Starship Blunder is a collection of short stories written by multiple authors, but all the stories take place in the same universe with the same main characters and their misadventures aboard the Starship Blunder. Living up to its name, the Starship Blunder is the worst ship in the Conglomeracy’s fleet. Its outer hull is a patchwork of mismatched repairs welded together haphazardly, its systems are constantly failing, and most of the crew members aren’t even dedicated enough to wear their uniforms.
The ship’s pilot, Sarah Hawkins, is arguably the most competent crew member, as she often has to land the ship without fully functional landing gear. Xylo, an alien whose spots glow and flash in response to stress, is the ship’s engineer. His inventions, while innovative, often cause more problems than they solve. Miss Luna Knight is the preschool teacher whose gothic style intimidates everyone except her students, who love her to death. Chef Bluebottle is a grumpy old man who takes great offense when anyone complains about his cooking, even though eating his meals is a gastric gamble.
It was really interesting to see how different authors took the same characters and the basic premise of the incompetent starship and created such a wide variety of stories in their own unique styles. As a writer, reading this anthology gave me serious FOMO, as I felt it would have been such a fun project to be involved in. Due to the diversity of storytelling, Starship Blunder has something for everyone. Different stories will appeal to different readers.
I personally enjoyed reading about the inventive and quirky alien lifeforms and their involvement in the Blunder’s debacles. Here are some examples that I found particularly amusing (minor spoilers ahead):
Slimy space pirates called Plunder Wyrms
Space slugs who feed on the warp core’s deuterium supply
A massive green glob that releases laughing gas
The Soo-sacans, who resemble fuzzy pink snowmen and have strict cultural laws... for a very good reason
One story that stood out to me as a biology teacher was “Boomerang Black” by Sill Bihagia. Without giving away too much, all I can say is that I cackled at Bihagia’s reference to the Sentient Nematode Awareness Parade and how eating gummy worms at such an event would be considered extremely offensive. Such an offense lands the sweet-toothed culprit community service aboard the Starship Blunder as punishment. Bahagia’s writing was consistently captivating and highlighted other cultural faux pas that would be unavoidable in such a diverse, intergalactic community. It was witty jokes and clever quips like this that made “Boomerang Black,” as well as several other Starship Blunder stories, so entertaining and endearing to read.
-D.C. Greschner
Interested in reading and/or reviewing Starship Blunder? Check out these links (side note - editor Beth Martin is now accepting submissions for Starship Blunder 2! See the Starship Blunder Official Website for details):
If you are interested in exchanging reviews with D.C. Greschner, interviews, or other forms of collaboration, please fill out the contact form here. Please, no soliciting for paid reviews or promo.
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