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Diverse Energies is a sci-fi short story collection featuring protagonists of diverse backgrounds -- well, okay, fair warning, what it actually is is a dystopia short story collection featuring lots of crushingly depressing ways the world can and will go wrong, because that's what all the cool kids are writing these days.
But it also features a short story by my friend Rahul Kanakia, so I was willing to risk crushing depression! And also for the goal of supporting the anthology and what it's trying do. (With the exception of "Freshee's Frogurt," none of the stories feature white protagonists; several of the stories are not set in the US and two have gay protagonists, all of which is pretty cool.)
. . . and then I read the anthology and, plot twist, I was crushingly depressed. But this is par for the course and it was generally worth it!
So, going story-by-story:
"The Last Day," Ellen Oh: This one is set in Japan and basically seems to be an AU of World War II where everything is basically the same, except less complicated and worse? And "Hiroshima, but worse" is not something I personally felt like I needed. Depression scale: 10/10
"Freshee's Frogurt," Daniel H. Wilson: ROBOT GOES BERSERK. That's . . . basically it. I think this one is a novel excerpt, which may explain why it feels so slight; either way, not really my thing. Depression scale: 5/10
"Uncertainty Principle," K. Tempest Bradford: As she grows up, the heroine becomes aware that the timeline is shifting around her, and for the worse. After enough things she cares about have disappeared, she decides it's time to take action. I really, really liked the concept and protagonist of this one, and I wish it had been novella or even novel-length; towards the end there was a lot of plot in too little space. Depression scale: 4/10 (the story actually ends with proactive change! \o/)
"Pattern Recognition," Ken Liu: Kids are raised in a creepy environment, attempt to break their conditioning. The setup is fairly standard, but well-executed; I especially liked the depiction of teenagers extrapolating a real/past world from a dictionary. Depression scale: 4/10
"Gods of Dimming Light," Greg van Eekhout: I was not expecting NORSE GODS RECRUITING PEOPLE FOR RAGNORAK in the middle of this collection, but . . . I think I really liked it? Like, there is a sad quiet apocalypse of inevitable doom going on, and in the middle of the sad quiet apocalypse, VALKYRIES POSING AS SCIENTISTS. I'm down! Depression scale: 7/10
"Next Door," Rahul Kanakia: So Rahul is a friend, but aside from that, he is also a great writer with unique and bizarre ideas. In a world that is INFESTED WITH MUTANT BEDBUGS, and also where everyone who is rich is so plugged into VR all the time that they don't care that squatters are living right around them, the protagonist and his boyfriend try to find an uninfested place to live happily ever after. And then there is a HEIST. Depression scale: 7/10 (For the curious, here is Rahul's blog post about writing the story and participating in the anthology! And how all the cool kids are writing dystopias these days.)
"Good Girl," Malinda Lo: Mixed-race marriage is illegal, so everybody whose bloodlines are not pure (it doesn't matter in what direction, just that they're not mixed) lives underground. The protagonist, who is secretly mixed-race but passing, hires an outsider girl to look for her missing brother, and then they make out. I liked this a lot too; it's as complicated as it should be. Depression scale: 4/10 (hope exists!)
"A Pocket Full of Dharma," Paolo Bagicalupi: A sad, starving street urchin gets caught up in a conspiracy surrounding the Dalai Llama, which does not noticeably improve anything in his life. I was not super into this one. Depression scale: 7/10
"Blue Skies," Cindy Pon: The world is divided into two classes of people, those who are rich enough to wear special suits and have clean air and those who are poor and breathe gross air and die young. One of the latter kidnaps one of the former in an effort to make enough money to class jump; romance does not ensue. I appreciated the not! And also the narrative voice. Depression scale: 6/10 (everything is doomed generally, but maybe the protagonist isn't?)
"What Arms to Hold," Rajan Khanna: Kids work long, hard hours piloting robots that are plugged into their brains and are told that it will eventually lead them to a better life. Spoiler: it won't. On the other hand, at least the protagonist ends up getting to be sort of proactive about it. Depression scale: 8/10
"Solitude," Ursula K. LeGuin: This was my favorite in the collection. Coincidentally, it is also the least depressing! An anthropologist takes her kids to a planet to study the culture there; the kids assimilate way better than the anthropologist anticipated or wanted, especially her daughter, who is the narrator. Lots of super interesting culture-building and cultural clash all around. Depression scale: 3/10
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/318008.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
But it also features a short story by my friend Rahul Kanakia, so I was willing to risk crushing depression! And also for the goal of supporting the anthology and what it's trying do. (With the exception of "Freshee's Frogurt," none of the stories feature white protagonists; several of the stories are not set in the US and two have gay protagonists, all of which is pretty cool.)
