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Galactic Empires
Anthology of original science fiction novellas in the "widescreen space opera" subgenre, edited by Gardner Dozois.
Contents
ix • Preface (Galactic Empires) • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • The Demon Trap • novella by Peter F. Hamilton
75 • Owner Space • novella by Neal Asher
133 • The Man With the Golden Balloon • [The Great Ship Universe] • novella by Robert Reed
199 • The Six Directions of Space • novella by Alastair Reynolds
273 • The Seer and the Silverman • novella by Stephen Baxter
335 • The Tear • novella by Ian McDonald
Contents
ix • Preface (Galactic Empires) • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • The Demon Trap • novella by Peter F. Hamilton
75 • Owner Space • novella by Neal Asher
133 • The Man With the Golden Balloon • [The Great Ship Universe] • novella by Robert Reed
199 • The Six Directions of Space • novella by Alastair Reynolds
273 • The Seer and the Silverman • novella by Stephen Baxter
335 • The Tear • novella by Ian McDonald
410 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2008
About the author
Gardner Dozois
650 books366 followersGardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. He won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, both as an editor and a writer of short fiction.
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois
http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois
http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 17, 2010
Galactic Empires is a collection of six novellas written by some of the more influential authors of this generation's hard SF writers, including one of my favorites, Alastair Reynolds. As you might gather, the underlying theme of the collection is "galactic empires." In a brief preface, Dozois is coy about defining what "galactic empires" means but broadly speaking it refers to stories set against a backdrop galactic, if not universal, in scope. Which leaves room for a great many conceptions.
The book leads off with Peter Hamilton's "The Demon Trap." This is a conventional police procedural set in the future history of Pandora's Star and features Paula Myo, the cop genetically engineered to pursue "justice" to the exclusion of all else. If you're a Hamilton fan, you'll like the story. I am not, so can only give it - at most - 2 stars.
"Owner Space" is Neal Asher's contribution. Most of humanity is oppressed by the Collective, an "evil empire" for the Space Age that ruthlessly supresses individualism and initiative. "Societal Assets" are the best and brightest of the Collective and the worst offenders in its eyes. Opposed to the Collective are the Grazen, a hive intelligence, and Owner Space, a region ruled by a singular human who commands technology superior to both Grazen and Collective, and who allows no one to enter his domain. A group of escaping SAs are forced to enter Owner Space pursued by both Collective and Grazen ships. It's a reasonably good adventure but not memorable. The Owner of Owner Space is too much a deus ex machina to allow for a great deal of suspense, and the societies of the Collective and Grazen are too broadly and derivatively drawn to be especially interesting. Two stars.
In "The Man with the Golden Balloon" we return to Robert Reed's world of Marrow. Two of the planet-sized ship's inhabitants encounter a being who claims to represent a universe-spanning association of intelligences that have covertly manipulated the cosmos' development for eons. Again, two stars. It's hard to have any interest in the self-righteous boastings of a near-omnipotent super alien.
I've already reviewed Alastair Reynolds's The Six Directions of Space here. I'll reiterate in this review the feeling that Reynolds could have done so much more with the concept of an alternate history where the Mongols led humans into space. As it stands, he doesn't and the main character, Yellow Dog, remains uninteresting, though she has potential. And there's a scene of gratuitous, gruesome animal cruelty that left (leaves) me squirming.
The final two entries - Stephen Baxter's "The Seer and the Silverman" and Ian McDonald's "The Tear" - are the best in the collection. The former revolves around a young man's (Donn) attempt to reconcile the alien Ghosts with the relentless, xenophobic expansion of the human Coalition. It doesn't carry us quite so far into the territory of alien psyches as Blindsight but it's well written and enjoyable. I've wanted to read Baxter's Xeelee series for several years now but have never gotten around to it. This story reinforces that intention. Three stars.
The last story is also a foray into alien consciousness (including altered human ones) and the survival of intelligence beyond the end of our universe. The human protagonist's culture deliberately cultivates multiple personalities in its citizens (thus the story is told from several POVs all sharing the same physical body). McDonald is a good writer and keeps your interest up. A plus is that though the ending is suitably "cosmic" the players remain believably human. Three stars.
