How it Unfolds

Book 1 in The Far Reaches collection

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This author (or the two guys behind this pseudonym, to be more accurate) wrote the best series of science fiction ever, The Expanse, so I was excited to dig into this series of short stories, sponsored by Amazon, that is loosely gathered around the theme “the Far Reaches”.

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The book is built on the premise that humanity is searching for a new home and has discovered how to collapse matter (and consciousness too, apparently) and unfold it many, many light years away.

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"The atmosphere is plausible. High nitrogen, enough oxygen that it’s pretty clear there’s something respirating out there, or was at some point. The big challenge is that there’s a lot of chlorine dioxide too.”

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“Bleach planet. So no walks outside,” Elizabet said.

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“Not if you enjoy having lungs.”

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“Something we can terraform?” Megan asked.

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“We? No,” Anjula said. “Our great-grandchildren can maybe get started on it. In theory, perfectly doable, but we have a lot of infrastructure to build and a lot of surviving to do first.”

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We follow a group of people as they unfold themselves in several locations around the galaxy. Honestly, I felt this story was just getting started when it ended.

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In the 45 minutes it takes to read this, we get backstories on a few of the characters, we're shown how the unfold plays out in a few places, and we learn that they weren’t just sending copies of themselves through space, but also through time.

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It’s a well-thought-out, well-written short story that would make an excellent TV series. My only gripe is that it’s too short.

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