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2041: 12 Stories About the Future
Where will you be in the year 2041?
The Drapery Defense League objects to Hamlet because Polonius is stabbed while he's hiding behind a curtain, rock'n'roll gangs roam the streets, a scrumptious free confection called swoodies has been devised to make people gain weight, then pay to lose it, and people attach an extra ear to their own to amplify noise....
Leading science fiction writer Jane Yolen presents twelve humorous to horrific, entertaining and intriguing stories about the future by top writers, including Bruce Coville, Joe Haldeman, Anne McCaffrey, Patricia A. McKillip and Connie Willis.
Much Ado about (Censored) - Connie Willis
Who's Gonna Rock Us Home? - Nancy Springer
Lose Now, Pay Later - Carol Farley
A Quiet One - Anne McCaffrey
Moby James - Patricia A. McKillip
If I Had the Wings of an Angel - Joe Haldeman
You Want it When? - Kara Dalkey
Ear - Jane Yolen
The Last Out - Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith
Free Day - Peg Kerr
Beggarman - Susan Shwartz
Old Glory - Bruce Coville
222 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
4 people are currently reading
388 people want to read
About the author
Jane Yolen
987 books3,249 followersJane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 11, 2014
A very sharp anthology - did an excellent job of hooking me, when I was a "young adult" reader thirsting for sci-fi. "Who's Gonna Rock Us Home?" by Nancy Springer probably gave me the most vivid memories, I still carry the idea of "Old Glory" by Bruce Coville with me, "Much Ado About [Censored]" by Connie Willis left me rolling with laughter, and Joe Haldeman's "If I Had the Wings of an Angel" was quite good too. Really, just about all of the stories provoked me to think or feel in a new way. One of my enduringly awesome chance finds at the library.
Want to read
November 24, 2007This if a fondly-remembered short story collection from my childhood/early teen years that I happily finally managed to track down again. The story "Lose Now, Pay Later" still haunts me; let's see how the rest hold up.
October 4, 2020
Very YA, but in a good way. I would have loved this when I was 13 or so. Definitely Sense of Wonder and What If. Think about some of the classics you learned when you were a teen, that turned either you or some of your classmates onto SF, like All Summer in a Day or A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories or The Lottery... that's what these very short stories, almost vignettes, aspire to.
Many story ideas here could be developed into novels.
Many of the authors have written adult novels that are widely respected and enjoyed.
Do bear in mind the context of the time, of 1991.
Much Ado about (Censored) - Connie Willis - satire of censorship, relevant to those of you paying attention to the 'cancel culture' trend
Who's Gonna Rock Us Home? - Nancy Springer - Dad uses something like Soma and wants his son to, too; the kid just wants - no, needs - to play his guitar. Even if it means joining a street gang.
Lose Now, Pay Later - Carol Farley - Eat what you like... every hedonist's dream?
A Quiet One - Anne McCaffrey - Even in the future there's a place for horses and the ppl who love them.
Moby James - Patricia A. McKillip - a 'reluctant reader' finds the meaning of life in his viewer's edition of Moby Dick.
If I Had the Wings of an Angel - Joe Haldeman - for some reason only kids up to a certain weight can fly on this space station.
You Want it When? - Kara Dalkey - student worker Dorothy, using fax that can send actual originals, invents Time Travel... or does she?
Ear - Jane Yolen - maybe there's a reason your kids are glued to their devices; be glad they don't have Ears.
The Last Out - Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith - Boston flooded, Fenway rotting, the ETs have ruined the traditions of baseball... if you understand the sport better than I do you'll probably like the story better than I did.
Free Day - Peg Kerr - intimate vignette illustrating a larger (worldwide, probably) dystopia
Beggarman - Susan Shwartz - Spaceborn kids bully a displaced Earther teen because he's nostalgic for the dirtball he came from. What is his destiny, and how will he find it?
Old Glory - Bruce Coville - Thirteen stripes and 62 stars, it's supposed to represent freedom. What if techniques used by the brownshirts, by scared ppl under Stalin, are approved in the US?
Of the authors whose names I don't recognize, I'm most interested in reading more by Springer.
3.5 stars rounded up on behalf of my inner 'tween.
Read for free a scanned copy on openlibrary.org.
