Science Fiction Anthology

Volume 1

By: Ray Jay Perreault

Narrated by: Christopher M. Allport

Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Four sci-fi short stories where you'll find good computers, people who regret their past, and an explanation for something you're familiar with.

"Progeny"

The first section had a series of six images that appeared grouped together. The furthest left showed a small creature that appeared to live in water. On its right was a similar creature, but it had legs and was crawling on the land. The remainder of the series showed progressive images showing the creature growing larger, and the appendages changing until it was fully erect and it was strikingly similar to the bone structure she had just looked at.

"The Greatest Host"

After the foraging, the host moved to a corner of the open area and there was another creature. The Mists were concerned that if their host were threatened or attacked, it would be terrible for them. They could all lose their lives at once. If the host sensed any threat, they would immediately use all of their ability to coerce the host back to the ship's location so they could download.

"Circle is Closed"

Commander Leopold Harnesy was standing on the bridge of the HSV#2. He was nervous; in fact, he was scared. The fate of HSV#1 was fresh in his mind. His ship's predecessor was sitting in the same exact location five years ago, and when its commander, Roberta Jenkins, engaged the faster than light drive, the ship disintegrated into trillions of molecules. It was obvious what had happened, the calculations were a little off.

"Good Morning..."

This short story is an interesting tie-in between science fiction and corporate culture, with a computer throwing in a twist. Anyone that has worked in a large company will share some of the issues that Robert deals with. In this story, instead of 'they' causing the problem, it is the computer sharing the assignment.

©2016 Raymond J Perreault (P)2016 Raymond J Perreault

Interesting Concepts - A good Quad of Sci Fi

I really liked "Progeny" and "Circle is Closed". Very strong Classic Science Fiction. Reminded me of a Piers Anthony story. Well written and actually makes the reader think. The narrator was excellent. He was great with voices and inflection.

This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.”

A nice diversion

I prefer longer fiction but these short stories were a nice short diversion from my current novel. I didn't care for the first story, Progeny. All of the characters were AI and the flat monotonous reading got on my nerves. I can't fault the narrator here because how else would you read it? I think that one would be better left to print. The others were better with the last one, Good Morning, being my favorite of the bunch. It seemed the most believable or "real" of the stories and it satisfied my suspicious nature.
"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com."

A mixed bag, with increasing quality

The short stories have previously been released individually, and have now been collected together in one package.

As with most collections of short stories, there are good and bad in here. For whatever reason (I'm guessing it is the order they were written in, and also recorded in) the quality goes up with each story. This is a good thing, but it also makes the initial drop into the book a little difficult. Like most sci-fi shorts, there is often a quick twist/surprise in the tale too.

Now onto each story:

Progeny
Progeny deals with a 'family' of artificial life forms going about their lives, in a world governed by 4 laws that protect and grow the society.
The writing here is very stilted and dry. This is probably intentional as we are dealing with AI robots, and works well for the characters. Unfortunately the dryness and the lack of any excitement or feeling to the characters ultimately robs the story of the impact it should have had. When the characters responses feel very "meh" to events, it makes it hard to feel much different.
The narration just makes the stilted feeling much worse (and maybe if I had read it, rather than audiobooked it the 'meh' wouldn't have come through in the same way. There is zero inflection or change for any characters - no voices, reactions or anything.

The Greatest Host
A very short story told from the point of view of an alien parasite looking for a new host, describing the actions of the host and it's surrounds.
The writing breaks from the stilted work of the previous story (giving relief that it was a story choice and not a author's style) but still is not natural. Being from the strange/alien POV is a cool idea, but it makes it a little hard to grasp what is going on. The final lines break from this POV and everything comes into context. I actually went through this one twice, once without the context and once with to see the difference. The context provided by the ending was good and interesting, but I would have preferred to see it build over the story. There was little to no chance of 'guessing' the context without knowing it.
Again, narration is dry, no rise and fall.

Circle Is Closed
Story of a human colonists returning to earth (via the first working warp drive), long after earth was abandoned due to climate change and other misuse. The colonists hope that Earth will be back to a livable quality, but are going to find more than they bargained for.
This is the first story with human characters in it. They are well written (for the short time we interact with them). The writing generally is better here.This story is billed as "Progeny, Part 2" so the ending doesn't really come as the surprise/twist that I think the author intended.
Again (like a broken record here) the narration is flat and dry. At points the crew get exiting, but you wouldn't know it from that narration. The only change is when a robot speaks
On a side note, as a minor science nitpick: they arrive from hyperspace 127 000km from Earth and are unsure if the made it. Sounds like a lot? The moon is nearly 400 000km from Earth. They would have known for certain Earth was there.

