BOOK REVIEW | BROKEN STARS | JEREMY SZAL

 

Broken Stars by Jeremy Szal

About The Book

Broken Stars combines previously published short stories and novelettes with new and exciting tales, ranging from space opera to military SF to science-fantasy and everything in-between. Tales of broken heroes fighting for hope in dark worlds, full of aliens and outcasts, drug dealers and bounty hunters, mercenaries and soldiers. Tales of far-flung worlds where the lines between machine and human become blurred, the humanity of monsters is explored, and victory always comes with a heavy price. In these eighteen stories of far-flung worlds, violence explodes, betrayals abound, and no one is safe.

 A smuggler for alien drugs is thrust into a high stakes of subterfuge and interstellar drug trades, only to find herself out of her depth.

 Yharv, a mercenary, must escort the King through a besieged city and see him crowned. The only problem is, Yharv isn’t human, and neither is the king, and nonhumans usually end up dead in a gutter. And luck has never been on Yharv’s side.

 An alien and a human fight to liberate a planet where aliens are treated as second-class citizens. But freedom comes at a steep price.

 A kidnapped warrior discovers her memories may not be her own, and she may be on the wrong side of her war.

 And many more . . .

Review

From the writer of the Stormblood series comes this collection of 18 short stories, both new and old. If you haven’t read the Stormblood series, it is one that I highly recommend (in fact, I need to catch up with books two and three), especially if you like sci fi thrillers.

I must admit I love short stories, especially when it comes from a single author, as they have the ability to show a writer’s versatility, and Broken Stars shows off Jeremy Szal’s versatility well.

As the writer says in his introduction, the stories allow him to explore new ideas and give himself a change of artistic scenery. And the scenery changes throughout the multitude of stories with tales being set on distant worlds, cyberpunk versions of Turkey and Thai inspired colonies.

Most of these stories have previously been published elsewhere (and there was one that I recognised which I had previously read in another anthology), with two being brand new and being published here for the first time.

The stories focus on a multitude of different characters such as bounty hunters, warriors, assassins and a whole host of others.

Each of the stores has a different flavour, spanning from straight out sci fi, to sci fi horror and sci fantasy.

Every one of these stories is good, from the very first story.

I am not going to go into every story, but I do want to mention a few of the standout ones. The first is the very first story, The Galaxy’s Cube. Set in a Thai inspired, this tells the story of a man who finds an ancient AI. The story immediately draws you in and coasts really well to the very end.

Another favourite of mine was Scream in Blue, which is set in the same universe as The Commons series, although this one flips the series on its head and focuses instead on those who supply the alien drug Stormtech rather than those trying to stop its spread across the city of Compass. In addition to this, Szal sets the story on earth to give a fascinating view of Earth in the world of The Commons.

A Love Like Bruises was another one that captured my attention. The story revolves around a scientist and a captive alien who can impart a psychic link. I loved how this story played out with its stinging ending.

Stars in a Grave, Stars in a Skull is a nice, creepy little tale that reminded me both of classic haunted house tales and the Thing, with a bit of The Borg thrown in. There is some really good body horror in this one that captured my attention.

And the final one that I am going to mention is The Black Horse. I originally read this in Grimadark Magazine’s The King Must Fall anthology. With its non human protagonist, the story really put me in mind of one of my favourite characters ever, Nemesis the Warlock from 2000AD.

Broken Stars is a fabulous collection of stories that will delight any science fiction fan. 

COVER: MIKE SHACKLE