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METAtropolis #3
METAtropolis: Green Space
Audible’s Audie Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated vision of the not-too-distant future returns!
As METAtropolis: Green Space moves into the 22nd Century, human social evolution is heading in new directions after the Green Crash and the subsequent Green Renaissance. Nearly everyone who cares to participate in the wired world has become part of the "Internet of things", a virtual environment mapped across all aspects of the natural experience. At the same time, the serious back-to-the-land types have embraced a full-on paleo lifestyle, including genetically engineering themselves and their offspring. At the same time, a back-to-space movement is seeking the moon, a green Mars, and even the stars, with the eventual goal of leaving a pristine and undisturbed Earth behind.
METAtropolis: Green Space is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Hugo Award winning writers Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Elizabeth Bear; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically-acclaimed author Ken Scholes.
As METAtropolis: Green Space moves into the 22nd Century, human social evolution is heading in new directions after the Green Crash and the subsequent Green Renaissance. Nearly everyone who cares to participate in the wired world has become part of the "Internet of things", a virtual environment mapped across all aspects of the natural experience. At the same time, the serious back-to-the-land types have embraced a full-on paleo lifestyle, including genetically engineering themselves and their offspring. At the same time, a back-to-space movement is seeking the moon, a green Mars, and even the stars, with the eventual goal of leaving a pristine and undisturbed Earth behind.
METAtropolis: Green Space is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Hugo Award winning writers Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Elizabeth Bear; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically-acclaimed author Ken Scholes.
14 pages, Audible Audio
First published October 13, 2013
5 people are currently reading
284 people want to read
About the author
Jay Lake
239 books254 followersJay Lake lived in Portland, Oregon, where he worked on multiple writing and editing projects. His 2007 book Mainspring received a starred review in Booklist. His short fiction appeared regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Endeavour Award, and was a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
September 1, 2023
Rock of Ages by Jay Lake ★★★★★
This was as a good as Tom Cruise action-mystery movie. Loved it!
Let Me Hide Myself in Thee by Ken Scholes ★★★★★
Best story of the bunch! In the riveting conclusion to Rock of Ages Bashar’s wife and daughter take over the story and
Midway Bells & Dying Breeds by Seanan McGuire ★★★★½
“The trouble with wanting to do the right thing is that frequently the right thing today is the wrong thing for tomorrow. Or the wrong thing for the people who are standing between you and your perfect platonic future.”
“It’s a utopia, by 20th century standards, and everything would be wonderful if it weren’t a utopia that’s full of humans. And we are still human.”
Damn she’s a good writer. I hope Ansley and Billy have many adventures together.
Read the story here: https://www.tor.com/2014/09/24/midway...
Green and Dying by Elizabeth Bear ★★★½☆
The first half was so boring, enragingly boring, considering it’s the culmination of a long con. But then post-pandemic thunder words like cytokines storm ramped up the story.
Tensegrity by Tobias S. Buckell ★★★½☆
The founder of a sky city must come out of retirement to save his sentient creation from extremists.
Forest of Memories by Mary Robinette Kowal ★★★☆☆
“I’ve given you the gift of uncertainty.”
A woman is kidnapped after witnessing a man tranquillizing deer. It’s possible this was the emergence of deer as the next new sentient species, but the story is obnoxiously lacking of clarity.
The Desire Lines by Karl Schroeder ★★☆☆☆
A boring legal conspiracy to steal the personhood of the forest.
I read all seven stories for an average of 3.7 stars happily rounded up.
This was as a good as Tom Cruise action-mystery movie. Loved it!
Let Me Hide Myself in Thee by Ken Scholes ★★★★★
Best story of the bunch! In the riveting conclusion to Rock of Ages Bashar’s wife and daughter take over the story and
Midway Bells & Dying Breeds by Seanan McGuire ★★★★½
“The trouble with wanting to do the right thing is that frequently the right thing today is the wrong thing for tomorrow. Or the wrong thing for the people who are standing between you and your perfect platonic future.”
“It’s a utopia, by 20th century standards, and everything would be wonderful if it weren’t a utopia that’s full of humans. And we are still human.”
Damn she’s a good writer. I hope Ansley and Billy have many adventures together.
Read the story here: https://www.tor.com/2014/09/24/midway...
Green and Dying by Elizabeth Bear ★★★½☆
The first half was so boring, enragingly boring, considering it’s the culmination of a long con. But then post-pandemic thunder words like cytokines storm ramped up the story.
