annieb123's review
5.0
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Meet Me in the Future is a collection of 16 works of short fiction by Kameron Hurley. Released 20th Aug 2019 by Tachyon, it's 288 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. All of the stories are previously published between 2006 and 2018, but collected here for the first time. The author has also written an erudite and thought provoking introduction (not previously published elsewhere) in which she discusses the writing process, some history, what things really mean (hint: don't be lazy, we should figure it out ourselves), and shares other thoughts about creativity, the writer's life, and the world in a really personal conversational style. I felt as though we were talking about deep stuff over the last half bottle of wine at 3 in the morning.
These stories are top shelf fiction. Every story I read was the best one yet. I had planned to read them slowly and savor them. That certainly didn't happen. I wound up reading late into the night and almost missed my work bus stop the next morning. It's difficult to pick out a standout story from the collection, but if forced, When We Fall was amazing and made me sniffle (in a good way).
It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the final release version.
Five stars. Beautifully curated collection of extremely well written stories.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Meet Me in the Future is a collection of 16 works of short fiction by Kameron Hurley. Released 20th Aug 2019 by Tachyon, it's 288 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. All of the stories are previously published between 2006 and 2018, but collected here for the first time. The author has also written an erudite and thought provoking introduction (not previously published elsewhere) in which she discusses the writing process, some history, what things really mean (hint: don't be lazy, we should figure it out ourselves), and shares other thoughts about creativity, the writer's life, and the world in a really personal conversational style. I felt as though we were talking about deep stuff over the last half bottle of wine at 3 in the morning.
These stories are top shelf fiction. Every story I read was the best one yet. I had planned to read them slowly and savor them. That certainly didn't happen. I wound up reading late into the night and almost missed my work bus stop the next morning. It's difficult to pick out a standout story from the collection, but if forced, When We Fall was amazing and made me sniffle (in a good way).
It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the final release version.
Five stars. Beautifully curated collection of extremely well written stories.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
maxed's review
1.0
It is rarely that I hate a book of short stories as much as I hate this one. The problem is, Kameron Hurley seems enamoured with war, plagues and general misery. Every story in this compilation is about these things. Now, there is nothing wrong with writing about horrors of war without glorifying it, but there is a problem: reading so much about unhappy, broken worlds and people makes me want to question the whole thing. How they came to this condition? Why can't they live more happily? I don't mean an all-out utopia, but frankly, chaos and war are unsustainable in the long term, or so I believe. Yet, most of unhinged societies Kameron Hurley describes exist for many years, and sometimes centuries. Somehow.
The subject matter makes me want to poke holes in each story's world-building, and it's easy enough to poke them: after all, they're just short stories, and the author doesn't have time to set everything in order and present a consistent, logical world where misery follows inevitably from facts. Still, I WANT to poke holes, and when I think I manage to, I begin to dislike story even more. The author makes her heroes suffer just because she likes them too. These world can't, shouldn't exist. It's like she's taking delight in this all and invites the reader along. Thank you, but no. Apocalypse Nyx stories aren't THAT bad, but everything else is.
Highly not recommended, unless you like to read about badly motivated suffering.
The subject matter makes me want to poke holes in each story's world-building, and it's easy enough to poke them: after all, they're just short stories, and the author doesn't have time to set everything in order and present a consistent, logical world where misery follows inevitably from facts. Still, I WANT to poke holes, and when I think I manage to, I begin to dislike story even more. The author makes her heroes suffer just because she likes them too. These world can't, shouldn't exist. It's like she's taking delight in this all and invites the reader along. Thank you, but no. Apocalypse Nyx stories aren't THAT bad, but everything else is.
Highly not recommended, unless you like to read about badly motivated suffering.
varshiniramaraj's review
3.0
I liked this book. I'm still getting used to reading novels containing multiple short stories. Some of these I liked, some of these I got through, leading to the rating (3.5, rounded downwards than upwards)
Stories in this series I liked:
Elephants and Corpses
The Sinners and the Sea
Garda
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light
The Corpse Archives
Stories in this series I liked:
Elephants and Corpses
The Sinners and the Sea
Garda
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light
The Corpse Archives
inthebelljar's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of science fiction stories; Hurley masterfully creates these fully realized and wonderful and horrible worlds and the complicated people that inhabit them. Although the different short stories feature on different protagonists in different futures, they often explore war, sacrifice, autonomy, colonialism, love, grief, and gender in interesting ways. I particularly liked that our point of view characters were not always who we may see as the "good guys" and the ways the stories would deconstruct the notions of "good" and "bad" either way. I'm very interested in reading more of Kameron Hurley's works after this collection.
Some of my favorite stories were "Elephants and Corpses", "Tumbledown", and "The Light Brigade".
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of science fiction stories; Hurley masterfully creates these fully realized and wonderful and horrible worlds and the complicated people that inhabit them. Although the different short stories feature on different protagonists in different futures, they often explore war, sacrifice, autonomy, colonialism, love, grief, and gender in interesting ways. I particularly liked that our point of view characters were not always who we may see as the "good guys" and the ways the stories would deconstruct the notions of "good" and "bad" either way. I'm very interested in reading more of Kameron Hurley's works after this collection.
Some of my favorite stories were "Elephants and Corpses", "Tumbledown", and "The Light Brigade".
jefffrane's review
4.0
Kameron Hurley doesn't do cheerful much, from what I can tell. I had to slide into this one, knowing that, and some of her stories are hard to take. But she's insanely creative and a terrific storyteller, even if I didn't resonate with everything in the collection.
nsfinch's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.0
This had some stories I really enjoyed and some stories with way too much body horror for me. My favorite was the one that was a pretty traditional murder mystery, and I liked the two stories about the body-jumper. The book club was mixed, and most people didn't finish it.
haljonesy's review
4.0
This was an absolutely wonderful read. Full of stories that blew my mind in a great and unexpected way, and I totally recommend this to fans of Tiptree or Le Guin.
The ones I liked best:
When We Fall: An emotional connection between a mechanic and a ship’s avatar? Beautiful, loved it, a really lovely little story about the possibilities of AI.
The Fisherman and The Pig: I love that Pig so much. This one speaks to the love of a pet and how much it means when they remember you.
The Plague Givers: A really cool little fantasy story that I’d love to read a novel about.
Warped Passages: Reminded me at first of a Tiptree story and then Alien, so I definitely liked this one.
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters! Our Faces Filled of Light! I was a little nervous about this one because the Sheldon story the title is taken from was incredible, but this was pretty good. Definitely still captured the feminism theme.
Light Brigade: Ugh so good. It came so beautifully full circle.
Now that I’ve gone through all these, I like this book even more now because they all are stories that remind me of Tiptree, an author I adore. This is a great collection of short stories and I definitely recommend it.
The ones I liked best:
When We Fall: An emotional connection between a mechanic and a ship’s avatar? Beautiful, loved it, a really lovely little story about the possibilities of AI.
The Fisherman and The Pig: I love that Pig so much. This one speaks to the love of a pet and how much it means when they remember you.
The Plague Givers: A really cool little fantasy story that I’d love to read a novel about.
Warped Passages: Reminded me at first of a Tiptree story and then Alien, so I definitely liked this one.
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters! Our Faces Filled of Light! I was a little nervous about this one because the Sheldon story the title is taken from was incredible, but this was pretty good. Definitely still captured the feminism theme.
Light Brigade: Ugh so good. It came so beautifully full circle.
Now that I’ve gone through all these, I like this book even more now because they all are stories that remind me of Tiptree, an author I adore. This is a great collection of short stories and I definitely recommend it.
marsican's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5