Anders, Lou: Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge
Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge
Edited by: Lou Anders
Genre: Short Stories/Science Fiction
Pages: 409 (ARC)
Disclosure: received ARC from Pyr Books
Ah, my first review of an ARC! The background: last fall, _starlady_ put out an announcement in her LJ about a “street team” for Pyr Books, which would essentially promote the imprint and read/review Pyr titles as they were released. Somehow, Diane convinced me this was a good idea (hey, free books is always a good thing), so I joined in. This is the first official ARC I’ve gotten to review. Now the deal is, I don’t kiss up and say I loved everything just because this affiliates me with a certain publisher. I’m expected to be honest, so please don’t feel I’m biased while reading the reviews of this sort. I’m frighteningly very honest. :)
Fast Future 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge is the first ARC distributed to the Street Team. The anthology would’ve caught my interest regardless of my affiliations, because there’s a Paolo Bacigalupi story here, and I’ve fallen hard for his work. But I’ll admit, I was a little leery of the anthology on the whole, simply because I hadn’t read most of the authors featured, and the past few months reading back issues of F&SF and some Asimov’s has taught me one thing: I’m a very picky short-story reader.
However, I was pleasantly surprised.
I should note that even though this is an anthology, I'll be critiquing this just like I do any of the short story mags, so each story or poem gets individual attention. Course, it being an anthology, there's also a very long list of stuff to look at, and I apologize. :)
Also, one last disclaimer: because this is an ARC, I may allude to scenes or points that may end up getting corrected or cut in the final copy, so don't hold me accountable for any mistakes in that regard. :)
"Introduction: Welcome to the Future"
by Lou Anders
It seems silly to review an intro, but I wanted to discuss it here because I think it sets the tone for the anthology perfectly. Science Fiction has certainly changed, and everyone seems to have their own definition for it. Anders talks about his definition, which loosely fits all these stories together. The point: the future is now, and these stories represent a wide range of that future. If you get this book, be sure to read the intro. It's very enlightening.
"YFL-500"
by Robert Charles Wilson
Wow, what a piece. I love the deliberate pace of this, the entwining narrative, and the beauty of the prose. I was hooked by the first paragraph, and the premise-the art of dreams, is just about as good as it gets. The story swept me away, and while I was never sure how exactly it would end, I did wonder when Gordo mentioned the name of his masterpiece to Iris. So, I’m glad I was paying attention. The ending was a wee bit of a downer, but appropriate, I suppose, and the story is very beautiful. I may have to seek out more by this writer, even though I've been avoiding him since I learned he won the Hugo. :) Forgive me, I'm suspicious when it comes to awards. :)
"The Girl Hero's Mirror Says He's Not the One"
by Justina Robson
Talk about the most cross-eyed title ever. I had to read it five times before I could sort out all those words.
Ah, but the story: I’m always fascinated by Robson’s use of voice. In this case, the story has a rather sing-song lilt to it, and I was starting to get annoyed with the tone and the character until the very end, when I realized that Robson uses the narrative voice to reflect the Girl Hero’s state of mind, and Girl Hero’s state of mind finally changes at the end. With that change, the narrative changes, and we finally start seeing the Girl Hero as an individual, Rebecca.
So the story is very nicely done. I’m glad, though, to have already read Mappa Mundi, because I understood what they were talking about. Sure, Robson shows what’s going on with little details, but really, I think I would’ve been lost without the novel under my belt. It’s a good story though, and I like the whole Alias-feel to it all. :) I can’t help but wonder, now, if Robson intends to do more stories or novels set in the Mappa Mundi world. I wouldn’t have imagined, based on the end of the book, that there would be more to it, but I’m obviously wrong, and if Robson has any more to offer, I’ll be happy to read it.
"Small Offerings"
by Paolo Bacigalupi
Even though this book was a free ARC, I would've bought the anthology for this story alone. Oh, it's creepy. I kept reading this, wondering what the hell was going on, and finally, at the end, we get answers, and I understand the parallel between this prenatal procedure and the patch. Both do the same thing, but prenatal is a punch in the gut. And while I’m not sure I like having the first scene broken and the end of it at the end of the story (basically, story structure is A to B to C back to A), it’s a far more powerful ending, and the story is short enough that I wouldn’t mind reading it again. Besides, this is Bacigalupi. I adore this man’s work: he has a wonderful handle on the first person point of view (he handles the female POV amazingly well), on present tense, and his descriptions are wonderfully vivid. And with the recent release of Children of Men, the timing of this story is more than appropriate.
