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Impossible Futures: An Anthology
An astonishing amount of the science and technology in vintage science fiction has come to pass but much has not. Where's your laser gun? Your invisibility suit? Your very own personal robot girlfriend? Despite their obsolescence, these dreams have staying-power. For a fresh take on these classic ideas, try Impossible Futures!
238 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 28, 2013
Technology has come to the rescue many times in SF stories. This collection of stories is based on using those impossible, but wonderful inventions. All so much fun herer is a small selection:
Alan Steele takes us on a rocket train to the moon. Jack McDevitt finds the aliens SETI is searching for. Edward Lerner defeats a nasty dictator with force fields. Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald present Brother Malachi on the Monastery space station on Lagrange Point Three. Paul DiFilippo brings us to the earth where everything is based on physical beauty and grace. Fran Wild, in her first published story, tells the tory of Djonn and Raeda using their artificial wings to fly into the dangerous downtower to search for relics. Best of all James Morrow brings us the shimmering prism-suit of invisibility.
Alan Steele takes us on a rocket train to the moon. Jack McDevitt finds the aliens SETI is searching for. Edward Lerner defeats a nasty dictator with force fields. Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald present Brother Malachi on the Monastery space station on Lagrange Point Three. Paul DiFilippo brings us to the earth where everything is based on physical beauty and grace. Fran Wild, in her first published story, tells the tory of Djonn and Raeda using their artificial wings to fly into the dangerous downtower to search for relics. Best of all James Morrow brings us the shimmering prism-suit of invisibility.
April 22, 2014
There was a time where science and technology were what science fiction was all about. There in the pages of magazines such as Amazing Stories, plot and character were vehicles for bold new inventions, scientific discoveries, and the march of progress. Then science fiction became relevant. As much as the genre has evolved into many sub-genres and threatens join the ranks of serious literature, the golden age of innocence has long since past. And with it a bit of optimism died along the way.
Dial and Easton have brought together some of the most prominent contemporary science fiction writers to return to that earlier age. Sometimes they rework themes of earlier writers (such Allen Steel's “Locomotive Joe and the Wreck of Space Train No. 4” and Debra Doyle & James D. MacDonald's “According the Rule”) at others they just pick on more contemporary themes in the voice of an earlier time (such as can be seen in “Private Shrines” by Sara Smith and Justus Perry or “City of Beauty, City of Scars” by Paul Di Filippo).
The conceit of Impossible Futures is that while science fiction often has made stunning predictions about future technology, it makes so many predictions that most of them never come to pass and much of science fiction, especially of the golden age, is just impossible. So, one would think that these stories are about some of these spectacular failures. Some hew closely to this premiss. Space trains (as least as described in “Locomotive Joe”) clearly fail when it comes to the weight to thrust ratio. Others (such as the invisibly costume in James Morrow's “The Amazing Transparent Man”) just seem more impossible than they may really be. Most of the writers don't really seem to care if their stories are impossible or not. What they deliver, however, are stories that make impossible (or at least very improbable) seem plausible and entertaining. Perhaps being presented with the plausible impossible can assist in reviving optimism, even if it is all in good fun.
Dial and Easton have brought together some of the most prominent contemporary science fiction writers to return to that earlier age. Sometimes they rework themes of earlier writers (such Allen Steel's “Locomotive Joe and the Wreck of Space Train No. 4” and Debra Doyle & James D. MacDonald's “According the Rule”) at others they just pick on more contemporary themes in the voice of an earlier time (such as can be seen in “Private Shrines” by Sara Smith and Justus Perry or “City of Beauty, City of Scars” by Paul Di Filippo).
The conceit of Impossible Futures is that while science fiction often has made stunning predictions about future technology, it makes so many predictions that most of them never come to pass and much of science fiction, especially of the golden age, is just impossible. So, one would think that these stories are about some of these spectacular failures. Some hew closely to this premiss. Space trains (as least as described in “Locomotive Joe”) clearly fail when it comes to the weight to thrust ratio. Others (such as the invisibly costume in James Morrow's “The Amazing Transparent Man”) just seem more impossible than they may really be. Most of the writers don't really seem to care if their stories are impossible or not. What they deliver, however, are stories that make impossible (or at least very improbable) seem plausible and entertaining. Perhaps being presented with the plausible impossible can assist in reviving optimism, even if it is all in good fun.
March 29, 2015
So here's how I came to read this book: I was at a seminar which ended about two hours before I was due to meet a friend for dinner. I was far from home with time to kill, so naturally I went to the library. After a little quick browsing, this was what I came up with which both matched what I was kind of craving, and looked like I could finish it in the hour and a half I had remaining.
Right on both counts, it turned out. (Well, just past the hour and a half, but I think my friend has forgiven me.) I really, really like retrofuturism and I love exploring the futures that might have been. So really, my main disappointment was that it wasn't retrofuturistic enough. Some of the stories sat a little bit distant from straight up science fiction, some of them weren't so much based on debunked technology as things that could still come to be, and some were just really unfocused. It hit the spot topically, but didn't rise above that.
Right on both counts, it turned out. (Well, just past the hour and a half, but I think my friend has forgiven me.) I really, really like retrofuturism and I love exploring the futures that might have been. So really, my main disappointment was that it wasn't retrofuturistic enough. Some of the stories sat a little bit distant from straight up science fiction, some of them weren't so much based on debunked technology as things that could still come to be, and some were just really unfocused. It hit the spot topically, but didn't rise above that.
March 23, 2015
I couldn't finish it. Wonderful cover art and wonderful concept, I'd really been looking forward to it, but the execution was so disappointing. The stories read like submissions from an intro to creative writing class, their authors struggling to fulfill a writing prompt. Perhaps I didn't give it a fair shot, perhaps I'm missing out on a few gems, but the stories I did read were so dull that I couldn't be bothered to finish. If you've never read any science fiction (or any quality science fiction), you might find the "ideas" in these stories interesting.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews