Review of Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories by Tobias S. Buckell
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories is the latest collection from author Tobias S. Buckell (Apex Book Company, 2023), and it’s filled with a wonderful collection of previously published sci-fi stories.
Several of the stories in this collection share the same setting, one in which oxygen use is monitored and paid for, leading people unable to pay for their oxygen consumption to go into hibernation to use less oxygen. On top of that dystopic element, there’s an alien race called the Gheda who have placed humanity in this unpleasant predicament. The characters in these stories all are easily motivated to do work for a profit, which leads them into the situations of their stories.
My favorite stories, though, were a couple of the quieter stories in the collection. “Chi’s Cargo” looks at the dilemma presented in Tom Godwin’s 1954 story, “The Cold Equations,” and says no to that story’s outcome. Instead, it presents a different solution with a lot more hope. On the flipside, I also enjoyed “The Longest Distance,” which looked at interactions between a person who chose to leave on a generation ship and the person who they left behind. It’s almost a slice of life story, writ across time and space, and with an ending that offers equal parts hope and despair.
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories will be released April 18, 2023, but you can pre-order it now!
The publisher provided me with a review copy of this collection in exchange for review consideration.
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