Tensegrity by Tobias S. Buckell ★★★½☆
The founder of a sky city must come out of retirement to save his sentient creation from extremists.
Forest of Memories by Mary Robinette Kowal ★★★☆☆
“I’ve given you the gift of uncertainty.”
A woman is kidnapped after witnessing a man tranquillizing deer. It’s possible this was the emergence of deer as the next new sentient species, but the story is obnoxiously lacking of clarity.
The Desire Lines by Karl Schroeder ★★☆☆☆
A boring legal conspiracy to steal the personhood of the forest.
I read all seven stories for an average of 3.7 stars happily rounded up.
January 27, 2014
I have liked all three of the METAtropolis short story collections. Short stories are perfect for audiobook listening, even when I am actively reading a novel in Kindle or hardcopy format. The first collection of inter-related stories was set about 30 years in the future. The second, METAtropolis, Cascadia, was set about 50 to 60 years in the future. And this collection is set about 100 years in the future. The multiple writers agree upon some common facts, but most of the stories are otherwise fairly independent of one another. All of the writers agree that the earth and the world as we know them, have changed dramatically in response to the climate changes and humanity's reaction and attempts to survive in that less-bountiful environment.
I like the fact that technology is still emphasized in the stories, even 100 years in the future, although I doubt the supposition that high technology will survive the destruction of the military-industrial, nationalistic superstructure. If education and manufacturing are severely reduced, the miracles of technology will go with them, I think. I do find fascinating the idea that sea-borne communities and cities floating in the clouds will exist and that we will find a way to give the animals and the forests a "voice" in the governance of the world. The wide-spread use of eye-activated information displays and the use of bio-engineered implants is close to being realized within our own world.
Most readers of science fiction literature should find all three of these short story collections interesting.
April 14, 2014
There are some very cool ideas in this third installment in the METAtropolis short story collection, but the authors got less disciplined here and there are some stories that seem to be phoned in. On top of that, the very famous scifi actors who narrated the first two installments have been replaced by some sub-par narrators who were almost annoying to listen to. I would recommend this collection only to the hard-core scifi readers who are here for the ideas, for there are some extremely cool ideas here despite the mediocre plots, same-old characters and confusing story arcs.
I’ll review each story separately. Here there be (minor) spoilers . . .
Rock of Ages, by Jay Lake. Narrators: Mark Boyette, Dion Graham, Robin Miles. As the METAtropolis franchise moves farther and farther into its imagined future, it would be nice if Jay Lake would also move forward. The explanation for extending Bashar’s life (he is around 150 years old in this story) is complicated and does not really fit in with the rest of the METAtropolis mythos. I could get over that, if there were some really good reason to keep Bashar around, but I don’t think there is. It’s like the author couldn’t be bothered to come up with a new character. Stretching the reader’s credulity further, the author makes the super-centenarian Bashar the hero of a ridiculous James-Bond-type escapade. The only cool thing in this whole story was the forest that had been legally incorporated as an entity and that could speak via the Internet. To my utter disbelief, the door was left open for Bashar to survive riding an asteroid down from high earth orbit and smashing it into Seattle.
Green and Dying, by Elizabeth Bear. Narrator: Jonathan Davis. This story of a group of con men/women running a scam reminded me of an episode of Leverage (not necessarily a bad thing). The scam takes place on a “seastead,” which I imagined like an oil rig only full of condos for rich people. Unfortunately, neither the “seastead” nor the characters were particularly interesting, and the way the story unfolded was too slow. I was actually pretty bored until about halfway through when the story took a turn and seemed like it was going to tie in with some of the plagues that were mentioned in the previous story by Jay Lake, but then that connection wasn’t quite made so I was left more confused than anything else.
The Desire Lines, by Karl Schroeder. Narrator: Sanjiv Jhaveri. Refreshingly, this story was set in a new place—the Amazon rain forests of Peru/Brazil—and featured people of color as the protagonists. And, since it was written by the ever inventive Karl Schroeder, it featured some of the most mind-meltingly awesome futuristic ideas in this entire collection. Again, we are treated to a forest that has a mind of its own, but there are also corporations with really interesting ideas about how to fix a broken environment. One scientist even theorizes that she could revise the ecology so that none of the animals had to kill in order to survive! The narrator was amazing at doing different accents for all the different characters, but for some reason when he was doing straight prose narration, his cadence was so sing-song that it was actually hard to listen to.