I've read all the authors in this volume with varying degrees of pleasure. I can't recommend this particular collection, however, as examples of their best work. Except for the last two, the stories were too staid and safe, not very exciting examples of the Space Opera genre.
The book leads off with Peter Hamilton's "The Demon Trap." This is a conventional police procedural set in the future history of Pandora's Star and features Paula Myo, the cop genetically engineered to pursue "justice" to the exclusion of all else. If you're a Hamilton fan, you'll like the story. I am not, so can only give it - at most - 2 stars.
"Owner Space" is Neal Asher's contribution. Most of humanity is oppressed by the Collective, an "evil empire" for the Space Age that ruthlessly supresses individualism and initiative. "Societal Assets" are the best and brightest of the Collective and the worst offenders in its eyes. Opposed to the Collective are the Grazen, a hive intelligence, and Owner Space, a region ruled by a singular human who commands technology superior to both Grazen and Collective, and who allows no one to enter his domain. A group of escaping SAs are forced to enter Owner Space pursued by both Collective and Grazen ships. It's a reasonably good adventure but not memorable. The Owner of Owner Space is too much a deus ex machina to allow for a great deal of suspense, and the societies of the Collective and Grazen are too broadly and derivatively drawn to be especially interesting. Two stars.
In "The Man with the Golden Balloon" we return to Robert Reed's world of Marrow. Two of the planet-sized ship's inhabitants encounter a being who claims to represent a universe-spanning association of intelligences that have covertly manipulated the cosmos' development for eons. Again, two stars. It's hard to have any interest in the self-righteous boastings of a near-omnipotent super alien.
I've already reviewed Alastair Reynolds's The Six Directions of Space here. I'll reiterate in this review the feeling that Reynolds could have done so much more with the concept of an alternate history where the Mongols led humans into space. As it stands, he doesn't and the main character, Yellow Dog, remains uninteresting, though she has potential. And there's a scene of gratuitous, gruesome animal cruelty that left (leaves) me squirming.
The final two entries - Stephen Baxter's "The Seer and the Silverman" and Ian McDonald's "The Tear" - are the best in the collection. The former revolves around a young man's (Donn) attempt to reconcile the alien Ghosts with the relentless, xenophobic expansion of the human Coalition. It doesn't carry us quite so far into the territory of alien psyches as Blindsight but it's well written and enjoyable. I've wanted to read Baxter's Xeelee series for several years now but have never gotten around to it. This story reinforces that intention. Three stars.
The last story is also a foray into alien consciousness (including altered human ones) and the survival of intelligence beyond the end of our universe. The human protagonist's culture deliberately cultivates multiple personalities in its citizens (thus the story is told from several POVs all sharing the same physical body). McDonald is a good writer and keeps your interest up. A plus is that though the ending is suitably "cosmic" the players remain believably human. Three stars.
I've read all the authors in this volume with varying degrees of pleasure. I can't recommend this particular collection, however, as examples of their best work. Except for the last two, the stories were too staid and safe, not very exciting examples of the Space Opera genre.
May 3, 2026
I rarely go three weeks without reviewing the books I read, but I also rarely go over three and a half years before reading the books that I buy, so.... I guess *Galactic Empires* is just a trend-breaker. This is a collection of six space opera novellas commissioned by famed editor Gardner Dozois (best known for editing Asimov's Science Fiction magazine or an annual series of Best-Of short fiction collections, depending on the fan you ask) built to showcase who he figured were some of the best writers working in the space opera mode of its day. Sadly, I don't think that this collection captures anyone's best work, and some of the novellas were without a doubt underwhelming. Still, it's not a bad collection, just one that might not serve as your best use of time - anyways, let's get on with the actual criticism.
--We start with "The Demon Trap" by Peter F. Hamilton. I have yet to read a Hamilton novel, and I'm not sure if this story really moved the needle on my interest barometer or not. It's actually set in his Commenwealth universe, the playground where a lot of his stories take place. I'm naturally a bit fuzzy on it, but I picked up on some of the details: Paula Myo is a detective who's much older than she looks thinks to the rejuvenation treatments that everyone gets, and she's investigating the sabotage of a Dynasty ship carrying a fair share of Dynasty (rich rulers who like to screw around all day, both literally and figuratively) members who are killed and must be regrown. Paula works alongside her old friend Christabel and Nelson, a Dynasty security director. The sabotage seems to originate from Australia, but the man caught firing the missiles claims not to remember this act of terror directed at an increasingly powerful non-governmental agency; Paula, unlike everyone else around her, believes him and . Overall, this may have been my favorite story of the collection. The prose is simply fine, as most of this can be expected to be be, but it's certainly not bad, and I respected the mystery. It wove itself into our main character's past well, and everything seemed very well paced. I'm not sure it one-hundred-percent nailed the worldbuilding aspect because I'm not sure what was already in place and what could've been established, but it was an enjoyable mystery that kind of kept me on my toes and got me at least interested in the world. 7/10.
--Neal Asher's "Owner Space" deals with three different factions getting pulled into one bizarre encounter. Two of these factions are human - there's a Communist totalitarian faction called the Collective (Asher doesn't let you forget - they have a ship called *Lenin*, for crying out loud), and then there's a rebel force that's trying to break away from them. In their pursuit they attract an alien ship piloted by a Grazen mother who has a bone to pick with humanity's acts of war against in her kind in the past. The majority of the story is told from Kelly Haden's perspective - she's one of those rebels. All three ships are flying by Owner space (it's this mysterious glob of space ruled by a mysterious, potentially omnipotent alien being) when the rebels receive a message welcoming them in. The other ships then follow, and none of them are harmed or disappeared, like ships venturing into Owner Space usually are. . Unlike many reviewers, I wasn't captivated by the political landscape he came up with; a pseudo-Soviet government called the Collective? I'm sorry, but that's just not original. I wish it was a bit more uniquely done. I didn't mind the Grazen, but they kind of felt like an unnecessary diversion; then again, who am I to speculate what was needed and unneeded in this story? It was fine, but the characters seemed like the thin types you would see on TV and whatnot. I think I have to give this a 6.5/10 - it's a step down, but still held some interest to me.
--"The Man With the Golden Balloon" by Robert Reed could continue the downward trend or squeek out a little bit of quality compared to its predecessor; the jury's still out. What makes it different in my eyes is that I've already read a big work from the universe this is set in, Reed's Great Ship world. I've read *Marrow*, the book that started it all off, which I found mildly underwhelming due to it feeling like a silly SF movie despite what should've been an epic scope. This story looks at the earlier days of Great Ship colonization, the days when there were crevasses left unmapped, and this story is framed by a husband and wife journeying into one of these crevasses after losing their friends who they'd ventured out with. They end up falling into a dark chamber and interacting with a mysterious voice who tells them a story of ... there might be some really cool implications to the greater Great Ship universe from this book, but I don't really see them since I haven't and don't plan on read[ing] through the whole series. As far a story goes, it's kind of anticlimactic, and any hook that it has is certainly not relegated to the story itself - it's found buried in other works. That's fine since it's just the nature of SF (especially space opera) sometimes, but it still wasn't horribly engaging for me. It was middling, but more contained and less sprawly than the full *Marrow* novel... it had some vision and I'm being biased, so I think I'll give it a 6.25/10.
--Sometimes, space opera can go beyond the physical confines of physics as we known them; it does that quite often, in fact. But sometimes it does that beyond just our universe by branching into various other universes. That's what Alastair Reynolds does in "Six Directions of Space." At first it seem like it's simply an alternate history story where the Mongolian Empire has developed into the main human spacefaring culture - Hell, the main *empire*, seeing as how we're dealing with the Mongolian Empire here. But then our main character (Yellow Dog), a spy, is captured by the enemy while on searching for information on what they know about the "phantoms," weird apparitions seen in the tunnels of spaceflight. She realizes that ... this isn't peak Reynolds. He can do a lot better (I mean, every single story in his collection *Galactic North*, which I read last year, was better than this). It's honestly a bit vague and forgettable, which is might not have been - interdimensional travel is supposed to be cool and memorable after all - if the different cultures painted, including the main Mongolian one, were more intricate or at least distinct. Everything feels rather samey, and I couldn't get into the whole interdimensional thing in the flat way that Reynolds writes it. It's not a bad story and it has a nice tempo, but it's ultimately not too distinct. 6/10.
