Deep Space

  

Deep Space
By  Milo James Fowler

ASIN : B01N18E63I
83 Pages
Available on Audible and on Kindle

Synopsis:

Deep Space collects 7 short stories from the outer rim:

Live by the Ten, Die by the Gun
From Gaia to Proxima Centauri
Resurrection of the Hornet
Autonomic Zen and the Art of Destruction
From Scheol My Soulfire Burns
Dance by the Light of the Moon
Tomorrow’s Dawn

My Thoughts:

Deep Space is a collection of science fiction short stories that take place in space (obviously), exploring life on futuristic colonies and spacecrafts of all sorts. The seven stories range in length, with the first entry being the longest one, clocking in at just under an hour. Two other stories come close to thirty minutes each, and the remaining four are super short ~5 minute pieces. The entire book is only about two and a half hours long, so it is a good quick listen.

The stories in Deep Space are much more serious than those found in the Bartholomew Quasar title from Milo James Fowler, which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. Those stories centered around more lighthearted events and the humorous actions of the crew, whereas the stories in Deep Space are more technical and the outcomes somewhat more severe. If you are a fan of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, or Defiance, then this is your kind of book.

As previously mentioned, the first selection in the book, Live by the Ten, Die by the Gun, is the feature of the collection. This hour long tale has a touch of space western and focuses on life on a post-apocalyptical style earth colony space station. Every colony has rule keepers, in the form of a judge and a sheriff, and a spiritual guardian in the form of a priest. This story has strong religious undertones -  their societal rules are formed by an adherence to "the ten", presumably a reference to the Christian concept of the ten commandments. The priest character had an air of mystery to him and possessed the potential to be very interesting and I would have loved to see his back story explored more, as well as the working/personal relationship between the Sherriff and the Judge. That is merely the failing of the short story format - sometimes there is more story to be told. This entry was my favorite in the set and I would happily read a more extended story in this universe.

The remaining stories were equally engaging. The second story, From Gaia to Proxima Centauri, is another long-ish one, clocking in at just over 26 minutes. Another tale of post-societal Earth, this story follows a robot whose sole mission is to direct a ship containing all the knowledge and history of Earth to a designated destination in space, and what happens along the way. The sixth entry (and the final lengthy one, at 34+ minutes), Dance by the Light of the Moon, caught me off guard with an elaborate tale of universe hopping and an ending that I did not expect at all.

In regards to the narration:  The audiobook is narrated by Don Wang. He has a good clear voice, but the reading occasionally seemed detached to me - at points flat and devoid of emotion, almost robotic. At other points it was perfectly fine, and even engaging, but to me it just lacked something sometimes. His reading pace was also a little slow, which added to the monotony. About half way into the first story I sped up the pace to 1.15 and it helped.

I received a complimentary audiobook copy of Deep Space from the author, Milo James Fowler, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions stated are mine. The book is currently available available on Amazon.

Parent's Guide:

Deep Space doesn't have any bad language or adult themes. For younger readers, the primary shortcomings would be a lot of technical words and a touch of violence. Despite that, this book should be an acceptable read for advanced literacy teens who like things about space adventuring.