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Edge of Infinity anthology, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Please comment of each individual story in it's own topic in the Edge of Infinity story discussion folder. (Links to each story's topic in the Table of Content below.) You can use this topic for general discussions of the anthology as a whole.

Edge of Infinity anthology, edited by Jonathan Strahan


Table of Content

"The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi" by Pat Cadigan -> DISCUSSION
"The Deeps of the Sky" by Elizabeth Bear @IO9.com -> DISCUSSION
"Drive" by James S. A. Corey -> DISCUSSION
"The Road to NPS" by Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey -> DISCUSSION
"Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh" by John Barnes -> DISCUSSION
"Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden" by Paul McAuley -> DISCUSSION
"Safety Tests" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch -> DISCUSSION
"Bricks, Sticks, Straw" by Gwyneth Jones -> DISCUSSION
"Tyche and the Ants" by Hannu Rajaniemi (@ClarkesWorld) -> DISCUSSION
"Obelisk" by Stephen Baxter -> DISCUSSION
"Vainglory" by Alastair Reynolds -> DISCUSSION
"Water Rights" by An Owomoyela -> DISCUSSION
"The Peak of Eternal Light" by Bruce Sterling -> DISCUSSION

The theme of this anthology is described by editor Jonathan Strahan in his Introduction:

WELCOME TO THE Fourth Generation of science fiction.

A year or so ago I was working on Engineering Infinity, a collection of stories intended to interrogate what hard science fiction means in the second decade of the 21st century. In the introduction to that book I made passing reference to the ‘Fourth Generation of Science Fiction,’...

During the Fourth Generation of fecundity, another kind of story began to appear, one that saw a place for us in our own Solar System, if not out in the stars (yet). This story was to some extent an engineering story. It told of massive engines and small craft, of tiny colonies and bubbles of life spreading out to the moon, to Mars, through the asteroid belt, past massive Jupiter, and on to the distant colder places far from our star. It was a story that appeared as the background to any number of short stories published over the past half-dozen years, and then flourishing in major novels like James S.A Corey’s Leviathan Wakes and Kim Stanley Robinson’s stunning 2312.

It takes stories set firmly in an industrialized, colonized Solar System during a time when starflight is yet to emerge, and imagines life in the hottest places close to our star, and in the coldest, most distant corners of our home. For all that some individual stories may be darker or lighter in tone, it’s a love letter to our home, to our future and to science fiction.

Thanks G33z3r for the introduction. Let me just add that it is Strahan's second anthology installation in an anthology series of what he calls "Fourth Generation of SF". This "Infinity" series started with Engineering of Infinity (2010), then our Edge of Infinity, and was carried on with Reach for Infinity (2014). This year will see another one called Meeting Infinity.

I seldom find anthologies containing no bad story at all. I liked nearly all of the stories, some were great. That deserves 5 stars.

Which led me to think a bit about rating anthologies. Why do I rate an anthology with a story average of clearly less than 5 stars that high? Compare this to novels: Did each and every random 25 pages of your last 5 stars novel deserve 5 stars? Probably not. Similarly for anthologies where each short story is evaluated separately.

My favourite ★★★★★ stories were

The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi by Pat Cadigan
Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh by John Barnes
The Peak of Eternal Light by Bruce Sterling


Contents: (note that the review links lead to my blog. If you don't want to follow links to GR external contents, just go for G33z3r's Discussion links)

★★★★★ • “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi” • novelette by Pat Cadigan • review
★★★ • “The Deeps of the Sky” • short story by Elizabeth Bear • alien mining a gas planet's troposphere for a dowry • review
★★★★ • “Drive” • Expanse prequel by by James S. A. Corey • the invention of the Epstein drive • review
★★★ • “The Road to NPS” •  short story by Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey • road-trip on Europa • review
★★★★1/2 • “Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh” • short story by John Barnes • near-singularity AI working as psychologist • review
★★★ • “Macy Minnot's Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler's Green, the Potter's Garden” • shortstory by Paul J. McAuley • review
★★★ • “Safety Tests” • short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch • a day in the live of a spacepilot test instructor • review
★★★ •  “Bricks, Sticks, Straw” • short story by Gwyneth Jones •  remote-controlled A.I.s loose connection  • review
★★★1/2  • “Tyche and the Ants” • short story by Hannu Rajaniemi • review
★★ • “Obelisk” • short story by Stephen Baxter •  how to build a huge obelisk on Mars • review
★★★1/2 • “Vainglory” • short story by Alastair Reynolds • asteroids used as sculpture material • review
★★1/2 • “Water Rights” • short story by An Owomoyela • water runs dry in a orbital station • review
★★★★1/2 • “The Peak of Eternal Light” • novelette by Bruce Sterling • bicycling on Mercure • review

On an entirely trivial, petty note, I don't see many books on the Kindle that use left alignment for text. I'm completely out of practice reading ragged right hand margins, especially on the relatively small Kindle screen.

Has anyone else noticed that exploring Jupiter and its moons seems to be the most popular theme of this anthology?

What I did notice was that stories weren't equally distributed over the planets. How many are placed on Jupiter+Moons?

Andreas wrote: "What I did notice was that stories weren't equally distributed over the planets. How many are placed on Jupiter+Moons?"

There are four stories in the Jovian system:
"The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi"
"The Deeps of the Sky"
"The Road to NPS"
"Bricks, Sticks, Straw"

Probably not surprising, since the Galilean moons are the focus of a lot of speculation lately. (Hopefully the Juno probe will produce even more interest when it reaches Jupiter next year.)

To round out the planetary totals:

Two stories in Earth orbit: "Safety Tests" & "Water Rights".
and one story on Earth itself: "Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh"

One on the Moon: "Tyche and the Ants"

Two on Mars: "Drive" and "Obelisk"

One on Mercury: "The Peak of Eternal Light"

One in Saturn system: "Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden"

One in Neptune system: "Vainglory".

Was "Swift as a Dream" actually on Earth? I missed that in my reading; I guess I assumed mining must mean asteroid. (Obviously, the ending was based in Earth politics.)

Hillary wrote: "Was "Swift as a Dream" actually on Earth? I missed that in my reading; I guess I assumed mining must mean asteroid. (Obviously, the ending was based in Earth politics.)"

I think so. In Tyward's story there are reference to scrub vegetation, the Quito Skyhook, and a herd of bison.

Only avid scifi trufen read a story about mining and set the default location to an asteroid. :)

G33z3r wrote: "On an entirely trivial, petty note, I don't see many books on the Kindle that use left alignment for text. I'm completely out of practice reading ragged right hand margins, especially on the relati..."

Concerning the kindle formatting, I think the one good reason for the ragged right margins is so that you don't have huge spaces between words when the font is enlarged. When formatting for print, of course, you want an exact page layout. Formatting for digital, you have to consider that the print will be read on many different screens with various-sized type adjustments.