Many story ideas here could be developed into novels.
Many of the authors have written adult novels that are widely respected and enjoyed.
Do bear in mind the context of the time, of 1991.
Much Ado about (Censored) - Connie Willis - satire of censorship, relevant to those of you paying attention to the 'cancel culture' trend
Who's Gonna Rock Us Home? - Nancy Springer - Dad uses something like Soma and wants his son to, too; the kid just wants - no, needs - to play his guitar. Even if it means joining a street gang.
Lose Now, Pay Later - Carol Farley - Eat what you like... every hedonist's dream?
A Quiet One - Anne McCaffrey - Even in the future there's a place for horses and the ppl who love them.
Moby James - Patricia A. McKillip - a 'reluctant reader' finds the meaning of life in his viewer's edition of Moby Dick.
If I Had the Wings of an Angel - Joe Haldeman - for some reason only kids up to a certain weight can fly on this space station.
You Want it When? - Kara Dalkey - student worker Dorothy, using fax that can send actual originals, invents Time Travel... or does she?
Ear - Jane Yolen - maybe there's a reason your kids are glued to their devices; be glad they don't have Ears.
The Last Out - Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith - Boston flooded, Fenway rotting, the ETs have ruined the traditions of baseball... if you understand the sport better than I do you'll probably like the story better than I did.
Free Day - Peg Kerr - intimate vignette illustrating a larger (worldwide, probably) dystopia
Beggarman - Susan Shwartz - Spaceborn kids bully a displaced Earther teen because he's nostalgic for the dirtball he came from. What is his destiny, and how will he find it?
Old Glory - Bruce Coville - Thirteen stripes and 62 stars, it's supposed to represent freedom. What if techniques used by the brownshirts, by scared ppl under Stalin, are approved in the US?
Of the authors whose names I don't recognize, I'm most interested in reading more by Springer.
3.5 stars rounded up on behalf of my inner 'tween.
Read for free a scanned copy on openlibrary.org.
June 4, 2008
absolutely the best collection of sci-fi short stories i've come across. found this book in the locker room when i was 12; re-read it almost every year.
March 30, 2018
I only read this because at some point, one of the stories got lodged in my head and this was the place where I was told I could find it. Upon (re?)reading this book, the story I was thinking of was definitely in there, but not in the iteration I remember it. Unfortunately, the only other place I can think it might have been published is in a box in my basement, so here we are.
Anyway, 2041 pops up because I guess a LOT of kids had one or two of the stories lodge in their heads as kids, and now they're adults and can't figure out where they came from. This collection comes up a LOT on reddit.
And the thing is, most of these stories aren't that great? They're barely even memorable. Maybe we were all more impressionable as kids, I don't know.
Anyway, here's a list of the stories in this, and some brief commentary, in case anyone is searching something down.
Much Ado About [Censored] by Connie Willis - students help their teacher prepare to teach Shakespeare, in a future where the first amendmendment has gone to rot and everyone takes literal offense to every word spoken.
Who's Gonna Rock Us Home, by Nancy Springer - No one get to have music but the gangs and gangs are bad.
Lose Now, Pay Later, by Carol Farley - This was my white whale, and I'm not convinced that I didn't read a better, more extensive version of this in The Best of Cranked. Mysterious mall kiosks disperse free softserve, everyone gains weight, equally mysterious weightloss kiosks show up, everyone pays them lots of money. Aliens may or maynot be at the heart of it.
A Quiet One, by Anne McCaffrey - In the future, not everyone can have a horse. (This is one of the lonest stories in the collection and it's pretty tedious.)
Moby James, by Patricia A McKillip - Automated learning systems, older brothers are still terrible.
If I had the Wings of an Angel, by Joe Haldeman - You can experience flight the way we've all imagined it (with wings, no airplanes), but only until you're no heavier than 35kg. Also, kids are still mean.
You Want it When?, by Kara Dalkey - Data communication devices continue to suck, much to the chagrin of the office workers responsible for using them.
Ear, by Jane Yolen - Everyone is genetically deaf and hearing aids only work til you're a certain age.
The Last Out, by Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith - Baseball. Protagonist says a long goodbye to his career, his sport, and Fenway Park, because now everything is full of aliens. Again, this is one of the longer stories in the book and it's tedious AF.
