Astounding Frontiers #1: Give us 10 minutes and we will give you a world

by John C. Wright, Patrick S. Baker, Lou Antonelli

Astounding Frontiers is a new pulp magazine from the minds at Superverisve Press that will transport you to far off worlds of adventure!

In our inaugural issue we have stories and serial from Dragon Award winners and nominees and many other great authors.

We have stories from Dragon Award Nominee Declan Finn, Patrick S. Baker, Lou Antonelli, Erin Lale and physicist Sarah Salviander.

We have the first instalments oc 3 serials. Nowither the follow up to John C. Wrights Dragon award winning Somewhither, Galactic Outlaws, from Dragon Award winner Nick Cole and Jason Anaspach and a rollicking adventure from Ben Wheeler called In the Seraglio of the Sheik of Mars .

Please join us in travelling to Astounding Frontiers!

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 12, 2017

About the author

John C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).

Reviews

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading anthologies to discover new authors. I picked this volume up believing it was an anthology. At the time I was unaware it was a short lived magazine with a run of 6 issues in 2017. Either way I am thankful I picked it up and have given it a read.

The description of this inaugural issue is:

“Astounding Frontiers is a new pulp magazine from the minds at Superverisve Press that will transport you to far off worlds of adventure!

In our inaugural issue we have stories and serial from Dragon Award winners and nominees and many other great authors.

We have stories from Dragon Award Nominee Declan Finn, Patrick S. Baker, Lou Antonelli, Erin Lale and physicist Sarah Salviander.

We have the first instalments oc 3 serials. Nowither the follow up to John C. Wrights Dragon award winning Somewhither, Galactic Outlaws, from Dragon Award winner Nick Cole and Jason Anaspach and a rollicking adventure from Ben Wheeler called In the Seraglio of the Sheik of Mars .

Please join us in travelling to Astounding Frontiers!”

I will be honest I picked this up for two reasons. First Declan Finn is a contributor. I have read 50 books and stories by him in the last year and am now working my way through the 14 Anthologies he contributed to. Alternating from most recent to oldest and I believe this is the oldest. The second reason is I love reading anthologies to find new authors to pursue. There is often a stand out story or author I had not encountered that I then pursue often more than one. Some of my favourite authors over the years I encountered first in Anthologies. And this one did not disappoint.

The sections and stories in this volume are:

Editorial
Stories
The Death Ride of SUNS Joyeuse by Patrick S. Baker
Riders of the Red Shift by Lou Antonelli
According to Culture by Declan Finn
Stopover on Monta Colony by Erin Lale
Watson's Demon by Sarah Salviander

Serials
Nowither by John C. Wright
In the Seraglio of the Sheik of Mars by Ben Wheeler
Galactic Outlaws by Nick Cole and Jason Anspach

The contributors are:

Jason Anspach
Lou Antonelli
Patrick S. Baker
Nick Cole
Declan Finn
Erin Lale
Ben Wheeler
John C. Wright

And Cat Leonard is listed as Illustrator, I assume having done the cover art and rocket ship graphic used at the beginning and throughout the volume as a separator. This magazine was originally published by Superversive Press, which is now defunk. But Tuscany Bay Books arose from the ashes. They did not resurrect the 6 issues of Astounding Frontiers but did bring back into print the Planetary Anthologies.

I absolutely love the piece by Finn in this volume, According to Culture, especially having read the 5 current volumes in the White Ops Series. This piece is well after the 5 current volumes in the series so it will be interesting to see if the stories in that world catch up over time. I really appreciated the nuances in The Death Ride of SUNS Joyeuse by Patrick S. Baker, and it reminded me of the works of Marianne de Pierres especially Peacemaker. Another great offering was Riders Of The Red Shift byLou Antonelli.

I really enjoyed this volume. Some great stories and some that continue in the other volumes I suppose. If you are looking to give some new offers a try pick it up. Or if you are familiar with the contributors, I am certain you will enjoy their offer. A great read for a Saturday afternoon sitting in the shade with a cold drink. I can easily recommend this volume.

[Wampuscat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Astounding Frontiers is a new science fiction magazine that consists of short stories and serialized novels in the pulp fiction vein. Although I only give it 3.4 stars overall, the potential for some great stories is there in the editing choices. The serials seem to be of high caliber; it just remains to be seen if they will be worth the expense of the format.

A review of each short story & serial in this issue is below.

Average is 3.4 stars, although if it were weighted by word count, it would be higher.
Short Stories


The Death Ride of SUNS Joyeuse (1 star)
by Patrick S. Baker

This story drops you in the middle of a battle in a universe you know nothing about and then describes all the guns, ammo and battle tactics. Not enough story and not enough characterization.

Riders of the Red Shift (2.5 stars)
by Lou Antonelli

The fate of old nukes of Earth and the politics of a now old failed rebellion are revealed. It's an interesting backstory, maybe even a good prologue to a novel, but not a very good story in and of itself. Also slightly repetitive in places.

According to Culture (5 stars)
by Declan Finn

A greedy slaver grabs the wrong girl, the daughter of a Space Ranger, who proceeds to 'correct' the culture of the Caplud Empire. Very entertaining, fast paced, action packed. This is a great short story that's full ass kicking and bubblegum chewing. I'd say the flavor is a little John Ringo with a little H. Beam Piper and a dash of Laumer's Retief.

Stopover on Monta Colony - (3 stars)
by Erin Lale

A pit-stop at a far flung colony means the discovery of a new sentience. A bit confusing at first, but it gets better. It reminded me of an H. Beam Piper stories called Naudsonce.

Watson's Demons (3 stars)
by Sarah Salviander

Hubris can affect both low and high intelligence. A practical joke by a super being on a scientist results in a lesson learned for both. It's a neat tale, but slightly esoteric.

Serials


Nowither (5 stars)
by John C. Wright

This is a serialized sequel to Somewither. The prologue is a summary of that rather large tome (590pgs?). I wish I had realized that so that I could faster my mental seatbelt before reading it. My medulla oblongata had whiplash by the time I was done, but that was offset by my pleasure centers being over-stimulated by the rest of the story. This alone is enough to hook me on the Astounding Frontiers magazine. My only problem is that I have not read the first book, so I am a bit behind in my understanding. I think I will go read that before I continue this one. *sigh* More items in the T.B.R. pile.
Oh, the story is about the escape from the forces of the Darkest Tower. It's awesome.

In the Seraglio of the Sheik of Mars (4 stars)
by Ben Wheeler

Even though it takes place in the solar system, the settings and culture of this story is Middle Eastern/Arabic. There is a major backstory to it that is not fully revealed up front, and the main story is actually a tale being told by an old man of his youth. It's quite good, but you have to like the Sherazad/Aladdin/Ali Baba style tales. It may prove to be an enticing serial, but my personal take is wait and see. I'll probably be picking up the next issue, so maybe I'll know then.

Galactic Outlaws (4 stars)
by Nick Cole & Jason Anspach

It what feels like an homage to Star Wars, we find the young Prisma Maydoon arriving on the frontier world of Ackabar looking for a bounty hunter just as the big bad evil empire arrives to take charge. It's good, campy, and I like it. I need more.

[Bryanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good

Short stories can be a hard format to convey much in , but I definitely enjoyed some of these, including the serials/previews.