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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Stars are the Limit, and this Anthology Reaches them!, January 26, 2005
This review is from: Space Stations (Mass Market Paperback)
After my last exploration into SF anthologies, which left me rather disappointed and jaded, this was balm for the beleaguered reader's soul. A stunning collection of stories about space stations that manages stick to theme, but range widely in variety from the funny, to the chilling, to fascinating and heartwarming. This book has something for every SF reader, and will especially appeal to those "hard" SF readers who are looking for some quality short stories.
Out of the fourteen stories in this collection, I've been trying to pick a favorite, and keep coming up with several-which is, admittedly, a good sign. "Dancers At the Gate" by James Cobb is a wonderfully imaginative story about the technical innovation of a wormhole and a unique solution between two separate cultures to fix it. Also at the top of my list is the anchor piece of this collection, "Station Spaces" by Gregory Benford. The author's unique prose style won't work for everyone, but it certainly creates a space all it's own in marvelous imagery. "The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson" by Timothy Zahn is a delightfully humorous adventure tale of a run-down station's moment of glory. Other stories are nearly as good: Michael Stackpole's "Serpent on the Station" features his Purgatory station universe in an amazingly astute story that deals with faith and alien relations. "First Contact Café" by Irene Radford is a bizarre look at mankind's first dealings with an intergalactic mediator in negotiations. "Countdown" by Russell Davis is a rather short and pointed tale about life and death, and is surprisingly poignant for all its brevity.
Out of the collection I found "Orbital Base Fear" to be one of my least favorite-it just didn't grab my interest. "Black Hole Station" by Jack Williamson was interesting, but a little too pat a tale for me, but the concept was still a good one. I found "The Franchise" by Julie Czerneda to be well told but a bit too long for it's conclusion. But, overall, the quality is strong, the story telling imaginative and fresh and the stories are in keeping with the theme, but sufficiently varied in their approach. I consider this to be an example of a five-star anthology.
Readers who like this collection may also enjoy NEWER YORK edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans, MICROCOSMIC TALES edited by Isaac Asimov and, for a truly unusual themed anthology, check out CARMEN MIRANDA'S GHOST IS HAUNTING SPACE STATION THREE edited by Don Sakers.
Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wide Assortment of Station Stories, April 8, 2004
This review is from: Space Stations (Mass Market Paperback)
Space Stations is an anthology of stories about outposts in the void. It contains fourteen stories written specifically for this volume. In The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson by Timothy Zahn, the Park Service fights invaders with obsolescence and neglect. In Redundancy by Alan Dean Foster, an AI is smarter than expected. In Dancers of the Gate by James Cobb, two wormhole stations are saved by a shared interest in big band music. In Mikeys by Robert J. Sawyer, the support team stumbles into an artifact. In The Franchise by Julie E. Czerneda, refugees from the Quill menace reopen a lost station. In Follow the Sky by Pamela Sargent, a ward of the state gets an urge to roam. In Auriga's Streetcar by Jean Rabe, a salvage operator finds evidence of aliens on an abandoned station. In Falling Star by Brendan DuBois, an ex-astronaut returns to his hometown to be met with antipathy. In Countdown by Russell Davis, the station commander has stayed behind while the computer counts down to auto-destruct. In Serpents on the Station by Michael Stackpole, a Catholic priest finds herself among alien hedonists. In First Contact Cafe by Irene Radford, the station manager encounters a new type of alien from Texas. In Orbital Base Fear by Eric Kotani, the support team warns of a storm, but the primary team tries to land anyway. In Black Hole Station by Jack Williamson, a man searches for his father on an abandoned research station. In Station Spaces by Gregory Benford, the team terraforming Luna merge humans and computers into something different and dangerous. Although the common theme in these stories is space stations, the authors have approached the subject from many directions. Two of the stories -- Mikeys and Orbital Base Fear -- actually have the same initial scenario, but diverge rapidly thereafter. In Falling Star, the space station is not even evident except in the background. Not one of these stories is a dud. The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson is filled with subtle humor. Redundancy is a real tear jerker. Mikeys is a winner of an underdog story. Any reader of science fiction will surely find something to like in these tales. One of the best stories, in my opinion, is Dancers of the Gate, for its high tech ambiance and its offbeat solution to a problem. However, this story has a technical blooper, a geosynchronous station above the planetary north pole. See my guide on Orbits in Science Fiction for the reason why this is not possible. Highly recommended for anybody who enjoys science fiction tales about living and working in space. -Arthur W. Jordin
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3.0 out of 5 stars
You Can Always Find the Station's Place in Space, September 11, 2010
This review is from: Space Stations (Mass Market Paperback)
Martin Greenberg and John Helfers have collected fourteen science fiction stories which take place on space stations. Such stories stand in an interesting place between those set on a planet's surface, grounded by gravity, climate and ecology, and those set in space ships that can flee trouble at the speed of light. The particular characteristics and constraints of space stations produce stories with their own texture. My three favorites of these fourteen are described below.
Alan Dean Foster's "Redundancy" a little girl and an artificial intelligence are cut off by an explosion and try to survive until help can reach them. Both are more resourceful than it initially seems.
Russell Davis' "Countdown" is an uncomfortably short story. Two long-time inhabitants of a space station consider its importance as it prepares to self-destruct.
In Jack Williamson's "Black Hole Station" a son travels to the space station near a black hole to find his father and bring him home.
This is a collection of entertaining stories organized around an interesting them. I recommend it to new fans of science fiction who are willing to use the space station as a stepping-off point to greater expanses.
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