Greg Bear

Readers new to sf will enjoy browsing through this anthology, and fans will delight in discovering unfamiliar writers. With an introduction, text of several speeches, and a complete listing of the 2014 Nebula Awards, this is an excellent addition to popular culture collections.

There are things to like here, such as the tense setup of Venn returning with a story that he slowly unspools to a woman back on Earth, some excellent military action, and marine camaraderie. But as the narrative finally picks up speed, it also loses coherence, and Bear (Darwin's Radio; Hull Three Zero) chose to have his Martian colonists speak in a thick, made-up dialect that wears out its welcome fast.