Midway Bells & Dying Breeds, by Seanan McGuire. Narrator: Jennifer Van Dyck. The protagonist of this story has grown up as part of a very large, extended family that runs a travelling circus, a remnant of an earlier time that has survived into this high-tech future. Her main job is to steer a huge dinosaur (created like they were in Jurassic Park) to which the circus tethers its floating (?) ferris wheel. Okay, I’ll admit I’m a little fuzzy on what the dino was actually doing. Mostly, we are treated to descriptions of how it oh-so-slow-ly munches its way through the forest. The story could be read as an examination of what happens when things live on past their original expiration date, but rather than taking this opportunity to have the characters debate the merits of resurrecting long-extinct species or the need to continue old traditions, the plot degenerated into the protagonist and the Big Boss of the circus whining about their personal love-hate relationship like adolescents rather than two adults discussing different world views. The “resolution” of their differences was definitely the kind of half-baked, impulsive solution that a teenager would come up with, leaving me disgusted and dissatisfied. The weakest story in the bunch, this seemed like it was originally written for some other reason and then gerrymandered (I’ll add some high-tech circus tents that pack and unpack themselves!) to fit into this collection.
Tensegrity, by Tobias S. Brickell. Narrator: Scott Brick. The possibilities of future tech and social advances were the highlights of this story. A giant, three-mile-in-circumference, concrete city floats into the stratosphere. AIs “govern” small city-states automagically, making most of the pesky day-to-day decisions and leaving us humans to pursue our passions. “Murder” is redefined. I liked that this story tied in better with the rest of the METAtropolis world and the overall story arc. Scott Brick, always amazing!
Forest of Memories, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Narrator: Allyson Johnson. This was my favorite of the bunch, mainly because it was written with a unique point-of-view. The protagonist is telling her story to someone else who has evidently paid her to tell it. In this future where nearly everyone and everything is wired 24-7, for a crucial several days, the protagonist’s connectivity was cut. Of course something mysterious and untoward happened to her during that time, and now she has only her memories and no independent verification of the facts. Wonderfully read by Allyson Johnson.
Let Me Hide Myself in Thee, by Ken Scholes. Narrators: Dion Graham, Robin Miles. This story felt like an obligatory “let’s tie up the loose ends with a nice bow” kind of thing. I give the author an “A” for effort, but could have done with a few less hand-wavium moments. (Oh! I need an action heroine! I’ll conveniently give this person who has been a desk-hugging fiscal researcher her whole life a backstory in which her unconventional parents forced her to learn to be a sniper! And she will miraculously remember this skill 20 years later!)
I’ll review each story separately. Here there be (minor) spoilers . . .
Rock of Ages, by Jay Lake. Narrators: Mark Boyette, Dion Graham, Robin Miles. As the METAtropolis franchise moves farther and farther into its imagined future, it would be nice if Jay Lake would also move forward. The explanation for extending Bashar’s life (he is around 150 years old in this story) is complicated and does not really fit in with the rest of the METAtropolis mythos. I could get over that, if there were some really good reason to keep Bashar around, but I don’t think there is. It’s like the author couldn’t be bothered to come up with a new character. Stretching the reader’s credulity further, the author makes the super-centenarian Bashar the hero of a ridiculous James-Bond-type escapade. The only cool thing in this whole story was the forest that had been legally incorporated as an entity and that could speak via the Internet. To my utter disbelief, the door was left open for Bashar to survive riding an asteroid down from high earth orbit and smashing it into Seattle.
Green and Dying, by Elizabeth Bear. Narrator: Jonathan Davis. This story of a group of con men/women running a scam reminded me of an episode of Leverage (not necessarily a bad thing). The scam takes place on a “seastead,” which I imagined like an oil rig only full of condos for rich people. Unfortunately, neither the “seastead” nor the characters were particularly interesting, and the way the story unfolded was too slow. I was actually pretty bored until about halfway through when the story took a turn and seemed like it was going to tie in with some of the plagues that were mentioned in the previous story by Jay Lake, but then that connection wasn’t quite made so I was left more confused than anything else.
