Starred review from September 2, 2019
In the introduction to this superlative anthology, Weisman (The New Voices of Fantasy) declares the future of science fiction resides in the sure hands of the authors of these 20 recent award-winning or award-nominated stories. Rajaniemi, a mathematical physicist and author (The Quantum Thief), adds that their various perspectives create “a tonal freshness” in the genre. Most of the included works extrapolate contemporary technological and social changes into near-future nightmares, as in Jason Sanford’s “Toppers,” a scalding look at survival in a devastated New York; Sam J. Miller’s “Calved,” a heartbreaking vision of parenting gone hopelessly wrong in a warmed Arctic; and Sarah Pinsker’s “Our Lady of the Open Road,” a haunting view of musicians trying to connect to listeners in a future of deep anxiety and isolation. Others explore dangerous extensions of popular science: in Amman Sabet’s “Tender Loving Plastics,” AI foster parents shape human children; Alexander Weinstein’s “Openness” explores the staggering effect of social media gone amok. Vina Jie-Min Prasad’s rollicking “A Series of Steaks” and Suzanne Palmer’s “The Secret Life of Bots” are more lighthearted. All these stories provoke the reader to ponder not only what the future might be but what it should be.
Starred review from October 1, 2019
Rajaniemi and Weisman have curated 20 stories from the last five years, by newer writers who have already started to make their names known for their prose. Sarah Pinsker's "Our Lady of the Open Road" is the genesis of Pinsker's first novel, Song for a New Day. The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience(TM)" from Rebecca Roanhorse juxtaposes authenticity and cultural experience against virtual reality, showing how easy it is to lose oneself. In Suzanne Palmer's "The Secret Life of Bots," rebellion and autonomy come in the form of tiny worker bots, and S. Qiouyi Lu's "Mother Tongues" gives--and gives up--the literal voice of language, its importance in immigrant families, and what they will sacrifice for their children's future. VERDICT While readers may be familiar with many of the names and individual works here, having them together in one volume creates a stunning set of sf shorts. Highly recommended for all collections.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from October 1, 2019
This collection of stories from up-and-coming sf writers is diverse in terms of plot and setting, yet all share an emphasis on creating a distinct tone and style for their imagined worlds. There are stories that perch on the borderlands between fantasy and sf such as Samantha Mill's "Strange Waters," where a woman tries to navigate her way back to her family on literal timestreams while dodging historical records of her own future. There are stories that explore the ways in which the human mind can be changed by an alternate reality such as Alice Sola Kim's "One Hour, Every Seven Years," about a woman continually attempting to revise her own childhood on Venus, or Amal El-Mohtar's "Madeleine," an aptly titled Proustian story about a woman who is transported into intense visions of her past by an experimental medication. There are also stories that present unique dystopias such as the mist-haunted New York in Jason Sanford's "Toppers" or the mysterious outside world in David Erik Nelson's "In the Sharing Place." Equally wonderful stories by Jamie Wahls, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Suzanne Palmer, and many others make this a must-read for anyone interested in the latest and most exciting sf writing out there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
September 15, 2019
Stories from "a chorus of storytellers who are up to the task of capturing the essence of our world's present and future," according to co-editor Rajaniemi (Summerland, 2018, etc.). Anthologies are a tricky thing. When done well, a great anthology has both gripping short stories and a compelling overarching motif. At the very least, an anthology needs one or the other. Invisible Planets, an outstanding selection of Chinese short science fiction in translation edited by Ken Liu, hit both marks, and although the quality of stories in last year's A People's Future of the United States, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams, was deeply uneven, its concept of collecting near-future tales of marginalized people was thought-provoking. However, this collection, edited by Rajaniemi and Weisman (co-editor: The Unicorn Anthology, 2019, etc.), has a bland, vague theme--"new voices," although many were first published years ago--and exactly one impressive story. Alice Sola Kim, one of the few bright spots in the LaValle and Adams anthology, stands out again here. Like her previous story, "Now Wait for This Week," "One Hour, Every Seven Years" plays with the idea of time repeating and doubling back on itself, as a time-travel researcher struggles to save her 9-year-old self from her classmates' torment. The rest of the stories range from forgettable to genuinely terrible. Suzanne Palmer's "The Secret Life of Bots" takes the what-if-robots-were-sentient idea and does nothing especially new or interesting with it. Jamie Walhs' virtual-reality story, "Utopia, LOL?" is so full of cringe-y online-speak that one can feel it becoming dated as one reads it--"Charlie looks all skeptical_fry.pic." Yikes. The absolute nadir of the 20 stories is "Calved" by Sam J. Miller, in which a man struggles to connect with his son; the tale ends with an idiotically regressive twist. A useless sci-fi collection with a paltry 1-in-20 success rate.
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