"They Came from the Future"
by Robyn Hitchcock
Ack, a poem! While my standing rule is not to review poetry, I can make a few comments here: it starts out with a great rhythm, and the words click neatly into place, but it doesn't take long for the rhythm to get jarred. My eyes would roam over lines, trying to pick up the beat I lost, but even when I got it back, the poem's internal rhythm fell apart by the end, and there's some pesky word choices that throw me for a loop.
Still, the concept is lovely, and true to human nature. We celebrate and admire the good; criticize and destroy the bad. And the end of the poem is a great turn, talking about facing our future, despite what we know it holds.
Only other complaint? The address to BOYS in the very last line. Sure, it makes sense in context, but the entire poem talks about "we" and "us" and at the very end, half of "us" are eliminated.
Course, "Ready, boys and girls?" doesn't exactly have the same ring as "Ready, boys?", now does it?
"Plotters and Shooters"
by Kage Baker
This is a really fun story. It got a little confused as to the gender of these characters at first, but once that got cleared up, and I understood the situation, the story was very enjoyable. And who doesn’t enjoy a good underdog story? So much of this was hilarious, but also frightening in how the Shooters treated the Plotters. Reminded me of a big frat house, with the jocks beating up on the geeks. Still, it rang true, and the ending, while surprising, was good and appropriate.
I’d also like to point out that this story takes place in the existing Company. If the intro is any indication, several books and stories have been written in this world, and usually, that bothers the crap out of me, cause I feel left out. However, this is a great example of such stories working. I suspect that the readers have never met these characters before, and have maybe only heard of the station that targets and shoots asteroids: maybe that’s why the story worked. Whatever Baker did, I’d love to see more writers employ her methods when it comes to setting short stories in the worlds of their novels or other shorts.
My only quibble with this piece is the voice, which rang to my ears as a female narrator the whole time, which is what contributed to my confusion at the beginning of the story, especially with the French Maid detail. Even when the gender confusion was cleared up, I still got the strong impression of the narrator being female, just from the narrative voice. I guess that happens, and since the writer is a woman, I shouldn’t be surprised. I have the opposite problem: people mistake my first person narrators for men, and even though I’m a woman, that’s just the way my first person women narrators sound: masculine. Kind of an interesting quirk.
"Aristotle OS"
by Tony Ballantyne
Interesting little story. Basing computer operating systems off philosophers is a funny thing, and a fascinating concept. Especially when the computer offers helpful little messages. It’d drive me bonkers, personally, but the narrator gets used to it. But I do have a couple quirks with this: in the opening section, the narrator mentions that lots of people are using this now old OS from the seventies. Okay…but that implies that lots of people were previous using the philosopher operating systems, and that kind of bugged my brain out, since the narrator’s brother gives him a disk that’s obviously been burned off the internet or something to that effect. My point: I don’t think the philosopher operating systems would’ve been THAT popular. So that little quirk threw me for a minute, and the other one was when the narrator’s brother calls him up from the bar, telling him not to use the internet with this new OS. Fine, except it happens THREE WEEKS LATER. And the narrator never says, “But I already have.” Instead, he says, “How am I supposed to check my mail?”
Come on…who goes three weeks without checking email, unless you’re away from home?
But those are quibbles, stuff that might’ve gotten polished out with one more read. The story itself was good, and I loved how Kant 2.0 created reality as it should’ve been, not as it was. It made the ending especially chilling: we always think about how bad the world could be, but we never stop to think how we (the general we, including politicians, corporations, etc) could be HINDERING our own progress. That was sobering, and made for a great ending.
"The Something-Dreaming Game"
by Elizabeth Bear
Wow, what a story. Bear effectively uses both first person and third person to utilize the voices of the mother and daughter, and Bear captures the daughter perfectly. The mom’s first person voice is right on too, and I connect easily with both characters. And the premise, how the fainting game leads to communication, is excellent. Everything in this story fit like a perfect puzzle, and while we don’t learn what Albert gave to Tara, we do know she’s effectively changed, and that is worth the read, because the ending is pitch-perfect with a haunting note. Will definitely pursue more fiction from Bear.
