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barbtrek's review
5.0
This book is full of thought provoking stories! I expected an over-riding "anti-social justice warrior" theme, but that was not the case. In fact, one of the later stories dealt with the dangers of racism and police profiling. I was particularly interested to read about the Hugo awards and the Sad Puppies controversy. This definitely gave me a different perspective on the whole situation.
As with all anthologies, some stories were better than others but all of these are worth reading in my opinion. Just not for the easily offended.
As with all anthologies, some stories were better than others but all of these are worth reading in my opinion. Just not for the easily offended.
absentminded_reader's review
3.0
★★★½☆
Although this anthology starts with a very anti-SJW bias, not all stories shared that bias. True, some were too much on the nose—too polemic—too partisan—especially in the front of the anthology. Those authors littered their stories with SJW conceits, and told what I considered to be morality tales. Message fic is dreadful to me, no matter the ideology. However, many stories stood out as exemplary science fiction and fantasy. They envisioned a future or society where SJW dreams came true, and turned that dream into a nightmare. These stories worked because they took one concept and created a society encumbered with that concept gone amok. Stories like alpha male fantasy "The Secret History of the World Gone By" by Joshua M. Young, "The Social Construct" by David Hallquist, the thought provoking "Hymns of the Mothers" by Brad Torgersen, the intriguing parallel universe tale, "By His Cockle Hat and Staff" by John C. Wright, the memorable Catholic SF tale of "World Ablaze" by Jane Lebak, and the incredibly daring Christian conversion Muslim fantasy, "Test of the Prophet" by L. Jagi Lamplighter. These tales alone are worth the cost of the anthology. They eschew heavy-handedness for a lighter, more artful touch while still contemplating unorthodox or politically incorrect concepts. Brian Neimeier's horror story, "Elegy for the Locust", lacked an overt political angle while still entertaining, and Sara A. Hoyt's "Flight to Egypt" tackled racism and eugenics from an uncomfortable blend of right wing profiling and left wing authoritarianism. All of these stories were excellent. Only Vox Day's story offended me, likely due to its wink to misogyny, but I am a dad of daughters and felt extremely uncomfortable with the fate Day had in store for his female Marines. Not everyone will process that story as I did, however, and as forbidden as these narrative thoughts were, I enjoyed the predominantly intelligent manner in which the contributing authors dealt with their subjects.
Although this anthology starts with a very anti-SJW bias, not all stories shared that bias. True, some were too much on the nose—too polemic—too partisan—especially in the front of the anthology. Those authors littered their stories with SJW conceits, and told what I considered to be morality tales. Message fic is dreadful to me, no matter the ideology. However, many stories stood out as exemplary science fiction and fantasy. They envisioned a future or society where SJW dreams came true, and turned that dream into a nightmare. These stories worked because they took one concept and created a society encumbered with that concept gone amok. Stories like alpha male fantasy "The Secret History of the World Gone By" by Joshua M. Young, "The Social Construct" by David Hallquist, the thought provoking "Hymns of the Mothers" by Brad Torgersen, the intriguing parallel universe tale, "By His Cockle Hat and Staff" by John C. Wright, the memorable Catholic SF tale of "World Ablaze" by Jane Lebak, and the incredibly daring Christian conversion Muslim fantasy, "Test of the Prophet" by L. Jagi Lamplighter. These tales alone are worth the cost of the anthology. They eschew heavy-handedness for a lighter, more artful touch while still contemplating unorthodox or politically incorrect concepts. Brian Neimeier's horror story, "Elegy for the Locust", lacked an overt political angle while still entertaining, and Sara A. Hoyt's "Flight to Egypt" tackled racism and eugenics from an uncomfortable blend of right wing profiling and left wing authoritarianism. All of these stories were excellent. Only Vox Day's story offended me, likely due to its wink to misogyny, but I am a dad of daughters and felt extremely uncomfortable with the fate Day had in store for his female Marines. Not everyone will process that story as I did, however, and as forbidden as these narrative thoughts were, I enjoyed the predominantly intelligent manner in which the contributing authors dealt with their subjects.
danperlman's review
2.0
This book got a lot of play in the last year or so as "Milo" rose to (in)fame with his various political antics. And antics they are, watching him speak or reading his rants, it's pretty clear that regardless of whether he believes what says or not, he's not actually interested in anything but self aggrandizement. Mostly his positions are pretty poorly formed and rely on the misdirection of using non-PC language and/or personal attacks, taking everyone's attention off of the lack of substance to anything he's saying. Yet somehow, the editor and publisher of this collection of short stories, decided that his name on the cover would be an attraction. It worked. But then, for those seeking to read more of his work, the disappointment of finding that all he did was write a foreword note at the beginning of the book that has little if anything to do with the content. He asserts that there's never been a collection of such revolutionary non-PC science fiction in all of history. Obviously he's clueless to the Libertarian origins of much of modern Sci-Fi, or even the genre as a whole. But let's set all that aside and get on to the meat of the book itself.
There are some great stories in here that save the book from being worthy of nothing more than the scrap heap. The problem is, there are also a bunch, probably more than half, of the stories, that do little more than attempt to incense the reader by being as non-PC as they possibly can, throwing in words and thoughts and actions that are guaranteed to horrify anyone with leanings to the left. But they go way too far, and I don't mean that because I'm incensed by them, but because they're little more than the same as I accuse Milo of above. They're distractions, they're glaring baubles, designed to do nothing more than distract the reader from the fact that the stories have no substance. They're just ranting and exaggeration designed for effect and show the authors' complete lack of story telling ability.
In the end, there's just not enough to recommend the book. There's far better, shall we say, non-leftist, non-PC science fiction out there than anything in this book.
There are some great stories in here that save the book from being worthy of nothing more than the scrap heap. The problem is, there are also a bunch, probably more than half, of the stories, that do little more than attempt to incense the reader by being as non-PC as they possibly can, throwing in words and thoughts and actions that are guaranteed to horrify anyone with leanings to the left. But they go way too far, and I don't mean that because I'm incensed by them, but because they're little more than the same as I accuse Milo of above. They're distractions, they're glaring baubles, designed to do nothing more than distract the reader from the fact that the stories have no substance. They're just ranting and exaggeration designed for effect and show the authors' complete lack of story telling ability.
In the end, there's just not enough to recommend the book. There's far better, shall we say, non-leftist, non-PC science fiction out there than anything in this book.
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