Free Day, by Peg Kerr - In the wasteoid post-apocalypse, a factory worker uses her day off to visit an old woman living in the rubble.
Beggarman, by Susan Shwartz - Ok. Hold the phone here. First, the synopsis: we ruined the Earth and populated some asteroids with contained habitats and kids continue to be weird and mean for no good reason. But holy shit, WHO IS THIS STORY FOR? The thing is, in a book full of mediocre stories clearly aimed at kids, this entire story is crammed full of easter eggs that NO CHILD, not even, graciously, a fifteen year old reading this in 1990, would get. The main character is named Jommy, a reference to an AE van Vogt book called Slan, which EVEN WHEN IT WAS RELEASED IN THE NINETEEN FORTIES, was not exactly a huge hit among SF fans. So why drop this in there? Who, exactly, is going to pick up on that? Why spend so much time musing on it (and, eventually, spelling it out? NO ONE HAS READ IT.) Then, in another not-subtle-at-all homage, Jommy's mentor is named George Stewart. George ISHERWOOD Stewart, because ha-ha, oh, aren't our parents so quirky? And then character-Stewart drops an Earth Abides joke (a book written by real George Stewart, about a man named Ishwerwood, and I ONLY KNOW THIS because I am THIRTY FIVE and the story mentioned this time has been on my to-read list for like seven years.) and again, WHO THE HELL WAS THIS WRITTEN FOR AND WHY IS IT HERE IN THIS KIDS BOOK?? Anyway, Jommy turns out to be just the sort of person Isherwood was looking for and heads back to earth with his new actual copy of Earth Abides. WHUT.
Old Glory, by Bruce Coville - actually particularly chilling, given the current political climate around free speech and guns. The government has passed the Shoot on Sight ordinance and - well, in 1988, I can see how that's a crazy far future, but from here in 2018, it doesn't sound that different from Stand Your Ground.
If this is the only place you can find that Carol Farley story, pick it up. The Willis and the Yolen stories aren't bad, either - and I do appreciate that this collection features a significant number of female authors, that was pretty rare for SF, especially children's SF, when it was published.
But I don't know if I can forgive those 60 pages about horse-longing and baseball psychology.
Anyway, 2041 pops up because I guess a LOT of kids had one or two of the stories lodge in their heads as kids, and now they're adults and can't figure out where they came from. This collection comes up a LOT on reddit.
And the thing is, most of these stories aren't that great? They're barely even memorable. Maybe we were all more impressionable as kids, I don't know.
Anyway, here's a list of the stories in this, and some brief commentary, in case anyone is searching something down.
Much Ado About [Censored] by Connie Willis - students help their teacher prepare to teach Shakespeare, in a future where the first amendmendment has gone to rot and everyone takes literal offense to every word spoken.
Who's Gonna Rock Us Home, by Nancy Springer - No one get to have music but the gangs and gangs are bad.
Lose Now, Pay Later, by Carol Farley - This was my white whale, and I'm not convinced that I didn't read a better, more extensive version of this in The Best of Cranked. Mysterious mall kiosks disperse free softserve, everyone gains weight, equally mysterious weightloss kiosks show up, everyone pays them lots of money. Aliens may or maynot be at the heart of it.
A Quiet One, by Anne McCaffrey - In the future, not everyone can have a horse. (This is one of the lonest stories in the collection and it's pretty tedious.)
Moby James, by Patricia A McKillip - Automated learning systems, older brothers are still terrible.
If I had the Wings of an Angel, by Joe Haldeman - You can experience flight the way we've all imagined it (with wings, no airplanes), but only until you're no heavier than 35kg. Also, kids are still mean.
You Want it When?, by Kara Dalkey - Data communication devices continue to suck, much to the chagrin of the office workers responsible for using them.
Ear, by Jane Yolen - Everyone is genetically deaf and hearing aids only work til you're a certain age.
The Last Out, by Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith - Baseball. Protagonist says a long goodbye to his career, his sport, and Fenway Park, because now everything is full of aliens. Again, this is one of the longer stories in the book and it's tedious AF.
Free Day, by Peg Kerr - In the wasteoid post-apocalypse, a factory worker uses her day off to visit an old woman living in the rubble.
