Galactic Energies - Luca Rossi (English)

Synopsis:

The artificial intelligences of DataCom are trying to save the planet… by exterminating the human race. Aurelia finds her perfect man: a robot. The space explorer Captain Arcot sacrifices his life for an impossible conquest, the heart of Vril the vampire queen. A shape-shifting mutant ignites the erotic desires of the galactic police officer who's been tracking her down. Alessio fights against corruption in a universe of his own creation. An innocent man is forced to submit to the domination of a ruthless prison director. A king who's forgotten his own past wanders through a magical dimension where he discovers his own history. Two souls separated after one abandons the other meet again in another life. In an exciting virtual reality game, the hunter of the fearsome black widow becomes her prey.

Review:

First of all, I would like to thank Luca Rossi for sending me both his books, "Galactic Energies" and "The Branches of Time". I decided to read the first one because it seemed more futuristic and interesting.
As you may have probably guessed from the synopsis, "Galactic Energies" is a series of short stories that range from space travel and mutants to reincarnation and gaming. At first it seemed a little bit of a mixture, but every story is well defined and, for my part, I didn't get them entangled.
Each story is fairly well written even though some parts are a bit confusing if you don´t pay a lot of attention. On some sections you can see the Italian roots of the author come to life, be it through the names of the characters and some expressions.
I found the concepts and the ideas of each tale to be really creative and insightful. As a reader I really enjoy when the author can create a world from scratch and come up with a story that fits nicely within his creation. Another aspect that I enjoyed was that the author gave the readers the opportunity to participate in one of his stories through his blog. Readers can vote and participate in the discussion, make comments and suggest possible plot outcomes, give their opinion or have fun creating fascinating new ideas with the author, which is something that not every writer is willing to do.
The thing about this book that bothered me the most was the fact that most of the stories had some sort of explicit eroticism that didn't make sense at all. In many cases it was completely out of place in the story and didn't add anything useful. Sincerely, I like my science fiction the old fashioned way where the sex doesn't have to be absolutely graphic. The best example that comes to mind is the ending of "The Gods Themselves" by our beloved Isaac Asimov (those of you who haven't read it yet, I don't know what you're waiting for).
For the readers that are looking for some light reading to do over the weekend and enjoy some science fiction with a bit of sex, this is a perfect match.

Rating: 3 stars