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Titanic Terastructures
Ringworlds, Dyson spheres, arcologies, planet cities, space elevators, skyscrapers with populations of entire countries; come along with us as we explore megastructures, gigastructures, TERASTRUCTURES!
489 pages, Paperback
Published November 12, 2021
About the author
Jessica Augustsson
44 books29 followersJessica Augustsson is the editor-in-chief of JayHenge Publishing. She is a grammar nerd, eclipse chaser, part-time writer, and a bit of a geek. As the editor of spec-fic anthologies, most of her writing can be found nestled among the words of other authors, but she can’t help typing out a few of her own stories now and then. As for speculative fiction in her own life, she was voted by her Idaho high school class to be the most likely to go live on the moon; when she was 20, she moved to Sweden so she guesses that’s pretty close.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 16, 2022
This is a great theme for an anthology - collecting stories relating to one of SF's oldest and fondest tropes - the Big Dumb Object. From space elevators to arcologies to planet-sized cities to Dyson swarms; if it's a giant megastructure, chances are it's featured in a story in this book.
I only heard about it because a friend has a story here but I liked the concept enough that it immediately went on my wishlist. One birthday later and it's sitting on my shelf. There's a great breadth within the twenty six stories here, and the best of them contrast the size of the structure with the small scale of the characters.
The first story, Honeysuckle for Ashes features a witch, complete with Wizard of Oz style flying house, who lives around a ringworld and the child who stows away when the witch comes to help her mother through a difficult pregnancy. It's a nice story, but could really be set anywhere, with the ringworld being more backdrop than an important part of the story. Better, in that regard, is You Too Shall Pass, a fable about hope in the face of endless toil and loss, as blue-collar workers strive to build a bridge to a New Earth and what they have to give up along the way.
Highlights for me included The What-The Tree about an interruption to a cold-sleep journey to another star system; Haunting House about a house that's haunting a shipyard, which I loved for its evocative worldbuilding and clever mystery; and And the House Did Watch Over All about a planet-wide House that's slowly dying but still has an awareness that tries to help its inhabitants.
There's more than a few pretty dark stories in the mix, but those too shall pass, and you'll find yourself reading about living starships, senile giant houses or outsized spacebourne life. A mixed collection, but with the good definitely outweighing the bad for me.
I only heard about it because a friend has a story here but I liked the concept enough that it immediately went on my wishlist. One birthday later and it's sitting on my shelf. There's a great breadth within the twenty six stories here, and the best of them contrast the size of the structure with the small scale of the characters.
The first story, Honeysuckle for Ashes features a witch, complete with Wizard of Oz style flying house, who lives around a ringworld and the child who stows away when the witch comes to help her mother through a difficult pregnancy. It's a nice story, but could really be set anywhere, with the ringworld being more backdrop than an important part of the story. Better, in that regard, is You Too Shall Pass, a fable about hope in the face of endless toil and loss, as blue-collar workers strive to build a bridge to a New Earth and what they have to give up along the way.
Highlights for me included The What-The Tree about an interruption to a cold-sleep journey to another star system; Haunting House about a house that's haunting a shipyard, which I loved for its evocative worldbuilding and clever mystery; and And the House Did Watch Over All about a planet-wide House that's slowly dying but still has an awareness that tries to help its inhabitants.
There's more than a few pretty dark stories in the mix, but those too shall pass, and you'll find yourself reading about living starships, senile giant houses or outsized spacebourne life. A mixed collection, but with the good definitely outweighing the bad for me.
August 28, 2026
Maybe I expected more. As is typical for anthologies, story quality varied. There wasn’t as much variety in the type of terastructure as I’d hoped. Several authors used space elevators in their stories, so that seemed repetitive.
I liked the first story, “Honeysuckle for Ashes” by Christopher R. Muscato, where the featured terastucture was thirteen ringworlds around a single star. However, the terastructure was incidental to the plot.
The story, “You Too Shall Pass” by Russell Nichols showed characters building a vast bridge of some kind, but the world-building seemed improbable to me.
“Jack, the Medbot and the Giant in the Sky” by Larel Beckley featured a space elevator and combined the Jack and the Beanstalk story with a rich vs. poor theme.
I enjoyed “Bang” by Craig Russell, a very short story with a surprise punch line.
Jennifer R. Donohue’s story “Fundamentals of Search and Rescue” provides a nice story about a rescue worker and her dog.
I found “Mothership” by M.R. Parsons confusing and complicated. It seemed to involve a hole in space-time connecting Sol to Proxima Centauri.
“Broken Circle” by Manda Benson was a retelling of the Daedalus and Icarus story.
Johannes Tolvo Svensson’s story “Memento Mori” confused me and left much unresolved. If it included a terastructure, I missed it.
“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Stardust” by Wendy Nikel is flash fiction about a funeral on a space elevator.
I got confused and lost in the technobabble of “Under the Graying Sea” by Jonathan Sherwood. It seemed to involve a “stellar bridge” of some kind.
“Tharsis Dilemma” by Matthew Ross presented a dilemma for me. It concerned a space elevator on Mars, but the story seemed long and confusing.
I enjoyed “The Moment” by Dan Piponi. That involved wormhole travel and a ringworld. Very short but impactful.
Bunny McFadden’s story “The Big House” involved a character’s first day in a huge prison. Since the story could have taken place in any prison of any size, I think the terastructure link was tenuous.
“The Long Road Home” by Andrew Gudgel was wonderful. It featured a mysterious and gigantic underground tower of innumerable floors. Full disclosure—I know Andrew, and he’s a friend of mine.
Another story in which the terastructure played a tiny role was “A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension” by Andrea M. Pawley. I liked the title, but the story didn’t have to take place in a space elevator.
