Engineering Infinity

This book bills itself as a collection of hard science fiction stories. Now, any collection is bound to be a little uneven. But some of the stories in here were in no way, shape, or fashion "hard" SF. And they weren't that good, either. But others particularly the first 2 and the last 1, had me thinking, "Yes! This is the stuff I fell in love with as a kid." So if you pick this book up, just know that you are in for some very disparate experiences.

An anthology of hard science fiction from a variety of authors, from veterans like Gregory Benford to newcomers like Hannu Rajaniemi. The settings vary from the very near future of Peter Watts’ “Malak” (applying a very interesting if-this-goes-on to drone warfare in Afghanistan) to the very far future of David Moles’ “A Soldier of the City”. Charles Stross’ “Bit Rot” will be of interest to people who enjoyed his novel Saturn’s Children— it takes place centuries down the line from the events of that book (and manages to put a high-tech twist on the popular phenomenon of zombies). Overall, a good look at the current state of hard sf writing.

I remember reading glowing reviews of the Infinity anthologies in Locus years ago, and I long for well-written hard SF -- not space opera. I was bit disappointed when I finally read the first entry. Many authors I like, and almost everything readable, but absolutely nothing knocked me out and I'm already having trouble remembering what happened in each story.

The lingering impression I have is a mix of stories set either in the far future, deliberately and jarringly disconnected from today, or set very near future. War is a common setting, of the modern space opera sort, where everything happens very quickly at great magnitudes. A few read like the opening chapter of a longer novel, though not annoyingly so.

I'm neither down on the show more collection nor excited by it, so my recommendation has to be "sure, why not." show less

There are some good stories in here, and I only really disliked one, but there was too much testeria in the middle of the book. Along with the male gaze being strong in this one, though 2 of the 8 authors are women.

Declares in the introduction that it's a "hard science fiction anthology" and it sure is. Good stories that move along quickly; some are enigmatic at first, but hard sf fans like to work a little, don't they? The flow of themes from story to story is good - they're ordered well. The later tales are a little dark and the fast-paced final story has whimsy and a little raciness that ends it all on an uplifting note.

A couple of great stories in here, but otherwise I found it dragged. 2.5/5

A few really good stories here but fundamentally flawed collection, too many duds and too few diamonds in there.