reviews.metaphorosis.com2.5 starsA collection of speculative fiction stories, including some related to the Kethani universe.I first encountered Eric Brown via his novel Helix, which I thought was interesting in a Ringworld or Jack McDevitt kind of way - an intriguing alien artifact explored - while remaining lightish adventure. I picked up several of Brown's other books to find them quite different - understated speculation in a vaguely Richard Cowperish style, but without the same depth. Then a couple of drab detective SF books. Essentially, with every Brown book I read, I liked him less. Deep Future arrests the slide, but it doesn't bring the curve back up.Many of the stories are from relatively early in Brown's career, but I didn't feel a great sense of development; I didn't like the older better than the newer or vice versa. My copy of his novel Engineman included several stories in the back. These stories read very much like those - contemplative, vaguely speculative stories that often focus on art. Occasionally, details in a story are inconsistent, or there's a large info dump, but on the whole, the prose is polished. There's nothing objectionable about the stories, but there's also little that's particularly interesting or memorable. Each story is preceded by author notes that add background about the stories' creation. If you're really keen to read fiction that considers art, or you're a serious Eric Brown fan, these may be for you. Otherwise, they're a pleasant but bland way to pass some time.
These stories are about love in its various forms with a science fiction backdrop. There are aliens, but the stories are more about the human characters than the aliens. The characters are well developed for short stories, with the dynamics between them easy to follow and believable, although some are more outlandish than others. Plot lines are varied and quite good, which is what science fiction/speculative fiction is all about. Love the writing style, concentrating on the human aspects more than the aliens but they are still there. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and will be looking for more by this author. Love it! Recommend to any and all! I received this free from the author for an honest review. No compensation involved.
