Scarlet Traces

by Stephen Baxter, INJ Culbard, Adam Roberts, Emma Beeby, James Lovegrove, Nathan Duck, Mark Morris, Dan Whitehead, and Chris Roberson

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology is a new collection of short fiction based on The War of the Worlds. Edited by Ian Edginton, released 3rd Sept 2019 from Abaddon, it's 325 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats.

I've been intrigued by The War of the Worlds for decades and have re-visited it regularly since that first reading when I was a youngster, so I was excited to see a collection of shorter fiction set in the timeline of H.G. Wells' classic. This collection, as far as I have been able to find out, is comprised of 12 previously unpublished shorter works, along with an introduction by the editor/curator. The authors are a mixed lot, some previously familiar to me and some were new (to me). One thing I love about anthologies is the potential to find new authors to follow. I tend to read anthologies like chocolate samplers; one story at a time, so this one has taken a while to read.

The stories are varied, there were (as always) some which didn't grab me personally, but all were well written and competently plotted. They were mostly in the 4 star range(ish) with a couple of really standout stories. The first story in the grouping was Going Up the Blue, by Stephen Baxter, a ripping yarn with a gut-punch payoff, and Voice for a Generation by (new, to me) Nathan Duck about the perennial chasm-balancing first generation immigrant kids face, torn between two worlds (in this case literally). These were both very solid stories and I will be keeping an additional eye out in future for these and several of the other authors in this collection.

It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature has carried through to the final release version.

This is a well curated solid collection of stories in the 3-5 star range. The two above-mentioned were both 5 stars for me.

Four stars on average. It's a diverting read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.