rosekk's review
4.0
A lot of the stories in this collection (both old and new) really appealed to me. I was less enthusiastic about the chapters from longer novels, as I'd rather read them in context. I appreciated the variety of tales/worlds included.
radchik1313's review
5.0
I really loved this book. It has the perfect balance between utopias and dystopias. I loved the act that they included classical authors and modern authors, some authors only have blog stories, others are well known like Mary Shelly or Thomas Moore. It took years for me to finish it because it’s huge, but it’s trully worth it. I really recommend it.
morgankailackerman's review
3.0
This had some fun stories. I love dystopians and enjoyed all of these short stories. I had just a few problems with this anthology.
1) The weird range of stories made me confused. Having Voltaire and Jack London and Mary Shelley in a book with very modern dystopian young adult writers was off-putting as the reader. As great and important as Thomas More’s Utopia is, I don’t think it has a place with a modern lesbian love story about gods and social media/reputation in the 21st century.
2) Not all of these were short stories. A few were excerpts from books, for example the first five chapters of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. I wanted short stories and expected it. Having snippets of books were not my favorite.
3) Some of the short stories in here I would not consider a dystopian. Maybe I have a closed mindset to what a dystopian is however there were some stories that were more sci-fi and apocalyptic than dystopian. When I think dystopian, I would think of a society, a prospering society, that happens after a changing of the regular Earth rules. If it doesn’t take place on Earth, that is a sci-fi, like Jeremy Szal’s The Galaxy’s Cube. I would also argue that if the story is an apocalypse, then it would not be a dystopian, like Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague.
Overall, I did like this collection. The following were my favorite stories:
A Model Life - Kim Antieau
The Festival of the Cull - Steve Carr
Survival Instincts - Carolyn Charron
Glass - Megan Dorei
The Keepers of Madleen - Sarah Lyn Eaton
Sultana’s Dream - Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Order, Excellence, Prosperity - Michelle Kaseler
The Object of Worship - Claude Lalumière
The New Law - Jeff Parsons
Islets of the Blest - Nidhi Singh
The Galaxy’s Cube - Jeremy Szal
1) The weird range of stories made me confused. Having Voltaire and Jack London and Mary Shelley in a book with very modern dystopian young adult writers was off-putting as the reader. As great and important as Thomas More’s Utopia is, I don’t think it has a place with a modern lesbian love story about gods and social media/reputation in the 21st century.
2) Not all of these were short stories. A few were excerpts from books, for example the first five chapters of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. I wanted short stories and expected it. Having snippets of books were not my favorite.
3) Some of the short stories in here I would not consider a dystopian. Maybe I have a closed mindset to what a dystopian is however there were some stories that were more sci-fi and apocalyptic than dystopian. When I think dystopian, I would think of a society, a prospering society, that happens after a changing of the regular Earth rules. If it doesn’t take place on Earth, that is a sci-fi, like Jeremy Szal’s The Galaxy’s Cube. I would also argue that if the story is an apocalypse, then it would not be a dystopian, like Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague.
Overall, I did like this collection. The following were my favorite stories:
A Model Life - Kim Antieau
The Festival of the Cull - Steve Carr
Survival Instincts - Carolyn Charron
Glass - Megan Dorei
The Keepers of Madleen - Sarah Lyn Eaton
Sultana’s Dream - Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Order, Excellence, Prosperity - Michelle Kaseler
The Object of Worship - Claude Lalumière
The New Law - Jeff Parsons
Islets of the Blest - Nidhi Singh
The Galaxy’s Cube - Jeremy Szal
More...