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mr_steve's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
An inspiring, yet frustrating collection of stories that shows us the futures, and near futures that lurk around corners if only we are willing to take some risks.
jworley's review against another edition
5.0
Girl in wave: Wave in Girl was an incredibly revealing, insightful look into living with dyslexia, and other learning impairments.
bsowell's review against another edition
3.0
I'm always really slow at reading short stories. I did enjoy this collection, though I was disappointed with Neal Stephenson's story.
benlundns's review against another edition
4.0
I'm starting to get into a little bit of a short story fatigue. I tend to read one or two between heavier novels that I'm more fond of. But I saw Neal Stephenson's name on the book, and it seemed like a nice way to get some of his writing without committing to a 1000+ page tome at the current time.
And I really enjoyed it. The premise seems to be looking at near future technologies (drones, asteroid mining, etc) and how they might affect scientific innovation going forward. None of the stories is particularly long, the average being about 40 pages. The nice part was that the authors are all really good. Usually an anthology like this has one or two "stinkers" that you either skip or force through, but I didn't get this here. Sure there were some I didn't like as much as others, but none that I considered "unreadable."
A word of warning, it is speculative fiction, so there are no sweeping space operas here. The near future concept keeps the stories grounded and based almost entirely on earth.
And I really enjoyed it. The premise seems to be looking at near future technologies (drones, asteroid mining, etc) and how they might affect scientific innovation going forward. None of the stories is particularly long, the average being about 40 pages. The nice part was that the authors are all really good. Usually an anthology like this has one or two "stinkers" that you either skip or force through, but I didn't get this here. Sure there were some I didn't like as much as others, but none that I considered "unreadable."
A word of warning, it is speculative fiction, so there are no sweeping space operas here. The near future concept keeps the stories grounded and based almost entirely on earth.
megatsunami's review against another edition
3.0
It took me 9 months to finish this book, not because of its length, but because I just wasn't that into it. Miles' review beautifully and exactly articulates my thoughts, so I won't waste much time restating them. I agree that this highly male-dominated book needed a more gender-balanced perspective. Also, many stories featured characters of color, but in many cases they seemed to be attempts by white authors to make their stories seem to represent the views of people of color, rather than a true engagement with the global impacts of future technologies and how different cultures may experience it.
My two favorites stories, hands down, were the moving "Elephant Angels" by Brenda Cooper and the excellent "By the Time We Get to Arizona" by Madeline Ashby. I felt like both of these dealt with actual social problems and interesting solutions (whether successful or failed), rather than some arrogant jerk's idea that Earth needs a really really tall tower. "Covenant" by Elizabeth Bear was not exactly enjoyable to read but was very, very well-written and thought-provoking.
My two favorites stories, hands down, were the moving "Elephant Angels" by Brenda Cooper and the excellent "By the Time We Get to Arizona" by Madeline Ashby. I felt like both of these dealt with actual social problems and interesting solutions (whether successful or failed), rather than some arrogant jerk's idea that Earth needs a really really tall tower. "Covenant" by Elizabeth Bear was not exactly enjoyable to read but was very, very well-written and thought-provoking.
pbrown12303's review against another edition
2.0
Mixed bag
Some of these stories are good tales, others are good technical speculation, but many are just tedious reads. Almost not worth the time.
Some of these stories are good tales, others are good technical speculation, but many are just tedious reads. Almost not worth the time.
maxed's review against another edition
3.0
It's a bit unfair to review in 2022 a "visions for a better future" book written in 2014... But maybe not. A lot of these stories are near-term sci-fi, and so it makes sense to see if those visions came true, or at least were not completely wrong. As a TL;DR, I'd say this collection isn't the worst one I've ever read, but I bet I would be hard-pressed to remember a single story from it after a year - they're just not THAT good.
Atmosphaera Incognita, Neal Stephenson (3/5): A classic Stephenson, condensed into a smaller form, and worse for it - there are not enough info-dumps and clever technical details and adventures, and characters are as bland as ever. The 20km tower idea still seems dubious to me, but who knows?
Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl, Kathleen Ann Goonan (2/5):
Here's a short summary of this story:
1. A cure for dyslexia
2. ...
