What do you think?
Rate this book
Nature Futures #1
Futures from Nature
Here are 100 very short stories on the subject of the future and what it might be like. The authors include scientists, journalists, and many of the most famous SF writers in the world. Futures from Nature includes everything from satires and vignettes to compressed stories and fictional book reviews, science articles, and journalism, in eight-hundred word modules. All of them are entertaining and as a group they are a startling repository of ideas and attitudes about the future. Appearing in book form fo the first time, these one hundred pieces were originally published in the great science journal, Nature, between 1999 and 2006, as one-page features. That proved very popular with the readers of the journal. This is a unique book, by scientists and writers, of interest to any reader who might like to speculate about the future. With stories from:Arthur C. Clarke; Bruce Sterling; Charles Stross; Cory Doctorow; Greg Bear; Gregory Benford; Oliver Morton; Ian Macleod; Rudy Rucker; Greg Egan; Stephan Baxter; Barrington J. Bayley; Brian Stableford; Frederik Pohl; Vernor Vinge; Nancy Kress, Michael Moorcock, Vonda N. McIntyr; Kim Stanley Robinson; John M. Ford; and eighty more.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 2, 2005
27 people are currently reading
290 people want to read
About the author
Henry Gee
61 books186 followersHenry Gee's next book The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire is out in March, his previous book, A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth won the 2022 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize and has been translated into 25 languages. He is represented by Jill Grinberg Literary Management in NY.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 21, 2012
We don't see many stories this short, and it makes for some intriguing exercises in presenting a single concept from a possible future.
They don't all work, but of course you won't like/dislike the same ones I did, so you'll have to read them all. Don't like one? Not to worry, you'll be past it in a minute and on to something completely different.
Many Big Names are represented here, but I didn't see a correlation between fame and success of story here.
They don't all work, but of course you won't like/dislike the same ones I did, so you'll have to read them all. Don't like one? Not to worry, you'll be past it in a minute and on to something completely different.
Many Big Names are represented here, but I didn't see a correlation between fame and success of story here.
January 15, 2015
This is really a wonderful collection. It's a set of flash fiction tales all about science and nature. As you might suspect with flash fictions, many of them are not so much stories as they are imaginative anecdotes. Yet, there are so many fresh ideas here that I've been taking note after note for my own writing. This collection made me think more than any other SF work I've read in years.
August 13, 2008
I don't know what is happening to modern science fiction, but if this is an example, I don't like it.
This book is full of stories with little or no plot, poor characters and, in my opinion, poorly written.
This book is full of stories with little or no plot, poor characters and, in my opinion, poorly written.
July 22, 2012
The journal Nature certainly didn't invent the form of the short-short science fiction story, but they have done a lot to shape it recently, publishing one such story a week for most of the past decade. This book is a collection of 100 of these stories, each just 2-3 pages long.
The very abbreviated length of these stories obviously imposes some limitations. There's no time for character development, and little room for plot. So most of these stories are simple vignettes, fleshing out the cultural or social consequences that result from some extrapolated vision of the future. Without enough room for deep emotions, most of the stories are of the cute, funny, or gee-whiz variety, with a decent percentage of twist endings; few of them attempt poignancy or are emotionally moving. But, thankfully, there are very few of the blatantly gimmicky stories that short-shorts seem to be prone to elsewhere.
The publishing outlet -- the premier science journal Nature -- has had just as strong an influence on the stories as has the length restriction. There are many stories here from practicing scientists, and among the professional sci-fi authors the ex-scientist and hard SF camps are heavily represented. The stories themselves are largely exercises in futurism, predicting and extrapolating nano-, info- and biotechnologies. Quite a few of the stories are written in jargon-dense, faux-scientific style, masquerading as (or winkingly poking fun at) the science papers published on the preceding pages. And the depiction of science in action is both more common and more faithful than usual in fiction, having been written in many cases by those working in the trenches.
Reading 100 of these stories back-to-back makes it obvious that the short-short form has a moderating effect on the quality of the stories. You probably won't find any stories here that make your all-time favorites list, as it's impossible to become fully immersed in a world or moved to tears in only 900 words. At the same time, however, you won't find yourself suffering through long stories that just don't work. I found only 2 or 3 of the stories to be so confusing, impenetrable or poorly executed that I got nothing out of them. I certainly can't say that about the rest of the articles in Nature!
