Harare Review of Books

242 pages.

First published in 2015.

Finished reading on 17 Jul 2021.

Genre: Speculative fiction anthology.

The fifteen authors and nine artists in this volume bring us beautiful, speculative stories of disability and mental illness in the future. Teeming with space pirates, battle robots, interstellar travel and genetically engineered creatures, every story and image is a quality, crafted work of science fiction in its own right, as thrilling and fascinating as it is worthy and important. These are stories about people with disabilities in all of their complexity and diversity, that scream with passion and intensity. These are stories that refuse to go gently.

Very pleased with this anthology, not because it’s particularly fantastic — it’s just pretty good — but because there’s so much nuance, and realism, and room for failure, both for characters and also for the authors. This isn’t one of your pandering anthologies, and definitely isn’t here for your inspiration; it’s just here to exist, and I love it for that.

That said, the stories were a mix of really good, not-so-great, and meh. But that’s because I enjoyed some concepts, was completely confused by others, and found a few that really didn’t impress me. That’s a good thing! This anthology is disability-themed, it’s not about disability.

My favourites:

• Better To Have Loved, by Kate O’Connor. I seem to really like stories about loss, going by recent reviews 🥺 (Spoiler: Would you take a pill to forget your pain?)

• Morphic Resonance, by Toby MacNutt. Very cool concepts! Very, very cool concepts.

• Losing Touch by Louise Hughes. Took me a minute to figure out what was going on, but — yes, wow. What if?

• into the waters i rode down by Jack Hollis Marr must be the most original short story I’ve ever read.

• Puppetry, by AC Buchanan rather disappointed me in the end, but I would read the novel, I think.

• Lyric, by A.F. Sanchez was not a fave, but was just very wild, and I liked the protagonist.

• In Open Air, by David Jón Fuller had such a fun ending.

From the Afterword, by Derek Newman-Stille:

Rated: 7/10.