3. PROFIT
Really, I want to like this story, because it makes a case for a reform of education and a system of mentorship, which is I'm all for, but it barely works as a pamphlet advocating it, and as a sci-fi story it fails completely because it doesn't show a connection from its premise to the ending.
By the Time We Get to Arizona, Madeline Ashby (3/5): Competent, but boring story about immigrants trying to get access to abortion pills. Kind of going for an anti-utopia vibe, I guess, but it has nothing new to say about corporate surveillance or anti-abortion laws, so there is no need for this story to exist.
The Man Who Sold the Moon, Cory Doctorow (4/5): Cory's fanboying about Burning Man in early 10's was really a bit too much for me, but the story is good enough. Landing a 3D printer creating panels for buildings on the Moon seems like a strange idea to me, though, without a planned follow-through. What if the next expedition needs a different kind of panels, not the ones that were produced? Or something else entirely?
Johnny Appledrone vs. the FAA, Lee Konstantinou (4/5): Now, that one reads like another Cory Doctorow story. A roving dronepunk building mesh network with flying drones of questionable legality, a young out-of-luck SMM specialist turning into freedom of speech activist...
Mesh networks, incidentally, seem to be one of those things like cold fusion: they've been just around the corner since mid 00's (my friend wrote his thesis about improving one mesh technology in 2008), but somehow they never become reality.
The naivete of this story is a bit annoying: by 2014 people should have already seen that "network not controlled by government or corporations" is not THE answer to all humanity's problems: aunt Mildred will share the same conspiracy theories, no matter if she uses Facebook or some darknet social network built over a mesh network. Or maybe not - America only really felt the impact of Internet's "eternal September" in 2016, after Trump's victory.
Still, it wasn't a BAD story.
Degrees of Freedom, Karl Schroeder (2/5): Ah, to have that early 10's techno-optimism about Bitcoin and blockchain! And algorithms in general. Although you have to be extremely naive to trust Dorians - the "images of future you" that are supposed to help you make decisions. I mean, it's very easy to influence one's decisions this way by tweaking Dorian-generating code.
As for another book's another idea, definition-matching site that helps to organize negotiations and resolve conflicts, I can't get my head around it. I feel it shouldn't work, because professional negotiators will game it, and even if not, I still can't quite see how having people with the same explicit definitions of terms will be much of a help in negotiations. As an old Jew said, "I have only one disagreement with Bolsheviks, on the question of land. They want bury me in this land, and I want to bury them".
Two Scenarios for the Future of Solar Energy, Annalee Newitz (2/5): Not much of a story, really. Just two not very interesting visions of a Solar-powered city. As a citizen of a country where there are not enough sunlight to make any of this reality, I dislike all that solar hype.
A Hotel in Antarctica, Geoffrey A. Landis (2/5): It would be a nice engineering tale in the style of Stephenson, only it lacks any technical details. Or a protagonist who's good at, well, anything. It feels like the whole thing was written for the final few pages, where the local Greenpeace stand-in finally agrees that a hotel in Antarctica is probably a good thing, because it will help to raise awareness of Earth's beauty (and detoriorating climate). It doesn't really work for me.
Periapsis, James L. Cambias (4/5): Teenagers competing to win a highly prized citizenship on Deimos fall in love and decide to build star drive that will make Deimos obsolete as a hub instead. Not much science in this fiction, but I liked the way it was written.
The Man Who Sold the Stars, Gregory Benford (4/5): Unabashed Heinlein tribute, this novelette takes us through the career of a very determined businessman who wants the stars. The first part reads a lot like Suarez's "Delta-V" when he talks about quickly burgeoning asteroid mining industry. This idea gets mentioned more and more lately, so I guess its time is coming.
The second part is about building further in space and preparing for an interstellar expedition, and it ends with a complete success.
It's not a bad story, though it lack details (we only get brief snippets from each stage of man's career) and reads more like history than story because of that, if you get what I mean. Still, it was nice to see such old-fashioned tale.
Entanglement, Vandana Singh (1/5): Couldn't finish this one.
Elephant Angels, Brenda Cooper (4/5): Somewhat interesting idea (volunteers flying drones to protect elephants from poachers), but not much of a story: the action part feels forced upon the rest of the text just to have something other than the basic idea. Still, competently written.
