If you want some good sci-fi, this book is it. It has all of what's good about sci-fi: interesting topics that just make you think, relations to the present, cool and new tech, aliens, different planets, star travel, and more. It even has a story about vampires for you vampire lovers. It's got everything for the everyday sci-fi lover.What's disappointing is the two authors that even made me buy this book (Neil Gaiman and Scott Westerfeld), had the shortest stories in the whole book. They were go...

Review of Lost Continent by Greg EganThe story starts with Ali in Khurosan, which I understand to be in the Pakistan region. Khurosan appears to be a target for tyrants from the future to provide arms to warring factions within the country, fuelling inherent conflict in the region - perhaps taking advantage of existing animosities. At the time the story begins, the Scholars have taken over, and they were meant to be bringing peace to the region. But where people had previously worked to keep the...

This compilation of short stories all have a sci-fi theme to them. The stories all take place in the future and center around a young character and the problems they face in that time. One story is about a soccer player whose father "kidnaps" and takes to Puerto Rico in order to meet a man who is famous for being abducted by aliens, however, a flue pandemic forces them into isolation where he makes friends with Ticos. At the end, they all finally get to see aliens. Another story is about a girl

This is a cool concept. I couldn't really get into about half of the stories, including some of the ones by authors whose work I'd enjoyed before. The ones I enjoyed:"Ass-Hat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld (even though it was slightly twee); "The Surfer" by Kelly Link; "Anda's Game" by Cory Doctorow (despite being a bit message-heavy, it was an interesting take on video game war); "The Star Surgeon's Apprentice" by Alistair Reynolds (cool to read that he has a bunch of Word files on his hard

The first couple stories in this anthology were pretty good, but around the fourth story I started losing interesting. I tried skipping around to the other stories, but couldn’t get into any of them. I ended up just skimming them to get an idea of what they were about. I was really disappointed cuz I was really looking forward to reading this book. Time to find a different book to satisfy my sci-fi craving.

Some editors of science fiction anthologies (like Gardner Dozois) are very talented, and they have the shelves full of Hugos to prove it. Most of those who cobble together a thematic collection of short fiction by an array of different authors, though, are less dependable. Strahan falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. His stated goal is to ask again the classic question in the ongoing SF conversation: What’s happening in the world we live in and where are we going? It’s a serious questi...

I saw this book in the Auckland City Libraries last year, and I was planning on reading it for a reading log, but found a better book, and forgot about it. I saw it again this year, and decided I was definitely going to review it this time. The Starry Rift covers the short story section of the bingo box. I enjoy reading short stories, as they can be quick reads, and be very enjoyable. I chose the pieces I’m going to comment on here at random – by opening the book randomly, and ended up with Oran...

I enjoyed The Starry Rift (edited by Jonathan Strahan), but not nearly as much as I enjoyed the collection of James Tiptree Jr. stories by the same name. The storytelling is uneven - Cory Doctorow's "Anda's Game", for instance, verges on a polemic, Jeffrey Ford's "The Dismantled Invention of Fate" fails the coherence test, and Margo Lanagan's "An Honest Day's Work" plods mercilessly. However, Gaiman's "Orange" is a neat one-sided story, and Kelly Link's "The Surfer" is a great character study. I...

Reviewed by Christina Tsichlis for TeensReadToo.comTHE STARRY RIFT is truly a collection of stories about today's ideals, dreams, and philosophies. Strahan did an amazing job collecting stories written by modern science fiction masters. The authors write beautifully, uniquely, and intriguingly. This anthology is masterful in representing different worlds and conceptions of worlds, covering everything from the real world to gaming to dreaming. The exploration of themes in the book cover everythin...

The Surfer by Kelly Link ★★★★½ “By then everything had changed because of a new flu scare.”“There were guards wearing N95 masks and carrying machine guns to make sure we all got on a bus.”“We got our luggage back, so that’s one good thing, although they’ve taken our passports away.”“... we were going through our supply of toilet paper too fast.” This was written in 2008 or earlier!!! Kelly Link has freaked me out. If I had read this in early 2020 I would have been expecting aliens too. Anyone r...

