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3.5 stars

I actually enjoyed some of these stories more than I thought I would. The first and last stories in this collection were my favorites. Most of the other ones were in the three star range though there were a few that were lower that I didn’t enjoy as much.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this collection because I had never read anything by this author before and I don’t read a lot of science fiction though I would like to start reading more. I also don’t typically like short stories, though there are always exceptions. I decided to read this because I needed something short to hold me over until I could start my tbr for a readathon.

Second Dawn- 4 stars: This story did a great job of grabbing me and pulling me into the world. In a way, this is the story that almost seems out of place in this collection as the collection seems more focused on the science and technology aspects, whereas this one reminded me more of fantasy, which was probably why I enjoyed it so much.

If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth-3 stars: This one was just okay for me. I understood what the message behind the story was but here it seemed a bit heavy handed. I was also a bit confused as to where they were actually living, because initially I imagined it wrong and I thought they were living underground on Earth. It was just a bit confusing for me.

Breaking Strain- 3.5 stars: This one had more of the technical science part of science fiction which I don’t enjoy that much. Usually it just confuses me. I gave this an extra half star because the way in which this is told leaves doubt as to what is actually true because we don’t get all of the information first hand. I did feel like the plot was sort of cliche, being the stuck in space with a mechanical failure with no hope of survival trope, but maybe in its day it wasn’t as cliche. It was before my time so I have no idea.

History Lesson- 3 stars: This one was again just okay. I feel like maybe I missed something here because we start out with a man named Shann and then his sons but they fade out of the story pretty quickly so I was questioning why we started with them at all.

Superiority- 2.5 stars: I wasn’t a huge fan of the way it was written, because it is just a man explaining how they failed and were beaten by the enemy. I think I would rather have seen this as part of a longer story instead of being the story itself because we can imagine what has happened but we don’t really see it, we only hear of it from this person’s point of view.

Exile of the Eons- 3.5 stars: Initially I gave this 3 stars but on reflection I decided to increase it because thinking back on it I liked it more than I thought I did. It is one of the stories that stands out to me. Toward the middle I got a bit confused as to where it was going but then I figured it out.

Hide and Seek -3 stars: It was okay but I found the ending a bit confusing as to who was who in story because it seemed to matter.

Expedition to Earth- 3.5 stars: I liked the premise of this one but I didn’t like how the author used the word savage to describe the people and how the land at the end is said to be nameless. The people had some sort of language and I’m sure they probably would have had a name for their own land, even if the scientists didn’t know what it was.

Loophole- 1.5 stars: I really didn’t like the format of this one. It was written entirely through correspondence between various people and there was some technical stuff in there that was lost to me without any context or description to help me.

Inheritance- 2 stars: This one again had a lot of more technical stuff which I was confused about. For some reason this keeps reminding me of the Studio Ghibli film The Wind Rises, even though that film was about airplanes.

The Sentinel- 4 stars: At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this one but then just as with the first one I got sucked in and ended up loving it.