A Starfarer's Dozen: Stories of Things to Come

by Michael Stearns (Editor), Michael Hussar (Illustrator)

A second collection in the series that began with A Wizard's Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic includes short fantasies by such popular authors as Lawrence Watt-Evans, Dave Trowbridge, Jane Yolen, and Nancy Springer.

Genres: Short Stories, Childrens, Science Fiction

218 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this while looking for a short story to read to a 5th grade class to kick off a mini unit on the history of science fiction literature. My intent was to quickly skim the stories to find one that would make a good read aloud (and this is what I did with most of the other collections I looked through) but this one managed to grab me and I read it cover to cover in one evening. It's rare for me to find a story collection by various authors where I don't skip a single one which is why I was so surprised that I enjoyed all the stories in this book. Unlike many of the science fiction collections I read these were stories aimed at young adults with teen characters which made it great for my purposes and wonderful as an introduction to the genre for teens. The stories were wide ranging in their settings, topics, and tones but fit well together. I enjoyed the references to Winnie-the-Pooh, Where the Wild Things Are, and Icarus in the stories but I appreciated the lessons learned by the relatable teen characters even more. While some of these stories might not fit Asimov's ideal of science fiction being based on solid science fact it does meet the more important, at least to me, criteria Asimov himself used when defining the genre as "That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings." ( from "Modern Science Fiction," edited by Reginald Bretnor, 1953)

Read more of my reviews at http://auldschoollibrarian.blogspot.com/

[CraftyChara · Rating 2 out of 5]

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