"No More Stories"
by Stephen Baxter
This story perplexes me. It’s one of those, “Everything isn’t as it seems” stories, and now that I’ve got my answers, I’m trying to figure out the logic of it. Something had to create the reality that Simon and his mother lived in, but his mother was cut away from the lacuna, so if the lacuna doesn’t create the reality, what does? Clearly, I'm a little confused. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an interesting premise, but it leaves a little bit to be desired for this reader, and I’m too busy trying to figure it all out to enjoy the story for what it is. The religious parallels are fascinating but obvious (Mary, Peter, Simon, Gabriel) but I can’t help but think this algae stuff is a collective conscious of sorts, and there is no life, death, or soul, just absorption and re-absorption. I don’t know. I think it wanted to leave me wowed, but what I wanted out of it was a sucker-punch.
"Time of the Snake"
by A.M. Dellamonica
This story gets a big fat thumbs down from me. Two, in fact. And don’t get me wrong, cause I love first person narration and I adore well-executed twists. But this story? It’s criminal to manipulate your reader like this: if we’re in the narrator’s head (first person) and the narrator KNOWS he/she (the gender is never identified, and the name Cantil is too ambiguous and could easily be a last name) is a double agent, said narrator is going to be AWARE of his/her own double-crossing! Oh, there’s “clues,” but the narrator goes out of his/her way to proclaim innocence.
Yes, I know there’s such a thing as an unreliable narrator. And yes, one could make the argument that the narrator is so wrapped up in his/her role that he/she CAN’T think of his/her other identity because that would shake the foundations of his/her cover with the Squids and therefore get him/her killed. But my point is this: manipulation such as this is done in order to shock the reader and pack a punch. But it also violates the reader’s trust in the writer. And just think how much MORE tension there would’ve been in the story had the reader known all along this narrator was a double agent (masking as a Dem working with the Squids when he/she really seemingly in charge of the Fiends) and seeing the close relationship he/she has with the Squids, who he/she knows he/she’s going to betray, will he/she go through with it? Will he/she try to save the Squids? Talk about heart-wrenching guilt when Loot stands by him/her. And talk about a REAL PUNCH when the narrator chooses to let the Squids rot.
See, as the story stands, the punch is lessened because once we get the rug pulled out from under us, we don’t care about the narrator anymore. It’s not just that we’ve been betrayed by the narrator, we’ve been betrayed by the writer too.
Don’t get me wrong: the premise of the story, with a human working with alien invaders and having to deal with the rest of humanity, is great. The Squids are wonderfully realized. And I don’t even mind that the narrator left the Squids to rot. It’s just that this story’s potential wasn’t fully realized because the writer was aiming for the big TWIST instead of allowing her reader to emotionally connect with a conflicted narrator, who in the end, chooses humanity over alien friendship. This could’ve been SUCH a STRONGER story.
Course, maybe it’s just me: some readers might like this kind of twist. I don’t. I really, really don’t.
And by the way, wasn’t this review annoying with all the he/she references? Yeah, I thought so. I’ll forgive nameless characters, but not even knowing if I’m in the head of a man or woman? Annoying.
"The Terror Bard"
by Larry Niven & Brenda Cooper
I have read four issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction, and coincidentally enough, have read the story referred to in the introduction to this piece. I remember that story didn’t stick with me, so when I learned this piece was a sequel, I read half-heartedly. But this piece, while it really doesn’t capture my imagination, certainly has weight to it. Understanding what Kath has to do, especially knowing her history with Quicksilver, is heart-breaking, and seeing her emotionally abandoned moreso. The ending is good, and there is some hope for redemption. The title on the other hand, meh. And I still wish I had a better visual of Kath. I only ever see her ears, but that’s not enough to give me a good visual of her, especially since she’s most definitely post-human. Also, impressive how long these people can survive. I don’t remember the first story well enough to remember how they’re able to pull this feat off, but it’s impressive, even if a little unrealistic.
