Jeff Seymour

This is a rather patchy collection of space-set short science fiction. I'd say there are no great stories, although there are a few good or very good ones - 'Keep Off The Grass' by Felix R. Savage, 'Ser Pan Comida' by Matthew Alan Thyer, 'Symbiont Seeking Symbiont' by Jennifer Froehner Wells, 'The Immortals: Kronos Valley' by David Adams, 'The Stars That Bind' by Nick Webb and the final story 'Multiply by Nicholas Wilson, although that last took a while to settle in I ended up enjoying it.



So, really, that's the majority of the tales in the good or very good category. Part of the problem was that the collection started weakly with a ho-hum story followed by one of two truly execrable pieces of fiction ('Excelsior' by Jaspar T. Scott and, later, 'Earthfall' by Raymond L. Weil). So, not only too much padding but badly organised; as well as the poor start there didn't seem to be any flow to the way the stories were put together. I'd also like a little 'about the authors' section; while each story had a word from the author, these tended to be more about the tale itself, along with the usual self promotion.



I think the 'Future Chronicles' series are all independently published authors, so perhaps I should be less harsh - or perhaps not; the ease of entry into the marketplace is no excuse to publish substandard work.… (meer)