Buy Signals from the Void! and donate $1 to SETI all in one go. The official description of the e-book-
“In the farthest reaches of the universe, in places our eyes have yet to behold, lurks the unknown. We search for life that we have dubbed ‘alien’ in hopes of making contact and bettering our existence through alliances with life forms from other worlds. Are they out there? Do they know we exist? ”
Signals From the Void
This is a collection of a lot of short stories. Short stories aren’t really my sort of thing but when I saw that a dollar from each sale goes towards the SETI (search for extra terrestrial intelligence) project I thought it might be a good idea to read it and post a review. I believe that the SETI project is a worthwhile endeavour but unfortunately the government doesn’t. Funding is hard to come by for this project as it is so long-term and people think so short sightedly it seems.
It is possible to get the book in e-book form and this at last look cost $3.33 from Amazon. If you want to buy it from Amazon UK then it is £2.14 in e-book form. Don’t worry that this is such a cheap book and that there could be spelling mistakes and bad formatting and bad print that is just not the case (there are a couple of spelling mistakes but almost unnoticeable).
Overall this is a great book especially for the price. There are some interesting stories almost all involving aliens and contact with Earth which is quite logical when you think about where that $1 is going. From firemen to giants to dogs to whatever else you can think about many ideas are written and thought about in these stories.
Some of the stories are extremely short and some are probably just a little bit too long even though they are short stories. I am not a great reader of books so I would take this with a pinch of salt.
I have written a few words on each short story below and some contains spoilers so if you don’t want the to spoil the experience of this book buy it and read it is extremely cheap.
SETI Telescopes
From the Sky, Came the Thunder by R.M.Cochran
The story kept me reading from start to finish. I just wanted to find out what happened at the end. It is well written and is a reasonably new idea about contact from aliens. It caught me at the end unaware with a small twist.
It starts with George receiving a radio message that convinces him that the world is about to end with a nuclear accident. Obviously he couldn’t leave his beautiful girlfriend behind so he tries to survive it in the basement with his girlfriend. Two things happen at the end and I am not even going to spoil it in the spoiler!
Coffee by Voss Foster
This small story has no twist or turns but is interesting nevertheless. It’s all about the importance of coffee and coping with immigration to earth in the future. Can you imagine what it would be like with all those different types of alien trying to get through customs getting grumpy. Coffee is the answer!
A Smile like Many Voices by Patrick Shand
Wouldn’t it be great if somebody visited you and gave you something special, very special? This story addresses that question and while not a completely wholly original idea it’s worth a quick read. This gift could be used for many things good and bad but that is another story.
Something in the Road by R.Phillip Roberts
An excellent short story with a twist where invaders arrive on the planet Earth. It sounds a bit normal but just read on to the end. It is a bit of a murder mystery involving aliens as well.
In This Time of Our Darkest Hour by R.Philip Roberts
What would you do to save humanity? Of course you’d do anything wouldn’t you? This is a second great story from this author and well worth a read.
Tri-Copier 6000XT by Francis Pauli
What would you do with a box that moved? It wouldn’t normally be such a problem but what happens if you are dealing with alien planets? An interesting short story set in an office dealing with all sorts of parcels.
Fuelling a Joyride by Rebecca Besser
Aliens joyriding around the universe run out of fuel. The nearest place that contains fuel is Earth. Unfortunately this isn’t such a good place to refuel but they do with consequences. This is my sort of story I enjoyed this a lot.
The Heart of a Soldier by Rebecca Besser
An encounter between student and instructor turns into a compassionate trip to save the students mother. An unlikely place to find a cure for cancer but sometimes everything just happens to work out fine doesn’t it?
The Gift of Innocence, The Tragedy of Ignorance… By James Conway
If you were an alien who would you wander into first when reaching a distant planet? You would probably not know who was who child or adult. The aliens in this story arrive on planet Earth with this predicament. Nothing ever goes to plan does it?
In Her Eyes the Sky by J . Rodimu Fower
A dream or reality it makes no difference sometimes. What would an alien women want from a place like Earth?
Axes to Axes Dust to Dust by J . Rodimu Fower
The most unlikely people to deal with aliens if they landed would be firemen but that is what happens in this short story with a twist.
The lost by RW Hawkins
A long short story if you know what I mean. An alien ship arrives and then more alien ships arrive. I’ll leave you to find out why. Not really a very satisfying ending but still worth a quick read.
Chemplantium by Dane T.Hatchell
A longer than normal short stories for this collection. It is about a message from a distant civilisation. It’s not quite the message that I would expect, part of the life of one of the aliens, but who knows what would come from out there in the universe.
Embryonic by Persephanie Cerda
This merges science fiction and horror and if you can’t guess what’s coming in the end you soon find out. At least humans are used for something useful!
In the Court of the Crimson King by Geoffery Crescent
How would time travel, a court case, racism and Pringles be incorporated in a science fiction story? Read this to find out. A good story with another little twist at the end.
The Comet Chasers by John McCuaig
When is a comet not a comet? When it’s something else of course. I could predict the end of this story at the start I’m afraid but it is well written though.
Undead Side of the Moon by Lyle Perez-Tinics
A mysterious event on the moon triggers a black operation to go and investigate what has happened to the hotel there. Zombies are found and that is about it really. To me a bit of a disappointing end to this book as zombies seem to appear everywhere nowadays.
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Thank you, Chris! Very nice review!
The pleasure was all mine it was a good book.
Thanks for the great review! I’m glad you enjoyed my story, “Fueling a Joy Ride!” I had a great time writing that one and really enjoyed throwing in some ironic humor.
I just love ironic.
Thanks for the review dude, my first published story so glad you enjoyed it :p
Let me know your second whenever it comes …
[...] do get close enough exoplanets, we might get luck and find some form of life. Weird Warp offers us a one-off book review of alien contact stories. One dollar from the sale of each (very reasonably priced) book goes towards the search for extra [...]