Beggarman, by Susan Shwartz - Ok. Hold the phone here. First, the synopsis: we ruined the Earth and populated some asteroids with contained habitats and kids continue to be weird and mean for no good reason. But holy shit, WHO IS THIS STORY FOR? The thing is, in a book full of mediocre stories clearly aimed at kids, this entire story is crammed full of easter eggs that NO CHILD, not even, graciously, a fifteen year old reading this in 1990, would get. The main character is named Jommy, a reference to an AE van Vogt book called Slan, which EVEN WHEN IT WAS RELEASED IN THE NINETEEN FORTIES, was not exactly a huge hit among SF fans. So why drop this in there? Who, exactly, is going to pick up on that? Why spend so much time musing on it (and, eventually, spelling it out? NO ONE HAS READ IT.) Then, in another not-subtle-at-all homage, Jommy's mentor is named George Stewart. George ISHERWOOD Stewart, because ha-ha, oh, aren't our parents so quirky? And then character-Stewart drops an Earth Abides joke (a book written by real George Stewart, about a man named Ishwerwood, and I ONLY KNOW THIS because I am THIRTY FIVE and the story mentioned this time has been on my to-read list for like seven years.) and again, WHO THE HELL WAS THIS WRITTEN FOR AND WHY IS IT HERE IN THIS KIDS BOOK?? Anyway, Jommy turns out to be just the sort of person Isherwood was looking for and heads back to earth with his new actual copy of Earth Abides. WHUT.
Old Glory, by Bruce Coville - actually particularly chilling, given the current political climate around free speech and guns. The government has passed the Shoot on Sight ordinance and - well, in 1988, I can see how that's a crazy far future, but from here in 2018, it doesn't sound that different from Stand Your Ground.
If this is the only place you can find that Carol Farley story, pick it up. The Willis and the Yolen stories aren't bad, either - and I do appreciate that this collection features a significant number of female authors, that was pretty rare for SF, especially children's SF, when it was published.
But I don't know if I can forgive those 60 pages about horse-longing and baseball psychology.
Want to read
August 11, 2013NOTES:
This review focuses on the story "Lose Now, Pay Later," by Carol Farley; I have not read the rest of the stories in 2041, so I can't give it an overall rating.
This review is also posted, in part, here.
. . . . . . . .
Here and there on Q&A forums – Yahoo Answers, Whatsthatbook.com, etc. – you’ll see someone asking for the title of that one story they read years ago…the one with the weird candy or something that makes you gain lots of weight, and then the machine that magically takes it away.
I didn’t remember the title either until I Googled , or something like that. And it isn’t even the weirdest story I’ve ever read, but it was just weird enough. And the final lines had such a neat combination of cheerful tone/imagery-- -- and eerie implications.
Anyway, I found an online copy of the story in an old lit textbook on OpenLibrary.org so I could set my own memories straight.
One day there’s a weird new shop at the mall. It’s just an unsupervised room full of vending machines…that offer FREE ICE CREAM. And this is no ordinary ice cream, ooohhh no. This is the best soft serve you’ve ever had in your WHOLE. LIFE.
Day after day, the shop is still there, still unsupervised, and the Swoodies are still free… and just when you realize how much weight you’ve gained, a new machine appears in the parking lot, claiming to make all those pounds disappear.
A classic case of Too Good To Be True, right? . . . Right?
. . . . . . . .
[1] Cross-roads: Classic Themes in Young Adult Literature. Points of Departure series. Glenview, IL: ScottForesman, 1995. Pg. 272
[2] Pg. 271
[3] Pg. 270
This review focuses on the story "Lose Now, Pay Later," by Carol Farley; I have not read the rest of the stories in 2041, so I can't give it an overall rating.
This review is also posted, in part, here.
. . . . . . . .
Here and there on Q&A forums – Yahoo Answers, Whatsthatbook.com, etc. – you’ll see someone asking for the title of that one story they read years ago…the one with the weird candy or something that makes you gain lots of weight, and then the machine that magically takes it away.
I didn’t remember the title either until I Googled , or something like that. And it isn’t even the weirdest story I’ve ever read, but it was just weird enough. And the final lines had such a neat combination of cheerful tone/imagery-- -- and eerie implications.