The very abbreviated length of these stories obviously imposes some limitations. There's no time for character development, and little room for plot. So most of these stories are simple vignettes, fleshing out the cultural or social consequences that result from some extrapolated vision of the future. Without enough room for deep emotions, most of the stories are of the cute, funny, or gee-whiz variety, with a decent percentage of twist endings; few of them attempt poignancy or are emotionally moving. But, thankfully, there are very few of the blatantly gimmicky stories that short-shorts seem to be prone to elsewhere.
The publishing outlet -- the premier science journal Nature -- has had just as strong an influence on the stories as has the length restriction. There are many stories here from practicing scientists, and among the professional sci-fi authors the ex-scientist and hard SF camps are heavily represented. The stories themselves are largely exercises in futurism, predicting and extrapolating nano-, info- and biotechnologies. Quite a few of the stories are written in jargon-dense, faux-scientific style, masquerading as (or winkingly poking fun at) the science papers published on the preceding pages. And the depiction of science in action is both more common and more faithful than usual in fiction, having been written in many cases by those working in the trenches.
Reading 100 of these stories back-to-back makes it obvious that the short-short form has a moderating effect on the quality of the stories. You probably won't find any stories here that make your all-time favorites list, as it's impossible to become fully immersed in a world or moved to tears in only 900 words. At the same time, however, you won't find yourself suffering through long stories that just don't work. I found only 2 or 3 of the stories to be so confusing, impenetrable or poorly executed that I got nothing out of them. I certainly can't say that about the rest of the articles in Nature!
March 29, 2024
Started out (with authors' last names' alphabetical order, so, effectively random) fairly ok... solid, interesting, but nothing special.
However, the stories got better by *E*... ;)
I definitely want to read more by Warren Ellis, because I was charmed by his story *At the Zoo* about the last two original humans being discussed by the transhumans, with plenty of wit, satire, and heart.
Michael Garrett Farrelly's story also delighted me, though all I can say about *The Liquidators* is that it is set at Chernobyl.
Eileen Gunn's *Speak, Geek,* about uplifted pets, has this: "HR doesn't hire cats for R&D. They're not task-oriented, or good at working within a hierarchy. They sleep all day. Better suited to industrial espionage."
---
Two thirds done. Definitely worth reading, if not amazing. Very heavy on the What If, of course, for which I read SF, and that which pretty much defines it, imo.
I'd like to read more by Benjamin Rosenbaum as *Falling* was both interesting & moving, with a subtlety not expected in such a short piece.
Bruce Sterling's *Ivory Tower* has this: "Any sufficiently advanced garbage is indistinguishable from magic." (Pretty sure that's code for the setting being post-apoc.)
Btw, I read 3-4 stories, do some housework, read 3-4 more, do some email, a few more, go for a walk.... reading them straight would be a very bad idea, but I can't see dragging it out by reading one a day or anything. I do believe this strategy is helping me to give every story its best chance at succeeding for me.
---
Nearly done. The name-recognition of the author is not in any way a reliable indicator of quality. Well, at least of my opinion of quality. Ymmv; some of your favorites I might have dismissed or vice versa.
---
Done. 3.5 stars, rounded down because it's kinda dated and also hard to find; I recommend it if you can readily get a copy but otherwise, well, there are other fish in the sea.
However, the stories got better by *E*... ;)
I definitely want to read more by Warren Ellis, because I was charmed by his story *At the Zoo* about the last two original humans being discussed by the transhumans, with plenty of wit, satire, and heart.
Michael Garrett Farrelly's story also delighted me, though all I can say about *The Liquidators* is that it is set at Chernobyl.
Eileen Gunn's *Speak, Geek,* about uplifted pets, has this: "HR doesn't hire cats for R&D. They're not task-oriented, or good at working within a hierarchy. They sleep all day. Better suited to industrial espionage."
---
Two thirds done. Definitely worth reading, if not amazing. Very heavy on the What If, of course, for which I read SF, and that which pretty much defines it, imo.
I'd like to read more by Benjamin Rosenbaum as *Falling* was both interesting & moving, with a subtlety not expected in such a short piece.
Bruce Sterling's *Ivory Tower* has this: "Any sufficiently advanced garbage is indistinguishable from magic." (Pretty sure that's code for the setting being post-apoc.)
Btw, I read 3-4 stories, do some housework, read 3-4 more, do some email, a few more, go for a walk.... reading them straight would be a very bad idea, but I can't see dragging it out by reading one a day or anything. I do believe this strategy is helping me to give every story its best chance at succeeding for me.
---
Nearly done. The name-recognition of the author is not in any way a reliable indicator of quality. Well, at least of my opinion of quality. Ymmv; some of your favorites I might have dismissed or vice versa.
