Survival Tactics

by Elizabeth Bonesteel

Ten genre-spanning speculative tales of worlds both strange and familiar...

On a planet that should have been long abandoned, a salvage operator discovers an impossible ecosystem...

On an isolated mining outpost on Mercury, a woman dreams of suicide-and wakes to find other people dead...

Alone in a crowded city, a woman seeks the origins of a haunted clock connected to a captivating stranger...

Plus seven more stories of aliens, poltergeists, threatening polygons, and carnivorous rabbits, exploring why we need each other-and why sometimes we don't.

Includes three adventures set in Bonesteel's acclaimed Central Corps universe.

This edition contains the full text of the original 2020 release and adds three new stories, two never before published.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Fiction

126 pages, Paperback

Published August 10, 2021

Reviews

[Tammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd been wanting to get back to reading Elizabeth Bonesteel for a while and since there isn't another Central Corps book out yet, this book of short stories was perfect because it included three Central Corps stories. There were ten stories in all. With the exception of Unto Dust being 4 stars, I ended up feeling like most of the stories were 3 stars, and a couple of them were maybe 2 stars for me because I just didn't enjoy reading them. So I'm giving this an overall rating of 3 stars.

I now have a Booktube channel, follow me at Recordings of a Reader.

Review also posted at Writings of a Reader and on Facebook.

[Vic Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always difficult rating short story collections. But on a whole I really loved how varied Elizabeth Bonesteel's stories were. While I loved the Central Corps series SO MUCH I felt that those stories were the weakest of the collection - I think that Jessica Lockwood's was confusing and Elena's was pretty superfluous.
My favourites were Single Point of Failure and Birthdays at the End of Time. I love Twilight Zone style sci-fi short stories and those are the ones that really hit like that. Also, Friends Like These was this completely open-ended story where you knew nothing about what was going on and it was somehow perfect.

Full ratings:
About Time - 2.5
Factory Reset - 3
The Haunting of Jessica Lockwood - 3.5
Overlay - 4
Single Point of Failure - 5
Unto Dust - 4
Thinking Inside the Box - 4
Friends Like These - 5
Govi - 2
Birthdays at the End of Time - 4.5

[Tufty McTavish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that are often short and leave me wanting to know more! Nice to return to the Central Corps universe though. I especially liked those familiar characters.

[carlageek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of brief tales that demonstrate, if you had any doubt, that speculative fiction can have a solid emotional core and deep emotional impact.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a great and well-written collection of stories. I was surprisingly pleased, and will seek out the author’s other books.

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway - thank you to the author and the publisher.

[Denisele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I don't usually read story stories or sci-fi, so I'm probably not the intended audience for this book, however I am glad I read it. Some of the ideas of the future were thought provoking and others were hard to grasp given the shortness of the story.

[WillowRaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining, and very much following the writing style and genre that I have grown to love from this author. If you like books about space and travel mixed with a little bit of military and different cultures and more, than you should enjoy this book!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories, mostly about space

[Retta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking stories

Stories that take the darkness closer to the light.
Enjoyable twists in all the plots.
I recommend reading this book.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love short stories, which I find are a good way to ease into an author's style. These are generally interesting and very human. Favorite by far: "About Time," which is just about perfect.

Good job! I'm thinking of looking at Bonesteel's novels.

[Aneta · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an unexpectedly brilliant and thought-provoking collection! I'd never read anything from the author before this but now I'm inclined to try.

Favourite stories: About Time, Single Point of Failure, Thinking Inside the Box