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A review by grantclover
Forward: Stories of Tomorrow by N.K. Jemisin, Blake Crouch, Paul Tremblay, Amor Towles, Veronica Roth, Andy Weir
3.0
This was an interesting collection of short stories that explored possible futuristic situations involving technology that we aren’t terribly far from creating. Some stories were better than others, and I didn’t even get that far into Blake Crouch’s story for... reasons.
Amor Towles’ story was the best in my opinion, and I found it to be by far the deepest and most thought-provoking as it went beyond just his technological creations and inventive devices and rooted itself in the philosophical; in doing so, weaving its plot through the character arch of every human life and exploring what makes us grow and fail and become better versions of ourselves. As well as wondering over the concept of nurture vs. nature and what is required to bring about the most felicitous result in a child‘s life. Can you really plot out one’s whole entire storyline?
Veronica Roth’s story was close behind. Since I’ve never read Divergent, I didn’t know what to expect of her writing style, but it was actually quite lovely and through her simple but touching prose she creates the most story- and character-oriented plot line. Which plays out as a girl prepares to leave earth before the world ends due to a meteor collision.
Andy Weir’s story was remarkably lackluster. I thoroughly enjoyed the Martian, and every bit of science deeply intrigued me in it. But this dragged and, while original, didn’t capture my attention.
Paul Tremblay’s story had a pretty good sci-fi twist ending. But every other part of it kind of seems to dawdle and flounder in so much redundancy, that it feels stretched merely for the required length of a proper novella.
N. K. Jemisin’s story was peculiar and held such an uncomfortable second-person perspective that I found myself annoyed more than anything through its length. When it became strangely focused on the “reproduction methods” of people wearing complexly engineered suits of sorts that they called Emergency Skin, I began to skip my way to the end which fascinated me none the more.
Lastly, the curator of this collection, Blake Crouch, wrote a story that I barely got a few pages into. It followed the romance between a female robot/non-playable chapter in a video game with an already married lesbian. More than one of those things raised red flags for me, so I decided that it wasn’t super necessary to read.
Amor Towles’ story was the best in my opinion, and I found it to be by far the deepest and most thought-provoking as it went beyond just his technological creations and inventive devices and rooted itself in the philosophical; in doing so, weaving its plot through the character arch of every human life and exploring what makes us grow and fail and become better versions of ourselves. As well as wondering over the concept of nurture vs. nature and what is required to bring about the most felicitous result in a child‘s life. Can you really plot out one’s whole entire storyline?
Veronica Roth’s story was close behind. Since I’ve never read Divergent, I didn’t know what to expect of her writing style, but it was actually quite lovely and through her simple but touching prose she creates the most story- and character-oriented plot line. Which plays out as a girl prepares to leave earth before the world ends due to a meteor collision.
Andy Weir’s story was remarkably lackluster. I thoroughly enjoyed the Martian, and every bit of science deeply intrigued me in it. But this dragged and, while original, didn’t capture my attention.
Paul Tremblay’s story had a pretty good sci-fi twist ending. But every other part of it kind of seems to dawdle and flounder in so much redundancy, that it feels stretched merely for the required length of a proper novella.
N. K. Jemisin’s story was peculiar and held such an uncomfortable second-person perspective that I found myself annoyed more than anything through its length. When it became strangely focused on the “reproduction methods” of people wearing complexly engineered suits of sorts that they called Emergency Skin, I began to skip my way to the end which fascinated me none the more.
Lastly, the curator of this collection, Blake Crouch, wrote a story that I barely got a few pages into. It followed the romance between a female robot/non-playable chapter in a video game with an already married lesbian. More than one of those things raised red flags for me, so I decided that it wasn’t super necessary to read.