My favorite stories:

P. 55 Zen and the art of starship maintenance: this story is about a "robot" who is used by a biological form, who knows the 3 laws of robotics, to force it to save its life. 3 🌟

P. 70 The Deckhand Etc: This story is by Becky Chambers who wrote Long Way to an Angry Planet. it's about an orphan who is A deckhand on a ship. Nobody likes her; she lost her best friend at the same time that she lost her parents. She likes to smoke weed in the chapel and she keeps a log that's halfway between a diary and a confessional and I have to say I identify with her. 5 stars

P. 80 The Sighted Watchmaker: The story is, for me, an allegory to God. It's about the tool of the Makers. The Makers no longer exist but they left their tool to seek and Seed planets where life could develop. The story made me feel like crying because it feels like it's a story of the Earth and our destruction of it. 5 stars

P. 120 Unfamiliar Gods: In the future, spaceships travel far distances by being flung, either by ire or by kowtowing to Gods. A particular ship is flung God only knows where by an Angry God and, trying to convince a local God to send them back to their home system, the captain offers to sacrifice a goat. The petty little Tyrant God agrees to the sacrifice of a goat and, one more thing.What will be known as the day all humanity became...less. 5 🌟

P. 156 Our Specialty is Xenogeology: What would you do if you were looking for minerals in another solar system and you found an alien ship? Inside the alien ship, inside one of its rooms, you found aliens. But because your specialty is rocks and minerals, you don't qualify to contact aliens. So, you turn around, go back to Earth, and report it to the authorities. That's what happened in this story, but it felt like it wasn't finished. If I was writing this story, after the humans return to their ship, I would have had the aliens wake up and follow them. 4 🌟

P. 305 Wakening Ouroboros: The last two humans on the last world need to save the world from entropy. Tricking the world into letting them do it is the hard part. 3 🌟

P. 322 Warped Passages: The Earth has become so bloated with humans that a legion of ships must leave to find room on a hospitable Planet. But something stops them, arresting them in place so that their engines strain in place. The ship's passengers begin to give birth to strange parasites, which in turn begin to devour everything and everyone on board. 3 🌟 ( )

still reading, but so far, 3.5 stars

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime - 2.5 stars
zany and hilarious at first, exhaustingly tedious in the middle, and something probably happens at the end

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance - 3.5 stars
well written and engaging. More space opera like this please

The Deckhand, the Nova Blade, and the Thrice-Sung Texts - 2 stars
engaging enough, but literally nothing happens in front of the camera

The Sighted Watchmaker - 2.5 stars
not bad, but the magic trick of turning a science fiction story into a parable deeply offended my sensibilities

Infinite Love Engine - 4 stars
hilarious and action-packed. Tragically, this author has written very little else

...to be continued ( )

This is just one kickass good anthology. Go buy a copy in your preferred format now.

Okay, okay, you want to know more.

Every one of these stories is, as advertised, far-future, galaxy-spanning, and involves people confronting huge problems caused by technology, in some cases so advanced as to be, as Arthur C. Clarke said, "indistinguishable from magic."

They vary wildly in tone, also.

Charlie Jan Anders' "A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime" is just really funny.

"The Chameleon's Gloves" by Yoon Ha Lee features an interstellar thief saddled with the unenviable job of committing one theft not for profit but to prevent the deaths of billions. I hadn't been attracted to what I've heard of Ninefox Gambit, but now I very much want to read it.

"Diamond and the Worldbreaker" by Linda Nagata gives us a twelve-year-old who just wanted a chance to be the bad guy for once, and her mother whose job it is to prevent the kind of chaos created by the kind of "bad guy" her daughter admires.

In Vylar Kaftan's "The Sighted Watchmaker," Umos has the responsibility of tending a planet through its evolution, and wishes he could have the guidance of the Makers. But who are the Makers? Meanwhile, Seanan McGuire's "Bring the Kids and Revisit the Past at the Traveling Retro Funfair" is straight up adventure.

There's more variety and excellent storytelling in store as well.

It's rare that I've enjoyed an anthology so thoroughly, and Yoon Ha Lee isn't the only author represented here for whom I will be seeking out more work when I previously had my doubts.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily. ( )