James S. A. Corey

In a Nutshell: A short story about an interstellar mission, or perhaps, a story about thousands of interstellar missions. Human emotions plus astronomical challenges. Unusual, intelligent, thought-provoking. A good story for sci-fi fans.

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Plot Preview:

Roy Court and his crew are among the few chosen to be scanned and sent to Earth-like exoplanets in the hope of continuing the Earth’s civilisation on new abodes. The twist is that it’s not just one crew that has been sent. The whole team has been duplicated multiples times through the scans and each dispatched to a separate location in the far reaches of space. With so many possibilities for the future, humankind might have a good chance of success, right? Roy, meanwhile, is still battling remnant feelings for his ex-wife as scanned from his original Earth body. Can an old relationship be healed in a new world?

This is the first standalone story in 'The Far Reaches’ series, described on Amazon as “a collection of science-fiction stories that stretch the imagination and open the heart.”

There’s not much I can talk about this story without spoiling it. The preview above offers the essence of the premise, and the title tells you the result, “how it unfolds.”

This science fiction short has a lot of techie content (which, at times, gets overwhelming), but it doesn’t stop at being ‘astronauts surviving in space’. I love the way it explores human emotions and existential philosophy within the sci-fi structure. The non-linear narrative adds to the challenge as well as the charm.

The premise is so amazing that I wish this could have been a longer story. It has so much to offer! Regardless, the story also works in its current condensed form, but a few things are left to our imagination. In other words, it is an intelligent story and it trusts in the intelligence of its readers to fill in the gaps.

This is my first story by writer duo “James S.A. Corey”, who seem to have written a plethora of books in a long-running series titled ‘The Expanse.’ As I am not a fan of such extended works, I will just keep my fingers crossed that they will pen a standalone novel or another short fiction work in future so that I can read more of their works.

Definitely recommended to sci-fi short fiction fans looking for an unusual read. If you want a simple and straightforward space exploration story, stay away. This has been a great beginning to this series and I’m looking forward to find out what other far reaches await me in the remaining five stories.

4 stars.


This standalone story is a part of the 'The Far Reaches’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.






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This is book two of the author’s very popular Expanse series, following Leviathan Wakes. I read Leviathan Wakes over five years ago, and didn’t particularly care for it, but running out of things to read, I elected to proceed with the Expanse series.

Having taken a five year hiatus, I had little memory of the characters or details from the first novel, but after reading my review and immersing myself in the new book, I didn’t feel lost at all. The author includes several information dumps which assisted greatly in this regard.

In a nutshell, the political landscape of the solar system includes the United Nations of Earth, Mars and the Outer Planets Alliance, in an uneasy peace, which is shattered by the appearance of a protomolecule on Ganymede. The action in this novel centers on destruction of the agricultural domes on Ganymede, attempted weaponization of the protomolecule, and the resulting military responses by the three human factions.

Primary characters are an undersecretary for the United Nations, an Indian or Pakistani woman named Avasarala; James Holden, captain of the Rocinante, and his crew; and a scientist from Ganymede named Prax, whose kidnapped daughter holds the key to unlocking the mystery of Ganymede. The chapters of the book largely rotate from the points of view of these characters.

I felt like this was a better reading experience than Leviathan Wakes and have no hesitation in proceeding on to book three.… (más)

Imagine one week you're going about your life, and the next week you're captured, taken to a new world and are given simple parameters-be useful or be killed. Disobedience is met with death. Rebellion is met with death.
In THE MERCY OF GODS, the planet is invaded, and some researchers are taken prisoner. They are given tasks to complete and pretty much, otherwise are left on their own to finish them. Unbeknownst to them, they are in the midst of a galactic war, and the Carryx seem to be the better of the two.
I received this as an uncorrected ebook from Netgalley.… (más)