I found this very hard work.

Most of the stories felt rushed with very little time being spent on world or character building.

The stories just lacked depth.

New Horizons is a compelling new science fiction short story collection featuring writers from the South Asian subcontinent presented together for the first time, edited by Kenyan Tarun K. Saint and featuring a wide range of styles, subjects, viewpoints, issues and cultures. These are singular visions of the future that will thrill, amuse, startle and intrigue but much like any anthology, there are some stories you love and some that just don't tickle you as much, so to speak.

On an ordinary morning, the citizens of Karachi wake up to find the sea missing from their shores. The last Parsi left on Earth must find other worlds to escape to when debt collectors come knocking. A family visiting a Partition-themed park gets more entertainment than they bargained for. Gandhi appears in contemporary times under rather unusual circumstances. The arrival of aliens with an agenda on a railway station in Uttar Pradesh has unexpected consequences. A group of young scientists seek a way to communicate with forests even as the web of life reaches a point of collapse. A young girl's personal tragedy finds a surprising resolution as she readies herself for an expedition of a lifetime.

These and other tales of masterful imagination illuminate this essential volume of new science fiction writing that brings together some of the most creative minds in contemporary literature. On the whole, this is an entertaining and highly readable collection with themes of colonialism, post-colonialism, British imperialism, class, poverty, religion, partition, bureaucracy and police corruption, to name a few. Most of them are based on earth and in the present so there is little near-future, speculative fiction or space-based stories. Recommended to those who are avid sci-fi fans who would like a different perspective in their reads.

Featuring the works of: * Adrish Bardhan * Anil Menon * Arjun Rajendran * Arunava Sinha * Asif Farrukhi * C.M. Naim * Chandrashekhar Sastry * Clark Prasad * Giti Chandra * Harishankar Parsai * Kaiser Haq * Keki N. Daruwalla * Manjula Padmanabhan * Maya Joshi * Mimi Mondal * Mohammad Salman * Muhammed Zafar Iqbal * Nur Nasreen Ibrahim * Payal Dhar * Premendra Mitra * Priya Sarukkai Chabria * Rahul Sankrityayan * Rimi B. Chatterjee * Rukmini Bhaya Nair * S.B. Divya * Sami Ahmad Khan * Shovon Chowdhury * Somendra Singh Kharola * Sumita Sharma * Syed Saeed Naqvi * Tarun K. Saint * Vandana Singh

A science fiction anthology will usually have some great stories and some fairly rubbish ones, with most sitting in the middle. The South-East Asian aspect meant that some of the tales were a bit baffling as I was unaware of the cultural references. Worth a read if you fancy a different perspective.

New Horizons edited by Tarun K Saint is a collection of short science fiction stories from South Asia.  There are alien encounters, people going into outer space, and scientific discoveries.

I found the stories to be quite different to western stories.  The end often comes much sooner in these than in many of the stories I read.  You are left to wonder what is going to happen next.  There are a lot of stories about the interplay of people, and how this affects the thing that is going on.

I enjoyed seeing the different views on science fiction, the different journeys I was taken on, and that people will be people, even on the moon.

New Horizons will be published on 20th August 2020, and is available to buy on  Amazon  and on   Waterstones . I've found a  link  to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

If you're interested in science fiction books, then here's some others I've  reviewed , and in particular, if you're interested in Asian science fiction, try  Before the Coffee Gets Cold  by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Gollancz and the Orion Publishing Group.

Check out my  GoodReads profile  to see more reviews.

Review for publication elsewhere.
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This was a strange book. I love Science Fiction and I love South Eastern Asia. A mash up of two of my favourite things. But some of the short stories were rough and hard to get through. Some of them were fantastic. A real mix bag which makes it very hard to rate.