Anyway, I found an online copy of the story in an old lit textbook on OpenLibrary.org so I could set my own memories straight.
One day there’s a weird new shop at the mall. It’s just an unsupervised room full of vending machines…that offer FREE ICE CREAM. And this is no ordinary ice cream, ooohhh no. This is the best soft serve you’ve ever had in your WHOLE. LIFE.
Day after day, the shop is still there, still unsupervised, and the Swoodies are still free… and just when you realize how much weight you’ve gained, a new machine appears in the parking lot, claiming to make all those pounds disappear.
A classic case of Too Good To Be True, right? . . . Right?
. . . . . . . .
[1] Cross-roads: Classic Themes in Young Adult Literature. Points of Departure series. Glenview, IL: ScottForesman, 1995. Pg. 272
[2] Pg. 271
[3] Pg. 270
May 23, 2020
This wasn’t my favorite collection of sci-fi.
Much Ado About [Censored] ***
A cute little story.
Who’s Gonna Rock Us Home ****
This one had a very sweet ending.
Lose Now, Pay Later ****
Quite the interesting story.
A Quiet One *****
My favorite in the whole bunch.
Moby James ***
An enjoyable little tale.
If I Had the Wings of an Angel ****
I really enjoyed this story. I just wish it had been longer.
You Want It When? **
Kind of an abrupt ending.
Ear ***
I expected better from Jane Yolen
The Last Out
I didn’t even finish this, so no rating.
Free Day ****
Another very sweet story.
Beggerman ***
This one was okay, but it was too long.
Old Glory ***
Again, this was just okay.
Much Ado About [Censored] ***
A cute little story.
Who’s Gonna Rock Us Home ****
This one had a very sweet ending.
Lose Now, Pay Later ****
Quite the interesting story.
A Quiet One *****
My favorite in the whole bunch.
Moby James ***
An enjoyable little tale.
If I Had the Wings of an Angel ****
I really enjoyed this story. I just wish it had been longer.
You Want It When? **
Kind of an abrupt ending.
Ear ***
I expected better from Jane Yolen
The Last Out
I didn’t even finish this, so no rating.
Free Day ****
Another very sweet story.
Beggerman ***
This one was okay, but it was too long.
Old Glory ***
Again, this was just okay.
February 19, 2021
I had a vague memory of reading this bizarre story in school as a kid about a free smoothie shop that mysteriously opens in a town, swiftly followed by a chain of magical weight loss kiosks. It took googling "short story free smoothie weight loss machine" among other things to finally find both the story and the collection it was from. It is, "Lose Now, Pay Later" by Carol Farley; ice cream, not smoothies.
On the adult read-through, I liked "Much Ado about [Censored]" best, though it's a bit of a heavy handed, shorter young adult version of Fahrenheit 451.
On the adult read-through, I liked "Much Ado about [Censored]" best, though it's a bit of a heavy handed, shorter young adult version of Fahrenheit 451.
January 24, 2018
The first sci-fi book I read as a kid, these stories are all kinds of fun! Some are poignant, some are silly and I will never forget how much I loved my first reading of the “Lose Now, Pay Later” story.
It is also hilarious how permanent the fax machine seemed as a form of communication to some of these writers at the time; like as essential as cold food storage and vehicular transportation.
It is also hilarious how permanent the fax machine seemed as a form of communication to some of these writers at the time; like as essential as cold food storage and vehicular transportation.
June 13, 2023
I read this story collection for the first time in 2023, much closer to the future of 2041 than the 1980s in which the stories were written. Most of the stories held up much better than I had expected. Some of them still resonated with the idea of What If…? A few definitely did NOT hold up well, but they were fine to breeze through.
July 8, 2024
Found it on my bookshelf. Probably would have liked it a lot more if I'd read it when I was a kid. Still, it's alright. Nothing wildly mindblowing.
December 21, 2024
Some stories were 5 stars. The first 2, I’d give 2 and 3.5, respectively.
3.75, rounded up.
3.75, rounded up.
December 29, 2020
I just finished this as part of a nostalgia run of books that I remember reading but never finishing, when I was younger.
This book was on a prominent rack in my middle school's library, and I remember picking it up a few times to read a story. I was surprised to discover so many others had a similar experience - I feel like this collection must have been heavily marketed to school libraries. Makes sense.
