Captain's Memories -- Henry Melton

I'm in awe of the amount of planning that's gone into Henry Melton's future history series that he calls The Project Saga.  He's been writing stories about it since 1977 when one appeared in Analog and another appeared in Stellar 3.  The novels have been appearing for several years now from Wire Rim Press, and now we get Captain's Memories, which contains the stories mentioned above along with a lot of others.

But it's not just the stories.  Melton has created a framework into which they fit and connecting tissue to make them part of a history of some of the early days of the Project.  

Captain Pearce wants back into the Star Fleet after her early retirement, and teaching is the only route open to her.  She's going to teach students who are candidates for the Academy, and she's going to try to guide them into informed decisions about whether to go into the Fleet or find something else to do with their lives.  She also has an agenda of her own.

Captain Pearce's teaching comes through the telling of stories, like "The Christmas Count," which gives a good picture of a domed world and which is a nice Christmas story to boot.  And like "We Hold These Rights," which is about a possible rebellion and war and which is as relevant now as the time it was published.  And like "Three Coffins," a very unusual first-contact story.  And like "Working Alone," a good problem-solving story of the kind that I've always liked a lot.  There are a lot of others, and they're mostly hard science fiction.  The beamships and the methods of moving whole planets are all carefully worked out.  That doesn't mean the people don't count. The characters in every story and in the connecting material are all as real as can be.  If you like SF and if you haven't been reading Melton's books, this would be an excellent place to start.  Good stories and good storytelling make a potent combo.