Review - Intersections: Dragonfire Station Short Stories by Zen DiPietro

This collection of short stories takes place in the universe built through the Dragonfire Station series. Most of the tales would best be described as backstories for many of the secondary characters introduced in the series. Some stories tell us how the people got to where we meet them in the series, while others might be better described as simply a slice of life in a person’s day, giving us more insight into pivotal moments of the characters or the series.

Although none of these tales is more than 15 or 20 pages, many of them still manage to be thought provoking. One of the more interesting to me is the story of Trin, a technician on the hospital ship Onari, which plays a key role in the series. Trin is from a species of humanoids that are genderless. However, as he reaches his late teens, Trin’s friendship with a young woman from another world makes him realize that he identifies as strictly male, something that is taboo on his world.

The Onari figures quite prominently in these stories. We get the background stories on many of its doctors and crew, including Brak, who plays such a key role in the main series.

There are also a couple of stories that feature Cabot Layne, the trader on Dragonfire Station who helps Fallon out more than once in the main series. He seems set to get his own series, with the first volume set for publication in July 2017.

If you enjoyed the Dragonfire Station series then you’ll almost certainly like this collection of stories. They will at least tide you over until the next series starts. On the other hand, if you haven’t the series, you won’t be completely lost if you read these stories first. They might give you enough of an idea about the writing and characters to help you decide to commit to the series.

“Intersections” is available from Amazon.