Like most people writing reviews, the piece I remembered the most was "Lose Now, Pay Later." What is it about that story that makes it so memorable? I'm not sure. That it's short, action-driven, and to the point? That the mystery is just hinted at, but never solved? That it has a very fairytale-like core of magic and unknowableness, and also a fairytale-like lesson about the cost of instant gratification? The compelling archetypal drama of the prey being lured in by the predator? There's something, I think, in the infantile wish-fulfillment of Swoodies that speaks to the unconscious. I could go on, but I'm not really sure what it is.
As for the other stories, I find it a mixed bag. Though the book is supposed to be about a distant time (all the stories are either explicitly or implicitly set in the year 2041), it naturally comes across as very dated. I'm not reading this, now, to speculate about what the future's like. I'm reading it to reflect on what people in the late 80s and early 90s thought the future would be like (apparently it involved a lot of fax machines). And there's a sweet style to it - as you can see from the cover art. I love the kitschy, glowing, futuristic look from that era.
There's more to it, but not much more. To my taste, the only stories that could survive outside this stylistic nostalgia appeal are "Free Day," which is genuinely moving and quietly beautiful, and possibly "You Want it When?," which was fun and had great pacing. I like the strong structure and good prose of "A Quiet One," but I found its protagonist absurd and unlikeable and the story ultimately tedious. I enjoyed the somewhat poetic style of "Who's Gonna Rock Us Home?," but both the setting and plot were absurd to the point of feeling like parody (it's basically the narrative of a bad 80s music video, and it has weird racial undertones that would not fly today).
I have less to say about the rest - it's all kind of so-so - except "The Last Out," which I liked least of all. It seemed not so much a speculation about baseball in the future as it was a baseball story that was quickly repackaged as sci-fi. Tedious.
It's fun and quick, but there is more nourishing fun elsewhere.
This book was on a prominent rack in my middle school's library, and I remember picking it up a few times to read a story. I was surprised to discover so many others had a similar experience - I feel like this collection must have been heavily marketed to school libraries. Makes sense.
Like most people writing reviews, the piece I remembered the most was "Lose Now, Pay Later." What is it about that story that makes it so memorable? I'm not sure. That it's short, action-driven, and to the point? That the mystery is just hinted at, but never solved? That it has a very fairytale-like core of magic and unknowableness, and also a fairytale-like lesson about the cost of instant gratification? The compelling archetypal drama of the prey being lured in by the predator? There's something, I think, in the infantile wish-fulfillment of Swoodies that speaks to the unconscious. I could go on, but I'm not really sure what it is.
As for the other stories, I find it a mixed bag. Though the book is supposed to be about a distant time (all the stories are either explicitly or implicitly set in the year 2041), it naturally comes across as very dated. I'm not reading this, now, to speculate about what the future's like. I'm reading it to reflect on what people in the late 80s and early 90s thought the future would be like (apparently it involved a lot of fax machines). And there's a sweet style to it - as you can see from the cover art. I love the kitschy, glowing, futuristic look from that era.
There's more to it, but not much more. To my taste, the only stories that could survive outside this stylistic nostalgia appeal are "Free Day," which is genuinely moving and quietly beautiful, and possibly "You Want it When?," which was fun and had great pacing. I like the strong structure and good prose of "A Quiet One," but I found its protagonist absurd and unlikeable and the story ultimately tedious. I enjoyed the somewhat poetic style of "Who's Gonna Rock Us Home?," but both the setting and plot were absurd to the point of feeling like parody (it's basically the narrative of a bad 80s music video, and it has weird racial undertones that would not fly today).
I have less to say about the rest - it's all kind of so-so - except "The Last Out," which I liked least of all. It seemed not so much a speculation about baseball in the future as it was a baseball story that was quickly repackaged as sci-fi. Tedious.
It's fun and quick, but there is more nourishing fun elsewhere.
September 27, 2014
It's kind of a fun read, but not very satisfying in the end. It was written back in the 90's, speculating what things would be like 50 years from then.