--"The Seer and the Silverman" by Stephen Baxter. The Xeelee Sequence... there's another sprawling SF universe I've never properly dug into. It's a bit of a sin, but what the Hell... I'm sure I've committed worse. This story kicks off with a young man named Donn Wyman who lives in a chain of starships called the Reef when his brother is taken away from their asteroid home by the "Ghosts" in the middle of the night. A woman named Eve Raoul is quickly brought into the loop via some strange constant state if teleportation/projection to investigate, but before long Donn . This was not my favorite story here, partially because this story also feels like it's simply part of a greater whole. The Reef is somewhat realized, but the whole dynamic with the Silvermen and the Ghosts and the eventual "Seer" - in addition to the human government that sends out such weird investigators and has some significant animosity towards it - isn't really explained well. Maybe it doesn't need to be if you read this in the greater context, but it kind of felt like running from Point A to Point B for the sake of running to me. Stuff seemed a bit random, and while it wasn't bad and I feel like I need to give it some benefit of the doubt, this story also didn't really do it for me... 6/10.
--A few months ago I read *Mars Probes*, edited by Peter Crowther. It wasn't a great collection - it meant to showcase the breadth of Martian science fiction, but only ended up proving that said SF is kind of dead. But there was a story called "The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars" which stuck out; it was by a Mr. Ian McDonald. It wasn't my favorite and it wasn't the easiest to follow, but it was clearly written at a higher grade than its competition. Funnily enough, Ian McDonald pulls off the same twist of supremacy here with his novella "The Tear." It's about a boy named Ptey as he learns to become a man by going through the strange rituals of his homeworld at a kind of boarding school where different layers of consciousness, of consideration, are layered upon his mind until he's a fully fledged adult with (I think) seven layers of being. Amidst this his childhood best friend washes out of the program for not being willing to change; this juxtaposition between what we think of as natural and the posthuman natural is the core of the story. Different chapters are narrated by different senses of "Ptey's" self - Jedden, Torben, etc - across planets, with his path eventually crossing with his old friend's once more. Sadly, this story didn't stick with me all that well; I wasn't prepared for something requiring the level of thought to understand and respect as this ended up warranting. I do think that I need to give McDonald some more chances, though... even though I bounced off his novel *Brasyl* really early when I read it in my SF-reading journey, that definitely doesn't mean it served to be bounced off. He's surrealist without being a rehash of the New Wave, and his prose and technological concepts should reinforce that. For now I'll give this a 7/10, but who knows - maybe it could be better.
Overall, this whole collection could've been better. Reynolds was not at his peak, Robert Reed wasn't firing on nearly as many cylinders as he was in his 1991 novel *Down the Bright Way* (which was great fun), and I doubt that this is where Hamilton or Asher or Baxter peak. It was an underwhelming, mostly forgettable collection, and it made me wonder what Dozois saw in these pieces. Regardless, I think I'm being harsh and with certain expectations, so I'll let this book stay on the better side of "okay" (I mean, nothing was bad) and give it a 6/10. Maybe the next anthology I read - one from the 70s, with a bunch of British stories from different authors - will be more my fancy. Stay tuned to Darnoc Leadburger here on Goodreads to see if that's the case or not. If it's not, wish me luck... thanks for reading, and here's hoping your next journey out to the stars is a little more memorable than mine was...
--We start with "The Demon Trap" by Peter F. Hamilton. I have yet to read a Hamilton novel, and I'm not sure if this story really moved the needle on my interest barometer or not. It's actually set in his Commenwealth universe, the playground where a lot of his stories take place. I'm naturally a bit fuzzy on it, but I picked up on some of the details: Paula Myo is a detective who's much older than she looks thinks to the rejuvenation treatments that everyone gets, and she's investigating the sabotage of a Dynasty ship carrying a fair share of Dynasty (rich rulers who like to screw around all day, both literally and figuratively) members who are killed and must be regrown. Paula works alongside her old friend Christabel and Nelson, a Dynasty security director. The sabotage seems to originate from Australia, but the man caught firing the missiles claims not to remember this act of terror directed at an increasingly powerful non-governmental agency; Paula, unlike everyone else around her, believes him and . Overall, this may have been my favorite story of the collection. The prose is simply fine, as most of this can be expected to be be, but it's certainly not bad, and I respected the mystery. It wove itself into our main character's past well, and everything seemed very well paced. I'm not sure it one-hundred-percent nailed the worldbuilding aspect because I'm not sure what was already in place and what could've been established, but it was an enjoyable mystery that kind of kept me on my toes and got me at least interested in the world. 7/10.
