Worlds Vast and Various

All his books (and I've read them all) are very hard science edged. This is a good thing. The problem is that sometimes he loses his characters to the science and the story gets a bit muddled.This one is terrific. They are short stories, so, simply, there isn't time to lose the story.For a great Benford book, check out Timescape or Benford and Brin's Heart of the Comet.

Worlds Vast and Various is a dense collection of at least three incredible stories, two really good stories, and seven entertaining so-so stories. Well worth an adventurous reader's time. But if your version of hard science fiction is Star Wars, steer clear. These stories are well thought out, well reseached, grounded in real science, and often pretty difficult to understand. I felt it neccesary to stop three or four pages into my three favorite stories and reread their beginnings entirely.#1: A Dance to Strange Musics. Strange they are, but beautiful. Ominous. Discover a planet in the Alpha Centauri system like no other you've ever encountered. An existentialism is explored within the pages of this one, as humanity's tiny fraction of existence and following self-importance is stripped away by the simple existance of the planet Shiva. #2: High Abyss. Another visit to a place completely and totally foreign. But this time, through the eyes of the foreigner. An excellent example of exposition for any beginning writer.#3: World Vast, World Various. This title story is taken from a themed collection put together by Robert Silverberg: Murasaki. In it, a group of Japanese anthropologists try to figure out what the sentient race on a distant planet is up to... yet first contact is difficult when that aforementioned race ignores you. Zoomers and a Worm in the Well also stand out as greats. Benford packs a punch in all these stories, sometimes just under the conscious level, but be warned: you do have to work for them. His writing style isn't stilted or steeped in irrelevant techno-jargon, but harbors a difficult rhythm, one that takes a few readings to successfully hear. A fine collection for the devoted reader.

Benford stretches the mind like no other -- and he can feel, too.