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davecreek's review
4.0
Cat Rambo, in her Preface to her anthology IF THIS GOES ON, states, "This project is born of rage and sorrow and hope." She doesn't mention any names or specific developments in current politics, but it's clear she and her contributors aren't happy about the direction of the country under the current administration. Some of the stories anthologized here, she acknowledges, "will despair," but others, she knows, will be "lamps to light the path and show the pitfalls as we continue upwards."
The writers whose work she chose come through in grand style. Just a few highlights:
E. Lily Yu's "Green Glass: A Love Story" shows us a country even more divided between the haves and have-nots than our current one. A man sends a robot to the moon to gather a glass bead to place on a chain for his fiancé. They spend a fortune to obtain the ingredients to make ice cream. But the tears of one server at their wedding form the introduction to how the "other half" lives.
In "Mr. Percy's Shortcut," Andy Duncan presents the folksy story of Mr. Percy Seaton. It's set in a future in which the only mining in Appalachia is data mining and flooding from global warming has brought disasters in Miami and Norfolk. Seaton is the nation's last coal miner, but even in retirement he finds a reason to dig. And dig.
"A Gardener's Guide to the Apocalypse" by Lynette Mejia is the story of a woman whose journal of her month-by-month effort to maintain her garden after a nuclear war reveals a desperate optimism. Seemingly mundane details of seeds, topsoil, and weeding remain her focus even as the ash continues to fall and her husband becomes deathly ill.
I'm certain IF THIS GOES ON will be listed as one of this year's best SF anthologies. Highly recommended.
The writers whose work she chose come through in grand style. Just a few highlights:
E. Lily Yu's "Green Glass: A Love Story" shows us a country even more divided between the haves and have-nots than our current one. A man sends a robot to the moon to gather a glass bead to place on a chain for his fiancé. They spend a fortune to obtain the ingredients to make ice cream. But the tears of one server at their wedding form the introduction to how the "other half" lives.
In "Mr. Percy's Shortcut," Andy Duncan presents the folksy story of Mr. Percy Seaton. It's set in a future in which the only mining in Appalachia is data mining and flooding from global warming has brought disasters in Miami and Norfolk. Seaton is the nation's last coal miner, but even in retirement he finds a reason to dig. And dig.
"A Gardener's Guide to the Apocalypse" by Lynette Mejia is the story of a woman whose journal of her month-by-month effort to maintain her garden after a nuclear war reveals a desperate optimism. Seemingly mundane details of seeds, topsoil, and weeding remain her focus even as the ash continues to fall and her husband becomes deathly ill.
I'm certain IF THIS GOES ON will be listed as one of this year's best SF anthologies. Highly recommended.
pvn's review
4.0
I love anthologies. I would agree that this one is filled with bold stories. I won't review each one, but overall I liked them. Like all collections, some are better than others, but this is a solid collection. I didn't know most of the authors, but I'll check out many other their other works. Thanks very much for the opportunity to read the advanced copy!!
arifel's review
4.0
This collection, kickstarted last year by the small Parvus Press, sets itself an interesting goal: encompassing the sense of disaster and impending doom that current political and environmental factors evoke (mainly focused on the USA) while also incorporating notes of hope. The result is slightly uneven, as some stories contain little more than a grimly extrapolated premise, but others do shine. Of these, it was the stories with a feeling of historical weight to them which really grabbed me. "Mr. Percy's Shortcut", by Andy Duncan, recounts the tale of an Appalachian miner - one of the few in his version of the future who hasn't switched to data mining - who spends his life digging through a mountain in order to reach the other side. It's a story of almost nonsensical triumph, but it feels "lived in" and the speculative elements are compelling but understated. On the much grimmer side, the stories "A Gardener's Guide to the Apocalypse" and "Free Wifi" present very different testimonials which we have reason to suspect would never be canonically read - the former, by Lynette Mejia, is a diary charting a year in the life of a gardener recording the growth around her despite the destruction which has taken all but her and her partner; the latter, by Marie L. Vibbert, a story of young rebellion in a corporatised world which is crushed in actuality but not in spirit. Both have strong character voices, underscored by the modes of telling, which really underscore the premises and stop them from being too grim despite the subject matter.
Some other gems in here include "Welcome to Gray", by Cyd Athens, a superhero origin story with notes of Henrietta Lacks and a great subversive take on representing dialect, and E. Lily Yu's story, "Green Glass: A Love Story", a no-expense-spared romance in very late capitalism which manages to keep the protagonist's wish - to have real ice cream served at her wedding - naively sympathetic, without flinching from showing the widespread destruction and misery which surrounds those without the means to keep themselves insulated. All in all, this is a neat little collection despite its ups and downs, and while it's very tied to the political moment, if you're interested in on-the-pulse speculative fiction this is one to consider.
Some other gems in here include "Welcome to Gray", by Cyd Athens, a superhero origin story with notes of Henrietta Lacks and a great subversive take on representing dialect, and E. Lily Yu's story, "Green Glass: A Love Story", a no-expense-spared romance in very late capitalism which manages to keep the protagonist's wish - to have real ice cream served at her wedding - naively sympathetic, without flinching from showing the widespread destruction and misery which surrounds those without the means to keep themselves insulated. All in all, this is a neat little collection despite its ups and downs, and while it's very tied to the political moment, if you're interested in on-the-pulse speculative fiction this is one to consider.
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