Ten Worlds Away

Mari (The Beachhead) collects 10 poignant and contemplative speculative shorts that run the gamut of human emotions, endeavors, and faults. Characters attempt to improve their relationships in “The Pigeon Coop”—about a young woman who goes back in time to prevent her 16-year-old grandfather from becoming the broken, loveless man who raised her father—and “Hypothymesia,” in which colonists debate settling on a planet where a microorganism removes all worry and guilt. Other off-world adventures thrill with unexpected revelations: as a scientist in “Up Above the World So High” explores his planet’s frozen sky, he encounters another explorer on the other side of the ice; and, in “Tell Me Why,” the people on two dying worlds make arrangements to preserve their genetic material. “Greener Grasses” offers a humorous commentary on humanity’s potential if only people applied themselves with the story of a traveler from a parallel Earth that has already cured cancer and established colonies on Mars. Mari cites The Twilight Zone as his inspiration for this collection, and the story that will most remind readers of an episode is “Constant Contact,” in which a lonely old man receives phone calls from dead loved ones. This clever collection is sure to please fans of wistful sci-fi. (Self-published)