The Fractal Episodes

What differentiates a short story series from episodes? Allen Stroud’s The Fractal Series comes in a collection or can be read separately. There are twelve individual stories, that sounds like a short story collection, but there is a difference as they all take place within the Fearless universe that Stroud has created. These stories interweave and effect one another, a series of thrilling, one-punch tales told in this broken attempt by humans to claim the stars.

Murder, corruption, disaster, espionage, sabotage; just some of the crimes that you will find within the pages of Fractal. With Earth dying, populating places like the Moon and Mars was meant to be the new future, a chance to change how humanity works together, but human nature persists. The use of corporations to fund the migration to other planets leads to competition and corruption. Corps see people as the most expensive asset, one that they exploit where possible.

Stroud has a low opinion on humans, probably not wrong, but one that informs the stories that make up The Fractal Series. Each represents a moment in time were something is not going quite right. The series starts off quickly with murder and assassin attempts and does not slow down. Each tale is like a science fiction thriller, almost as if Stroud is getting his love of action out in short bursts, possibly ideas that were cool small concepts, but they were unable to fully expand into a novel.

As part of humans not rising to the challenge of a new future is the theme of misuse of science, especially by the corporations. AI, clones, technology are all misused in an attempt to profit, often at the cost of humans. Some of the characters and events overlap one story effects events in another.

These episodes act as little genre hits; spy thrillers, to catch a thief, heists etc. They are individually good fun, often leaning into the action over the science. But it is the science fiction that informs the action. Why have the clones been released? Why has a personality of an assassin been sent into another person’s brain? The technology is being utilised by the corporations to benefit them, usually illegally.

The standout story I enjoyed the most was Episode 6: Jezero, it felt like a classic 70s disaster movie set under a dome in Mars. Like many of the stories, there are two protagonists telling different perspectives on events. In this case a bureaucrat and an engineer. These two characters epitomise the larger events in Stroud’s Fearless, the indentured servitude that many normal people find themselves in. This is all being played out against some great action as a shrapnel from a space station rains from the sky and a covert group use the distraction to break in. This story alone feels like it would make an excellent action science fiction film.

As a set of stories, a reader would benefit from knowing a little about the Fearless worldbuilding before starting this anthology, but it is not necessary. It takes a tale or two, but you start to see patterns and themes from the wider world appear. This is a future in which humans thought things would be better in the stars, but human nature reverts back to type; greed and selfishness is ruining a possible new and we are witnessing some of the consequences.