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A review by pearseanderson
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 34: The Best New Sci Fi and Fantasy Short Stories of the Year by L. Ron Hubbard, Brandon Sanderson
1.0
I was given this book in a giveaway I did not expect to win. I have since given up on it. I got 71% of the way through (a lot of hate-reading) and gave up at the paragraph: "The East? Angelo recoiled in dismay. The Solognians! Enth had had many decades of peace, based upon Constantino's skills as a general and negotiator."
What are my problems with this book? It gave it a 2. Out of 10. So there are many. I don't think it is well designed: including Brandon Sanderson novel excerpts, on Hubbard stories, and out of place craft essays between novellas flowed poorly and I have no idea why it was implemented in the first place. Yearly anthologies, like Best American Short Stories, have an opportunity in the introduction and preface to address not only the stories readers are about to get into, but the state of the short fiction world and what themes/contexts are coming through. Instead, here we had David Farland give literally the most Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V introduction possible. It doesn't sound like something from 2018. Or something from any time period or perspective.
The stories did not engage me. I cannot think of one character I cared about except for Bao, the little baby in "Mara's Shadow," but that was a MacGuffin kind of deal. It was a baby, it didn't have a character. Speaking of, "Mara's Shadow" had a great concept and some really interesting scenes diced in there. The first third wasn't written very well, so I was giving up and falling into the camp of the whole thing, but by the end of the use of artifacts/news clippings from 2060 dramatically improved the piece and its relationship to real world issues/conflicts.
The other stories were eeeeehuuuhhahhh. One was like a discount Baru Cormorant. Another was a creepy, vaguely orientalist genie story. Another had an author bio where she described herself as a "gypsy."
And then we get into politics. So yes, I was not enjoying the literature here, but I was also not enjoying the concept of this book in the slightest. The use of L. Ron Hubbard's name to bump it up in some weird SEO-move (and add to his bulging bibliography) felt disgusting. As did the fact that Hubbard was a serial abuser and mass manipulator, and to hold him up as a messiah figure in the table of contents to a fucking science fiction anthology is an act of erasure. It's similar to what many white male horror authors tried/are trying to do with Lovecraft's name (i.e, separate the craft from the life, despite the two being intertwined and racist). Holding up Hubbard as a messiah figure is almost what a cult would do.
Wait, who produced this contest series? Oh, that's right. A cult. The Church of Scientology. Tony Ortega has documented in the Village Voice the strange and troubling ties to Scientology and their cultish practices and half-century of abuse. Here's one link. This anthology, which pampers winners, nuzzles up to the SFF world, and pays people good, good money, is ultimately tied into the dystopia that is Scientology. Where is that $1000 coming from for each 1st place winner (four times a year)? Probably, however indirectly, from the backs of brainwashed characters laboring behind the scenes, or lawsuit money, or swindled from Scientologists being rehabilitated in secret prisons. I wish I was joking. And there is no such thing as a free lunch. So when I was gifted this ebook, I also became complicit in this system of abuse or control.
And it wasn't even a good book. So fuck this. I am ashamed in my community for allowing this. I'm giving it a 2, because the upcoming authors in this anthology deserve something, even if that's just 1 star.
What are my problems with this book? It gave it a 2. Out of 10. So there are many. I don't think it is well designed: including Brandon Sanderson novel excerpts, on Hubbard stories, and out of place craft essays between novellas flowed poorly and I have no idea why it was implemented in the first place. Yearly anthologies, like Best American Short Stories, have an opportunity in the introduction and preface to address not only the stories readers are about to get into, but the state of the short fiction world and what themes/contexts are coming through. Instead, here we had David Farland give literally the most Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V introduction possible. It doesn't sound like something from 2018. Or something from any time period or perspective.
The stories did not engage me. I cannot think of one character I cared about except for Bao, the little baby in "Mara's Shadow," but that was a MacGuffin kind of deal. It was a baby, it didn't have a character. Speaking of, "Mara's Shadow" had a great concept and some really interesting scenes diced in there. The first third wasn't written very well, so I was giving up and falling into the camp of the whole thing, but by the end of the use of artifacts/news clippings from 2060 dramatically improved the piece and its relationship to real world issues/conflicts.
The other stories were eeeeehuuuhhahhh. One was like a discount Baru Cormorant. Another was a creepy, vaguely orientalist genie story. Another had an author bio where she described herself as a "gypsy."
And then we get into politics. So yes, I was not enjoying the literature here, but I was also not enjoying the concept of this book in the slightest. The use of L. Ron Hubbard's name to bump it up in some weird SEO-move (and add to his bulging bibliography) felt disgusting. As did the fact that Hubbard was a serial abuser and mass manipulator, and to hold him up as a messiah figure in the table of contents to a fucking science fiction anthology is an act of erasure. It's similar to what many white male horror authors tried/are trying to do with Lovecraft's name (i.e, separate the craft from the life, despite the two being intertwined and racist). Holding up Hubbard as a messiah figure is almost what a cult would do.
Wait, who produced this contest series? Oh, that's right. A cult. The Church of Scientology. Tony Ortega has documented in the Village Voice the strange and troubling ties to Scientology and their cultish practices and half-century of abuse. Here's one link. This anthology, which pampers winners, nuzzles up to the SFF world, and pays people good, good money, is ultimately tied into the dystopia that is Scientology. Where is that $1000 coming from for each 1st place winner (four times a year)? Probably, however indirectly, from the backs of brainwashed characters laboring behind the scenes, or lawsuit money, or swindled from Scientologists being rehabilitated in secret prisons. I wish I was joking. And there is no such thing as a free lunch. So when I was gifted this ebook, I also became complicit in this system of abuse or control.
And it wasn't even a good book. So fuck this. I am ashamed in my community for allowing this. I'm giving it a 2, because the upcoming authors in this anthology deserve something, even if that's just 1 star.