I received an eARC from the publishers, which doesn’t affect my opinion of the book, all my thoughts are my own and honest.
Discover dark matter’s secrets…
What is an AI’s true role? Will bumbling siblings find their way home from deep space? Dark matter is judging us—are we worthy of existence? Would you step through a portal into another reality? Can the discoverer of dark matter uncover its secrets?
Ten authors explore dark matter, unraveling its secrets and revealing its mysterious nature.
When I was asked to review this book, it sounded so out of my normal, and too interesting to not to. As you might know by now, I don’t often have very strong feelings towards short stories, so I was worried going into this book I wouldn’t have enough thoughts to make a proper review. But I think I did alright. I have broken this up into individual reviews for each story.
Artificial by Stephanie Espinoza Villamor
An AI is awoken for the first time and needs to learn its role in its owners' life. This was an interesting and creepy read. Everything I worry about AI’s was in this short story. It dived into how AI’s aren't meant to have feelings and what happens when they possibly do. But that wasn’t all that the story divided into (can’t say more, as for spoilers). This AI was borderline obsessed with his owner which was freaky, but for me, it all made sense as to why in the end.
After finishing this story quote on quote my thoughts were ‘Gosh future people are weird’
3 ⭐️
Find Stephanie Espinoza Villamor Here -
Space Folds and Broomsticks by C.D. Gallant-King
Two teens make mistakes and their commanding officers make crappy assassins. I found this to be one of the darker stories in this anthology in the sense that adults wanted to kill teens. I felt sorry for the teens. It was a fun read with a very important message. Get into bathtubs when asked.
3 ⭐️
Find C.D. Gallant-King Here -
Rift by Kim Mannix
Would you take another chance with your family? This story took such a dark turn towards the end that I didn’t see coming in any shape or form. But I really liked that. I was very confused for most of it, as to why the author put a lot of detail into different aspects of this person's past but became very clear at the end. This was a very hard one to rate. I was a bit bored for the majority of it but I loved that ending.
3 ⭐️
Find Kim Mannix Here -
The Utten Mission by Steph Wolmarans
Mutants want to rejoin Society. Honestly, this story just confused me. I didn’t understand most of it and think it was too short to explain everything that needed to be explained. I guess you could say this story just went over my head and that might just be me. I am in no way saying this was a bad story, I just didn’t understand it.
1 ⭐️
Find Steph Wolmarans Here -
Sentient by Tara Tyler
Two entities inhabit humans to decide the human race's fate. Again an interesting read, in the heads of these things that were in the heads of humans. I found this story to be a bit humorous with the entity's interactions.
3 ⭐️
Find Tara Tyler Here -
One to Another by Deniz Bevan
An Apocalypse-like world after killer snow falls. You read about a lot of different ways the earth will be destroyed leaving an apocalypse world, but killer snow takes the cake for creative imagination. Other than that it was a pretty standard survival tale, but no less fun to read.
3 ⭐️
Find Deniz Bevan Here -
Resident Alien by Charles Kowalski
An Alien wants to be allowed into college. This was my favourite story. This was so moving and felt like it was very relatable to the real world which was horrible to think about. I really hate the world we live in. But I loved this story and the message that is sent.
4 ⭐️
Find Charles Kowalski Here -
Nano Pursuit by Olga Godim
A woman goes looking for stolen property and comes home with something else. I don’t have any strong feelings towards this story. It was a fun read and I wasn't expecting the way it went.
3 ⭐️
Find Olga Godim Here -
Resurgence by Elizabeth Mueller
Humanities second chance. This was another creepy story, you just didn’t know what was real and what was a hallucination. But again I didn’t have any feelings towards it, I enjoyed my time reading it.
3 ⭐️
Find Elizbeth Mueller Here -
Vera’s Last Voyage by Mark Alpert
A dying woman figures out an important equation. I don’t know if it was dark matter, a hallucination but something helps Vera figure out an equation to allow her to find peace before she passes. I found this to be a heartwarming story in a sense but also found my concentration to slip while reading it.
2 ⭐️
Find Mark Alpert Here -
Overall this was a very interesting read. You were able to read a lot of different short stories all having different views and messages in them. I would definitely recommend
Overall rating 3 ⭐️
And I am very sorry, if I wasn’t able to put too many thoughts into some of my reviews, it would be I just didn’t have many.
Thank you to the publishers for asking me to review Dark Matter: Artificial and for being understanding when I wasn’t able to get it reviewed on time for the release date.
Came out on the 4th of May 2021
You can find Dark Matter Artificial Here -
