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A review by ketreads
Beyond the Rift by Peter Watts
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
This was a fantastic read! This is an anthology series featuring 13 short stories ranging from 20-50 pages (roughly).
I'd never heard of this author until recently and, due to it being spooky season, I decided now was a great time to give this book a go. I was sold on this book when I found out the first short story features a retelling of The Thing from the perspective of the alien itself. The author does such a impressive job of introducing us to a wide array of perspectives with every new character and their story. We come to each story curious and cautiously excited to see just where he'll take us next.
Each short story felt well paced and filled with a wide variety of concepts ranging from first contact, to murder mystery, to existential dread on what it means to be human. I loved that no story ever overstayed it's welcome, nor left too much to be unenjoyable to the imagination. It gave just enough to truly make us understand the scope of the characters situation before starting anew.
While these stories do lean towards the more dark and distressing in nature but the author says it best in the final chapter of this book:
I'd never heard of this author until recently and, due to it being spooky season, I decided now was a great time to give this book a go. I was sold on this book when I found out the first short story features a retelling of The Thing from the perspective of the alien itself. The author does such a impressive job of introducing us to a wide array of perspectives with every new character and their story. We come to each story curious and cautiously excited to see just where he'll take us next.
Each short story felt well paced and filled with a wide variety of concepts ranging from first contact, to murder mystery, to existential dread on what it means to be human. I loved that no story ever overstayed it's welcome, nor left too much to be unenjoyable to the imagination. It gave just enough to truly make us understand the scope of the characters situation before starting anew.
While these stories do lean towards the more dark and distressing in nature but the author says it best in the final chapter of this book:
"if my writing tends toward the dystopic it’s not because I’m in love with dystopias; it’s because reality has forced dystopia upon me. A ravaged environment is no longer optional when writing about the near future. All I can do now is imagine how my characters might react to the hand they’ve been dealt."
Overall, if you're looking for well written & thought provoking speculative sci-fi stories, I highly recommend this collection. I hope to read more of this authors work in the future.