Covenant, Elizabeth Bear (4/5): The "(ex-)serial killer captured by another serial killer" idea is getting a little over-used these days, but it was probably new enough in 2014. More importantly, Elizabeth Bear writes her ex-killer quite well, and the idea of curing psychopathy with computer-controlled hormones injectors looks like a near-future sci-fi.
Quantum Telepathy (3/5), Rudy Rucker: I have a hearty dislike of Rudy Rucker since forcing my way through his "Ware" tetralogy. This story continues with his favourite hobby-horse of mind-meld, and is written in his typical style which I only can describe as "dirty and wet". I kind of can't see the point of it.
Transition Generation, David Brin (5/5): "People will take ANYTHING for granted and then start to grouch about it" is not a novel idea, but the story is so well-written that I will let it slide, and anyway, the description of a world where everyone can fly has enough retro-future-optimism in it to carry this little text further than it would otherwise go.
The Day It All Ended, Charlie Jane Anders (3/5): Overly optimistic "captain of industry has a secret plan to save the world" story that sounds like the author was on the verge of total despair, and so opted to live in a fantasy world where Apple is secretly a force for good.
Tall Tower, Bruce Sterling (3/5): An echo of Stevenson's opening story, this one depicts the tower after many, many years, when humanity mostly migrated into space and only a few people still live on Earth. A man decides to climb to the top of the tower. On a horse. And there are some strange savages living up there. I don't like it.
Atmosphaera Incognita, Neal Stephenson (3/5): A classic Stephenson, condensed into a smaller form, and worse for it - there are not enough info-dumps and clever technical details and adventures, and characters are as bland as ever. The 20km tower idea still seems dubious to me, but who knows?
Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl, Kathleen Ann Goonan (2/5):
Here's a short summary of this story:
1. A cure for dyslexia
2. ...
3. PROFIT
Really, I want to like this story, because it makes a case for a reform of education and a system of mentorship, which is I'm all for, but it barely works as a pamphlet advocating it, and as a sci-fi story it fails completely because it doesn't show a connection from its premise to the ending.
By the Time We Get to Arizona, Madeline Ashby (3/5): Competent, but boring story about immigrants trying to get access to abortion pills. Kind of going for an anti-utopia vibe, I guess, but it has nothing new to say about corporate surveillance or anti-abortion laws, so there is no need for this story to exist.
The Man Who Sold the Moon, Cory Doctorow (4/5): Cory's fanboying about Burning Man in early 10's was really a bit too much for me, but the story is good enough. Landing a 3D printer creating panels for buildings on the Moon seems like a strange idea to me, though, without a planned follow-through. What if the next expedition needs a different kind of panels, not the ones that were produced? Or something else entirely?
Johnny Appledrone vs. the FAA, Lee Konstantinou (4/5): Now, that one reads like another Cory Doctorow story. A roving dronepunk building mesh network with flying drones of questionable legality, a young out-of-luck SMM specialist turning into freedom of speech activist...
Mesh networks, incidentally, seem to be one of those things like cold fusion: they've been just around the corner since mid 00's (my friend wrote his thesis about improving one mesh technology in 2008), but somehow they never become reality.
The naivete of this story is a bit annoying: by 2014 people should have already seen that "network not controlled by government or corporations" is not THE answer to all humanity's problems: aunt Mildred will share the same conspiracy theories, no matter if she uses Facebook or some darknet social network built over a mesh network. Or maybe not - America only really felt the impact of Internet's "eternal September" in 2016, after Trump's victory.
Still, it wasn't a BAD story.
Degrees of Freedom, Karl Schroeder (2/5): Ah, to have that early 10's techno-optimism about Bitcoin and blockchain! And algorithms in general. Although you have to be extremely naive to trust Dorians - the "images of future you" that are supposed to help you make decisions. I mean, it's very easy to influence one's decisions this way by tweaking Dorian-generating code.
As for another book's another idea, definition-matching site that helps to organize negotiations and resolve conflicts, I can't get my head around it. I feel it shouldn't work, because professional negotiators will game it, and even if not, I still can't quite see how having people with the same explicit definitions of terms will be much of a help in negotiations. As an old Jew said, "I have only one disagreement with Bolsheviks, on the question of land. They want bury me in this land, and I want to bury them".
Two Scenarios for the Future of Solar Energy, Annalee Newitz (2/5): Not much of a story, really. Just two not very interesting visions of a Solar-powered city. As a citizen of a country where there are not enough sunlight to make any of this reality, I dislike all that solar hype.
A Hotel in Antarctica, Geoffrey A. Landis (2/5): It would be a nice engineering tale in the style of Stephenson, only it lacks any technical details. Or a protagonist who's good at, well, anything. It feels like the whole thing was written for the final few pages, where the local Greenpeace stand-in finally agrees that a hotel in Antarctica is probably a good thing, because it will help to raise awareness of Earth's beauty (and detoriorating climate). It doesn't really work for me.
Periapsis, James L. Cambias (4/5): Teenagers competing to win a highly prized citizenship on Deimos fall in love and decide to build star drive that will make Deimos obsolete as a hub instead. Not much science in this fiction, but I liked the way it was written.
The Man Who Sold the Stars, Gregory Benford (4/5): Unabashed Heinlein tribute, this novelette takes us through the career of a very determined businessman who wants the stars. The first part reads a lot like Suarez's "Delta-V" when he talks about quickly burgeoning asteroid mining industry. This idea gets mentioned more and more lately, so I guess its time is coming.
The second part is about building further in space and preparing for an interstellar expedition, and it ends with a complete success.
It's not a bad story, though it lack details (we only get brief snippets from each stage of man's career) and reads more like history than story because of that, if you get what I mean. Still, it was nice to see such old-fashioned tale.
Entanglement, Vandana Singh (1/5): Couldn't finish this one.
Elephant Angels, Brenda Cooper (4/5): Somewhat interesting idea (volunteers flying drones to protect elephants from poachers), but not much of a story: the action part feels forced upon the rest of the text just to have something other than the basic idea. Still, competently written.
Covenant, Elizabeth Bear (4/5): The "(ex-)serial killer captured by another serial killer" idea is getting a little over-used these days, but it was probably new enough in 2014. More importantly, Elizabeth Bear writes her ex-killer quite well, and the idea of curing psychopathy with computer-controlled hormones injectors looks like a near-future sci-fi.
Quantum Telepathy (3/5), Rudy Rucker: I have a hearty dislike of Rudy Rucker since forcing my way through his "Ware" tetralogy. This story continues with his favourite hobby-horse of mind-meld, and is written in his typical style which I only can describe as "dirty and wet". I kind of can't see the point of it.
Transition Generation, David Brin (5/5): "People will take ANYTHING for granted and then start to grouch about it" is not a novel idea, but the story is so well-written that I will let it slide, and anyway, the description of a world where everyone can fly has enough retro-future-optimism in it to carry this little text further than it would otherwise go.
The Day It All Ended, Charlie Jane Anders (3/5): Overly optimistic "captain of industry has a secret plan to save the world" story that sounds like the author was on the verge of total despair, and so opted to live in a fantasy world where Apple is secretly a force for good.
Tall Tower, Bruce Sterling (3/5): An echo of Stevenson's opening story, this one depicts the tower after many, many years, when humanity mostly migrated into space and only a few people still live on Earth. A man decides to climb to the top of the tower. On a horse. And there are some strange savages living up there. I don't like it.
loungeking's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
hanamarma's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Stories for a "better future" is a very loose term for these short stories. I enjoyed a few of them; many of them I found to be too dominated by male ego, not very socially progressive. Some are futures that I couldn't really consider better in any way, even though they were interesting for thought. My favorite was Entanglement by Vandana Singh. I also enjoyed the interview at the end of the book.
davidscrimshaw's review against another edition
3.0
If you are a science fiction fan, you have no choice but to read this book because it is full of authors that are on any must-read list.
The thing is that these are mostly stories about how science and technology can improve various problems we have today. This is probably why many of the stories are either not exciting or don't have characters that I cared about.
However, it's worth plowing through because the second last story has a talking rat. He's more comic relief than a main character, but still...
The thing is that these are mostly stories about how science and technology can improve various problems we have today. This is probably why many of the stories are either not exciting or don't have characters that I cared about.
However, it's worth plowing through because the second last story has a talking rat. He's more comic relief than a main character, but still...