, it's something that could occur while I'm still alive! Probably I'm paranoid, but this little document really freaked me out, which is a sign of good writing.

In Babelsberg by Alastair Reynolds - This story focuses on a robot that was made to travel through space and document what humans could only hope to see someday. But what I focused on were the modifications humans could make to their bodies, thanks to the advancements of science. The robot in this story goes on two different talk shows to discuss his job - one is hosted by a baby, the other a T-Rex. Yes, they used to be regular men and paid for these genetic...enhancements? I don't consider being physically reverted to a baby or transformed into a T-Rex as an enhancement, but apparently these two gentlemen were pleased with their choices. This was another disturbing tale (in a good way!) and while I can't imagine something like this being possible any time soon, I can imagine people modifying or changing their bodies in strange ways, given the opportunity.

One thing that did bother me about the book was the formatting. I will say right now that I don't read e-books as often, so maybe I'm just not used to it, but the pages often had strange spacing that made it hard for me to focus on the writing. There were also spelling and grammar errors (though not as many as I've encountered in other e-books) and I'm not sure if this is because it's an e-book or because it just hasn't gone through the last round of edits.

[Katya · Rating 4 out of 5]

We don’t always appreciate that life is precarious.

Reach for Infinity was a reminder that it is.

A collection of hard science fiction, the anthology aims to stay scientifically consistent and doesn’t tiptoe around the more technical details of its subject matter. This meant that throughout its 350 pages, I was reminded, again and again, just how fragile the balance of life is, how many comforts we take for granted, and just how much effort must be put in to sustain it as we explore the Universe. I marvelled also at the extent of human imagination and ability. It was enjoyable to delve into this semi-realistic, technological setting – the atmosphere was often akin to the movie Gravity. In the space stories especially, there was a feeling of… well, precariousness, of a thin line of scientific progress separating exploration from death.

The collection flowed well and held together nicely, putting forth a unified image of a future, presented from multiple angles. Nonetheless, it had very few gems. Short stories are a difficult medium – the author must develop a unique voice in a few pages and leave a lasting impression. There were relatively few stories that had any uniqueness in voice, format, theme or plot, though my enjoyment of several prompted me to give Reach for Infinity a four, instead of three, star rating. Overall, it was an easily digestible read; I took bites of it before bed for a couple of weeks and found that it exercised my mind just enough to be entertaining without being strenuous. I also noted that the protagonists in many stories were unusually diverse in gender, ethnicity and even sexual orientation. It was interesting and very good to see that many key characters were women.

A few words on each of the stories:

Break My Fall, by Greg Egan presents an interesting dilemma, but the initial description of the space ship, in the very first paragraph, is difficult to visualize, which didn’t feel like the right way to start off the collection. The ending was blunt – when it comes to short stories, I tend to appreciate the author who leaves something to the imagination, which seems to me to usually make for a less generic plot curve.

The Dust Queen, by Aliette de Bodard featured a very interesting technology (ability to re-wire the brain to make some memories more or less vivid) and described it well. The theme was somewhat stereotypically sentimental, dealing with the relationship between the artist’s life experiences and emotions and how these translate to art.

The Fifth Dragon, by Ian McDonald was interesting for me to read as a business student, as it featured an account of entrepreneurship as the Moon society was being built. Again, there was some sentimentalism of friendship and love, which seems all too common in short stories. There was nothing poor about this story, but nothing to make it stand out for me, either.

Kheldyu by Karl Schroeder felt unnecessarily long, and read rather like a crime story, featuring industrial and environmental crimes. Relatively generic and somewhat predictable, with, again, nothing standing out. I think the problem for me was that the characters felt flat.

Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars by Pat Cadigan discussed a really interesting possibility, later mentioned in several stories, about a Mars colony financed entirely by entertainment (the people of Mars were essentially part of a 24/7 reality TV show), and how the Mars society would evolve under such circumstances. A humorous narrator portraying an intriguing future in the right amount of detail. Quite enjoyable!

Hiraeth: a Tragedy in Four Acts by Karen Lord had a very effective connection between beginning and end. It gave a voice to a cyborg, as he struggled to define his identity for himself and others. Though it could have benefitted from a somewhat expanded definition and exploration of “hiraeth” (a mental condition experienced by all humans in Outer Space), I really quite enjoyed this one!

Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages was one of my favourites. It documents the last day of a teenage girl on Earth, before she must leave with her parents for a space ship, on which she, and her children, and her children’s children, and more generations will live and die before reaching their destination. There was nothing special explored in the way of technology, but the emotion of inevitable and permanent parting with so many dear things, so many small things that we take for granted, was strongly and subtly conveyed.

Trademark Bugs: A Legal History by Adam Roberts gets a big round of applause for its format! I loved the idea behind the structure of the story. “Non-fictional fiction” is a fascinating way of writing (think World War Z the book). In a rather formal tone of an academic article (complete with bibliography), Roberts explores the legal debates that surrounded the practice of pharma companies releasing viruses so they could sell cures for them. This allowed him to deal with abstract and conflicting ideas and long history in an engaging and absolutely non-cliche way. As a soon-to-be lawyer, perhaps this is a type of writing I might one day explore.

Attitude by Linda Nagata again returned to the idea of a space colony financed by entertainment – this time, by the game of Attitude (sort of zero gravity football?). It talks about an instance of suspected cheating and brings up some interesting questions, but the resolution seems to be implausibly perfect. Without the resolution having measurable wider social implications for the fictional world, it’s just like reading a newspaper report about a soon-to-be-forgotten scandal. No sparks.