--Neal Asher's "Owner Space" deals with three different factions getting pulled into one bizarre encounter. Two of these factions are human - there's a Communist totalitarian faction called the Collective (Asher doesn't let you forget - they have a ship called *Lenin*, for crying out loud), and then there's a rebel force that's trying to break away from them. In their pursuit they attract an alien ship piloted by a Grazen mother who has a bone to pick with humanity's acts of war against in her kind in the past. The majority of the story is told from Kelly Haden's perspective - she's one of those rebels. All three ships are flying by Owner space (it's this mysterious glob of space ruled by a mysterious, potentially omnipotent alien being) when the rebels receive a message welcoming them in. The other ships then follow, and none of them are harmed or disappeared, like ships venturing into Owner Space usually are. . Unlike many reviewers, I wasn't captivated by the political landscape he came up with; a pseudo-Soviet government called the Collective? I'm sorry, but that's just not original. I wish it was a bit more uniquely done. I didn't mind the Grazen, but they kind of felt like an unnecessary diversion; then again, who am I to speculate what was needed and unneeded in this story? It was fine, but the characters seemed like the thin types you would see on TV and whatnot. I think I have to give this a 6.5/10 - it's a step down, but still held some interest to me.
--"The Man With the Golden Balloon" by Robert Reed could continue the downward trend or squeek out a little bit of quality compared to its predecessor; the jury's still out. What makes it different in my eyes is that I've already read a big work from the universe this is set in, Reed's Great Ship world. I've read *Marrow*, the book that started it all off, which I found mildly underwhelming due to it feeling like a silly SF movie despite what should've been an epic scope. This story looks at the earlier days of Great Ship colonization, the days when there were crevasses left unmapped, and this story is framed by a husband and wife journeying into one of these crevasses after losing their friends who they'd ventured out with. They end up falling into a dark chamber and interacting with a mysterious voice who tells them a story of ... there might be some really cool implications to the greater Great Ship universe from this book, but I don't really see them since I haven't and don't plan on read[ing] through the whole series. As far a story goes, it's kind of anticlimactic, and any hook that it has is certainly not relegated to the story itself - it's found buried in other works. That's fine since it's just the nature of SF (especially space opera) sometimes, but it still wasn't horribly engaging for me. It was middling, but more contained and less sprawly than the full *Marrow* novel... it had some vision and I'm being biased, so I think I'll give it a 6.25/10.
--Sometimes, space opera can go beyond the physical confines of physics as we known them; it does that quite often, in fact. But sometimes it does that beyond just our universe by branching into various other universes. That's what Alastair Reynolds does in "Six Directions of Space." At first it seem like it's simply an alternate history story where the Mongolian Empire has developed into the main human spacefaring culture - Hell, the main *empire*, seeing as how we're dealing with the Mongolian Empire here. But then our main character (Yellow Dog), a spy, is captured by the enemy while on searching for information on what they know about the "phantoms," weird apparitions seen in the tunnels of spaceflight. She realizes that ... this isn't peak Reynolds. He can do a lot better (I mean, every single story in his collection *Galactic North*, which I read last year, was better than this). It's honestly a bit vague and forgettable, which is might not have been - interdimensional travel is supposed to be cool and memorable after all - if the different cultures painted, including the main Mongolian one, were more intricate or at least distinct. Everything feels rather samey, and I couldn't get into the whole interdimensional thing in the flat way that Reynolds writes it. It's not a bad story and it has a nice tempo, but it's ultimately not too distinct. 6/10.
