Reviews

Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow by Kirsten Berg, Madeline Ashby, Charlie Jane Anders

rakoerose's review

4.0

This anthology was highly intriguing with each story offering a new concept of a potential future, with its positive or negative effects. A lot of these stories introduced me to authors I now know to keep an eye out for, because their ideas struck me so well.

My favorites were “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis” by Annalee Newitz, “Mr. Thursday” by Emily St. John Mandel, “Safe Surrender” by Meg Elison, and “The Starfish Girl” by Maureen McHugh. All of the stories are intriguing and fresh, but these ones I think will stick with me the most!

I’m always excited to come across sci-fi anthologies, and I can say that, in my opinion, this one is a delight.

janiev's review

medium-paced

3.0

lizswartz's review

adventurous

don’t know how to rate a short story anthology from all different authors. there were only 2 or 3 stories that i didn’t really like so fairly good turnout. some of them i really wish were longer (which is a sign of a good short story i guess). some of these would make great black mirror episodes

lyriclorelei's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

I grow increasingly frustrated by the framing of seeing the literal future through scifi, but I did enjoy these stories.

morgsy's review

3.0

Decently entertaining, but most of the stories read like a high-school-level creative writing class.

lauren__rene's review

adventurous reflective fast-paced

4.5

librariann's review

4.0

I never read the stories on Slate. This was a very worthy compendium. If there's a common thread, it's that many of the stories feature AI. How Robot and Crow Saved St. Louis is especially timely, and I also loved the final story, The Minnesota Diet.

endlesstbr's review

4.0

As with any anthology, there are stories that I enjoyed more than others, but I really enjoyed the balance of authors from different backgrounds and styles of stories. I generally liked the second half better than the start but there were certainly standouts throughout.

oldwindways's review

4.0

As much as the phrase "health surveillance" creeped me out in the beginning, I was completely won over by Robot & Crow by the end of the story. I especially like the crows' foul (or should a say fowl) mouthed one-sided interactions with humans, and despite the potential for rampant abuse of the technology, somehow Robot managed to be a goodnatured altruistic little AI that did not accidentally (or intentionally) lead to the extermination of the human species. Hooray!
A fun listen; recommended.

oksi's review

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75