This collection was funded through Kickstarter, and has succeeded very nicely as a collection. Each story is exactly 2,001 words long, in homage to the 100th Anniversary of Arthur C. Clarke's birth. This collection represents good value, overall. Reviews presented here in order of my praise. Child of Ours by Claire North. 5 stars! Best of the collection. Surprisingly profound. ❤️ An exquisite treasure, at first seemingly a calculation, and then more. And we find that the gift of love is really the gift of self-determination and personal freedom, best created as loving parents for the possibilities of new life, new consciousness. Extraordinary in 2,001 words. I'm not sure if it's just me, but Ms North always cuts deep into the heart of me, into that part which wonders at being human. A joy, a blessing so simple yet so profound. Last Contact by Becky Chambers. 5 stars! Again, Chambers shows her extraordinary heart. ❤️ Would you have known, two hundred thousand years prior, what those walking leopard snacks were capable of? Another superb tale from Ms Chambers. She continues to amaze me with the exquisite beauty of her prose of heart and life and being. Here we see the last contact between humans and a yet-to-be intelligent species. Wonderful. The Ontologist by Liz Williams. 5 stars! A clever, fun surprise! 😊 Some delicious vocabulary here! Quiddity, haeccity, monism, dichotomous, and hypokeimenon all appearing within just a few sentences. Wow! This is the right way to do word salad! Wooohoooo! What a delightful, clever exploration of existence through words. The sad pretender, Yoon Ha Lee, abuses words to trick the reader, solely for self-aggrandisement, a shameful disguise of Lee's own failure in mathematics and composition. Williams exults in the power of words, in their joyous utility, and wraps this celebration inside a cute story full of gentle self-awareness and delight. Utterly wonderful. A gem, a treasure, a triumph in exactly 2,001 words. Awesome! The Landscape of Nili Fossae by Ian MacDonald. 4.5 stars. Starts slow, grows on you, especially if you know Rothko Wonderful, painterly, god of war, red sand, Rothko's fear and fate. This one will stick with me a long time. Memories of a Table by Chris Beckett. 4.5 stars. Poignant, especially at my age. A lovely tale of a remembered love lost, and relived poignantly. A small, perfect gem. Providence by Alastair Reynolds. 4 stars. Familiar solid Reynolds here. Delicious but too short. A terrific little gem from Reynolds, beautifully crafted into 2,001 words of his wonderful prose and plotting. The rescue of a failed mission to first colonise a new world. Very nice. Your Death, Your Way, 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed by Emma Newman. 4 stars. Clever, nicely presented extension of our digital lifestyles on into the moments of our deaths, with a fun twist at the end. Dancers by Alan Stroud. 4 stars. A prelude HAL 6000 is investigated. Nice clean sci-fi prelude. Before They Left by Colin Greenland. 4 stars A lovely small homage to Childhood's End. Warm and in tune. Very nice. Fugue by Stephanie Holman. 4 stars A nice little "lost lifetime" horror story. The Escape Hatch by Matthew De Abaiu. 3.5 stars An interesting story, a bit more than trifling, with a nice puzzling feeling. Childhood's Friend by Rachel Pollock. 3.5 stars "Darwin's Helpers" make genetic improvements, add knobs. Fun story. The Final Fable by Ian Whates. 3.5 stars A "Tales from the White Hart" homage. Cute, clean and fun. Monoliths of Mars by Paul McAuley. 3 stars A minor homage to monoliths and 2001, with a bit more expanded science and human nature Mumuration by Jane Rogers. 3 stars A tale of meddlesome self-centered humans in an exoplanet Eden. No monoliths in sight. Ouroboros by Ian R. MacLeod. 3 stars A trifling biscuit of a story. Brings to mind "The Nine Billion Names of God", to which number we humans draw perilously close. "No matter how clever and vast the machine, it turns out that it's impossible to replicate whatever that odd glimmer is we all have going on inside our heads." Full size image Roads of Silver, Paths of Gold by Emmi Itäranta. 3 stars A sort-of ghost story. Not bad, some nice imagery. Too short. Child by Adam Roberts. 2 stars A continuation from the end of the movie 2001, but nothing like Clarke. A clumsy homage at best. Waiting in the Sky by Tom Hunter. 2 stars Pretty dull and uncompelling story about the unconvincing dreams of some to colonise Mars. I Saw a Three Ships Philip Mann, 2 stars Vaguely interesting, like the missing early chapter of a real novel. Drawn from the Eye by Jeff Noon. 1 star Very slight, motionless after the first few paragraphs. Takes from the White Hart by Bruce Sterling. 0.5 stars I was once a hard-working journalist on a the environmental beat, back when smart people still pretended that the Earth would get saved.... Almost complete rubbish, a wandering, undisciplined conceit, an insult to the other authors in this book. "Takes" is the right word, as in "stolen" from Clarke's "White Hart pub" Sell 'em Back in Time... by Ian Watson. 0 stars Drivel. Don't bother with this one. Entropy War by Yoon Ha Lee. 0 stars I despised Ninefox Gambit, but I'll start this.... More pretentious crap from Lee. Boring, pedantic, apparently complex but in reality, just chaotic, self-congratulatory fakery as always. Ugh ugh ugh. Yoon Ha Lee Word-salad machine gun To finish off the collection, some (mostly rambling, tiresome) essays: On Judging the Clarke Award Neil Gaiman, 1 star Once More on the Third Law China Miéville, 1 star 2001 A Space Prosthesis - The Extensions of Man by Andrew M. Butler, 1 star