Scan barcode
yevolem's review against another edition
2.0
It would've been nice if more than literally one of these was upbeat.
Even though I didn't like most of them, it was still interesting to see different perspectives.
The title is misleading to me, but it's a nice title.
Almost every story is about sex and/or race. LGBTQIA POC abound.
Enjoyable: 1
Ok: 7
Meh: 6
Blah: 10
Unrated: 1
Total: 25
The Bookstore At The End of America - Charlie Jane Anders
California has seceded from the United States. Both sides are caricatures. The protagonist is a physical book fetishist and book store owner who is trying to remain neutral. Her teenage daughter has both a boy and a girl trying to woo her. Then the come. The neutrality is preserved by having everyone
Meh
Our Aim Is Not To Die - A. Merc Rustad
An autistic teenager suffering from gender dysphoria who was assigned female at birth will be discovered to be neurodiverse in three days due to a surprise Medical Evaluation. All citizens are required to required to disclose all activities of their day to the government through social media. Anything that diverges from the being the Ideal Citizen will be severely punished. However, the Purge App promises freedom, if you'll only accept it. The ending left much to be desired.
Ok
The Wall - Lizz Huerta
The United States has collapsed and now all the Mexicans are trying to escape back to Mexico.
Blah
Read After Burning - Maria Dahvana Headley
The protagonist is a member of a literal death cult. This is presented as a good thing. The United States has collapsed but also has complete control over the people. This may be an allegory and not meant to taken literally, but I find it entirely distasteful regardless.
Blah
Chapter 5: Disruption and Continuity [Excerpted] - Malka Older
I don't read excerpts, especially of books I may read.
It was Saturday Night, I Guess that Makes it Alright - Sam J. Miller
A bottom thinks he's in love with his straight co-worker. He works a minimum wage job for the surveillance state. Desperate for gay sex he wanders around looking for anyone willing and able. What he finds is sex that may or may not be altering reality.
Ok
Attachment Disorder - Tananarive Due
The protagonist was both a carrier and cure for The Doomsday Plague. Now extremists known as The Cleaners have come for them. There's protection in The Republic of Sacramento, but she'll never return there. She'll take her chances being on her own with her daughter not of her body.
Blah
By His Bootstraps - Ashok K. Banker
Trump tries to use a Genetic Time Bomb to Make America Great Again but it has the opposite effect and erases the depredations of the United States from history.
Blah
Riverbed - Omar El Akkad
A woman revisits where she lived as a child on the 50th anniversary of the Re-Segregation.
Blah
What Maya Found There - Daniel Jose Older
Trump has deregulated and seized control of all bioengineering. Maya, a bioengineer, doesn't want her notes to fall into his hands.
Blah
The Referendum - Lesley Nneka Arimah
Trump has been re-elected. The 13th amendment has been repealed. Slavery has been reinstituted. This is the story of The Black Resistance.
Meh
Calendar Girls - Justina Ireland
A teenage girl is selling contraband on the street corner. Condoms, birth control pills, and abortifacients are her items. The argument of the day is whether to lower the marriageable age for girls from 14 to 12. After being given an offer she can't refuse she has to smuggle a girl elsewhere for an abortion.
Ok
The Synapse will Free us from Ourselves - Violet Allen
The protagonist is a gay conversion enforcer. There's a problem though. He may just be gay himself! Also, why can't he remember his past?
Enjoyable
O.1 - Gabby Rivera
An ambiguously sexed person is pregnant in a world that hasn't seen a birth in 10 years. Also a sentient bacterium is intentionally killing the greedy and/or racist.
Blah
The Blindfold - Tobias S. Buckell
Defendants in criminal cases have their race randomized for juries. A hacker is hired to make sure they appear white for the all-white jury. However, Russia interferes, which the government ignores because of their help in their elections.
Meh
No Algorithms in the World - Hugh Howey
The United States has a livable UBI and and almost everything is automated. There's little reason to work, but his father is determined to follow the old ways.
Ok
Esperanto - Jamie Ford
A woman disfigured by an explosion from a terrorist attack comes to live in a city where everything and everyone has an augmented reality overlay.
