Afterglow – Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors is a collection of short stories, edited by the climate news site Grist, and assembled as part of a contest called Imagine 2200. The contest attracted over 1000 entries, which the panel of judges whittled down to the 12 stories you find this book.
The book starts of with a Foreword by adrienne maree brown, followed by an Editor's Note and the 12 stories making up the bulk of the content. At the back you get Acknowledgments, and, helpfully given that most of the contributors are not 'known' names (yes, my ignorance is showing), short Contributor Biographies.
The Foreword by adrianne maree brown discusses how writing fiction allows us to dream, to conceive possible futures which we can then work towards making them reality. She explains how this especially applies to climate fiction and to the collection at hand, and that not having these dreams/stories means that we don't have a template to aim for, so doing this is crucial to our attempts to work our way out of the crisis at hand.
The Editor's Note mainly describes the actual contest that led to this collection.
I felt this, whilst clearly CliFi, was not really Solarpunk (it's also not billed as such!); whilst it has a lot of the rather naïve (and sometimes charming) belief in the capabilities of either technology or nature to make everything good again it lacks the focus on this in most stories; they rather are set in a 'changed', post-climate event world, telling stories set in this new and rather different world. Also – a lot of the stories are deeply mired in spirituality, traditional cultural mores, and sometimes plain woo, all the same whilst relying on modern 'future level' technology and medicine. It seems a lot of the failings of our current world are carried over into the future, which is not a view that gives me much hope.
Given that Charles Stross has ben publishing his award-winning Laundry Files since 2004, and is 12 books and a number of short stories and novellas into it I don't think anybody needs an introduction to it. Never mind that the book at hand, Quantum of Nightmares, is a sequel in it's own subset (New Management) of the larger setting. Should all of this have passed you by, though, I have 2 pieces of good news for you – firstly, you don't need to have read the entire body of work to enjoy the New Management sequence, it happily stands on it's own (you want to start with the first book, though, called Dead Lies Dreaming). And secondly – but should you be interested in, the whole shebang is clever, entertaining, and in my opinion very much worth your time.
But let's talk about Quantum of Nightmares, the topic for today's ruminations. It is, as said above, the second book in the New Management series, the sequel to Dead Lies Dreaming, and it feels like the author barely caught his breath in-between. Yes, Rupert is dead and gone (or is he?), and Eve Starkey is now, by dint of having been his Executive Secretary with full access, in charge of the Bigge Corporation (but is she?). What she definitely is, though, as she finds out to her dismay, is married to Rupert; and his chattel, at least according to the ancient legal system on the island nation of Skaro, where the Bigge Corporation is domiciled. Wendy Deere is still settling into her new job, and trying to stay out of the mess that Eve's brother Imp and his gang of Lost Boys is – tricky if your girlfriend is part of this, of course, or if your investigations inevitably lead back to a scheme Rupert set in motion long ago with some only-slightly-grottier-than-real UK supermarket chain called FlavorsMart. Where recently human DNA has started showing up in the meat produce 3D printed from MRM. Yum.
Ok, here's an older one for the fans and aficionados:
Are You For 86? is a Leggy Starlitz short story by Bruce Sterling - this time helping radical feminist pro choice phone phreak activists to smuggle a French developed abortion pill through a Japanese female rock band in Salt Lake City. And if you think this sounds - over the top? messy? too many idea per sentence? then you'd be spot on. Like other Leggy Starlitz stories this has any number of funky concepts, improbable developments, and fascinating ideas sparkling off it, as hit and miss as such a sintered composition can be, of course.
Although, IMHO, this is just a riotous fun as all the other Leggy Starlitz stories I've read, so do give it a go, and don't be deterred by its age.
The picture on the right is the Mormon Meteor, as referenced in the story (the Wikipedia article linked below has a picture of the Duisenburg Special instead - this is the Mormon Meteor II)
Neal Asher is a British SF writer who divides his time between Essex and Crete, and who meanwhile has 21 novels (18 of which are set in his Polity universe, where The Human also belongs) and 8 collections to his name. Of course, these numbers also depends a bit on how you count, so give and take a few... let's just say that he's been prolific, and is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Polity is, in a nutshell, an AI governed (who took control of human affairs during the 'Quiet War') sphere of human (et al) influence spanning the thickness of the galaxy, but not containing all of humanity spread across the stars, in contact (sometimes even without too much conflict) with alien entities and their spheres of control.
The Rise of the Jain trilogy deals with, as the title states, a resurgence of the believed-dead ancient alien race called the Jain (nothing to do with the religion of the same name, a rather unfortunate naming IMHO), and the developments, struggles, and outright battles this brings. The books in the trilogy are called The Soldier, The Warship, and The Human. As this is the review for the final book in the trilogy it will, without any doubt, contain spoilers for the previous two.
Neom is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful, an urban sprawl along the Red Sea; and a port of call between Earth and the stars. Now, that of course is the mammoth metropolitan area in the story, which on the one hand is set quite a bit into the future, but on the other hand in a recognisable extension of our world. In our world, our time, Neom is an airport, some building sites, and a dream in a Sheikh’s head, displayed to the world in a website and a number of promo videos. But what a dream it is!
This is Lavie Tidhar’s second novel set in his ever expanding ‘Central Station’ universe (the post-script sets out a number of short stories which also loosely connect). He is a British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Award winner, his work spans literature, SF, Fantasy, Graphic Novels as well as editing the Best of World SF anthologies.
In contrast to Central Station, the earlier novel that this is based on, Neom is much less of a Patchwork Novel. The story segments are still playing off each other, are trading topics and threads like a well-versed chamber orchestra. But the hand-overs are much smoother and much more hidden in the flow and telling of the story, though.
Well, here's a refreshing and surprising change - not only is Critical Mass by Peter Watts not in itself a dystopian story (although it's set in a world with pandemics, and the climate going to pieces - no idea where he might get ideas like that from), but it also has what I consider a rather positive and upbeat ending.
Plus - the main protagonist is a fading artist, and his struggles with his gradual loss of relevance - never mind the fact that someone is on the warpath and trashing his pieces out in the world - is again an interesting departure from the author's more usual soldier/scientist/outcast templates.
Published in the July 22 issue of Lightspeed Magazine - see link below to read the story, or listen to it.
The art piece on the right is by the Israeli artist Eli Shukry, and only associated with the story in my mind.
