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A review by benlundns
Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future by Ed Finn, Kathryn Cramer
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.