Ok
Rome - G. Willow Wilson
Do you think we'll all be burned alive before we finish our midterms?! A satire about academia and the privatization of fire departments.
Blah
Give me Cornbread or Give me Death - N.K. Jemisin
Biblical plagues, dragons, and revolution.
Blah
Good News Bad News - Charles Yu
A series of news articles from the future.
Meh
What You Sow - Kai Cheng Thom
Yun is a Celestial, a being whose Ichor can alleviate the symptoms of the Undreaming.
Ok (almost enjoyable, but I have some concerns about the ending)
A History of Barbed Wire - Daniel H. Wilson
Corporations have literally become the government and everything is privatized. For those who aren't wealthy the Cherokee reservation may be the last bastion of freedom. A crime investigation story.
Meh (could have been ok if it were longer)
The Sun in Exile - Catherynne M. Valente
The sun is put on trial for treason.
Blah
Harmony - Seanan McGuire
Two women who are married to each other buy a ghost town with their own money and with the support of various others.
Ok
Now Wait for This Week - Alice Sola Kim
A woman is caught in a time loop. A reference to PKD's Now Wait for Last Year.
Meh
Even though I didn't like most of them, it was still interesting to see different perspectives.
The title is misleading to me, but it's a nice title.
Almost every story is about sex and/or race. LGBTQIA POC abound.
Enjoyable: 1
Ok: 7
Meh: 6
Blah: 10
Unrated: 1
Total: 25
The Bookstore At The End of America - Charlie Jane Anders
California has seceded from the United States. Both sides are caricatures. The protagonist is a physical book fetishist and book store owner who is trying to remain neutral. Her teenage daughter has both a boy and a girl trying to woo her. Then the
Spoiler
MechaSpoiler
discuss a YA fantasy series that is universally beloved.Meh
Our Aim Is Not To Die - A. Merc Rustad
An autistic teenager suffering from gender dysphoria who was assigned female at birth will be discovered to be neurodiverse in three days due to a surprise Medical Evaluation. All citizens are required to required to disclose all activities of their day to the government through social media. Anything that diverges from the being the Ideal Citizen will be severely punished. However, the Purge App promises freedom, if you'll only accept it. The ending left much to be desired.
Ok
The Wall - Lizz Huerta
The United States has collapsed and now all the Mexicans are trying to escape back to Mexico.
Blah
Read After Burning - Maria Dahvana Headley
The protagonist is a member of a literal death cult. This is presented as a good thing. The United States has collapsed but also has complete control over the people. This may be an allegory and not meant to taken literally, but I find it entirely distasteful regardless.
Blah
Chapter 5: Disruption and Continuity [Excerpted] - Malka Older
I don't read excerpts, especially of books I may read.
It was Saturday Night, I Guess that Makes it Alright - Sam J. Miller
A bottom thinks he's in love with his straight co-worker. He works a minimum wage job for the surveillance state. Desperate for gay sex he wanders around looking for anyone willing and able. What he finds is sex that may or may not be altering reality.
Ok
Attachment Disorder - Tananarive Due
The protagonist was both a carrier and cure for The Doomsday Plague. Now extremists known as The Cleaners have come for them. There's protection in The Republic of Sacramento, but she'll never return there. She'll take her chances being on her own with her daughter not of her body.
Blah
By His Bootstraps - Ashok K. Banker
Trump tries to use a Genetic Time Bomb to Make America Great Again but it has the opposite effect and erases the depredations of the United States from history.
Blah
Riverbed - Omar El Akkad
A woman revisits where she lived as a child on the 50th anniversary of the Re-Segregation.
Blah
What Maya Found There - Daniel Jose Older
Trump has deregulated and seized control of all bioengineering. Maya, a bioengineer, doesn't want her notes to fall into his hands.
Blah
The Referendum - Lesley Nneka Arimah
Trump has been re-elected. The 13th amendment has been repealed. Slavery has been reinstituted. This is the story of The Black Resistance.
Meh
Calendar Girls - Justina Ireland
A teenage girl is selling contraband on the street corner. Condoms, birth control pills, and abortifacients are her items. The argument of the day is whether to lower the marriageable age for girls from 14 to 12. After being given an offer she can't refuse she has to smuggle a girl elsewhere for an abortion.
Ok
The Synapse will Free us from Ourselves - Violet Allen
The protagonist is a gay conversion enforcer. There's a problem though. He may just be gay himself! Also, why can't he remember his past?
Enjoyable
O.1 - Gabby Rivera
An ambiguously sexed person is pregnant in a world that hasn't seen a birth in 10 years. Also a sentient bacterium is intentionally killing the greedy and/or racist.
Blah
The Blindfold - Tobias S. Buckell
Defendants in criminal cases have their race randomized for juries. A hacker is hired to make sure they appear white for the all-white jury. However, Russia interferes, which the government ignores because of their help in their elections.
Meh
No Algorithms in the World - Hugh Howey
The United States has a livable UBI and and almost everything is automated. There's little reason to work, but his father is determined to follow the old ways.
Ok
Esperanto - Jamie Ford
A woman disfigured by an explosion from a terrorist attack comes to live in a city where everything and everyone has an augmented reality overlay.
Ok
Rome - G. Willow Wilson
Do you think we'll all be burned alive before we finish our midterms?! A satire about academia and the privatization of fire departments.
Blah
Give me Cornbread or Give me Death - N.K. Jemisin
Biblical plagues, dragons, and revolution.
Blah
Good News Bad News - Charles Yu
A series of news articles from the future.
Meh
What You Sow - Kai Cheng Thom
Yun is a Celestial, a being whose Ichor can alleviate the symptoms of the Undreaming.
Ok (almost enjoyable, but I have some concerns about the ending)
A History of Barbed Wire - Daniel H. Wilson
Corporations have literally become the government and everything is privatized. For those who aren't wealthy the Cherokee reservation may be the last bastion of freedom. A crime investigation story.
Meh (could have been ok if it were longer)
The Sun in Exile - Catherynne M. Valente
The sun is put on trial for treason.
Blah
Harmony - Seanan McGuire
Two women who are married to each other buy a ghost town with their own money and with the support of various others.
Ok
Now Wait for This Week - Alice Sola Kim
A woman is caught in a time loop. A reference to PKD's Now Wait for Last Year.
Meh
lesserjoke's review against another edition
3.0
I expected to really love this anthology, based on its foreword and stated goal of bringing a Howard Zinn recentering of marginalized perspectives to the world of tomorrow. The authors and characters include women, LGBTQ people, racial minorities, and others who don't always see themselves represented in science-fiction. There's a definite boldness in a group like this declaring that the MAGA era will not be the final word on America, and that there will still be a future with all of us in it, for better or worse.
In practice, however, too many of the stories herein seem like either generic dystopias divorced from actual history or exercises in worldbuilding without compelling plots attached (or both). Luckily there's a string of stronger entries near the middle of the book, from a time traveler coming back to tell Donald Trump his ideas don't last in Ashok K. Banker's "By His Bootstraps" to an interesting look at life under Universal Basic Income in Hugh Howey's "No Algorithms in the World." And while not particularly futuristic, I especially enjoy how the final tale, Alice Sola Kim's "Now Wait for This Week," pairs its Groundhog Day plot with a timely message to #BelieveWomen.
Overall, though, the collection struggles to live up to its potential of original speculative fiction distilling the essence of 2019. I'd still recommend it for the occasional gems and its sheer existence as a book with such a diverse set of writers, but I'm somewhat underwhelmed from what I imagined this exercise could produce.
In practice, however, too many of the stories herein seem like either generic dystopias divorced from actual history or exercises in worldbuilding without compelling plots attached (or both). Luckily there's a string of stronger entries near the middle of the book, from a time traveler coming back to tell Donald Trump his ideas don't last in Ashok K. Banker's "By His Bootstraps" to an interesting look at life under Universal Basic Income in Hugh Howey's "No Algorithms in the World." And while not particularly futuristic, I especially enjoy how the final tale, Alice Sola Kim's "Now Wait for This Week," pairs its Groundhog Day plot with a timely message to #BelieveWomen.
Overall, though, the collection struggles to live up to its potential of original speculative fiction distilling the essence of 2019. I'd still recommend it for the occasional gems and its sheer existence as a book with such a diverse set of writers, but I'm somewhat underwhelmed from what I imagined this exercise could produce.
coco_lolo's review against another edition
3.0
Recently, I saw on Maria Dahvana Headley's Twitter that she had a short story published in this collection. And with her being one of my favorite authors, I had to check out A People's Future of the United States.
Like with most short story collections, this was a mixed bag. I loved the bold, wild ideas by all these different writers, and I think creating the collection in response to A People's History of the United States was incredible. I read this in a little under two weeks, so I wonder how the experience would have differed had I read one story a day for twenty-five days. The thing with a collection this big is that it started losing steam roughly around the midway point; that didn't impact my enjoyment of individual stories, but it did affect my enthusiasm for finishing. Of the stories included, my favorites were "The Synapse Will Free Us From Ourselves," "The Sun in Exile," "Our Aim Is Not to Die," "What Maya Found There," and "Good News Bad News."
Like with most short story collections, this was a mixed bag. I loved the bold, wild ideas by all these different writers, and I think creating the collection in response to A People's History of the United States was incredible. I read this in a little under two weeks, so I wonder how the experience would have differed had I read one story a day for twenty-five days. The thing with a collection this big is that it started losing steam roughly around the midway point; that didn't impact my enjoyment of individual stories, but it did affect my enthusiasm for finishing. Of the stories included, my favorites were "The Synapse Will Free Us From Ourselves," "The Sun in Exile," "Our Aim Is Not to Die," "What Maya Found There," and "Good News Bad News."
boylejr's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
thepermageek's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
These are the stories of both devastation & hope.
crloken's review
3.0
The official description of this collection of short stories reads as follows:
What if America's founding ideals finally became reality? A future of peace, justice, and love comes to life in original speculative stories that challenge oppression and embrace inclusiveness--from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, and more.
I genuinely wonder if the person who wrote this read the book. That description makes it sound like this is a collection of stories dreaming of a better future. It isn't. This is a collection of dark predictions of a dystopic future America. There are some exceptions, some are hopeful and a couple of the stories are downright positive, but overall this isn't a dream of a better tomorrow. This is a cautionary tale of where the authors fear we are headed. And sometimes it isn't even that, but more of a lament of today. It often feels like a cry of pain in the form of science-fiction stories.
I have trouble rating short story collections because rarely are they all perfect or even all good, and this isn't an exception to that. Some of these really didn't work and some are really just too silly or too over-the-top or not over-the-top enough. But there were quite a few that I really liked. There were some that I will reread more than once and a couple that will stick in my mind for awhile. It also helps that two of my favourites were the first and last stories.
Finally, I feel a need to mention that I listened to the audible version of this and I was really impressed by the production values on display; some stories switched readers mid story to good effect, others had slight sound effects and music, and a few used voice modulation very effectively. The performers were also all very good.
What if America's founding ideals finally became reality? A future of peace, justice, and love comes to life in original speculative stories that challenge oppression and embrace inclusiveness--from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, and more.
I genuinely wonder if the person who wrote this read the book. That description makes it sound like this is a collection of stories dreaming of a better future. It isn't. This is a collection of dark predictions of a dystopic future America. There are some exceptions, some are hopeful and a couple of the stories are downright positive, but overall this isn't a dream of a better tomorrow. This is a cautionary tale of where the authors fear we are headed. And sometimes it isn't even that, but more of a lament of today. It often feels like a cry of pain in the form of science-fiction stories.
I have trouble rating short story collections because rarely are they all perfect or even all good, and this isn't an exception to that. Some of these really didn't work and some are really just too silly or too over-the-top or not over-the-top enough. But there were quite a few that I really liked. There were some that I will reread more than once and a couple that will stick in my mind for awhile. It also helps that two of my favourites were the first and last stories.
Finally, I feel a need to mention that I listened to the audible version of this and I was really impressed by the production values on display; some stories switched readers mid story to good effect, others had slight sound effects and music, and a few used voice modulation very effectively. The performers were also all very good.
apackage's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
aurora_because's review against another edition
5.0
I couldn't put this down. An absolute most read for anyone who worries about the repercussions of policy created by the current political administration, with Queer, Black, and indigenous voices at the forefront. Beautiful writing throughout. 6/5 stars, honestly.