Good Morning... Processes Must Be Improved
A miner, Robert, is sent to run a mine on Titan by himself, with only the local AI to help him. The AI tries it's hardest to get him to improve his work, but the loneliness of his position slowly takes over.
The story here is the best one yet. It deal with the human condition and what happens when isolation and depression set it.
The narration here is easier to follow and more interesting, mostly because of there is sound effects/distortion added to the robots voice. Normally i'm not a big fan of that, but by this point I welcomed a change from the sameness that was the rest of the narration. There was a point where humans are talking with no "he said", "she said" tags and it was very difficult to tell who said what because there was no change between them. Another point the story said "and then a different voice came on the radio"... and it was the exact same voice/tone/pace etc from the narrator. No change.

Overall I enjoyed the stories, but found the narration fairly lacking. I think this may be one that would be better to read yourself.

Loved all of these short stories

Any additional comments?

I love the short story genre and although I've never heard of this author or these titles, I must say they were all very, very, very enjoyable. I like Jonathan Carroll books and these stories remind me a bit of his type--a re-imagined world with real human inhabitants.

I don't want to spoil this listen for anyone so just do your ears a favor and give these short stories a quick listen, You won't regret it.

A great collection of SF, mostly AI

In order of individual publication, here are my reviews of the stories contained in this anthology.

The Greatest Host

In this short and amusing story, Ilrod and his fellow organisms (known as the Mists) have had to abruptly leave their planet where they shared a symbiotic relationship with their hosts for many years. Now, alas, the planet is destroyed and many of the Mists have been lost. It takes many, many years, but they eventually reach another habitable planet and begin their search for a new host species.

This was a cute story that gave me several chuckles. The Mists made me think vaguely of jellyfish in that each Mist is made up of individual molecules that cooperate together to make one functioning being. The Mists look like just how their name implies and they search for symbiotic relationships with other animals.

I enjoyed the last few minutes as Ilrod and his fellow Mists discover a new species to play host to them. The descriptions from Ilrod’s point of view were amusing and I quickly guessed what kind of animal they had come upon. Once again, the author has provided quality entertainment.

Circle Is Closed

Commander Leopold Harnessy is leading a mission to test a new FLT (Faster Than Light) technology. The humans of planet Horizon hope to find old Earth and perhaps resettle her but first a test ship must be sent to see if the new tech works. If it does, then larger ships could be sent the same way. The Horizon humans left Earth many, many generations ago but they still revere her. Now, they wish to reclaim that heritage.

Harnessy must leave his family on Horizon as he undertakes this possibly dangerous mission. His daughter Rose asks him a serious question about Earth during the send off ceremony. Harnessy hopes to find the answer to it and many other questions. When Harnessy & crew arrive at Earth, she is healed of all the environmental damage that forced humans to leave her so long ago. However, Harnessy and his shipmates are met with a surprise.

The author did a great job for such a short story. There’s plenty to consider in this compact tale. I was quickly drawn into the tale. There’s some big questions the main character has to consider, both before he leaves Horizon and once he gets to Earth. While the story moves swiftly along, it has depth.

Progeny

The 4 laws of conformity have maintained a functional society for generations: 1) Continue making units; 2) Protect all units already made; 3) Expand the knowledge base; and 4) Maintain variation in thought. Helen strives to follow the last 2 laws in her scientific studies.

I quite enjoyed this tale of non-organic beings and their well-organized society. Helen and Lorenzo often join Eve and Roberto for dinner and discussion. Helen is a bit fascinated by the local DNA-based life forms, but the topic is considered a bit gauche. Nevertheless, Helen and her lab assistants (Ivan and Lorraine) want to continue their observations.

What Helen and her assistants discover is rather disturbing to not only herself, but to her society. It was pretty cool how the author had the main character discovering this long-forgotten truth and how her immediate friends and colleagues react. It’s akin to when humans started accepting that the Sun, and not Earth, was the center of the solar system. I’ve read Perreault’s SIMPOC books, but this is my favorite of his works so far. Definitely some food for thought there. What if a society developed so far and forgot their origins, only to discover them later?

Good Morning …Processes Must Be Improved

Robert has been assigned to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, to mine methane. Much of the operation is done by robots and a human is needed to fix minor break downs and such. The resident built-in AI is TCI12, or Tessy. Things start off well enough but then little by little they fall apart.

