Harare Review of Books

414 pages.

First published in 2019.

Finished reading on Jun 16, 2021.

Genre: Science Fiction.

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 2018 award-winning anthology, The New Voices of Fantasy. In The New Voices of Science Fiction you’ll find the rising stars of the last five years: Rebecca Roanhorse, Amal El-Mohtar, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Rich Larson, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Sarah Pinsker, Alice Sola Kim, Darcie Little Badger, Nino Cipri, S. Qiouyi Lu, Kelly Robson, Suzanne Palmer, and more. Their extraordinary stories have been hand-selected by cutting-edge author Hannu Rajaniemi (The Quantum Thief) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Invaders).

Contents:
– Introduction by Jacob Weisman
– Foreword by Hannu Rajaniemi
– Openness (2016) by Alexander Weinstein
– The Shape of My Name (2015) by Nino Cipri
– Utopia, LOL? (2017) by Jamie Wahls
– Mother Tongues (2018) by S. Qiouyi Lu
– In the Sharing Place (2018) by David Erik Nelson
– A Series of Steaks (2017) by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
– The Secret Life of Bots (2017) by Suzanne Palmer
– Ice (2015) by Rich Larson
– One Hour, Every Seven Years (2017) by Alice Sola Kim
– Toppers (2016) by Jason Sanford
– Tender Loving Plastics (2018) by Amman Sabet
– Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ (2017) by Rebecca Roanhorse
– Strange Waters (2018) by Samantha Mills
– Calved (2015) by Sam J. Miller
– The Need for Air (2018) by Lettie Prell
– Robo-Liopleurodon! (2018) by Darcie Little Badger
– The Doing and Undoing of Jacob E. Mwangi (2019) by E. Lily Yu
– Madeleine (2015) by Amal El-Mohtar
– Our Lady of the Open Road (2015) by Sarah Pinsker
– A Study in Oils (2018) by Kelly Robson

A very good anthology! Loved some of these stories very much, and this anthology has one of the best science fiction stories I’ve ever read (and which won awards): The Secret Life of Bots, by Suzanne Palmer (free to read here). Nb: You should never take my word for anything about science fiction, as I am an unabashed fangirl, and can make no real sense when recommending things. However, this is an excellent story.

Openness, by Alexander Weinstein, essentially a Black Mirror story about our lives and love without privacy, was very thoughtful, and because it’s the first story in the book, I knew I’d love the entire book.

The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri is a frightening and painful story that I’d read before, and will recommend for the plot twist.

Mother Tongues by S. Qiouyi Lu nearly made me cry.

A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad is about printed meat, and grossed me out even as it made me LOL many times.

Ice by Rich Larson appears to be what a story in S2 of Love, Death + Robots is based on. (What do you mean you haven’t watched LDR yet?!!)

*Reviewing the titles of the rest of the stories again makes me realise almost all of the stories nearly made me cry.*

In short, a gorgeous anthology, much more even than many of the anthologies I’ve read lately, and an unusually good science fiction one.

Rated: 9/10. Will take you a while to read and savour, if this is your kind of thing.