--"The Seer and the Silverman" by Stephen Baxter. The Xeelee Sequence... there's another sprawling SF universe I've never properly dug into. It's a bit of a sin, but what the Hell... I'm sure I've committed worse. This story kicks off with a young man named Donn Wyman who lives in a chain of starships called the Reef when his brother is taken away from their asteroid home by the "Ghosts" in the middle of the night. A woman named Eve Raoul is quickly brought into the loop via some strange constant state if teleportation/projection to investigate, but before long Donn . This was not my favorite story here, partially because this story also feels like it's simply part of a greater whole. The Reef is somewhat realized, but the whole dynamic with the Silvermen and the Ghosts and the eventual "Seer" - in addition to the human government that sends out such weird investigators and has some significant animosity towards it - isn't really explained well. Maybe it doesn't need to be if you read this in the greater context, but it kind of felt like running from Point A to Point B for the sake of running to me. Stuff seemed a bit random, and while it wasn't bad and I feel like I need to give it some benefit of the doubt, this story also didn't really do it for me... 6/10.
--A few months ago I read *Mars Probes*, edited by Peter Crowther. It wasn't a great collection - it meant to showcase the breadth of Martian science fiction, but only ended up proving that said SF is kind of dead. But there was a story called "The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars" which stuck out; it was by a Mr. Ian McDonald. It wasn't my favorite and it wasn't the easiest to follow, but it was clearly written at a higher grade than its competition. Funnily enough, Ian McDonald pulls off the same twist of supremacy here with his novella "The Tear." It's about a boy named Ptey as he learns to become a man by going through the strange rituals of his homeworld at a kind of boarding school where different layers of consciousness, of consideration, are layered upon his mind until he's a fully fledged adult with (I think) seven layers of being. Amidst this his childhood best friend washes out of the program for not being willing to change; this juxtaposition between what we think of as natural and the posthuman natural is the core of the story. Different chapters are narrated by different senses of "Ptey's" self - Jedden, Torben, etc - across planets, with his path eventually crossing with his old friend's once more. Sadly, this story didn't stick with me all that well; I wasn't prepared for something requiring the level of thought to understand and respect as this ended up warranting. I do think that I need to give McDonald some more chances, though... even though I bounced off his novel *Brasyl* really early when I read it in my SF-reading journey, that definitely doesn't mean it served to be bounced off. He's surrealist without being a rehash of the New Wave, and his prose and technological concepts should reinforce that. For now I'll give this a 7/10, but who knows - maybe it could be better.
Overall, this whole collection could've been better. Reynolds was not at his peak, Robert Reed wasn't firing on nearly as many cylinders as he was in his 1991 novel *Down the Bright Way* (which was great fun), and I doubt that this is where Hamilton or Asher or Baxter peak. It was an underwhelming, mostly forgettable collection, and it made me wonder what Dozois saw in these pieces. Regardless, I think I'm being harsh and with certain expectations, so I'll let this book stay on the better side of "okay" (I mean, nothing was bad) and give it a 6/10. Maybe the next anthology I read - one from the 70s, with a bunch of British stories from different authors - will be more my fancy. Stay tuned to Darnoc Leadburger here on Goodreads to see if that's the case or not. If it's not, wish me luck... thanks for reading, and here's hoping your next journey out to the stars is a little more memorable than mine was...
September 9, 2010
1. The Demon Trap - TWO STARS
A standard police procedural with an unremarkable heroine -- despite being beautiful and supposedly unrelentingly persistent, but didn't really come alive in the story as such -- and meandering plot. People popped from this city to that on rapid transport, genetic manipulation a fact of life, death no longer death, and plenty of mind-bending ideas -- wrapped in one bland package.
2. Owner Space - ONE STAR
The villain here -- an entire societal order -- is so one-dimensionally horrible, so without any subtlety or remorse, that I found it impossible to stop rolling my eyes. All the problems are then resolved by an all-powerful figure who is completely incomprehensible, represents no moral stance, and yet easily dispatches everything to its rightful place according to who-knows-what reasons of his own. Well, how profound.
3. The Man with the Golden Balloon - ONE STAR
Another story set on Robert Reed's ship-that-is-the-size-of-a-world. A couple goes exploring into an unmapped area, and once there, were told a story by an ancient, pan-galactic being. This story was told seemingly for a specific reason, as completion to some kind of a vast plan. What that plan could be is anyone's guess. Once again, Reed gives us vague hints about the nature of the Ship. Some of his Ship stories reach operatic proportions as the nearly-immortal inhabitants traverse through time and space; this is not one of those times.
4. The Six Directions of Space - FOUR STARS
A fascinating story exploring what worlds vastly divergent in time and history may look like, and the prospect of traveling among their different timelines.
