How It Unfolds - James S.A. Corey - ★★★★

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AUTHOR: James S.A. Corey
SERIES: The Far Reaches, #1
GENRE: Sci-Fi Short Story
PUBLICATION DATE: June 27, 2023
RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A short story about an interstellar mission, or perhaps, a story about thousands of interstellar missions. Human emotions plus astronomical challenges. Unusual, intelligent, thought-provoking. A good story for sci-fi fans.


Plot Preview:
Roy Court and his crew are among the few chosen to be scanned and sent to Earth-like exoplanets in the hope of continuing the Earth’s civilisation on new abodes. The twist is that it’s not just one crew that has been sent. The whole team has been duplicated multiples times through the scans and each dispatched to a separate location in the far reaches of space. With so many possibilities for the future, humankind might have a good chance of success, right? Roy, meanwhile, is still battling remnant feelings for his ex-wife as scanned from his original Earth body. Can an old relationship be healed in a new world?


This is the first standalone story in 'The Far Reaches’ series, described on Amazon as “a collection of science-fiction stories that stretch the imagination and open the heart.”

There’s not much I can talk about this story without spoiling it. The preview above offers the essence of the premise, and the title tells you the result, “how it unfolds.”

This science fiction short has a lot of techie content (which, at times, gets overwhelming), but it doesn’t stop at being ‘astronauts surviving in space’. I love the way it explores human emotions and existential philosophy within the sci-fi structure. The non-linear narrative adds to the challenge as well as the charm.

The premise is so amazing that I wish this could have been a longer story. It has so much to offer! Regardless, the story also works in its current condensed form, but a few things are left to our imagination. In other words, it is an intelligent story and it trusts in the intelligence of its readers to fill in the gaps.

This is my first story by writer duo “James S.A. Corey”, who seem to have written a plethora of books in a long-running series titled ‘The Expanse.’ As I am not a fan of such extended works, I will just keep my fingers crossed that they will pen a standalone novel or another short fiction work in future so that I can read more of their works.

Definitely recommended to sci-fi short fiction fans looking for an unusual read. If you want a simple and straightforward space exploration story, stay away. This has been a great beginning to this series and I’m looking forward to find out what other far reaches await me in the remaining five stories.

This standalone story is a part of the 'The Far Reaches’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

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