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A review by scottishben
Upgraded by Neil Clarke
4.0
I was a backer of this Kickstarter funded anthology. As a rule I am more drawn to non-themed collections than themed but was keen to support, curious and optimistically enthusiastic to give Neil Clarke's original anthology debut a try after enjoying so much of the Clarkesworld magazine stories he has published.
Rachel Swirsky - As is usually the case with her we have a poetic, beautifully written piece. Unexpected and powerful exploration of the theme. Very short and more to my taste than the recent "If I were a dinosaur..." currently nominated for a Hugo. First in the collection I read and likely to be a favorite.
Xia Jia - a personal story looking at cyborg type potential exploring robotics and care for the elderly. Old school SF focusing perhaps more on ideas than beautiful prose but very enjoyable, interesting story even if I might argue it is not quite about cyborgs per se. Good to get a non-western story by a writer not overly familiar to me.
Greg Egan - What I liked about this story is that it really looked at the potential around cyborgification in a way that was specific (vision) and credible. People often suggest Egan as a hard science fiction writer who fills his fiction with science but this was science lite although felt credible. Enjoyable story, well told, fitted great into the anthology but didnt rock my world
Seth Dickenson and Mari Ness - perfectly decent but not for me. Might give the Dickenson a second try though.
Ken Liu - the regular - very well done crime PI near future SF - well written, tense and enjoyable. Also quite dark. Didnt feel like it reinvented the wheel but still very solid and quite inventive.
Rich Larsen - God Decay - Looking at Cyborgification in sports - One thing I really like about this volume is the amount of variety and though I didnt massively gel with this I quite liked it and liked how it took the theme differently than some of the other stories.
Genevieveve Valentine - Small Medicines - another good one.
Erin Hoffman - Mercury in Retrograde - I really enjoyed this one, might need to check one more of Erin's work. Its a cyberpunky kind of thrill ride.
More to follow.
Rachel Swirsky - As is usually the case with her we have a poetic, beautifully written piece. Unexpected and powerful exploration of the theme. Very short and more to my taste than the recent "If I were a dinosaur..." currently nominated for a Hugo. First in the collection I read and likely to be a favorite.
Xia Jia - a personal story looking at cyborg type potential exploring robotics and care for the elderly. Old school SF focusing perhaps more on ideas than beautiful prose but very enjoyable, interesting story even if I might argue it is not quite about cyborgs per se. Good to get a non-western story by a writer not overly familiar to me.
Greg Egan - What I liked about this story is that it really looked at the potential around cyborgification in a way that was specific (vision) and credible. People often suggest Egan as a hard science fiction writer who fills his fiction with science but this was science lite although felt credible. Enjoyable story, well told, fitted great into the anthology but didnt rock my world
Seth Dickenson and Mari Ness - perfectly decent but not for me. Might give the Dickenson a second try though.
Ken Liu - the regular - very well done crime PI near future SF - well written, tense and enjoyable. Also quite dark. Didnt feel like it reinvented the wheel but still very solid and quite inventive.
Rich Larsen - God Decay - Looking at Cyborgification in sports - One thing I really like about this volume is the amount of variety and though I didnt massively gel with this I quite liked it and liked how it took the theme differently than some of the other stories.
Genevieveve Valentine - Small Medicines - another good one.
Erin Hoffman - Mercury in Retrograde - I really enjoyed this one, might need to check one more of Erin's work. Its a cyberpunky kind of thrill ride.
More to follow.