So what we have here is a collection of 16 short stories connected only by the fact that they're all science fiction. And... that's it. There's no other thematic overlay here. Which was perfectly fine by me, because it was a great lot of stories.My favorites: Scott Westerfeld's Ass-Hat Magic Spider (the perfect way to open the collection), Neil Gaiman's Orange (told through the answers to questions unrevealed here), Stephen Baxter's Repair Kit (gloriously classic sf), Cory Doctorow's Anda's Game...

fully admit that I initially sprang for this anthology entirely on the basis of Stephan Martiniere's cover illustration. It's what SF covers are supposed to look like, and wrapped around a nice hefty volume (530 pages), seemed to hold out the promise of some good old fashion SF. Even the subtitle, "Tales of new Tomorrows" had a nice 1950's ring to it. I was not disappointed. Editor Jonathan Strahan has pulled together 16 of the top names in the field, which provides a great sampler of contempor

This collection of sci-fi stories by authors like Scott Westerfeld, Garth Nix, and Neil Gaiman shows what good science fiction can really be. These stories are brilliant, each with its own perspective and lesson. Science fiction isn;t about aliens and spaceships. It explores everything that never happened. Some of these stories take place in worlds where you put yourself into your game, or where it won't matter if you die, because they can just re-upload you mind into a different body. Whether r...

This is one amazing compilation of stories. I especially loved 'AssHat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld, which is "a homage" to a certain "Charlotte" and I won't spoil it for those of you planning to read it...I also liked Neil Gaiman's Orange for its "Outer-worldly" excellence. I am looking forward to more compilations of this kind which give uis snippets of shorts from people who usually write longer pieces. The cover art alone pulled me in. Overall, Bravo!

A collection of 16 unconnected short sci-fi stories by various fantastic writers, including one by Neil Gaiman. Some other great shorts in the collection are Pinocchio, the surfer, orange, dust assassin, post ironic stress syndrome, and the dismantled invention of fate. Not in any particular order. If you enjoy sci-fi, with ideas of what the future (if we still have one) will look like, you'll very likely enjoy this collection.

only the first story was good. the rest are unreadable and the author's notes were usually more interesting than the story!

Johnathon Strahan invited people to write short stories "with the same kind of thrill" as those written in the 1950's and 1960's. But because SF is always about today, the starting point for those rocket ships moved fifty or so years.This could have been a train wreck, but he chose very good writers. So it is fun reading a Garth Nix story about nanobot vampires instead of his YA fantasy. And Scott Westerfeld with a "boarding the colony ship" story that would have been at home in Galaxy.A few peo...

Most of the stories in this collection center around young people, which leaves some reviewers labeling it a 'young adult' anthology. But that's not in editor Strahan's introduction, so I'm loathe to apply a tag with so much baggage attached.I don't think there's a standout story here, but even the least of the set are readable. Well, my impression of Stephen Baxter wasn't improved by "Repair Kit". Baxter says he was trying for humor in the vein of Robert Sheckley, but he has none of Sheckley's

Strahan, Jonathan. ed, 2008. THE STARRY RIFT: TALES OF NEW TOMORROWS. Viking. 530 pages.The Starry Rift is 'an original science fiction anthology.' Consisting of sixteen short stories (some really more like novellas), it features the work of some favorites new and old--Scott Westerfeld, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Cory Doctorow, Garth Nix, etc.There's no guaranteeing you'll like all sixteen stories--I sure didn't--but I'd almost guarantee that you'll absolutely love at least one of them. I'd even g...

The book "The Starry Rift" is a very interesting and fascinating. What I thought was interesting was the fact that this book had 16 other stories in it. The part that was fascinating was the parts where it was science fiction because I am a big fan of science fiction The stories in the book were all related to somewhere in the future where things are more advanced and different in the future. The years can range from decades or even thousands of years in the future. Some are even on a different