Invisible Planets by Hannu Rajaniemi is an abstract story, non-traditionally structured. Great concept and interesting presentation, though some planets it described were absurd – like the planet of words. No matter how much we readers and writers like our respective activities, ’tis not what the world is made of; there’s no reason to severely romanticize the reading/writing pursuit. That happens too much as it is, and it sickens me a little.

Wilder Still, the Stars by Kathleen Ann Goonan discussed a very interesting concept of, in essence, artificial humans, grown for a particular function and discarded if no longer useful. Some great questions about the self-concept and identity of these individuals, and a good story to wrap it in. Enjoyable!

‘The Entire Immense Superstructure’: an Installation by Ken MacLeod also aimed for “non-fictional fiction” writing. Well done, though the idea of WikiThing could use some more elaboration.

In Babelsberg by Alistair Reynolds was wonderful. The narrator’s voice was very consistent throughout – it was subtly and skillfully executed to really sound like the words of a robot. Really makes one think about whether AI can develop a unique identity, emotion, desire… Stories like this are needed for us to think through our relationship with robots as we develop them. I’m actually curious to see more of Reynolds’ work.

Hotshot by Peter Watts was a rumination on the existence of free will, or lack thereof. Interesting setting for such a debate, and the story leads logically to the debate’s conclusion in a powerful few sentences. On a personal note, curious to see someone else think of a web connecting all living things – something I looked at in a short story of my own before I came across this one!

Overall, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Reach for Infinity is a must-read, some of its individual stories are worth checking out, and the book as a whole is a good one for the science fiction to unwind with in the summer.

4/5

I got this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Thistle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick synopsis : A hard science fiction anthology containing 14 stories.

Brief opinion : I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jonathan Strahan's tastes are polar opposite of mine. All of these anthologies edited by him never work for me.

Of the 14 stories, one I enjoyed and two more were okay, but the rest didn't work for me at all. (These three I liked were ones that generally got the lowest reviews by other readers, which confirms that hard sci-fi is just not for me. I like characters more than technical detail.)

Plot : The story I liked best was Attitude, a novella by Linda Nagata. Set in the future, an innovator finds a way to make a sports league drive moving humanity into space -- all the profits from the new sport she invented go towards building a city in space.

In Babelsberg by Alastair Reynolds was interesting until the ending (a cyborg who was created to explore the universe comes back to Earth for a media tour).

Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages. A young girl is days away from joining her family aboard a generational ship and leaving Earth forever. She spends the morning with her best friend doing things for the last time. [While I liked this one, I can see why others complained about it. Other than mention of the generational ship, there was no sci-fi about this one at all.]

Writing/editing : Both were generally okay.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like : Hard sci-fi just isn't for me. The three stories I liked were the ones that were more about characters than tech.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved : ⭐️⭐️ - Disliked. I have two or three more of these Infinity books on my Kindle, but I might just delete them without reading them. My luck with the series so far has been pretty bad.

[Ida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Svært at give stjerner til bogen, når det er en novellesamling; nogle var klart bedre end andre. Samt nogle forstod jeg bedre end andre, må jeg hellere skynde mig at sige. Dette er “tung” science fiction, og de tungeste noveller føltes som værende på niveau med en rapport om rumteknologi (og det er selvfølgelig bare jeg som ikke er nørdet nok indenfor det emne). Men andre var virkelig gode og fik mine tanker igang om fremtiden, og hvordan den mon kommer til at være. En novelle som fortjener 5 stjerner, ihvertfald ydmygt subjektivt set, var “ Amicae Aeternum” af Ellen Klages. Kort fortalt; en pige har sin sidste dag på jorden, inden hun skal rejse med et generationstumskib. Hverken hun, hendes børn eller børnebørn kommer til at leve uden for rumskibet. Hvilke tanker har man så lige? Ja, disse blev beskrevet godt af forfatteren.

[Alan Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third collection of the Infinity Project it is the first one I have completed with others waiting in my TBR "stack" of Kindle books. While all are decent stories, some are better than others. Decide for yourself which is which as my tastes are going to be different from yours. High marks overall on the theme of exploring man going out into space.

I love story anthologies because one can dabble into individual stories in short spans of time going about life. In the midst of filling in short blocks of time I also happened to read several authors whose work was new to me for which I will look for their other work. Lots of exploring going on.

[Mark Ames · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 star review but it could have been a three because of the Ken McLeod and Alistair Reynolds stories. Ken McLeod story was just thin, not much there and the Reynolds story had a reader who made me think of James T. Kirk, meh. These are probably very good stories on their own but in this grouping they didn't work for me. Otherwise fantastic so four stars for variety of stories, characters, settings, and readers.

[Bridger Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent anthology. Some of the stories really perplexed my sense of scene, and I really struggled to grasp what the authors were trying to convey visually. There were also a few blatant typos throughout—not a ton, but a few that caught my eye upon first reading. Otherwise, most of the stories were enjoyable.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology has stories from three of my favorite writers - Linda Nagata, Pat Cadigan, and Kathleen Ann Goonan - and those were the ones I liked best (loved them, in fact), though I think I'd read the Nagata story previously. The rest were a mixed bag, but I didn't find any of them outstanding. So, five stars for three stories, maybe 3 stars average for the rest, if that.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my favorite on the series so far, a few really strong stories in here - I enjoyed The Dust Queen, Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars, Hiraeth, Amicae Aeternum, Trademark Bugs, Attitude, and In Babelsberg, in particular. Solid selection overall, and far and away the Infinity collection that has kept my attention the best.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent set of high technology science fiction stories. After reading this you may want some of this technology to become reality and others to never be invented.

[Charl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tasty, sharp, titanium steel Hard Sci Fi at it's best.

[Reuben Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it