---
Done. 3.5 stars, rounded down because it's kinda dated and also hard to find; I recommend it if you can readily get a copy but otherwise, well, there are other fish in the sea.
July 24, 2021
Well, as a project it is an admirable project and it resulted in some mind-blowing pieces. Overall, it is a nice stroll through a quite eclectic set of ideas from some prominent figures of SF interspersed with aspiring writers and scientists (the quality of the stories were generally independent of the classification above, the only obvious difference is better pacing by the professional writers to fit what they want to say in 3 pages).
On the other hand, this bombardment of ideas is very hard to read; don't take it with you on a flight for example. Because they are so diverse, reading one after another sometimes feels like checking random pages. Another problem was a general uptightness; as if everybody was like "Whoa, I'm writing a story to Nature, I should be at the top of my game, I should look smart" and because of that, the stories all look very stunted (not all but a significant portion of them). Nevertheless, it was a very cool undertaking, I'm not very keen on reading the second book, but I don't regret reading this one.
On the other hand, this bombardment of ideas is very hard to read; don't take it with you on a flight for example. Because they are so diverse, reading one after another sometimes feels like checking random pages. Another problem was a general uptightness; as if everybody was like "Whoa, I'm writing a story to Nature, I should be at the top of my game, I should look smart" and because of that, the stories all look very stunted (not all but a significant portion of them). Nevertheless, it was a very cool undertaking, I'm not very keen on reading the second book, but I don't regret reading this one.
March 5, 2022
En esta recopilación de artículos publicados en Nature hay de todo, falsos artículos, diálogos, entrevistas, chistes, análisis hechos desde el futuro... El tema común, visiones del futuro relacionados con la ciencia ficción, es lo suficientemente amplio como para que quepa cualquier cosa.
La calidad es muy desigual a pesar del nivel de los escritores que participan: algunos, pocos, son muy buenos, otros malos y en medio hay de todo. Hubiera sido preferible un proceso de selección en lugar de publicarlos todos. Vas leyendo buscando las perlas que están escondidas entre el resto.
La calidad es muy desigual a pesar del nivel de los escritores que participan: algunos, pocos, son muy buenos, otros malos y en medio hay de todo. Hubiera sido preferible un proceso de selección en lugar de publicarlos todos. Vas leyendo buscando las perlas que están escondidas entre el resto.
June 20, 2024
Nah...
To me the tales are part of the "Letters from the Editor" or whatever section scientific journals have to introduce each issue. Each issue has a special article and thus, reading random stories in this book caused me anxiety [I'm professionally in the sciences].
Authors are not that entertaining, even Arthur C. Clarke's story seems to be an introductory tale for some sort of research at its most difficult to understand level for the lay people, regardless of gender.
If you need a mental exercise to keep your brain in shape, better read the journal "Nature" itself
To me the tales are part of the "Letters from the Editor" or whatever section scientific journals have to introduce each issue. Each issue has a special article and thus, reading random stories in this book caused me anxiety [I'm professionally in the sciences].
Authors are not that entertaining, even Arthur C. Clarke's story seems to be an introductory tale for some sort of research at its most difficult to understand level for the lay people, regardless of gender.
If you need a mental exercise to keep your brain in shape, better read the journal "Nature" itself
December 21, 2021
A nice idea (thank you Nature for publishing flash ficton all these years) but not necessarily a series of flash spec-fic I enjoyed. I found these stories peculiar and engaging at their best, but there was too many pieces I didn't love and wanted to skip. I got a few dozen pages from the end and realized my heart wasn't in it. A nice length of a book for a bedtime read.
January 27, 2023
100 stories collected and curated by Henry Gee, make you explore a multiverse built by Arthur C Clarke, Rudy Rucker and many others.
Other way of seeing it, potential 10 new series for Black Mirror TV series
I think the book offers a good perspective and interesting stories even for someone who is not into SF, but might get a grasp and even enjoy in the future this genre.
Other way of seeing it, potential 10 new series for Black Mirror TV series
I think the book offers a good perspective and interesting stories even for someone who is not into SF, but might get a grasp and even enjoy in the future this genre.
unfinished
July 5, 2021Really cool concept, but as a person not versed in sci-fi, a bit hard to follow, and since there are so many vignettes it's hard to get a grasp on any of them.
Want to read
February 26, 2014- “Cognitive Ability and the Light Bulb” by Brian Aldiss
- “Don’t Imitate” by Gilles Amon
- “Check Elastic Before Jumping” by Neal Asher
- “Twenty2″ by Nate Balding
- “Under Martian Ice” by Stephen Baxter
- “RAM SHIFT PHASE 2″ by Greg Bear
- “A Life with a Semisent” by Gregory Benford
- “Damned If You Don’t” by Lucy Bergman
- “The Punishment Fits the Crime” by David Berreby
- “Toy Planes” by Tobias S. Buckell
- “A Concrete Example” by J. Casti, J.-P. Boon, C. Djerassi, J. Johnson, A. Lovett, T. Norretranders, V. Patera, C. Sommerer, R. Taylor, and S. Thurner
- “The Aching of Dion Harper” by Arthur Chrenkoff
- “Improving the Neighborhood” by Arthur C. Clarke
- “Omphalosphere: New York 2057″ by Jack Cohen
- “Picasso’s Cat” by Ron Collins
- “My Grandfather’s River” by Brenda Cooper
- “Sandcastles: A Dystopia” by Kathryn Cramer
- “Adam’s Hot Dogs at the End of the World” by Jeff Crook
- “The Party’s Over” by Penelope Kim Crowther
- “Transport of Delight” by Roland Denison
- “The Perfect Lover” by Paul Di Filippo
- “Printcrime” by Cory Doctorow
- “A Brief History of Death Switches” by David Eagleman
- “Only Connect” by Greg Egan
- “At the Zoo” by Warren Ellis
- “The Liquidators” by Michael Garrett Farrelly
- “In the Days of the Comet” by john m. Ford
- “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis” by James Alan Gardner
- “Are We Not Men?” by Henry Gee
- “It Never Rains in VR” by John Gilbey
- “Gordy Gave Me Your Name” by Jim Giles
- “Nostalgia” by Hiromi Goto
- “Spawn of Satan?” by Nicola Griffith
- “Take Over” by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
- “Speak, Geek” by Eileen Gunn
- “Heartwired” by Joe Haldeman
- “The Forever Kitten” by Peter f. Hamilton
- “The Road to the Year 3000″ by Harry Harrison
- “Operation Tesla” by Jeff Hecht
- “Making the Sale” by Fredric Heeren
- “Subpoenaed in Syracuse” by Tom Holt
- “Total Internal Reflection” by Gwyneth Jones
- “Ringing Up Baby” by Ellen Klages
- “Semi-autonomous” by Jim Kling
- “Product Development” by Nancy Kress
- “I Love Liver: A Romance” by Larissa Lai
- “Avatars in Space” by Geoffrey A. Landis
- “COMP.BASILISK FAQ” by David Langford
- “Gathering of the Clans” by Reinaldo José Lopes
- “Taking Good Care of Myself” by Ian R. Macleod
- “Undead Again” by Ken Macleod
- “Words, Words, Words” by Elisabeth Malartre
- “My Morning Glory” by David Marusek
- “Don’t Mention the “F” Word” by Neil Mathur
- “Meat” by Paul McAuley
- “The Candidate” by Jack Mcdevitt
- “A Modest Proposal for the Perfection of Nature” by Vonda N. Mcintyre
- “The Republic of George’s Island” by Donna Mcmahon
- “The Computiful Game” by Paul Steven Miller
- “Oscar Night, 2054″ by Syne Mitchell
- “The Visible Men” by Michael Moorcock
- “The Albian Message” by Oliver Morton
- “Photons Do Not Lie” by Euan Nisbet
- “Stranger in the Night” by Salvador Nogueira
- “Tick-Tock Curly-Wurly” by Gareth Owens
- “Daddy’s Slight Miscalculation” by Ashley Pellegrino
- “Brain Drain” by Frederik Pohl
- “Great Unreported Discoveries No. 163″ by Mike Resnick
- “Feeling Rejected” by Alastair Reynolds
- “The Trial of Jeremy Owens” by Peter Roberts
- “Prometheus Unbound, at Last” by Kim Stanley Robinson
- “Dreadnought” by Justina Robson
- “Falling” by Benjamin Rosenbaum
- “Panpsychism Proved” by Rudy Rucker
- “The Abdication of Pope Mary III” by Robert J. Sawyer
- “The Charge-up Man” by Catherine H. Shaffer
- “From the Desk of Jarrod Foster” by Biren Shah
- “Pluto Story” by Robert Silverberg
- “Madame Bovary, C’est Moi” by Dan Simmons
- “Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN” by Joan Slonczewski
- “For He on Honeydew Hath Fed …” by Paul Smaglik
- “A Man of the Theater” by Norman Sprinrad
- “Ivory Tower” by Bruce Sterling
- “Play It Again, Psam” by Ian Stewart
- “MAXO Signals” by Charles Stross
- “Golden Year” by Igor Teper
- “Paratext” by Scarlett Thomas
- “Murphy’s Cat” by Joan D. Vinge
- “Win a Nobel Prize!” by Vernor Vinge
- “A Leap of Faith” by Theo Von Hohenheim
- “Nadia’s Nectar” by Ian Watson
- “Statler Pulchrifex” by Matt Weber
- “All Is Not Lost” by Scott Westerfeld
- “The Key” by Ian Whates
- “The Godmother Protocols” by Heather M. Whitney
- “The Great Good-bye” by Robert Charles Wilson
- “Pigs on the Wing” by K. Erik Ziemelis
- “Don’t Imitate” by Gilles Amon
- “Check Elastic Before Jumping” by Neal Asher
- “Twenty2″ by Nate Balding
- “Under Martian Ice” by Stephen Baxter
- “RAM SHIFT PHASE 2″ by Greg Bear
- “A Life with a Semisent” by Gregory Benford
- “Damned If You Don’t” by Lucy Bergman
- “The Punishment Fits the Crime” by David Berreby
- “Toy Planes” by Tobias S. Buckell
- “A Concrete Example” by J. Casti, J.-P. Boon, C. Djerassi, J. Johnson, A. Lovett, T. Norretranders, V. Patera, C. Sommerer, R. Taylor, and S. Thurner
- “The Aching of Dion Harper” by Arthur Chrenkoff
- “Improving the Neighborhood” by Arthur C. Clarke
- “Omphalosphere: New York 2057″ by Jack Cohen
- “Picasso’s Cat” by Ron Collins
- “My Grandfather’s River” by Brenda Cooper
- “Sandcastles: A Dystopia” by Kathryn Cramer
- “Adam’s Hot Dogs at the End of the World” by Jeff Crook
- “The Party’s Over” by Penelope Kim Crowther
- “Transport of Delight” by Roland Denison
- “The Perfect Lover” by Paul Di Filippo
- “Printcrime” by Cory Doctorow
- “A Brief History of Death Switches” by David Eagleman
- “Only Connect” by Greg Egan
- “At the Zoo” by Warren Ellis
- “The Liquidators” by Michael Garrett Farrelly
- “In the Days of the Comet” by john m. Ford
- “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis” by James Alan Gardner
- “Are We Not Men?” by Henry Gee
- “It Never Rains in VR” by John Gilbey
- “Gordy Gave Me Your Name” by Jim Giles
- “Nostalgia” by Hiromi Goto
- “Spawn of Satan?” by Nicola Griffith
- “Take Over” by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
- “Speak, Geek” by Eileen Gunn
- “Heartwired” by Joe Haldeman
- “The Forever Kitten” by Peter f. Hamilton
- “The Road to the Year 3000″ by Harry Harrison
- “Operation Tesla” by Jeff Hecht
- “Making the Sale” by Fredric Heeren
- “Subpoenaed in Syracuse” by Tom Holt
- “Total Internal Reflection” by Gwyneth Jones
- “Ringing Up Baby” by Ellen Klages
- “Semi-autonomous” by Jim Kling
- “Product Development” by Nancy Kress
- “I Love Liver: A Romance” by Larissa Lai
- “Avatars in Space” by Geoffrey A. Landis
- “COMP.BASILISK FAQ” by David Langford
- “Gathering of the Clans” by Reinaldo José Lopes
- “Taking Good Care of Myself” by Ian R. Macleod
- “Undead Again” by Ken Macleod
- “Words, Words, Words” by Elisabeth Malartre
- “My Morning Glory” by David Marusek
- “Don’t Mention the “F” Word” by Neil Mathur
- “Meat” by Paul McAuley
- “The Candidate” by Jack Mcdevitt
- “A Modest Proposal for the Perfection of Nature” by Vonda N. Mcintyre
- “The Republic of George’s Island” by Donna Mcmahon
- “The Computiful Game” by Paul Steven Miller
- “Oscar Night, 2054″ by Syne Mitchell
- “The Visible Men” by Michael Moorcock
- “The Albian Message” by Oliver Morton
- “Photons Do Not Lie” by Euan Nisbet
- “Stranger in the Night” by Salvador Nogueira
- “Tick-Tock Curly-Wurly” by Gareth Owens
- “Daddy’s Slight Miscalculation” by Ashley Pellegrino
- “Brain Drain” by Frederik Pohl
- “Great Unreported Discoveries No. 163″ by Mike Resnick
- “Feeling Rejected” by Alastair Reynolds
- “The Trial of Jeremy Owens” by Peter Roberts
- “Prometheus Unbound, at Last” by Kim Stanley Robinson
- “Dreadnought” by Justina Robson
- “Falling” by Benjamin Rosenbaum
- “Panpsychism Proved” by Rudy Rucker
- “The Abdication of Pope Mary III” by Robert J. Sawyer
- “The Charge-up Man” by Catherine H. Shaffer
- “From the Desk of Jarrod Foster” by Biren Shah
- “Pluto Story” by Robert Silverberg
- “Madame Bovary, C’est Moi” by Dan Simmons
- “Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN” by Joan Slonczewski
- “For He on Honeydew Hath Fed …” by Paul Smaglik
- “A Man of the Theater” by Norman Sprinrad
- “Ivory Tower” by Bruce Sterling
- “Play It Again, Psam” by Ian Stewart
- “MAXO Signals” by Charles Stross
- “Golden Year” by Igor Teper
- “Paratext” by Scarlett Thomas
- “Murphy’s Cat” by Joan D. Vinge
- “Win a Nobel Prize!” by Vernor Vinge
- “A Leap of Faith” by Theo Von Hohenheim
- “Nadia’s Nectar” by Ian Watson
- “Statler Pulchrifex” by Matt Weber
- “All Is Not Lost” by Scott Westerfeld
- “The Key” by Ian Whates
- “The Godmother Protocols” by Heather M. Whitney
- “The Great Good-bye” by Robert Charles Wilson
- “Pigs on the Wing” by K. Erik Ziemelis
January 2, 2012
Mixed bag--some of them were very good, some funny. There's one written like a book review (of a book by a robot author, by a robot reviewer), commercials, SETI finding alien communications that are spam, etc. Of the ones written in traditional story styles (most of them), some are rather dry, some are touching, some I didn't quite get.
December 31, 2016
A terrific collection of short (like a couple of pages) speculative fictions (read 'sci-fi-fi) that were fun to read and short enough to get through quickly on my commute. Quite a spectacular group of authors, this would qualify as highly recommended from me to anyone who doesn't read much as the stories are so accessible and interesting.
Want to read
May 26, 2009I use to read these stories when I worked in the lab and a lot of them have stayed with me- a lot of science fiction ought to be done this way- too much of what is out there is a good idea surrounded by less exciting stuff
June 5, 2013
A very good collection of short-short stories originally published in "Nature" magazine. Both professional SF writers and scientists are represented across a wide spectrum of ages. Most stories are of excellent quality, and the variety of themes and styles is a joy to behold. Recommended.
August 8, 2013
ultimately, this was fine. there were some good short stories and some that made my eyes glaze over.
greg bear's story made me chuckle out loud, which i rarely do. and i enjoyed henry gee's introduction story. there were others that i enjoyed as well, but i don't have the book in front of me.
greg bear's story made me chuckle out loud, which i rarely do. and i enjoyed henry gee's introduction story. there were others that i enjoyed as well, but i don't have the book in front of me.
July 20, 2015
A mixed bag. You would think the stories by professional writers would be much better than those by scientists, but that's not always the case. Often fun, sometimes obvious, but probably not many with any staying power.
December 30, 2014
This is an all-time favorite. I read it time and again (must have read it at least three times back to back, then I bought a Kindle edition). Not only great stories, but also an inspiration to every hard sf / flash or very short fiction writer.
May 9, 2015
I wasn't crazy about these stories. They were overly intellectual and overwrought. They were just trying too hard to be clever and didn't flow (except maybe one or two). They generally felt more like an exercise in storytelling than actual storytelling.
August 28, 2015
I loved these very short stories that speculate about the future. Some are bleak, some hopeful, and many are humorous. I marked quite a few to go back and read again. Good for when you do your reading for pleasure in short snatches.
June 1, 2009
Pretty good collection of short stories. Too short, perhaps.
October 18, 2010
I loved this "speculative" collection of stories. Futurist. I love it! Any recommendations of more books like this?
May 30, 2015
couldn't past the first couple of pages and the book is science fiction, I don't like sci-fi
unfinished-unlikely-to-restart
June 28, 2017Too hard science sci fi for my tastes, but some of these very short pieces were quite interesting.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews