Review: Writers of the Future 39
Overall
I have no criticism for the overall publication. It kept my interest most of the way through, and I have detailed my feedback for every story and article below.
Timelines and Bloodlines
Not only does the subject of time travel require that the reader do a complete suspension of belief. This subject also can make it very difficult for the author to maintain the integrity of his data. For example, keep in mind that the reconciliation of the data in this next paragraph might not occur instantly.
Suppose you fatally shot your own ancestor at a time prior to the conception of his child who also was your ancestor. Then you would not exist and consequently could not have killed your ancestor, except that then you WOULD exist and might see that ancestor alive, despite your memory of having killed him (whew!).
This and more happens to a foursome that is sent back in time on a mission to commit a murder and thereby prevent a huge catastrophe. Through it all, this crew constantly must deduce what is happening and why. Their communications could remind one of the Abbott and Costello skit, “Who’s on First”. More than once they have to move back to their time of arrival on the scene; change their plans; and start over.
The author bit off all this and still succeeded.
Kitsune
The only comparable work I have seen is Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” but with the opposite underlying theme. Both depict rejection of human identity, but in “Rhinoceros” the flow is toward conformity and joining the thundering herd, while in “Kitsune” the flow is toward freedom and individuality. The author very precisely depicts who would be most likely to join such a movement.
Moonlight and Funk
Because this story included so many supernatural abilities, it came close to exceeding my imagination, but not quite. The author was able to hold my interest to the end.
The life of a vampire is not all joy. The question is whether she will choose to become human again even with the accompanying loss of immortality.
Death and the Taxman
Treat this as a comedy. It’s not often that you get to laugh at both the Grim Reaper and a tax auditor. The issue is not how the main character will get out of a monumental predicament but how in the world the author will get out. The punch line is extremely clever.
Circulate
Very good advice to writers from LRH, and probably the last thing that most writers want to do.
The Unwilling Hero
This is a story of total adventure into the unknown. If any story ever showed what it takes to be a master writer, this is it!
The characters are so focused on a common mission that they show no signs of succumbing to the loneliness, extreme monotony, and cramped conditions of space.
White Elephant
For centuries, humanity had been searching for an alien intelligence. Now one had found humanity and had carried the message that an enormous, damaged space vehicle was headed to the inner solar system. The aliens would need – totally need - an enormous amount of real estate to set up lodging and a repair facility. The aliens made the request in a civilized manner, but common sense dictated that if the politically bickering factions of humanity could not supply the real estate, then humanity would not stand a chance against a far superior technology.
What is the scale of the problem? The aliens originally suggested taking over Earth’s already colonized moon.
The author provides spot-on descriptions of the personalities likely to be attracted to the various extraterrestrial colonies and outposts.
Be prepared to look up a good many words.
Piracy for Beginners
Encounter with space pirates is a common sci-fi theme, but this time much more than one ship and its contents is at stake. Failure to bring THESE passengers safely to Earth would ruin Earth’s last good chance for peace.
The pilot has one thing going for her. Majorly incompetent criminals are quite common at the end of an extremely devastating war (as evidenced by what happened on Earth right after World War II), and the pirates were no exception.
The opening fight scene on the moon is unreal.
1. The pilot would have approached with more caution and alertness.
2. If she jumped right into a man’s fist, and she then could not see a thing – particularly with a second man holding a pipe, she would have been through.
The rest of the story is heavy action with emphasis on strategy, which burdens the author with the task of describing the available technology as she goes along, but she does hold the reader’s interest.
Prioritize to Increase Your Writing
The main benefit I got from this article is to keep one’s priorities simple.
The author covers only what she considers the most basic priorities in life: Family, health, and career. Indeed such an article would be useless advice if she had tried to cover too many priorities because then the priorities would vary vastly from one person to the next.
One thing in this article does not make sense: “When I was in college, I wrote essays instead of taking tests,” How in the world could one persuade any college administration to accept the substitution of essays for tests?
Fire in the Hole
The story includes enough humor to keep the reader amused without laughing himself silly. It includes so many interacting ghoulish, swamp, and fire characters that one stays focused on what the author will do next. One’s attention never remains on mud, slime, or fire for long. Also, the reader tends to stay focused and not do an extended think because the story is SUPPOSED to be absurd.
Even in swamp scenes, which in real life would have a host of distractions, the reader stays focused on the intended characters.
A Trickle in History
Time travel is a very difficult subject even when a character is sent back alone without a team. It still is probably the only concept in sci fi that requires the reader to do a complete suspension of belief, so I tip my hat to the author for sweeping the reader along.
In addition, the characters and their conviction are totally real and ethnically consistent.
The Fall of Crodendra M
You find someone on an alien planet and a way to communicate across spatial distance. You form a very strong bond with him. The problem is that a meteoroid is destined to collide with the alien planet, and neither you nor he can survive on the other’s planet. Your military won’t go to the expense of destroying the meteoroid. The best you can do is pay a visit, and you are not certain that you can do even that.
In addition, media coverage on your own planet is sensationalizing the whole incident, so pull up a chair and watch the screen.
What is Art Direction?
This article presents material that all parties to this book, including the readers, need to know, and without this article, it is doubtful that anyone would know it except the artists, the editor, the publisher, and the art director himself. This article enables the reader to know that the art director is neither an employee nor a freelance but a very necessary professional.
Constant Never
Yes, the story is about knights, damsels, dragons, curses and fates foretold. Put aside all concepts of pain. Put aside all concepts of limitations on one’s willingness to fight. Put aside all possibility of judging a stranger’s character. If you do all that, this story will hold your interest.
But the story does break some rules that LONG SINCE SHOULD have been broken. That makes the story worth reading.
Be prepared to look up a good many words and names.
Under My Cypresses
I’ll have to recuse myself from reviewing this story. Living in a metaverse is totally unreal to me.
The Last History
I’ll have to recuse myself from reviewing this story as well. It is too weird for me to follow.
The Withering Sky
Five incompatible individuals, on a secret mission, are thrown into a place of no interest but some danger, supposedly to wait there until a research team arrives and then to aid the researchers, meanwhile neither making nor receiving any transmissions. They were under another, very vague, instruction to not disturb unsecured areas, which the reader easily could interpret as not to explore anything.
The initial orders also stated that the estimated time of arrival of the researchers was two days, but the arrival was delayed and delayed and delayed.
This situation is certain to produce extreme boredom in the characters, and I would expect it also to produce extreme boredom in the reader.
The characters start exploring the place, a huge derelict space vehicle, and keep uncovering mystery after mystery, with none of them being solved, but I forced myself to read through to the end.
It becomes manifest that the ship is a trap and that previous explorers had been trapped. Finally, the researchers arrive right into the same trap.
But the author does drive home the concept that something, bodyless, remains of those who had been trapped previously.
The Children of Desolation
Sorry, much too long and drawn out with too many complexities.
End of review.
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A great sci-fi anthology read!
The books in this collection, in my opinion, had some great stories and other stories that did not resonate with me. I read through all the stories and there were a few that really stood out for me overall, which I will be talking about below in this review. The stories that did not stand out or capture my attention were stories that again, in my opinion, had too much of a societal agenda written into the story, which is not my cup of tea to read about. I found ‘Death and the Taxman’ to be a page turner for me to read. Death was collecting souls one day and he goes to collect a soul at the tax man’s job, who was expecting Death. Death and the Taxman ended up swapping souls in this story and they have quite the adventure. The style of writing reminded me of one of my favorite author’s Terry Prachett and specifically his Discworld series. The writing was well written and if I could, I would read a whole book in the writer’s world. ‘Circulate’ was another of my favorite reads, and I had no idea it was written by L Ron Hubbard when I read it. The writing was inspiring and basically encouraged you to find your treasure as a writer in your own backyard. Everywhere that you are or travel to, you don’t need to go looking for something halfway around the world. I really enjoyed this story. And “The Unwilling Hero” was an amazing story about what makes human beings great. The story was spot on, in the fact that we have the tendency to be tough as humans. The book is about a journalist that was just doing his job and rose to greatness accidentally, but that was no matter to him. He wasn’t interested in greatness. It showed how human beings are humble creatures and it shows the readers that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. The ending made me tear up as I read through this story, it was so well written. There is one more story worth mentioning in this review, and that one is: “The Children of Desolation”. This is another story that I want to see a full novel written by the author! It was well written, and I really enjoyed this one. The story is about a train man, the world is post-apocalyptic and takes place on a train. This is a story about deep concepts of coming to grips with love and loss along with hope and new beginnings. This story reminded me of Max Max meeting Dune by Frank Herbert. I really liked the artwork in this book as well, the stills were well drawn for the stories and I can say that the illustrators are very talented. You can really get a feel for the stories from these illustrations as you are reading through this anthology. Overall, I was pleased to have read this anthology because there are some talented authors in the book that I have read. I would recommend this read to fans of L Ron Hubbard or Sci Fi readers that love short stories. I read the physical copy of the book and listened to the audiobook, I thought the audiobook was a definite must as I listened to the book after working all day:) The readers of the book for the audiobook were well done and I am pleased to have had the chance to listen to it!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023
Top reviews from other countries
- DannyReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2023
consistently one of the best anthologies every year!
- John HaasReviewed in Canada on May 21, 2023
Another great volume in this yearly anthology
- BooknightreviewsReviewed in India on July 29, 2023
A great collection of short stories
This was a memorable experience for me to read this anthology of science fiction and fantasy mixed short stories. They were all written in an easy to understand way and I enjoyed it all a lot.BooknightreviewsA great collection of short stories
Reviewed in India on July 29, 2023
From the very first story, I knew the book was a great one. The first story also mentioned something that was so true in this world and it was a heart warming tale. The other stories were also equally interesting to read. Some of them were science-fiction and talked about space travel and alien invasions. The fantasy story showed several supernatural beings like zombies, vampires, and even dragons.
The book was made interesting by the illustrations. These were so good and each story had an illustration accompanying it. In the start of the book, the entire pictures were given together and they were so beautiful.
Overall, the entire short stories in this book were extremely interesting ones to read.
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