© James Pyles

I expected Cosmic Convocation: A Space Opera Anthology published by Starry Eyed Press, to contain an uneven collection of stories and that’s exactly what I found. I won’t mention all of them (although I took notes for every single story), but here are some of the more mentionable works.

The Prophet Moses Busbee by P.A. O’Neil

An unrequited love interest of a subordinate for the Captain probably isn’t uncommon, but the ending caught me off guard. I thought the Captain’s duplicate would stay with Moses in the end, and I doubt the ship’s crew would accept a duplicate as their Captain, especially when they incarcerated another ersatz officer who came on board earlier.

Reminded me of the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Up the Long Ladder which dealt with cloning.

Beyond Translation by Jeremy Zentner

There was no explanation about why there were U.S. and Soviet bases on the Moon in the future but I absolutely loved the Cold War theme. It was a basic story beyond that, a love affair between enemies, which has been done more than a few times. There was some “headhopping” at one point in the writing and the whole “but you’re black” thing could have been managed better.

The Flight of the Black Swan by Ivan Richardson seemed well written but I felt the story was incomplete. There were a number of stories in the anthology that should have been expanded to do their themes justice.

Grudge Match by Robert Allen Lupton was basically a retelling of Moby Dick

The Edge by Vincent DeDiego Metzo was one of the better written tales, although it contained a few editing errors as did other stories. I liked the AI sidekick but it was one of those stories that could have been expanded to take better advantage of the conflicts involved.

The Space Tower by Stephen C. Lawrence

A study in deteriorating mental health resulting in murder, but the protagonist manages to escape justice as if what he did was acceptable. Then again, “No one thinks they’re the villain in their own story.”

The Time Stampers by ASCH attempted to give the reader a glimpse into a world that is truly alien. The problem, at least for me, was that I could barely follow the story and had to slog through it. As tempting as it is to “go there,” the tale would have better served the reader if it were more “human relatable.”

I kept waiting for The Emotion Equation by Lorraine Sharma Nelson to turn into a parody of Star Trek, but it read more like fan fiction of the episode Wolf in the Fold. Look, it’s not as if I haven’t  written a “Star Trek-like” story. The same publisher has a separate anthology of such tales which includes one of mine. But this was so thinly veiled as to be practically invisible.

Jason Russell’s A Hole Situation was one of the best of the lot, in spite of the liberal use of “handwavium.” However, it ended too soon. I was waiting for that one last twist that would turn a happy ending into a struggle and it never came. Also, purple woman who had the gravity shield gave it up too easily. I expected a tawdry and alien sex scene as the price which would have been funny. I liked the tattoo.

Beyond all that, I didn’t think every story qualified as an actual space opera which is defined as:

A subgenre of science fiction set mainly in outer space that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance.

Then again, I’ve always been partial to the works of E.E. “Doc” Smith.