. . . and then I read the anthology and, plot twist, I was crushingly depressed. But this is par for the course and it was generally worth it!
So, going story-by-story:
"The Last Day," Ellen Oh: This one is set in Japan and basically seems to be an AU of World War II where everything is basically the same, except less complicated and worse? And "Hiroshima, but worse" is not something I personally felt like I needed. Depression scale: 10/10
"Freshee's Frogurt," Daniel H. Wilson: ROBOT GOES BERSERK. That's . . . basically it. I think this one is a novel excerpt, which may explain why it feels so slight; either way, not really my thing. Depression scale: 5/10
"Uncertainty Principle," K. Tempest Bradford: As she grows up, the heroine becomes aware that the timeline is shifting around her, and for the worse. After enough things she cares about have disappeared, she decides it's time to take action. I really, really liked the concept and protagonist of this one, and I wish it had been novella or even novel-length; towards the end there was a lot of plot in too little space. Depression scale: 4/10 (the story actually ends with proactive change! \o/)
"Pattern Recognition," Ken Liu: Kids are raised in a creepy environment, attempt to break their conditioning. The setup is fairly standard, but well-executed; I especially liked the depiction of teenagers extrapolating a real/past world from a dictionary. Depression scale: 4/10
"Gods of Dimming Light," Greg van Eekhout: I was not expecting NORSE GODS RECRUITING PEOPLE FOR RAGNORAK in the middle of this collection, but . . . I think I really liked it? Like, there is a sad quiet apocalypse of inevitable doom going on, and in the middle of the sad quiet apocalypse, VALKYRIES POSING AS SCIENTISTS. I'm down! Depression scale: 7/10
"Next Door," Rahul Kanakia: So Rahul is a friend, but aside from that, he is also a great writer with unique and bizarre ideas. In a world that is INFESTED WITH MUTANT BEDBUGS, and also where everyone who is rich is so plugged into VR all the time that they don't care that squatters are living right around them, the protagonist and his boyfriend try to find an uninfested place to live happily ever after. And then there is a HEIST. Depression scale: 7/10 (For the curious, here is Rahul's blog post about writing the story and participating in the anthology! And how all the cool kids are writing dystopias these days.)
"Good Girl," Malinda Lo: Mixed-race marriage is illegal, so everybody whose bloodlines are not pure (it doesn't matter in what direction, just that they're not mixed) lives underground. The protagonist, who is secretly mixed-race but passing, hires an outsider girl to look for her missing brother, and then they make out. I liked this a lot too; it's as complicated as it should be. Depression scale: 4/10 (hope exists!)
"A Pocket Full of Dharma," Paolo Bagicalupi: A sad, starving street urchin gets caught up in a conspiracy surrounding the Dalai Llama, which does not noticeably improve anything in his life. I was not super into this one. Depression scale: 7/10
"Blue Skies," Cindy Pon: The world is divided into two classes of people, those who are rich enough to wear special suits and have clean air and those who are poor and breathe gross air and die young. One of the latter kidnaps one of the former in an effort to make enough money to class jump; romance does not ensue. I appreciated the not! And also the narrative voice. Depression scale: 6/10 (everything is doomed generally, but maybe the protagonist isn't?)
"What Arms to Hold," Rajan Khanna: Kids work long, hard hours piloting robots that are plugged into their brains and are told that it will eventually lead them to a better life. Spoiler: it won't. On the other hand, at least the protagonist ends up getting to be sort of proactive about it. Depression scale: 8/10
"Solitude," Ursula K. LeGuin: This was my favorite in the collection. Coincidentally, it is also the least depressing! An anthropologist takes her kids to a planet to study the culture there; the kids assimilate way better than the anthropologist anticipated or wanted, especially her daughter, who is the narrator. Lots of super interesting culture-building and cultural clash all around. Depression scale: 3/10
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/318008.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.