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The Last Reef
Gareth L Powell’s first collection of short stories is stuffed with mind-bending ideas and unforgettable characters. Ranging from the day after tomorrow to the far-flung future, these fifteen stories are perfect for anyone with a craving for intelligent and thought-provoking adventure.
“Buy this book and do your brain a favour” - Sci-fi Online
“One of the finest collections of SF short stories I have had the privilege of reading” - Morpheus Tales
“Buy this book and do your brain a favour” - Sci-fi Online
“One of the finest collections of SF short stories I have had the privilege of reading” - Morpheus Tales
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 25, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories. Some of which I REALLY wish were full length books!
I like almost all of Gareth's longer works and found this to be a great read on its own, or as a way to see how he has honed his craft over the years.
I like almost all of Gareth's longer works and found this to be a great read on its own, or as a way to see how he has honed his craft over the years.
January 2, 2013
Originaly posted at SF Crowsnest Nov 2008.
I’ve been following Gareth L Powell’s work, or ‘the other Gareth’ as I like to call him, since we both had stories in ‘Aphelion’ in April 2005. ‘Six Lights Off Green Scar’ is one of the stories reproduced in this collection. What struck me about it at the time was the terse prose that somehow conveyed a mass of sensory information in few words, a quality that continues to define GLP’s work. Since then we’ve corresponded regularly and met up a couple of times, and we’ve collaborated on a flash fiction. Having read all of this you may conclude that my review will be rather biased. Well you’d be wrong and I resent the implication.
The collection includes fifteen stories that range from present day accounts that barely touch on speculative themes to far-future epics that span the gamut of classic SF tropes but each time add something new. An example of the latter is ‘The Redoubt’. There was real emotional depth here as a young couple are offered the chance to send a digital copy of themselves on a universe-spanning voyage to the end of time. The scope of the concept and the agonising debate made it just fabulous.
While on a brutal punishment detail repairing a bridge, ‘Pod Dreams Of Tuckertown’ where he grew up. The background concerns mysterious aliens that have taken control of the Earth, but they are irrelevant to Pod and his dreams of escape and revenge. It’s a stark story that captures the raw emotions of the characters and the desperation of their situation.
‘A Necklace Of Ivy’ is a realistically rendered tale set against the backdrop of a mysterious alien plague sweeping through Cornwall. A young couple are making their way out of the county in advance of an army curfew, but make the mistake of stopping for one last break. The realistic dialogue and briefly sketched description make it a compelling little story.
‘Hot Rain’ is what could be described as a hard-boiled detective story, set in the exotic locale of Rio where a young girl has been cloned and kidnapped. It’s a fast paced thriller with enough high-tech elements to make it stand out from the seemingly regular background.
My favourite of the collection is ‘Arches’, a story that initially appears to be a variation on ‘Stargate’ as purple arches appear across the world and people disappear through them to unknown destinations. The military do get involved, but random civilians also find themselves travelling to other planets for a variety of reasons. The scope of the story suddenly becomes apparent when the mechanism of travel is discovered and the whole concept suddenly becomes epic in scale. I found it truly captivating.
‘Flotsam’ is set against the same background as the title story ‘The Last Reef’, the reefs being artificially intelligent organic supercomputers that are being quarantined and destroyed to protect humanity. As Europe sinks under the rising seas, two scientists formerly involved in this work meet up in what I found to be an intriguing location where hard decisions have to be made.
GLP has a habit of leaving you wanting more, either by ending his stories on a note of suspense, at the dawn of something bigger or at the denouement of conflict where issues still have to be resolved. It’s not always a satisfactory ending for the characters and you may be left feeling frustrated on occasion, but you’ll likely be left wanting to read on.
I’ve been following Gareth L Powell’s work, or ‘the other Gareth’ as I like to call him, since we both had stories in ‘Aphelion’ in April 2005. ‘Six Lights Off Green Scar’ is one of the stories reproduced in this collection. What struck me about it at the time was the terse prose that somehow conveyed a mass of sensory information in few words, a quality that continues to define GLP’s work. Since then we’ve corresponded regularly and met up a couple of times, and we’ve collaborated on a flash fiction. Having read all of this you may conclude that my review will be rather biased. Well you’d be wrong and I resent the implication.
The collection includes fifteen stories that range from present day accounts that barely touch on speculative themes to far-future epics that span the gamut of classic SF tropes but each time add something new. An example of the latter is ‘The Redoubt’. There was real emotional depth here as a young couple are offered the chance to send a digital copy of themselves on a universe-spanning voyage to the end of time. The scope of the concept and the agonising debate made it just fabulous.
While on a brutal punishment detail repairing a bridge, ‘Pod Dreams Of Tuckertown’ where he grew up. The background concerns mysterious aliens that have taken control of the Earth, but they are irrelevant to Pod and his dreams of escape and revenge. It’s a stark story that captures the raw emotions of the characters and the desperation of their situation.
‘A Necklace Of Ivy’ is a realistically rendered tale set against the backdrop of a mysterious alien plague sweeping through Cornwall. A young couple are making their way out of the county in advance of an army curfew, but make the mistake of stopping for one last break. The realistic dialogue and briefly sketched description make it a compelling little story.
‘Hot Rain’ is what could be described as a hard-boiled detective story, set in the exotic locale of Rio where a young girl has been cloned and kidnapped. It’s a fast paced thriller with enough high-tech elements to make it stand out from the seemingly regular background.