5. The Seer and the Silverman - THREE STARS
An excellent story involving some truly alien aliens who do not understand human psychology in the least. However, the science upon which many plot-points hung were virtual gobbledeegook to me -- so, minus ONE STAR for the author's failure to compensate for my lack of erudition in astrophysics.
A standard police procedural with an unremarkable heroine -- despite being beautiful and supposedly unrelentingly persistent, but didn't really come alive in the story as such -- and meandering plot. People popped from this city to that on rapid transport, genetic manipulation a fact of life, death no longer death, and plenty of mind-bending ideas -- wrapped in one bland package.
2. Owner Space - ONE STAR
The villain here -- an entire societal order -- is so one-dimensionally horrible, so without any subtlety or remorse, that I found it impossible to stop rolling my eyes. All the problems are then resolved by an all-powerful figure who is completely incomprehensible, represents no moral stance, and yet easily dispatches everything to its rightful place according to who-knows-what reasons of his own. Well, how profound.
3. The Man with the Golden Balloon - ONE STAR
Another story set on Robert Reed's ship-that-is-the-size-of-a-world. A couple goes exploring into an unmapped area, and once there, were told a story by an ancient, pan-galactic being. This story was told seemingly for a specific reason, as completion to some kind of a vast plan. What that plan could be is anyone's guess. Once again, Reed gives us vague hints about the nature of the Ship. Some of his Ship stories reach operatic proportions as the nearly-immortal inhabitants traverse through time and space; this is not one of those times.
4. The Six Directions of Space - FOUR STARS
A fascinating story exploring what worlds vastly divergent in time and history may look like, and the prospect of traveling among their different timelines.
5. The Seer and the Silverman - THREE STARS
An excellent story involving some truly alien aliens who do not understand human psychology in the least. However, the science upon which many plot-points hung were virtual gobbledeegook to me -- so, minus ONE STAR for the author's failure to compensate for my lack of erudition in astrophysics.
February 28, 2012
This book was a very convenient means to read some stories by specific authors. First among these was Al Reynolds' "Six Dirctions of Space" which I had failed to find as a seperate title. Not among his best, but interesting anyway. A chance to try something of Ian McConald, "The Tear", which I didn't like and didn't finish. Won't be knocking myself out to find anything else by him. "Owner Space" by Neal Asher was the prize among the collection. A good story with some real suspense and uncertainty. An enigmatic ending, but satisfying nonetheless.
November 18, 2023
The stories were fine. The problem was, most of them were not what I wanted for a Galactic Empires book. I mean, probably the stories took place in a galactic empire, but that's not what they were about. It would be like reading any old (not SF) book and then calling it "Earth Book." Yeeeeeessss, it did take place on Earth, OK.
July 31, 2017
Gardner Dozois decided to follow-up on his very good "One Million A.D." anthology three years later with this one, and a good plan it was. It uses the same format of six novellas thematically similar, and, just like its predecessor, it is one of the best original all-science-fiction anthologies you are bound to find.
Breakdown:
1. The Demon Trap by Peter F. Hamilton - 4 stars
The opening novella features detective Paula Myo (from Hamilton's "Pandora's Star" novel) traveling to remote planet to broker peace between the colonist humans and the local indigenous life. As the title suggests, it casts the aliens as the original Amerindians in Manhattan, and the humans as the Europeans, only with a slight twist. The writing is usually very good from Hamilton, the plot could've been a little better.
2. Owner Space by Neal Asher - 5 stars
Neal Asher's longer prose is not so easy to read, however this novella is very accessible and features a very cool setting together with an interesting plot. In between two warring galactic empires lies this so-called "Owner Space" ruled by a single mysterious entity allowing no trespass. A couple of humans, wanted by both warring empires are forced to seek shelter inside the Owner Space.
3. The Man with the Golden Balloon by Robert Reed - 2 stars
Easily the novella I liked the least. Super powerful beings inhabiting a planet-sized starship meet super-mega-extra powerful beings who claim to have manipulated the universe from the Big Bang to current era. Reed's style, as well as his Greatship setting, while very original and core-sci-fi-ish, are difficult as far as I'm concerned, and the weird plot of this one does not help.
