August 20, 2013
Posted by Jim Macdonald at 02:00 AM *
Impossible Futures
Edited by Judith K. Dial and Thomas Easton
Pink Narcissus Press
ISBN-13: 9781939056023
Do you like science fiction? Are you a fan of small presses? Then please consider backing our very first Kickstarter project, Impossible Futures, edited by Judith K. Dial & Tom Easton.Library JournalAn astonishing amount of the science and technology in vintage science fiction has come to pass. But an awful lot has not. Where’s your anti-gravity car? Your food replicator? Your very own personal robot assistant?
But those old, never-happened ideas are still fun. For a fresh take on those old ideas, try Impossible Futures!
We have a great mix of all original stories by new writers as well as by several Nebula and Hugo Award winning authors.
From Mike Resnick’s tongue-in-cheek homage to H.G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (“The Enhancement”) to Allen M. Steele’s elegy to the “bygone” era of space trains (“Locomotive Joe and the Wreck of Space Train No. 4”), the 13 stories in this imaginative collection are inspired by predicted SF futures that never came to pass.
VERDICT This themed anthology will make a good addition to the collections of short story lovers and fans of classic SF.
Alas, Library Journal did not see fit to mention our (Doyle’s and my) own “According to the Rule,” AKA Monks in Spaaaaace! (inspired by a panel at last year’s Farthing Party).
There will be an Impossible Futures Reading at WorldCon, Saturday, 9:00-10:00 pm, with Fran Wilde and Jack McDevitt.
What can I say? Buy one. Better still, buy a dozen. They make excellent gifts.
Table of Contents:
- Locomotive Joe and the Wreck of Space Train No. 4
- Allen Steele
- Singular Love
- Rev DiCerto
- Private Shrines
- Sharah Smith & Justus Perry
- Searching for Oz
- Jack McDevitt
- Common Ground
- Shariann Lewitt
- City of Beauty, City of Scars
- Paul Di Filippo
- A Moment of Gravity, Circumscribed
- Fran Wilde
- Tour De Force
- Edward M. Lerner
- A Chatter of the Beams
- Jeff Hecht
- According to the Rule
- Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald
- Against Powers, Against Principalities
- Duncan Eagleson
- The Enhancement
- Mike Resnick
- The Amazing Transparent Man
- James Morrow
Wot, no "Monkees in Space"?
I looked at the Kickstarter for this, and I'd have liked to support it, but I'd also like a paper copy and the $20 surcharge on a $20 pledge, for shipping outside the USA made it a LOT less attractive..
I get stuff through abe all the time and it just doesn't cost that much to ship a paperback, even now they've removed the special low rate for books.