Low Port

I haven't read any Liaden universe stories, or indeed anything, by Sharon Lee and Steven Miller, so I don't have any preconceptions about that. Usually if I buy an anthology I buy it for one story by a favourite author. This was a bit more expensive, but it had stories by two favourite authors (Holly Phillips and eluki bes shahar) and was on sale, so I risked it. I have been very pleasantly surprised. eluki bes shahar has a story from the Hellflower universe featuring Butterly St. Cyr, which is wonderful, and Holly Phillips' story is different and well-written, as always. I very much enjoyed three stories by people I'd never heard of, 'Angel's Kitchen' by Chris Szego, 'Lair of the Lesbian Love Goddess' by Edward McKeown (an incredibly funny cop story), and 'Contraband' by Nathan Archer. I haven't even finished all of the stories, but any anthology that has 5 really good stories in it is definitely all right in my book. More authors to search for! Yay!

What is the purpose of a short story? If it is, as some have argued, to give a particular thought or question a framework to invite serious contemplation, then most of the stories in this collection have suceeded in their goal, because I am still thinking about them. Each of these stories has a particular "what if?" or "How would it be...?" that is then crafted onto a character that carries us into the question and out at least one of the other sides.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this anthology over a period of several weeks - I restricted my reading to one or two a day so that I wouldn't subconsciously try to make the "feel" or "world" of one story fit into the next somehow. My friend read it straight through and did not enjoy it so much, so I would definitely suggest giving yourself some time to consider each story on it's own strengths.And there are definitely strengths! "Find a Pin" and "Scream Angel" are perfect gems, seeing eluki bes shahar's Butterfly character again was delightful (though I would have to say, if you haven't read the other Butterfly stories and become familiar with her heavy use of her own brand of slang, you will find the story difficult to follow), and the striking workers on the space station held particular relevence from dealing with the grocery strike here in So. Cal. I didn't care too much for the one wizard story - it also seemed to depend a great deal on already knowing the character, and I haven't read the other works in this universe so couldn't bring myself to care about him very much. I think one of the challenges in a short story is to create, extremely quickly, a reason to care about your characters, and many of these stories succeeded in this respect quite well. I loved the busker on the space station, I felt deeply the frustration and confusion of the sanitation engineer, and I wept for the soldier in "Scream Angel." The characterizations in "Find A Pin" were particularly good. This would be an extremely useful book for writer's groups or classes, providing both entertaining reading and good subject matter for critiqueing the process of crafting a short story. I do have to agree with most of the reviewers, that, given the choice of title, it really would have been nice to have at least one story actually set in the Low Port on Liad, but... I definitely recommend this as an addition to any library, Liaden Universe based or not.

Every single story in this collection is at least good, and some are a bit haunting (the first story seems simple, but I'm still thinking about it, and figuring out what it's about, so it's somewhat mysterious), and a few are outstanding. I especially liked the two > stories, Angel's Kitchen, and the last story, Scream Angel. It was also a treat to read eluki's Butterfly story.<p>This whole book is a pleasure to read, unlike some collections where you have to drudge through a lot of mediocre stories, looking for a few diamonds in the rough. All the stories in Low Port are sparkling diamonds. Thank you Sharon Lee and Steve Miller for another wonderful collaboration!

Unlike most science fiction anthologies that concentrate on superheroes or villains that seem worldly if not galactic in scope, this twenty stories collection concentrates on those individuals who will not have to deal with tax rebates or for most part taxes. The stars of these tales typically do not attain the bottom of the food chain though some are hard working blue-collar individuals needed but hidden so that Scotty can apply his magic to the warp drive. Life is more of a daily survival for these players whose dreams reach the loftiness of regular and recurring solid meals.The tales grip the audience as it serves as a reminder that around the world including the United States there are those who don't need to learn how to fish until sustenance is attained. The contributions are all well written with a few harrowing in their excellence as the audience will ponder where in our society lies those who reside in the LOW PORT.Harriet Klausner

"Low Port" is a winning effort. The premise is intriguing; what actually happens below decks on a ship? Or in the places most books never bother to delve into?There are many, many stories here. But to me, the best one was "Riis Run," by eluki bes shahar. This is a sort of prequel to her critically acclaimed "Hellflower" universe, featuring the same two main characters, and also features the patois Ms. bes shahar had made up for those books.The story behind this one goes along with the overarching premise in the "Hellflower" trilogy, which is that sometimes it's better to die than to live as something other than what you are. And that some knowledge carries too high a price; thing is, the price should still be offered to be paid.I know I'm not explaining this anywhere near as well as Ms. bes shahar did. Never mind. Let's just say that it's a great story, very well told.The other stories that I really, truly enjoyed were Ru Emerson's "Find a Pin," which talked about the last day of a homeless woman's life -- and her daughter's search for meaning, and John Teehan's "Digger Don't Take No Requests, which talked about busking, buskers, and their subculture on a space station. Teehan's was particularly interesting, in that it showed that many people, not just technical sorts, will want to go to space. How do we accommodate them?Several other stories were good, but were not up to the standard of the previous three. "Angel's Kitchen" by Chris Szego had an interesting idea that went on a bit too long for me; Sharon Lee's "Gonna Boogie with Granny Time" was a fun story about loss and potential redemption, but it took a long time to develop. (Granted, I can't think of a better way, myself, to explain this idea. It's just that, up until the last two pages of the story, I really thought the main bad guy had bought his way free of retribution. And he did, too; thing is, he'd bought his way into a worse retribution than he could have realized.)Every story here is meaningful and has value and worth; that's rare in an anthology. Which is why I give it a four and a half star recommendation; five stars for the first three stories, strong fours for the rest, rounded up.Final tally: four and a half stars, highly recommended.Barb Caffrey