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A review by davecreek
If This Goes On by Judy Helfrich, Chris Kluwe, Aimee Ogden, Zandra Renwick, E. Lily Yu, Cyd Athens, Hal Y. Zhang, Jack Lothian, Jamie Lackey, Priya Sridhar, Beth Dawkins, Rachel Chimits, Nisi Shawl, Nick Mamatas, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, James Wood, Sarah Pinsker, Langley Hyde, Gregory Jeffers, Andy Duncan, Paul Crenshaw, Marie Vibbert, Kitty-Lydia Dye, Conor Powers-Smith, Steven Barnes, Calie Voorhis, Cat Rambo, Lynette Mejía, Kathy Schilbach, Tiffany E. Wilson, Scott Edelman
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.