Description
A handsome clockmaker fixes a broken time machine to help a cursed lady. A young scientist betrays his people to protect an alien species. A girl bonds with her new technological helper and sees in him a personality and a soul. A boy finds his whole life changing when his best friend writes in a mysterious notebook.
A crew aboard a settlement spaceship discover that sleeping passengers have gone missing. Come on a journey of exploration with aliens, spacecrafts, bewildering technology and even ghosts. There’s friendship, strong families and romance. In these seventeen stories humanity is pushed to its limit and forced to question what is most important in life. Lynne Stringer and RA Stephens bring together a collection of fantasy and science-fiction stories based in worlds that are not quite our own.
Authors include Penny Jaye, Emily Larkin, Janeen Samuel, Stephanie Martin, Catriona McKeown, Rosanne Hawke and many more.
Review
This is a fantastic collection of short fantasy and science-fiction stories that all centre, in varying ways, around life in different forms and in different worlds.
Reviewing such a large collection of short stories is sometimes difficult, as here they are all different characters and scenarios but there is an overwhelming feeling, particularly in the early stories, about a life that is completely different to what we know now. Many stories feature themes around the destruction and renewal of life on earth, and adapting to such a life.
There are stories about space, artificial intelligence, spiritual traditions and ghosts (just to name a few), but there is also a sense throughout of the importance of family and friendship, and appreciating and nurturing life as we know it today.
It will be thoroughly enjoyed by all secondary readers, and the nature of short stories make this ideal for reluctant readers especially those with an interest in fantasy and sci-fi.
Reviewed by Sam
