Low Port

Rating:
Summary: Four and a half star anthology
Review: "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

Rating:
Summary: Four and a half star anthology
Review: "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

Rating:
Summary: Low Port
Review: As a huge Sharon Lee and Steave Miller fan, I did not expect this collection of short stories to be up to their same standard of writing for it was written by many other authors; and as it turned out, it wasn't up to, seemingly, any kind of standard. This book was a complete and utter disappointment. The stories, admittedly are not high rolling, upper echelon situations or people but these short stories were down right dull and sometimes repulsive and that in itself is not from good writing. Even the best of authors can bomb out with an idea for a book or collection of stories and Sharon and Steave should have let it die on their kitchen table. Don't waste your money on it. It is an awful bore of a collection. Buy every single other book of theirs, the Millers, but let this one collect dust somewhere else but in your library.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Anthology!
Review: 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 <<angel>> stories, Angel's Kitchen, and the last story, Scream Angel. It was also a treat to read eluki's Butterfly story.

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!

Rating:
Summary: not OUR "Low Port"
Review: First thing to know is that this is not a collection of Liaden stories. I think the title is deliberately misleading in that regard. It's not that I think everything Lee and Miller does has to be Liaden, but calling the book Low Port seemed a bit deceptive.

So much for what it is not, what about what it is? It's a short story anthology, themed around the underclass and the disadvantaged. There are good and bad things about short story anthologies, and if you like to read them you will probably like this one. If you dislike them in general, you will probably also dislike this one. There is no special link between the stories such as common characters, settings, or authors. And while Lee and Miller seem convinced that it is unusual to write about the kitchen help instead of the king and queen, I've seen plenty of other stories told from that point of view.

Experienced readers will know what they are getting from this book, and can decide for themselves whether or not to read it. For those unexperienced in short story anthologies, you might as well try it out. It's a pretty typical example of the format, and there are some pretty good short stories in here.

Rating:
Summary: WELL WRITTEN BUT GLOOMY
Review: LOW PORT is not your typical Lee/Miller book. It is an anthology of short stories, some very short, set in the depressed underbelly of our future space faring civilization. Don't expect any uplifting happy endings here, there are none. What you do get is some darn good writing from some of the best writers of our times.

If you like short stories, not my personal favorite, or tragedies, again not what I usually enjoy, then this is a book for you.. Involved plots and character development are almost nonexistent, but then that is to be expected from short stories. These are snapshots of life on the sharp edge, the stories of people who inhabit the seedy, grimy parts of our universe. Humans will be human whether its in the shanty towns surrounding a naval port in the Philippines or the whorehouses of a spaceport somewhere out in the stars.

Expect to be fascinated and enthralled by these glimpses into the belly of the beast, but don't expect to feel good afterwards. This isn't space opera where the hero wins out through incredible odds to save his lady love and live happily ever after, this is more like a Greek tragedy where the best you can expect is an ending not quite as depressing as the beginning, a forlorn hope for the most part.

For those of you who like tragedies and E.A. Poe type of stories then LOW PORT is for you in spades. If your tastes run more to the happy ending, space opera genre then you would do better looking elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: WELL WRITTEN BUT GLOOMY
Review: LOW PORT is not your typical Lee/Miller book. It is an anthology of short stories, some very short, set in the depressed underbelly of our future space faring civilization. Don't expect any uplifting happy endings here, there are none. What you do get is some darn good writing from some of the best writers of our times.

If you like short stories, not my personal favorite, or tragedies, again not what I usually enjoy, then this is a book for you.. Involved plots and character development are almost nonexistent, but then that is to be expected from short stories. These are snapshots of life on the sharp edge, the stories of people who inhabit the seedy, grimy parts of our universe. Humans will be human whether its in the shanty towns surrounding a naval port in the Philippines or the whorehouses of a spaceport somewhere out in the stars.

Expect to be fascinated and enthralled by these glimpses into the belly of the beast, but don't expect to feel good afterwards. This isn't space opera where the hero wins out through incredible odds to save his lady love and live happily ever after, this is more like a Greek tragedy where the best you can expect is an ending not quite as depressing as the beginning, a forlorn hope for the most part.

For those of you who like tragedies and E.A. Poe type of stories then LOW PORT is for you in spades. If your tastes run more to the happy ending, space opera genre then you would do better looking elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: strong look those underneath the food chain bottom
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking collection
Review: 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.