Customer Reviews

Star Song and Other Stories (Five Star Speculatvie Fiction)

5 star:		(3)
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Star Song and Other Stories is, insofar as I am aware, the fourth collection of Zahn's short works. It contains 6 stories, of which I had already read 3 in Analog.

Point Man is a humorous, but exciting story in the David and Goliath tradition. Hitmen-See Murderers is also humorous, yet with a bit of wisdom. The Broccoli Factor, another humorous story, is technological slapstick, but even stranger ideas have come true. The Art of War is serious yet light, with an upbeat ending. The Play's the Thing is pure farce. Star Song is another serious yet light story.

If you haven't read any Zahn works other than the Star Wars novels, you should know that he has written at least 19 other books during his career. This collection shows his capabilities in short, light fiction. It strongly resembles Vernor Vinge's True Names in the innovative themes and easy to read style.

Overall, these are all fun, and some funny, stories. Perfect for a damp, dreary, dark evening. Recommended for anyone who likes light humor,
clear writing, and original approaches.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Timothy Zahn is one of the most imaginative science fiction authors writing today. He has written a large number of novels, which range from fair to excellent, and is probably best known for his contributions to the "Star Wars" Universe, particularly the novels in which he bought to life the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn and his people, the Chiss. However, Zahn's four short story collections are perhaps his best achievement.

This collection is named for a novella about a universe in there are sentient creatures living in space who are will take human ships between the stars in exchange for music. Any reader who enjoyed Zahn's novel on a similar theme, "Warhorse" will particularly like his one, and vice versa.

The first story in this book, "Point Man" is set in the same universe as "Final Solution" from the short story collection "Distant Friends." In that universe most star travelling races have "hive-minds" e.g. they have such powerful intra-species telepathy that effectively the whole race share one mind. The hive minds were shocked and horrified when they encountered human spaceships are realised that one of the dangerous "fragmented" species (e.g. those in which each specimen is an individual) has survived to discover interstellar travel. Such races are always warlike and usually blow themselves to radioactive slag long before that stage. In "Point Man the Drymnu hive race from "Final Solution" experiment with their own solution to he human problem.

All these short stories are disciplined and to the point, as they have to be to make this format work: they are also very accessible and easy to read.

As with his novels, Timothy Zahn's short stories are characterised not just by an amazing range of weird ideas about the creatures or scientific principles we might find in the universe, but also about the difficult moral choices which humans - and other intelligent creatures - might face as a result.

Some of these stories have a romantic element, some don't, and when they do the hero may or may not get the girl. Since Zahn doesn't write to a formula in this respect, you cannot always see a romance coming, or predict the outcome. This makes some of the stories more satisfying and others more poignant.

If you do like this book, you may want to try Zahn's other short story collections, which are

Cascade Point
Distant Friends (and others)
Time Bomb and Zahndry others

I've always been hesitant to read any science fiction that is either heavily technical or heavily into military-techno jargon. One of the brilliant things about Zahn's short stories is that he always uses speculative technology in ways that are easy to understand and that move the story forward in interesting ways. His short story Star Song is the best of the lot in using new technologies to create an imaginative new world.

If there is any one way to characterize Zahn's approach I would say that it is more political science fiction more than technical science fiction. Many of his stories have an undertone of political theory to it. I think the casual student of political science might appreciate this undertone as I did.

This approach could be problematic if the politics is allowed to overcome the human side of the story. I'll admit that deep soulful human dramas aren't Zahn's specialty (I apologize I read a Murakami book right before reading this book--talk about comparing apples and oranges). However, the human is never completely lost in his stories either. Hitmen, The Art of War, The Play's the Thing, and Star Song are all stories that are stronger in this regard, even if they don't work toward coffee house/ art house levels of soulfulness.

There is also the issue of this being a short story collection. What are short story collections supposed to do that novels and other longer forums don't have to? I think that they should should show an author's range. This collection certainly does that. Zahn is not known for his humor, yet The Play is the Thing had me laughing out loud. Also, short story collections have a license to substitute cleverness for greatness. Zahn shows a magnificent range of cleverness in each of these stories even as his stories seem to show a kind of thinness more relevant to cinematic writing.

Most importantly, a short story collection is supposed to pay testament to a writer's talent. This collection brings out the best in Zahn. Zahn isn't Haruki Murakami or Philip K. Dick, but he excels in what he is best at. That's why I'm giving the book five stars