My favourite of the collection is ‘Arches’, a story that initially appears to be a variation on ‘Stargate’ as purple arches appear across the world and people disappear through them to unknown destinations. The military do get involved, but random civilians also find themselves travelling to other planets for a variety of reasons. The scope of the story suddenly becomes apparent when the mechanism of travel is discovered and the whole concept suddenly becomes epic in scale. I found it truly captivating.
‘Flotsam’ is set against the same background as the title story ‘The Last Reef’, the reefs being artificially intelligent organic supercomputers that are being quarantined and destroyed to protect humanity. As Europe sinks under the rising seas, two scientists formerly involved in this work meet up in what I found to be an intriguing location where hard decisions have to be made.
GLP has a habit of leaving you wanting more, either by ending his stories on a note of suspense, at the dawn of something bigger or at the denouement of conflict where issues still have to be resolved. It’s not always a satisfactory ending for the characters and you may be left feeling frustrated on occasion, but you’ll likely be left wanting to read on.
September 3, 2016
This was a speculative buy when I was down for the BFS Con in September, and from experience some indie press publications have been a little hit and miss, confirming why they weren’t picked up by more mainstream publishers. But in the case of Powell’s collection of stories, this is really a missed opportunity from the big guns, and thank god Elastic Press had the foresight to gather these stories together. It’s a slim book, only 200 pages, but there’s more imagination crammed into these pages than you’ll find in an average sf novel from a mainstream publisher.
And it’s not just his imagination either. Powell is a bloody good writer. His prose is lyrical and drips with vivid description, slipped into the text so it never feels like the rhythm of the writing is bogged down. It does mean that prose is economical but evokes enough in one sentence of description than I’ve seen in a paragraph from more seasoned writers. At times his stories remind me of Asimov, other times they remind me of Jonathan Carroll. The characters are strong for short fiction, and while at times they are little faceless (no bad thing though, it means the reader’s imagination works harder) they’re built outside of the stereotypes that usually blight short fiction.
There’s a refreshing diversity to the story-lines too. From multi-national terrorism, to cyberspace anarchy, to redemption at the end of the universe, the collection is a journey into reluctant heroes and damaged relationships, flawed characters one and all. In particular, I loved the story “Arches” which could arguably be turned into a wonderful full-length novel.
All in all, this is recommended reading (by me, anyway), and in the past six months, one of just a handful of books that I’ve been inspired by.
And it’s not just his imagination either. Powell is a bloody good writer. His prose is lyrical and drips with vivid description, slipped into the text so it never feels like the rhythm of the writing is bogged down. It does mean that prose is economical but evokes enough in one sentence of description than I’ve seen in a paragraph from more seasoned writers. At times his stories remind me of Asimov, other times they remind me of Jonathan Carroll. The characters are strong for short fiction, and while at times they are little faceless (no bad thing though, it means the reader’s imagination works harder) they’re built outside of the stereotypes that usually blight short fiction.
There’s a refreshing diversity to the story-lines too. From multi-national terrorism, to cyberspace anarchy, to redemption at the end of the universe, the collection is a journey into reluctant heroes and damaged relationships, flawed characters one and all. In particular, I loved the story “Arches” which could arguably be turned into a wonderful full-length novel.
All in all, this is recommended reading (by me, anyway), and in the past six months, one of just a handful of books that I’ve been inspired by.
September 21, 2013
I cannot remember the last time I've read short stories, so I picked up this collection of 15 short stories by Gareth L Powell. They vary in length, with the shortest being only a couple of pages. Each story is a stand alone one, though you see cross references if you read them all, such as the Tanguy Corporation, Reefs and "that monkey that ate the internet" ;-)
The stories also have cliff-hanger endings with the characters poised to enter the next chapter (unwritten). As a reader I felt a bit cheated always leaving a story just as something else was going to happen. However since I rarely read short stories, I don't know if these types of endings were a deliberate artistic choice, or due to lack of space, short stories tend have endings that feel unfinished.
My favourite story was 'Six Lights off Green Scar'. It was an enthralling read with great characters, emotional content and plot twists. The cliff-hanger ending also had a sense of closure too. It's a story about human beings rather than aliens. I'll remember that story for a long time.
The stories also have cliff-hanger endings with the characters poised to enter the next chapter (unwritten). As a reader I felt a bit cheated always leaving a story just as something else was going to happen. However since I rarely read short stories, I don't know if these types of endings were a deliberate artistic choice, or due to lack of space, short stories tend have endings that feel unfinished.
My favourite story was 'Six Lights off Green Scar'. It was an enthralling read with great characters, emotional content and plot twists. The cliff-hanger ending also had a sense of closure too. It's a story about human beings rather than aliens. I'll remember that story for a long time.
January 26, 2017
Probably, no, scratch that. Definitely one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read. Gareth Powell has got a certain knack for storytelling that always paints such an awesome picture in your head while taking you on adventures through worlds never explored before. These are great stories for anyone looking for good, solid sci-fi stories. *An added bonus is getting to read the sort of prequel to the Ack Ack Macaque series where we see things from the beginning of the story.
June 22, 2020
The Last Reef and Other Stories is a clever collection of flash fiction and short stories. Some are stronger than others but all are thought-provoking in one way or another. The brevity of 'A Long Walk Aft' very much works and stories such as 'Cat in a Box' or 'The Redoubt', stay with you as you wonder what decision you would make yourself in that situation.
You can read my full review at https://www.autoerraticism.com/fictio...
You can read my full review at https://www.autoerraticism.com/fictio...
July 17, 2010
Great collection of stories with a good variety of themes. I would recommend this for the train or tube.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews