Pawn’s Gambit: And Other Stratagems is a collection of short stories and novellas, one of which won a Hugo Award, by Timothy Zahn. All have appeared elsewhere before being compiled into this book, with publishing dates ranging from 1981 to 2014. So, if you read a lot of his work chances are you’ll have come across at least a few of these before.

I’ve never read any of Timothy Zahn’s work before, and I’m tempted to read more of his work now. The stories were all written rather well – very easy to fall into, generally likeable characters, and hints at a much bigger world past what we see on the page. All fall within the science fiction and fantasy genres. I’d recommend giving this a read.

* I received this book from the publisher through a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.*
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Overall the stories contained in this anthology were well written and entertaining. However, one story was particularly difficult because it used linguistic slang, from an alien language. Just to be clear, I am multi-lingual but still found this alien slang very distracting. Omission of the title is deliberate, so as to not influence your possible enjoyment of this short. The final eight shorts make choosing a favorite particularly difficult. Get a copy, settle into your favorite chair, and be prepared for a literary feast! ( )

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com and that in no way has influenced my opinion in regards to this review. This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Pawn's Gambit: And Other Stratagems Series: ----- Author: Timothy Zahn Rating: of 5 Battle Axes Genre: SFF Pages: 342 Format: Kindle Synopsis: A collection of short stories that Zahn has published in magazines. The first half of the book was stories that I'd read in other paperback collections of Zahn's collected short stories and the last half of the book, with the exception of the titular story, Pawn's Gambit, were all new. My Thoughts: I was expecting all new stories, so to have the first half be ones that I'd read before, or multiple times [as I've bought almost all of Zahn's old books in paperback] was a bit of a letdown. Even with that, those stories were still excellent. Then came the new stories and it was evident that Zahn has NOT lost his touch for encapsulating an idea and creating a story around it. His latest Cobra books have been rather a disappointment to be honest and I've been wondering if Zahn's time as an author was starting to get near the end. These new stories show that he is on top of the game as never before. Which leads me to wonder, who has changed more, me, or Zahn? I read Cobra back in middle school and it has stayed on my "I love this book!" shelf ever since. Maybe the latest books in that series are showing me how "I" have changed as a reader and not so much that Zahn has changed as an author. All of that is just to say that this short story collection is good! It would be a great way to introduce someone to Zahn without overwhelming them with a series. For those of us in the old guard, who have devoured all the older books by Zahn, this is still worth it for the new stories. One of the main reasons I took a star off was because several of the stories have ending commentary from Zahn, when they were part of another collection. Those commentaries show their age and in some cases, show they are part of another collection. Very lazy on the publisher's part. Cut or update. It was just jarring the way they cut n pasted. " ( )

Pawn's Gambit: And Other Stratagems by Timothy Zahn is a very highly recommended collection of 15 short stories that were previously published in magazines from earlier in Zahn's career. Here they are gathered together for the first time in book form. The opportunity to read this collection was a treat for me. I enjoyed every single story. Admittedly I loved some more than others, as is the case with almost any collection, but there really wasn't a dude in this collection. These are hard science fiction stories with a few fantasy offerings. Every story was an excellent choice for the collection.

Contents:

The Price of Survival: The alien ship Dawnsent must scoop up fuel from suns to reach their final new home, but this action will doom life in the solar systems they go through. 1981

The Giftie Gie Us: After the Last War, a Soviet Nuke Bacteriological Barrage, the post-apocalyptic survivors include a disfigured man who offers help to a blind woman. 1981

The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment: The Lifeline Experiment will end the abortion debate when a man telepathically attempts to answer the question, "When does a fetus become human?" 1983

Cascade Point: A cargo ships captain accepts paying passengers. Is it just a coincidence that the voyage developed problems when a psychiatrist and his patient are aboard? Hugo Award–winning novella; 1983

Music Hath Charms: The discovery of an old alien instrument, the Demonflute, may cause a resurgence in the much-loved-by-teens Thwokerjag music movement. 1985

The President’s Doll: The president's voodoo acupuncture doll has been stolen. 1987

Clean Slate: A wizard sets out to fulfill his oath by opening a mountain pass for an unappreciative town. 1989