"p. dolce"
by Louise Marley
I really loved this story. I've been on the look-out for SF stories/books that incorporate music, because hey, music is a science too. And I was beyond thrilled to read this story, cause once upon a time ago, I was a classical voice major in college, and for once I actually understand EVERYTHING about an SF story! This excites me. :)
But also great, aside from the fact that I'm one of the readers "in the know," is that it's a time travel story of sorts, and I love the whole insertion process. The main characters were believable in their drives, and despite the fact the title and focus of the story is p. dolce, I didn't mind not getting the answer, because let's face it, we DON'T know, and I don't want the author's opinion of what it REALLY is, because even though the author is a musician, we don't need another opinion. Let it be a mystery, the story is beautiful without the mystery being solved. I'll definitely stay on the lookout for more of Marley's work.
"Jesus Christ, Reanimator"
by Ken MacLeod
Interesting…most interesting indeed. I’ve often speculated what would happen if Christ were to return without the Revelation-fulfilled prophecies in full force, but I’m going to keep my thoughts to myself in this regard, cause I’d rather mine them for my own stories. But needless to say, this story grabbed my attention. Easy enough to see the parallels between the new testament, and I particularly liked Jesus’ character, because he was exactly what a 21st century messiah should be: on terms with the people and all their snark. The end was good, though a little perplexing (why’d he stay dead this time?), but I liked the narrator’s observations on the events, and the direction his life goes in after.
"Solomon's Choice"
by Mike Resnick & Nancy Kress
I really loved this story. So much of it is what my primary interest lies in SF, and it’s right up the alley of what I’m writing now, so I was very thrilled to read this. I loved the two first person narratives, and it was easy to imagine that Kress took one, and Resnick the other. I did have a quibble, and a question: quibble, the very end, where the doctor renamed himself. I got it, it made sense, but it felt too heavy for my tastes; question: so they only took Hutaral, the remaining girls, and that’s it? Did the rest of the women stay on the native planet? If so, why wouldn’t THEIR children have the same problem with the racial memory? I guess I got a little confused as to how it worked and why, but other than the question of who stayed and why, I’m pretty happy with what I got. Kress is someone who’s work I’ve wanted to read more of anyway, and Resnick, well…I just read a good reason to seek more of his fiction out too.
"Sanjeev and Robotwallah"
by Ian McDonald
I haven’t yet had the chance to read McDonald’s River of Gods because I’m waiting for the trade, but I may break down and check it out from the library. Anyway, I’ve heard a bit about McDonald’s work, and was quite curious to read this story, which takes place in the same setting, but I’m pretty sure with different characters and such.
The world is certainly rich, and the writing style has a kind of storyteller’s feel to it. There were moments I tripped in the prose because necessary commas appeared missing, but since this is an ARC, I don’t know if it’s a typo or if it’s an intentional thing that McDonald is doing to convey the culture of his India. However, the robots were a marvel to experience, and the plague-walkers were chilling, even though that was just a snippet of the story. Still, it’s one of those “watch what you wish for” stories, the kind that makes kids grow up. You know the kind, where a kid sees the UBER-COOL KIDS and would do anything to be a part. That’s the tale, only in a worn-torn country crawling to the end of the war, and UBER-COOL KIDS being the soldiers, it’s got a twist, and it’s kind of chilling at the end.
I can’t say this story was entirely to my tastes, but I’d still like to give McDonald’s book a shot one day, because the world is rich, and I didn’t have trouble visualizing his technologies, and that was a plus for me.
"A Smaller Government"
by Pamela Sargent
Kind of a cute story, and I like the ending, though the ending makes this more fantasy/magical realism than anything. I think I would’ve preferred the story a bit more if we hadn’t gotten a different point of view for every scene break. I mean, it was nice to see how everything looked from every angle, but I kept getting jarred out of the story instead of enjoying it more. Oh well. Based on the intro, I’d still like to seek out some of Sargent’s works, especially since it seems this piece isn’t representative of her writing.
"Pride"
by Mary A. Turzillo
I’m going to keep this short and honest (because otherwise, I would pick this piece apart and rant, and I’m trying to avoid that these days): fun premise, but it’s the weakest, sloppiest story in the entire anthology. It reads like a rush job and quite frankly, while I understand that all writers have their “down” days, I would expect something far more polished and developed from someone who’s won a Nebula.
And I wanted to like this story. It's about a saber-toothed tiger, after all. Felines usually win me over regardless.
