The Stars Beyond

Space opera fans will probably like set of stories. These authors did a nice job of creating interesting tales. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

For those who are fans of Twilight Imperium, the game, and have read all the lore and joined fan sites and read the three novels already written in the Twilight Imperium universe, there's no question - you want this. These stories can stand independently if you haven't read the novels. The questions are: can someone who is slightly familiar with the game, but hasn't dived deeply into the universe enjoy this book? Can someone who has no idea what Twilight Imperium is, enjoy this book as a collection of loosely connected space opera? The answers are a qualified yes.

Yes, because many of these stories would stand on their own as space opera even if some newly-made-up races of aliens were in them rather than the established races of Twilight Imperium. Space opera is one of my favorite sub-genres, and that was what drew me to get the eARC of this book, thanks to NetGalley.

Qualified yes because some of the stories are better if one has read some of the abundant online material about the game. For example, the story "A Ghost of A Chance" features a privateer ship, attempting to cross an unknown space and encountering unknown aliens, quite readable as is - but better if you know that it is an "origins story" filling in how we first meet the Ghosts of Creuss, and that a couple of sentences near the beginning are actually straight from the official lore (at fantasyflightgames.com) to establish this connection. Other stories also fill in background of early meetings between races - but again, are readable as space opera even if you don't know about those races from the game.

A brief moment of humor: in one of the stories, some of the background characters are seen playing a game called "Nightfall Empire."

A warning: if you are new to Twilight Imperium via this anthology, reading it may draw you into playing the game, which can be quite the consuming hobby!

A breezy, tremendously fun space opera set in the world of Twilight Imperium, this was much funnier than I expected, and generally just a really entertaining read.