Hitmen - See Murderers: The new phone books are out, but one of them isn't your usual phone book. 1991

Protocol: It's market day, but they must watch out for Stryders and follow the protocol. 2002

Old-Boy Network: The extremely wealthy use people as telepathic, personal terminals to insure privacy. 2002

Proof: Oregon's Hillcrest prison utilizes the CURL system (Cognitive Universal Reality Linkage) to control the prisoners, but Angel thinks she knows how to escape. 2004

The Ring: A man comes into possession of The Ring of the Nibelungs, which carries the power to create wealth. 2007

Trollbridge: A N.J. toll collector is a troll, but he may need to look for a new job. 2009

Chem Lab 301: A T.A. has 20 students and Rosie the lab in his chem lab. 2014

Pawn’s Gambit: An addendum to the Alien Research Bureau's 30th Annual Report brings humans to the attention of the director and the decision to test them is approved. 1982

I really appreciated all the stories included in this collection but perhaps liked The President's Doll the least. Some of the stories are humorous, or include humor, while others are thoughtful and point out larger implications to a situation. It has been noted that the protagonists in these stories are mainly men and some of them feel dated. As I was reading I was enjoying the stories, not looking for pc things to object to, and it didn't even occur to me to complain about the protagonists being mostly male. I didn't find the stories dated, per se; many were written in the 80's so sure, some things might feel dated to a much younger reader. For me this is a great collection and most science fiction fans are going to appreciate the stories collected here.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Integrated Media via Netgalley for review purposes.
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Pawn’s Gambit and Other Stratagems is a collection of short stories by science fiction author Timothy Zahn. Most of the short stories are science fiction, although a few were fantasy. Some are new, and some were familiar to me from reading one of his prior collections. I didn’t find any of the stories fantastic, but there were some I liked and some I didn’t like.

Two stories address contact between humans and aliens. In a “The Price of Survival,” an alien spaceship travels by scoping up matter from stars. Unfortunately, the ship is aimed straight at our sun and will obliterate life in our solar system if it continues on its course. “Pawn’s Gambit” posits an alien race who psychologically evaluate other species by capturing subjects and making them play board games.

“The Giftie Gie Us” was one of the weaker stories in the collection. It predates the fall of the Soviet Union and explores a post-apocalyptic future brought about by nuclear war.

“The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment” documents an experiment by the only certified psychic that has unintended consequences.

In the Hugo award winning novella Cascade Point, space travel is accomplished by jumping from point to point. All passengers and non-essential crew members will be put asleep for the process so as few people as possible see visions of their alternate selves.

“Music Hath Charms” was a light hearted story about an alien instrument being incorporated into a local type of music. Similarly light hearted, “Trollbridge” was an urban fantasy story about a troll who’s a toll collector on a modern day highway.

“The President’s Doll” posits voodoo and acupuncture being combined for medical purposes. But what happens when the President’s doll is stolen?

A wizard in “Clean Slate” wanders the world but never arrives in time to actually use his magic. The twist here was interesting, but I think there were some questions that should have been answered with regards to the plot.

In “Hitmen – See Murderers” a paranoid man finds a strange copy of the yellow pages that lists out the addresses of different sorts of criminals.

“Protocol” takes place on a colony planet wracked by the path of giant creatures called Stryders, who kill any human who doesn’t follow a strict protocol of behavior.

“Old-Boy Network” imagines trillionaires who use surgically created telepathy to avoid the review of the authorities.

In “Proof,” a serial killer attempts to escape from her prison, which is partly an illusion created by a chip implanted in her brain.

A stock trader in “The Ring” buys a mysterious Germanic ring, only to find that it is both a gift and a curse.

“Chem Lab 301” builds up to a reveal and a pun. There’s not much else to this story.

It’d been a while since I’d read anything by Timothy Zahn – since middle school actually. At this point in my life I’m noticing that the ratio of male to female characters is substantially skewed. I particularly noted issues in gender dynamics with the story “The Giftie Gie Us”. I don’t think the treatment of female characters was horrible, but it certainly could be better.

Overall, I would say that the collection is about average. Cascade Point was probably the best out of the bunch.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. ( )