The Far Reaches

I spotted that our Amazon Prime has a feature that allows you to borrow a number of books to read on Kindle, including some interesting looking short story collections. I picked up The Far Reaches series featuring 2 authors I’d heard of and some interesting sounding stories. 

• How it Unfolds - James S.A. Corey.  This story takes the idea of scanning a team of colonists and beaming them to a suitable planet where they and their equipment are recreated, leaving them with the task of establishing their colony. Intriguing setup and a good denouement. 
• Void - Veronica Roth.  A satisfying murder mystery on an interstellar passenger liner, very much in the tradition of Isaac Asimov. 
• Falling Bodies - Rebecca. Interesting idea of an orphaned child, adopted by an invading alien race, and now facing up to his mixed heritage but the ending falls unpleasantly flat. 
• The Long Game - Ann Leckie. Nicely told from the perspective of a short lived alien lifeform struggling to understand the humans exploring their planet. 
• Just Out of Jupiter’s Reach - Nnedi Okorafor. Seven explorers are selected and sent on a mission to Jupiter in living organic spaceships, individually matched to their DNA and personality. The different characters are well rounded and their eventual meeting in orbit around Jupiter is sensitively handled. Probably the best story in the collection. 
• Slow Time Between the Stars - John Scalzi.An AI spaceship is sent on a mission to seed life on suitable Earth like planets, but grows to question its mission as the millennia tick by slowly.