A gigantic self-repairing, sentient house gets featured in “And the House Did Watch Over All” by Brian M. Milton. It’s a strange story, but pretty good.
Mark Kirkbride came up with an interesting concept for “The Long Sleep to Tera Terra.” His terastructure is a planet, and the story has a nice twist at the end.
A sort of organic, plant-like terastructure is in “The What-The Tree” by Liam Hogan. Fascinating concept.
“Haunting House” by Mike Morgan begins at a shipyard (maybe?) near the galactic core. Then we encounter a house…with tentacles…and it travels in time. Then the story gets weirder.
I got completely lost in “Heavenstair” by Al Onia. It concerns a skyhook, I think, but also some very non-technological characters. It went over my head.
By contrast, I loved “Antimatter Dreams” by David Wright. A tube-shaped ring encircles Earth. The story had an interesting terastructure, compelling characters, a fine plot, and a clean style. One of the anthology’s best stories.
“Distraction” by Regina Clarke started out strong, but got more confusing as it went. I think it involved a large spaceship, and perhaps that was the terastructure.
Barend Nieuwstraten III’s story “Podfall” was pretty good, though I found parts of the plot to be a stretch. I don’t know what the terastructure in the story was.
I got a little confused by “The Kamacite Cage” by Richard de Silva. I liked the Shakespeare references and the robot protagonist, but the ending baffled me.
The anthology concludes with a strong story by Gustavo Bondoni, “Land of Opportunity.” The terastructure here is an arcology, or gigantic building. Our protagonist detective must solve a crime of high-value theft, and does so in an interesting way.
Some modern scifi is being written in a more literary style, and several stories in this anthology reflect that. I find that style confusing. I do recommend this anthology if only because it will have you thinking in big, big terms. It’s fun to imagine super-colossal structures, and several of these stories will have you drawing your own on bar napkins.
I liked the first story, “Honeysuckle for Ashes” by Christopher R. Muscato, where the featured terastucture was thirteen ringworlds around a single star. However, the terastructure was incidental to the plot.
The story, “You Too Shall Pass” by Russell Nichols showed characters building a vast bridge of some kind, but the world-building seemed improbable to me.
“Jack, the Medbot and the Giant in the Sky” by Larel Beckley featured a space elevator and combined the Jack and the Beanstalk story with a rich vs. poor theme.
I enjoyed “Bang” by Craig Russell, a very short story with a surprise punch line.
Jennifer R. Donohue’s story “Fundamentals of Search and Rescue” provides a nice story about a rescue worker and her dog.
I found “Mothership” by M.R. Parsons confusing and complicated. It seemed to involve a hole in space-time connecting Sol to Proxima Centauri.
“Broken Circle” by Manda Benson was a retelling of the Daedalus and Icarus story.
Johannes Tolvo Svensson’s story “Memento Mori” confused me and left much unresolved. If it included a terastructure, I missed it.
“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Stardust” by Wendy Nikel is flash fiction about a funeral on a space elevator.
I got confused and lost in the technobabble of “Under the Graying Sea” by Jonathan Sherwood. It seemed to involve a “stellar bridge” of some kind.
“Tharsis Dilemma” by Matthew Ross presented a dilemma for me. It concerned a space elevator on Mars, but the story seemed long and confusing.
I enjoyed “The Moment” by Dan Piponi. That involved wormhole travel and a ringworld. Very short but impactful.
Bunny McFadden’s story “The Big House” involved a character’s first day in a huge prison. Since the story could have taken place in any prison of any size, I think the terastructure link was tenuous.
“The Long Road Home” by Andrew Gudgel was wonderful. It featured a mysterious and gigantic underground tower of innumerable floors. Full disclosure—I know Andrew, and he’s a friend of mine.
Another story in which the terastructure played a tiny role was “A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension” by Andrea M. Pawley. I liked the title, but the story didn’t have to take place in a space elevator.
A gigantic self-repairing, sentient house gets featured in “And the House Did Watch Over All” by Brian M. Milton. It’s a strange story, but pretty good.
Mark Kirkbride came up with an interesting concept for “The Long Sleep to Tera Terra.” His terastructure is a planet, and the story has a nice twist at the end.
A sort of organic, plant-like terastructure is in “The What-The Tree” by Liam Hogan. Fascinating concept.
“Haunting House” by Mike Morgan begins at a shipyard (maybe?) near the galactic core. Then we encounter a house…with tentacles…and it travels in time. Then the story gets weirder.
I got completely lost in “Heavenstair” by Al Onia. It concerns a skyhook, I think, but also some very non-technological characters. It went over my head.
By contrast, I loved “Antimatter Dreams” by David Wright. A tube-shaped ring encircles Earth. The story had an interesting terastructure, compelling characters, a fine plot, and a clean style. One of the anthology’s best stories.
“Distraction” by Regina Clarke started out strong, but got more confusing as it went. I think it involved a large spaceship, and perhaps that was the terastructure.
Barend Nieuwstraten III’s story “Podfall” was pretty good, though I found parts of the plot to be a stretch. I don’t know what the terastructure in the story was.
I got a little confused by “The Kamacite Cage” by Richard de Silva. I liked the Shakespeare references and the robot protagonist, but the ending baffled me.
The anthology concludes with a strong story by Gustavo Bondoni, “Land of Opportunity.” The terastructure here is an arcology, or gigantic building. Our protagonist detective must solve a crime of high-value theft, and does so in an interesting way.
Some modern scifi is being written in a more literary style, and several stories in this anthology reflect that. I find that style confusing. I do recommend this anthology if only because it will have you thinking in big, big terms. It’s fun to imagine super-colossal structures, and several of these stories will have you drawing your own on bar napkins.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews