These collection of stories reminded me quite closely to something you'd watch on Black Mirror. Each story captures the a blended reality of the current zeitgeist and Utopian societies where many of our dreams linger towards. Many of the stories I can only describe as "mind-bending" and hauntingly realistic. "Read after Burning" by Headley was a favorite of mine in the collection. To imagine the many forms of ink and the magic behind it through a dystopian lens was incredible. The ending felt like something we could see in our near future. And then again with "It was Saturday Night, I Guess That Makes it All Right" by Miller. This story was racy and raunchy but captures the politics of sexuality in a profoundly dark way. What makes this collection so good is that each story has it's own flavor or reality, or our future, of ourselves. I found myself seeing the future play out in many of these stories, more now than ever... Absolutely Recommend.

These essays were not only enjoyable to read, they were also well written. I loved how different authors wrote them but stuck to the central theme of the book..

A great collection of essays by a variety of intelligent authors. I'll definitely recommend this one to our patrons.

A great collection of short stories that speculate on the future of the United States...or whatever it becomes. The stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Tananarive Due, N. K. Jemisin, Seanan McGuire, Daniel José Older, and G. Willow Wilson show why these authors had and deserve large audiences and followings. All of the stories feature "badass" characters, as requested by the editors, and they all do deliver, from people who keep information free and available to those who physically protect others. This will make a great gift for readers who want tightly written dystopic fiction in which there are still threads of hope.

There are people that will be angry about this book, and fuck 'em. This collection details a United States that could be- one that often times seems frighteningly real, given the current political climate.

Some of the best science fiction writers today are gathered in one place, presenting stories never before been told. Sometimes they can be a bit obvious- but that's obvious to me, a woman who lives near San Francisco, safely ensconced in a fairly liberal bubble and with a comfortable degree of privilege. They are important tales none the less, and each one is entertaining as hell. Rare for a collection, there's no single weak point, no story that shines less than the rest. I don't even want to call out any strong points, because they were all so good that I think they all deserve a read.

This book should absolutely be required reading. It teaches empathy and understanding. It shows what can happen to marginalized communities should the worst come to pass- and sometimes what can still happen even when things go well.

There was, however, one glaring omission- none of the stories tackle a future for those with physical disabilities. For a volume that otherwise manages to hit so many other intersections, it's particularly blatant- these possible tomorrows are just as scary for us as they are for anyone else in the volume. Hopefully there will be a volume two, and hopefully this will be corrected in the future.

None the less, you should pick this book up. You should give it to your teenagers, your undecided voters, even your 'woke' friends. This is a book that should be taught in schools and given out at polling places. It's by far one of the best that I've read this year, and come 2019 it's truly going to make a splash.

The intro sets this up as a left-wing sci-fi attack on Donald Trump, so that's an immediate turn-off for me. The first story, though, was really good. Charlie Jane Anders tells of a bookstore in a future America located on the Nevada-California line. California has split off as its own country and it is the same stereotypical collection of fruits and nuts you'd expect. What's left of America is a dogmatic religious community seen as backwards by those in CA. It's all done with love and humor and - most importantly - Anders knows we need to work with both sides to make anything work in our political system. He doesn't show one side better or worse than the other, and the bookstore is the nexus of where they might be able to come together. The editor did well to place this story first, despite his off-putting comments in the intro.

The rest of the collection tended to take sides, and the sides were those of the editor. No surprise there, so if that's what you're after you might like it.

This is a phenomenal anthology which taps into the current zeitgeist of resistance, comprised of 25 stories which tackle topics (in a multitude of ways) such as racial and ethnic discrimination, transgender discrimination, government surveillance, etc., written by a wonderfully diverse and extremely talented set of authors. As speculative fiction, these stories explore what the (somewhat) near future could look like, if certain trends continue on a slippery slope, or if certain technologies existed, or if certain changes happened in our society.

If that description doesn't sound appealing to you, this may not be the anthology for you.

I'm normally somewhat ambivalent about the short story form, as I generally prefer reading novels. I find short stories pretty hit or miss, and as such, I usually find anthologies to be a bit of a mixed bag. Out of 25 stories, there were only about 3 I disliked, which is an impressive ratio. (I don't think these stories were bad; they're just not at all the type of story I like to read.) All in all, I found this anthology to be fascinating, devastating, and inspiring, and exactly the kind of thing I needed to read right now.

October usually calls for scary reads. And, as if reading news alone wasn’t doing the trick, somehow I managed to read not one but two dystopian anthologies inspired by the news. First one was Welcome to Dystopia and objectively this one is a considerably superior of the two. Wherein the first was a sort of knee jerk reaction, lacking maturity and subtlety, this one mostly (mostly) does have that much needed maturity and subtlety. Partially because it was edited by two experts (with a very good foreword by LaValle), partially because of a terrific author line up. In fact, interestingly enough since I read a lot of anthologies and surprisingly this isn’t always the case, here the rule of thumb was the more known the author, the more enjoyable the story. Without exceptions. So it started off very nicely, then got dragged down into that overtly sincere all for the cause territory, then upgraded with some recognizable names and genuinely interesting takes on the possible futures, then got really good toward the end and then stayed one story too long. Over the course of this book I was able to revisit some of the previously enjoyed author, try out some of the ones I knew of and haven’t read yet and…let’s say sit through some of the unknown ones. It appears that the editors’ intent was to be as inclusive as possible both with the author and themes, so this book offers a veritable cornucopia of nonbinary, nontraditional, multiracial, convention free characters and all the strange new worlds their creators throw them in. Actually this might be the first time I’ve read about persons using them pronoun in fiction and this is definitely going to take some getting used to. Obviously the need to self identify in a manner that’s most befitting is important, but it reads confusingly, because as a pronoun it has been used to denote plurality for so long and now it is made to work for both many and individual alike and that might be too much work for one small pronoun. In one story there’s actually a new pronoun used, nir, strange and new but at least easier to read. But anyway, back to the book…I actually think the all inclusive, something for everyone line up might have been a detractor, because it led to a sort of quantity over quality thing going on. This was almost like two books merged into one. So if you’re buying it, you’ll get your money’s worth, but reading it as a free ARC it kind of dragged and took much too long to get through. The good, the really good stories, very interspersed with mediocre ones. And while reading anthologies is usually a reliable source of discovering new authors, this one was more along the lines of reminding the reader while sometimes it’s good to stick with what you know, in this instance going for recognizable names. Although it’s entirely possible that reading two such similar books in the same month wasn’t a great idea, too many stories too close to reality, too depressing altogether. And I do read the news daily, which sort of takes care of feeding that pessimistic attitude, so with fiction I want more, it doesn’t have to be all glitter and rainbows, but it has to elevate reality to other, more interesting and original levels that mere imagination can. So in conclusion…there are some great, engaging and original stories here and some good ones and some that are just ok. This collection might have been improved with some tighter editing, but if it’s a variety you’re after for your dystopian bleakness, this would certainly work. Thanks Netgalley.

There was much to discover in this anthology. My first visit was to Daniel H. Wilson’s cultural vision of the future, but there were many other places I stopped.

A. Merc Rustad displays a power of description in “Our Aim Is Not to Die.” Maria Dahvana Headley is clever and creative with “Read After Burning.” Kai Cheng Thom explores and mystifies in “What You Sow.”

These are just a few offerings in a book this is well supplied with thought-provoking images of the future and vibrant possibilities.

Highly recommended.