Twenty-some years later and it feels dated. Not the ideas (though I don't think in 25 years we're going to have half the technologies they talk about in the book) but the style itself. It's...innocent? The cover of the 80's looking couple on the front should have clued me in to the fact that this wasn't going to be a dark and gritty collection. There's a story about magic food that tastes better than anything you've ever eaten, a story about taking care of horses, a story about a kid who fights with his older brother...the setting is always in the 2040's, but the themes are universally childlike I thought.
This is not a bad thing, honestly. All the stories are well-written, without a doubt. I'd picked it up on a whim, and didn't know I was looking for something dark until I was halfway through. So I went into it with the wrong attitude. If you're looking for a light, sometimes funny read, this would be the book for you. If you're looking for something darker, "Bangs and Whimpers" is an excellent, depressing collection.
(The story in THIS book by Connie Willis about censors redacting Shakespeare into nothingness was pretty awesome though, and probably closer to the truth than we'd like to admit.)
Twenty-some years later and it feels dated. Not the ideas (though I don't think in 25 years we're going to have half the technologies they talk about in the book) but the style itself. It's...innocent? The cover of the 80's looking couple on the front should have clued me in to the fact that this wasn't going to be a dark and gritty collection. There's a story about magic food that tastes better than anything you've ever eaten, a story about taking care of horses, a story about a kid who fights with his older brother...the setting is always in the 2040's, but the themes are universally childlike I thought.
This is not a bad thing, honestly. All the stories are well-written, without a doubt. I'd picked it up on a whim, and didn't know I was looking for something dark until I was halfway through. So I went into it with the wrong attitude. If you're looking for a light, sometimes funny read, this would be the book for you. If you're looking for something darker, "Bangs and Whimpers" is an excellent, depressing collection.
(The story in THIS book by Connie Willis about censors redacting Shakespeare into nothingness was pretty awesome though, and probably closer to the truth than we'd like to admit.)
December 22, 2009
I enjoyed this collection of short stories about possible future. Connie Willis' Much Ado About [Censored:] made me both think about censorship and chuckle at the absurdity of various groups banning lines from Hamlet until there was practically nothing left. On the opposite spectrum, stories such as Carol Farley's Lose Now, Pay Later and Bruce Coville's Old Glory made me think about not taking responsibility and rights for granted.
March 17, 2011
One of several science fiction anthologies I somehow acquired, either at Goodwill or online for a few dollars. This I recall being a Goodwill find and an awesome one at that! At the time I didn't even recognize who Jane Yolen was but having her as the editor makes this all the more exciting. I remember liking a lot of the stories in this collection but it was the story "Lose Now, Pay Later" about swoodies that really stuck out in my mind. Very good!
March 16, 2012
I really loved this book, in no small part because I had been searching for "Lose Now, Pay Later" for years, since I read it as a kid in a reading book at school. It's still one of my favorites, for a variety of reasons, and I was glad to finally find it! The other stories are pretty interesting, as well.
Now I just need to find that short story about teleporters between houses and the idea that the outside is dangerous...
Now I just need to find that short story about teleporters between houses and the idea that the outside is dangerous...
April 14, 2014
This was an interesting mix of stories, I suppose. Not all of them were very good. I got the book because I was looking for a story I once read in sixth grade, "Lose Now, Pay Later." There was a funny tale about censorship in the future that I quite enjoyed.
February 5, 2016
The winners of this anthology, in my opinion, are:
Much Ado About [Censored] by Connie Willis
Moby James by Patricia A. McKillip
The Last Out by Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith
Free Day by Peg Kerr
Beggarman by Susan Shwartz
Old Glory by Bruce Coville
Much Ado About [Censored] by Connie Willis
Moby James by Patricia A. McKillip
The Last Out by Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith
Free Day by Peg Kerr
Beggarman by Susan Shwartz
Old Glory by Bruce Coville
November 18, 2018
Gem: "A Quiet One."
Just because it's the mid-21st century and we're colonizing space doesn't mean the Wild West is gone!
"Old Glory" is great too, but I had read it before in one of Bruce Coville's collections.
Just because it's the mid-21st century and we're colonizing space doesn't mean the Wild West is gone!
"Old Glory" is great too, but I had read it before in one of Bruce Coville's collections.
May 2, 2009
I loved this as a kid.
October 8, 2011
Loved this book! I read it over and over.
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