"I Caught Intelligence"
by Robyn Hitchcock
Another poem. Meh. This one lacks the rhythm that I enjoyed in the other, and there’s a lot of abstractions (duh, it’s poetry) that fall flat for me. The constant reference to a Renee begged importance, but I kept thinking of Rene Descartes, which may have been the point, but it felt a bit heavy to me, and Renee can be too easily read as a girlfriend in this context.
"Settlements"
by George Zebrowski
I find myself puzzling over this one, because I felt it preached more than anything. Really, we get the background of how things came to be, and then the entire story is this one-legged man (who has a nuke strapped to his remaining leg, no less) talking with aliens who claim to be from Earth. The aliens babble about their philosophy, which is interesting, but the protagonist’s bull-headed resistance to it was puzzling, even though I can understand a *little* bit of his logic at the end, but not enough to sympathize with his willingness to blow himself up. Oh well. This story is one I might tackle again later, when I can focus on it better.
"The Hour of the Sheep"
by Gene Wolfe
I guess it’s true: “live by the sword, die by the sword.” What this story lacks in tension, Wolfe makes up for with beautiful prose and a delightful pace. I particularly enjoyed seeing the five hours played out dramatically, and Wolfe does a nice job with world-building. One complaint about that, though, is I was never sure if this was science fiction, fantasy, or both. I’m leaning towards fantasy, despite some distinct descriptions, because everything else about the story screams that genre. I will say, though, the description of the swords reminded me of lightsabers.
Back to pacing, I figured this to be a longer short, so when the ending snuck up on me, I was angry. Angry because it was very, very sudden, but at least I appreciate the relation to the title, and how the title fits the entire story. Still, though, I started questioning the twist as soon as it happened, and the ending was far too abrupt. Oh well. Gorgeous prose, and that makes me happy.
"Sideways from Now"
by John Meaney
There's just so much I don't get in this story. And I think, if I talked myself through it, I'd get it. There's certainly things I like, such as the quantum entanglement of the couple (which is something I'm currently pursuing in my own fiction, so reading this SCARES ME), what happens when the couple splits, etc. I guess the only way I can make this story make sense is that there are parallel dimensions, and even though Yukiko died, her entangled particles still survived and transported into another dimension via the moth, and that's how Ryan was able to access this world, was through Yukiko's entangled particles.
But whew, this story is long to get through, and there's still things in here that strike me as pure fantasy (like why Ryan's eyes turned orange), and I had a hard time following his train of thought. It's a story I wouldn't mind reading again, now that I know what's going on, but in some ways, I think Meaney tried to pack too much into this piece, because the lovestory alone without the other dimension (and sudden incarnation of his grandfather in dreams, that was weird) would've made a whole piece. Hell, what would've happened if the Yukiko's particles ended up in another woman? If I'd been writing this story, that's probably the direction I would've gone.
But cool ideas. Just hard for me to stay interested in, because of the length and the time it took to start putting the pieces together.
"Wikiworld"
by Paul Di Filippo
This is a fun story that took me a while to get into because the terminology and world was so different, but it’s certainly a cute piece, written well, and while I don’t grasp every detail of this story, I can appreciate it for what it is. It’s a very detailed future fiction piece, and I could easily envision this Wikiworld as the setting of a novel, if it isn’t already.
Time for the stats: I enjoyed 14/21 stories in this, with Wilson’s, Bacigalupi’s, Bear’s, Marley’s, and the Resnick/Kress piece being my personal faves for their “wow” factor. I recognized some of the stories in this anthology were not to my particular SF taste (and some I wished were written differently), but most of these pieces had good/fun premises and it was nice to see a variety of stories in this anthology.
I’d definitely recommend this anthology to anyone reading (or writing) science fiction, and I’m not just saying that because I got the ARC: I think I’ll pick up the actual copy myself, when it comes out. Some of these stories really blew me away, and while I would’ve bought the anthology solely for Bacigalupi’s work, I wouldn’t have minded paying for the rest of it either, if that makes sense. In other words, there’s something in here for everyone, and there’s some really, really good stories here.
Also, an interesting stat that some of you won’t care about: 9/21 stories are penned by women (though two of those nine are co-written by men). The reason this stat jumps out at me is the fact that I’ve heard several women complain about how when you pick up an anthology of SF stories, there are few to no women featured. It’s something I’ve noticed myself, so a big shout-out to Lou Anders for both sampling a variety of SF and not limiting anthology slots to the male population of the SF community.
Next up: Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: February 2007