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Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, editors
From the publisher:
“[STARRED REVIEW] A must-read for anyone interested in the latest and most exciting sf writing out there.” ―Booklist
Your future is bright! After all, your mother is a robot, your father has joined the alien hive-mind, and your dinner will be counterfeit 3D-printed steak. Even though your worker bots have staged a mutiny, and your tour guide speaks only in memes, you can always sell your native language if you need some extra cash.
The avant-garde of science fiction have arrived in this space-age sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology, The New Voices of Fantasy. Here you’ll find the rising stars of the last five years: Rebecca Roanhorse, Amal El-Mohtar, Alice Sola Kim, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Rich Larson, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Sarah Pinsker, Darcie Little Badger, Nino Cipri, S. Qiouyi Lu, Kelly Robson, and more. Their extraordinary stories have been hand-selected by cutting-edge author Hannu Rajaniemi (The Quantum Thief) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Invaders).
So go ahead, join the interstellar revolution. The new kids have already hacked the AI.
I entered the world of science fiction back in the days of short stories about BEMs (Bug Eyed Monsters) published in pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories. I was fortunate to experience the entrance of authors such as Murray Leinster, Asimov, Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and classics such as “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451”. They took up a literary torch and turned the world of Science Fiction into a serious branch of literature. For some reason, I stopped reading the genre for many years. Upon seeing the title of this collection, I decided to see how the field has evolved over the time I’ve been away from it.
This review is my opinion and in that vein, I must state that I am disappointed in what the genre has apparently become. I found the stories very difficult to follow apparently due to a desire to use language based on the perception of descriptions that are thought to be proper for the genre. I recall being grabbed by the writers cited above and treated to adventures of other times and other places all presented with logical explanations of what allowed these events to occur. Not so with the stories in this anthology most of which left me wondering what the aim was.
1/2020 Paul Lane
THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION, edited by Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman. Tachyon Publications (November 13, 2019). ISBN 978-1616962913. 432p.
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