Tales of Hayven Celestia: 1 (Hayven Celestia Anthology) Paperback – Import, 7 January 2020

In my opinion, it's a big challenge to build a coherent universe that provides enough context to make it alluring, preventing a bland setting, while at the same time not being intricate just for the sake of it. Rick Griffin created Hayven Celestia, which features several "alien" species and easy-to-follow space travel with advanced technology that makes sense without diving into hard physics. As noted, there is a variety of sapient species that might seem too different at first glance, but they are very much relatable and human in their ways. It's within this context that slavery, deception, love, suffering, friendship and other themes are explored in 13 unique stories.I feel all the stories in this book are great. I don't want to spoil anything or analyze them one by one, but I can say that none have any glaring issues or typos to distract you. However, I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed all on the same level. If I had to pick 5 as my favorites, I'd choose "Life in the Stacks", "The Next Life", "Cold Brew", "The Price of Compassion" and "The Castaway".Both Gre7g and Rick definitely did a great job at editing and selecting which stories were added to this first anthology. The order in which they were presented was very apt and closing with "Life in the Stacks" was perfect. The only downside of this short story format is that often I was left with a feeling of wanting to know more about the characters or what befell them.This book includes many beautiful and high quality illustrations to help visualize the characters' species. I suggest anyone not familiar with Hayven Celestia to check the glossary first.I'm definitely looking forward for more stories set in this universe.

Anni fa, Rick Griffin diede, per quanto involontariamente, il ‘là’ all’universo ‘Hayven Celestia’, con una breve storia: Ten Thousand Miles Up. In cui per la prima volta apparivano gli alieni Geroo, schiavi di un mostruoso regime interplanetario simile a quello dei Piantatori di cotone degli Stati del Sud. Da allora, grazie a Greg Luterman, con il suo “Ciclo di Kanti’, questo universo ha preso più forma ed ha finalmente ispirato questa stupenda antologia, corposa, di 13 racconti uno più coerente e potente dell’altro, per esplorare l’amicizia, l’amore, il tradimento, la redenzione, nei momenti e nei protagonisti più inaspettati. Un capolavoro che solleticherà il vostro istinto di pancia, ma che alla fine vi lascerà a riflettere, a sorridere e commuovervi, perché le cose qui sono davvero più complicate di quanto può sembrare…e siamo solo all’inizio!

This book was a really fun read. Since it's an anthology, multiple authors contributed, and they all did an excellent job. Definitely pick it up if you liked The Kanti Cycle or Final Days of the White Flower II

Many anthologies tend to be hit and miss, but every story in Tales of Hayven Celestia is an enjoyable and interesting look into the various people and places of this universe, breathing a kind of life into it that you can only really get when multiple different authors all come together to add their stories to a shared setting. The only bad thing about it is that, eventually, you do run out of stories to read. Here's hoping this first collection is the first of many as Hayven Celestia continues to grow.

This anthology collection has one of the most fleshed out sci-fi universes I think I've ever seen in furry fiction. I really enjoyed reading about all of the different alien species (that almost all have some earth animal counterpart) throughout the various stories. Having a glossary in the back for folks unfamiliar to the wider series with illustrations and descriptions definitely helped me get up to speed as I was reading. Each of the stories is self-contained, but is set within the larger universe setting of Hayven Celestia. The quality of each story can vary, but I chalk this up to having a mix of veteran and new writers contributing to the overall anthology. I think if you're into science fiction and wanted to try out furry fiction that this would be a good book to read. It's got a wide variety of stories and styles set in space and at least a few should really resonate with you.