Baen Free Stories 2011

reviews.metaphorosis.com

2 stars

A free collection of short stories from Baen authors.

Some time ago, I downloaded Baen's 2011, 2012, and 2013 collections of free stories. I started at random with 2012, and was disappointed. I've tried again with 2011, with a similar result.

Some of these aren't really stories at all. “Honorverse Tech Bu9” reads like David Weber's background notes for another story, and I presume it connects directly to one of his books. As a standalone piece, though, it's not interesting.

Frankly, the only piece in the collection that I found much value in was P.C. Hodgell's “The Talisman's Trinket”, which fills in some gaps in Hodgell's breakout book God Stalk, or at least offers another perspective. For those unfamiliar with that book, though, I'm not sure the story would hold up well; too many references would be meaningless.

The rest of the stories range from adequate to downright bad. Aside from completists for one universe or another, the collection simply isn't worth reading, even for free.