10,000 Dawns: Poor Man's Iliad

10,000 Dawns

by James Wylder (Editor and Contributor), Nathan Butler, Tim Sutton

She survived defeat after defeat, and now Centro Marine Zhang Han is ready to go home, and leave war behind forever. But an ambitious officer named Cornelia Carthage has another idea, a plan to destroy the Vigilance, a slave trading empire, and go home in glory. What happens next will change Han’s home forever... But Han’s story is just the beginning. Travel across the solar-system, through wars, adventures, art heists, and family dinners. See the walking cities of Mercury, delve into a derelict space ship, and explore the secrets of New Alexandria. An epic sci-fi saga, spanning decades, with stories from such renowned writers as Simon Bucher-Jones (Doctor Who, Faction Paradox), Nathan P. Butler (Star Wars, WARS), and Tim Sutton (Marble Hornets, The Arrival), all in the hands of editor James Wylder. Also featuring tales Trevor Allen, Eric R. Asher, Kevin Burnard, Evan Forman, Nicholas Scott Kory, Kylie Leane, Colby McClung, Michael Robertson, Jo Smiley, Sarah E Southern, Jordan Stout, and Elizabeth Tock.

804 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 22, 2018

Reviews

[Tyche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever structure for an, uh, 800 page book chronicling 500 years of future history. After seeing the 25th century in the novel at the collection's start, then beginning to read the subsequent chronologically-ordered short stories (which begin in the distant past of 2013), I assumed that the novel had shown me the endpoint of the collection's history and that the short stories would all be set beforehand to provide background and context. It was surprising then, when the short stories caught up with the novel's setting and those same events were shown from a different faction's perspective than that of the novel. I hadn't been expecting the overarching narrative to continue into this future's future, and for the final short stories to sort of coalesce into being like chapters of a further novel providing a climactic continuation of the first novel.

There were many things I hadn't expected, I guess. Wasn't as confusing as I thought it'd be.

And I didn't think I'd get especially invested in a gritty solar-system-bound space opera. Didn't think even the presence of homosexuality or light touches of fantasy could make one appealing to my tastes. Yet I really enjoyed James Wylder's opening novel! Once the rather long opening chapters were done with (which make it seem like this 'novel' was originally meant to be several short stories), and the "what is this story about?" was established, the stakes were such that one wanted to see this story through. Main criticism in the end is that it could have been grittier.

And the other 75% of the book was good too! Loved the world-building, especially the concept of Magellan's Rat Nest (which, in light of later stories featuring space pirates, I thought was a clever scifi rendition of the good 'ol stranded ship resorts to cannibalism... well, or the Oregon Trail, I suppose...) and the subtle background stuff with Singularity drives. Awful lot of precocious child protagonists. There was something to enjoy in every piece, but (beyond Wylder's contributions) I got a lot out of the stories by Trevor Allen, Sarah E. Southern, Simon Bucher-Jones, Kevin Burnard, Michael Robertson, [Redacted], Nicholas Scott Kory, and...

Evan Forman, who wrote some really impressive stuff. A real well-written and conceptually-dense 15% of the overall book. Disturbing, experimental, articulating through story big ideas that are relevant outside a fictional context (as well as ideas relating to storytelling itself, haha). The sort of thing that one still thinks about long after reading; that went so far as to infect my dreams (my sleeping brain decided to try to simulate what an encounter with Shadrach would feel like). Gives an interesting balance to the overall shape of the collection.

Overall, this was good fun. Would recommend.