4. The Six Directions of Space by Alastair Reynolds - 3 stars
It's time for some alternate history. The Mongols rule Earth and led mankind to the stars. A special agent is sent to the fringes of the Mongol galactic empire to investigate parallel universes flowing into our own. Cool setting, but the plot development left a lot to be desired.
5. The Seer and the Silverman by Stephen Baxter - 4 stars
Set in Stephen Baxter's Xeelee timeline, this one features a human ambassador trying to broker peace with the silver ghosts, one of the four antagonists of humans in this universe. Very smoothly done.
6. The Tear by Ian McDonald - 5 stars
This is the most fascinating story here without a doubt. The richest setting, the most interesting idea, but in spite (or maybe because of) McDonald's known lyricism, this novella is also probably the most difficult to read. Multiple souls inhabit the same body, and the story is told from multiple points of view, most belonging to the same actual person. There are also speculations about life after the end of the universe, and a bunch of other 'highly-advanced' sci-fi ideas to make this a very rewarding read.
Breakdown:
1. The Demon Trap by Peter F. Hamilton - 4 stars
The opening novella features detective Paula Myo (from Hamilton's "Pandora's Star" novel) traveling to remote planet to broker peace between the colonist humans and the local indigenous life. As the title suggests, it casts the aliens as the original Amerindians in Manhattan, and the humans as the Europeans, only with a slight twist. The writing is usually very good from Hamilton, the plot could've been a little better.
2. Owner Space by Neal Asher - 5 stars
Neal Asher's longer prose is not so easy to read, however this novella is very accessible and features a very cool setting together with an interesting plot. In between two warring galactic empires lies this so-called "Owner Space" ruled by a single mysterious entity allowing no trespass. A couple of humans, wanted by both warring empires are forced to seek shelter inside the Owner Space.
3. The Man with the Golden Balloon by Robert Reed - 2 stars
Easily the novella I liked the least. Super powerful beings inhabiting a planet-sized starship meet super-mega-extra powerful beings who claim to have manipulated the universe from the Big Bang to current era. Reed's style, as well as his Greatship setting, while very original and core-sci-fi-ish, are difficult as far as I'm concerned, and the weird plot of this one does not help.
4. The Six Directions of Space by Alastair Reynolds - 3 stars
It's time for some alternate history. The Mongols rule Earth and led mankind to the stars. A special agent is sent to the fringes of the Mongol galactic empire to investigate parallel universes flowing into our own. Cool setting, but the plot development left a lot to be desired.
5. The Seer and the Silverman by Stephen Baxter - 4 stars
Set in Stephen Baxter's Xeelee timeline, this one features a human ambassador trying to broker peace with the silver ghosts, one of the four antagonists of humans in this universe. Very smoothly done.
6. The Tear by Ian McDonald - 5 stars
This is the most fascinating story here without a doubt. The richest setting, the most interesting idea, but in spite (or maybe because of) McDonald's known lyricism, this novella is also probably the most difficult to read. Multiple souls inhabit the same body, and the story is told from multiple points of view, most belonging to the same actual person. There are also speculations about life after the end of the universe, and a bunch of other 'highly-advanced' sci-fi ideas to make this a very rewarding read.
April 2, 2018
The last story by Ian McDonald/ the tear. Far out man. Beings with 8 aspects. Don’t understand ? Read the story. This was the most interesting story to me. So many different everything’s. It deserves a 5, but I gave it a 4 because I had trouble understanding some things. If you’re more knowledgeable in physics science and math you’ll like it more. Bummer, I came to science late.
October 3, 2018
Better than I expected
January 3, 2017
I could not get into any of these stories. Writing was not that great.
November 18, 2008
Excellent anthology with novellas from a number of "new space opera" writers.
Want to Read
November 1, 2009Science Fiction
June 7, 2011
I have many anthologies which Gardner Dozois has edited. This is among the best. Some of our greatest sci/fi writers have their works included in this anthology of outer space empires.
February 14, 2013
Great stories of a hard sci-fi variety. Reynolds, Baxter, and Hamilton especially offered up some great work.
October 12, 2013
meh, so disappointing, galactic my ass
July 29, 2013
Solid Space Operas condensed into short stories by some of the contemporary masters. A jolly good read.
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