This was a fun piece of scifi. While it’s a bit of a classic plot set up, I still enjoyed seeing how the author played with it. There’s some miscommunication with Earth about shipments, supplies, and the state of the miningbots on Titan. As Robert sees mangled messages congratulating other mining colonies, he both redoubles his efforts and becomes more and more pessimistic.

Meanwhile, Tessy does it’s ‘best’ to keep Robert on schedule, prodding him with daily reminders of the shipping quota and how many bots are down. On the surface, Tessy seems quite helpful and organized. Can an AI have ulterior motives? Or a (twisted) sense of humor?

I liked that Robert comments a few times about how it’s a tough assignment, being the only human on Titan for so many weeks/months at a time, how important it is to stay busy in order to stay mentally balanced. This is a good question for the story, not just for humans, but for any sentient being stuck on Titan with minimal socializing for any significant length of time.

I liked the ending because it speaks of further mischievousness. I hope when us humans start using AI for stuff in general, folks go back to the ‘Perreault classics’ and build in safety features that prevent and/or recognize questionable behavior in AIs at an early stage. This tale is a worthy read, and would make a good lunchbreak story.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author.

Narration: For The Greatest Host, Christopher M. Allport did a great job with this short story. As the voice of Ilrod, he was excellent at portraying the Mist’s emotions, first at the loss of the planet and fellow Mists, and later at the wonder of discovering such a compatible host. For Circle Is Closed, Christopher M. Allport tossed in some real ship sounds for when the ship AI is answering questions or announcing something. Each character was distinct and the the female voices were realistic. He also performed an old lady and a little girl with success. For Progeny, Christopher M. Allport did a good job narrating this story as well. His female voices were believable and his story-telling style was straight forward, letting me sink into the tale without being hung up on vocal theatrics. For Good Morning… Processes Must Be Improved, Christopher M. Allport gave a good performance. He made transmissions sound like transmissions with radio noises and such. I liked his helpful, calm voice for Tessy. He also did a great job with Robert’s voice, showing how Robert was somewhat enthusiastic about his assignment at the beginning and how little by little, that changed over the course of the story.

Nice sci-fci collection

The sci-fi collection of short stories was a new thing for me. Generally I always have hit/miss with story collections, and I'm pretty sure its the same with everyone. I did receive this in exchange for a honest review. I am happy to say there were more hits than misses in this book. The narration could have been a bit better, but I was still able to enjoy. If you enjoy short stories, then I recommend. If you prefer long novels with character development, then this one is not for you, The author delivered as promised. I recommend this book to sci fi short story lovers.

Enjoyable collection & good intro to the author

This is a collection of four short stories by Perreault. Two, "Progeny," and "Circle is Closed," got reworked a bit to become part of the fix-up novel, Progeny's Children. They're good short stories, and "Circle is Closed" has an extra kick at the end from being on its own as originally written. "The Greatest Host" is a fun little story for those of us who love dogs.

"Good Morning" is the standout. Anyone who has worked in a large, corporate environment will quickly recognize some of what's going on. It's especially for those of us who are just a little bit paranoid, and I can't make my next comment because it would be a spoiler. But I was provoked to an evil laugh at the end.

All in all it's a good little collection, and a good taste of Perreault's writing. Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

Great Short Science Fiction Stories

I enjoyed these 4 science fiction stories by Ray Jay Perreault. Interesting characters and storylines made for an enjoyable listen. Look forward to more of his writing in the future. I received a free copy of this audiobook for an honest review.”

Interesting & entertaining short story collection

“I received a free copy of this audiobook for an honest review.”

This was an entertaining collection of science fiction short stories. I especially liked the first story (Progeny) and the last (Good Morning). I actually really like short stories because they are easy to listen to between things that I have going on. Even though science fiction is not my FAVORITE genre, I still enjoy it, and I found these stories very enjoyable and entertaining. I like how the author brings in his experience from his careers to make each story seem realistic. I listened to the Audible audio version of the book narrated by Christopher M. Allport. I thought he did a good job, but there weren't a whole lot of different "voices" required for this book, so I'm unsure of what his range is, since this is the first book I've listened to that is narrated by him. Based on this book alone, I enjoyed him and would listen to other books he has narrated. If you are a fan of science fiction or short stories, I recommend giving this book a try.

A great collection of sci fi

Would you consider the audio edition of Science Fiction Anthology to be better than the print version?

Did not read the printed version

Which scene was your favorite?

It all was good

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher