cover image Horizons: An Anthology of Prize Winning Stories from SFNovelist.com

Horizons: An Anthology of Prize Winning Stories from SFNovelist.com

Edited by Jim Gamble, Richard Winder, and Bruce Davis. Missouri Anthology LLC, $14.95 trade paper (424p) ISBN 978-0-615-43335-6

An anthology written by an online writing group, these stories were chosen as the group's best writing of the last several years. Despite strong ideas, the individual narratives suffer from a variety of weaknesses, including: poor dialogue, data dumps, and clich%C3%A9d aliens. Although billed as hard science fiction, some of the science is outdated, making use of the superseded idea that Mercury kept one face to the sun, which demonstrates a lack of rigor on the part of the author. Because the stories are drawn from a relatively small group of authors, many have multiple stories, allowing repetition of themes and tropes to become obvious, such as Michael J. Martineck's penchant for having characters suddenly appear. While some authors, particularly those who have different entries in the anthology, show promise, none of them appear to be ready for prime time. (Oct.)