The Desire Lines, by Karl Schroeder. Narrator: Sanjiv Jhaveri. Refreshingly, this story was set in a new place—the Amazon rain forests of Peru/Brazil—and featured people of color as the protagonists. And, since it was written by the ever inventive Karl Schroeder, it featured some of the most mind-meltingly awesome futuristic ideas in this entire collection. Again, we are treated to a forest that has a mind of its own, but there are also corporations with really interesting ideas about how to fix a broken environment. One scientist even theorizes that she could revise the ecology so that none of the animals had to kill in order to survive! The narrator was amazing at doing different accents for all the different characters, but for some reason when he was doing straight prose narration, his cadence was so sing-song that it was actually hard to listen to.
Midway Bells & Dying Breeds, by Seanan McGuire. Narrator: Jennifer Van Dyck. The protagonist of this story has grown up as part of a very large, extended family that runs a travelling circus, a remnant of an earlier time that has survived into this high-tech future. Her main job is to steer a huge dinosaur (created like they were in Jurassic Park) to which the circus tethers its floating (?) ferris wheel. Okay, I’ll admit I’m a little fuzzy on what the dino was actually doing. Mostly, we are treated to descriptions of how it oh-so-slow-ly munches its way through the forest. The story could be read as an examination of what happens when things live on past their original expiration date, but rather than taking this opportunity to have the characters debate the merits of resurrecting long-extinct species or the need to continue old traditions, the plot degenerated into the protagonist and the Big Boss of the circus whining about their personal love-hate relationship like adolescents rather than two adults discussing different world views. The “resolution” of their differences was definitely the kind of half-baked, impulsive solution that a teenager would come up with, leaving me disgusted and dissatisfied. The weakest story in the bunch, this seemed like it was originally written for some other reason and then gerrymandered (I’ll add some high-tech circus tents that pack and unpack themselves!) to fit into this collection.
Tensegrity, by Tobias S. Brickell. Narrator: Scott Brick. The possibilities of future tech and social advances were the highlights of this story. A giant, three-mile-in-circumference, concrete city floats into the stratosphere. AIs “govern” small city-states automagically, making most of the pesky day-to-day decisions and leaving us humans to pursue our passions. “Murder” is redefined. I liked that this story tied in better with the rest of the METAtropolis world and the overall story arc. Scott Brick, always amazing!
Forest of Memories, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Narrator: Allyson Johnson. This was my favorite of the bunch, mainly because it was written with a unique point-of-view. The protagonist is telling her story to someone else who has evidently paid her to tell it. In this future where nearly everyone and everything is wired 24-7, for a crucial several days, the protagonist’s connectivity was cut. Of course something mysterious and untoward happened to her during that time, and now she has only her memories and no independent verification of the facts. Wonderfully read by Allyson Johnson.
Let Me Hide Myself in Thee, by Ken Scholes. Narrators: Dion Graham, Robin Miles. This story felt like an obligatory “let’s tie up the loose ends with a nice bow” kind of thing. I give the author an “A” for effort, but could have done with a few less hand-wavium moments. (Oh! I need an action heroine! I’ll conveniently give this person who has been a desk-hugging fiscal researcher her whole life a backstory in which her unconventional parents forced her to learn to be a sniper! And she will miraculously remember this skill 20 years later!)
January 4, 2020
Again like the others I found some stories I really liked and others I didn’t care for. The premise is great and I like the world building that has been done by all the authors. Some stories really work for me and others don’t. I think most readers will agree with this but may think differently with each story.
January 11, 2014
I didn't like METAtropolis: Green Space nearly as much as the first two volumes. This was much bleaker, with a lot of subtle and no-so-subtle corporate takeover and intrigue. I don't know if the point was that we always come back around to the same thing again. But if it were me, I would have taken some of these subjects and made the same point with different stories.
I rated each story separately and came up with a 3.71 average, higher than I thought. But I just can't bring myself to give it 4 stars, no matter how much I love the Bashar character and the 2 superior stories in the book.
Rock of Ages, by Jay Lake. Narrators: Mark Boyette, Dion Graham, Robin Miles. Bashar is esp. well narrated. I really liked Jay Lake's stories in the first 2 books a lot and Bashar has always been one of my favorite characters in the series. But I thought this story was really hard to follow. There was too much unexplained technology and too much intrigue. I got the overall gist, but no matter how much I tried, I just didn't understand a lot of what was going on in the story. *** (I should give it a 4th star because I love Bashar and his narrator)
Green and Dying, by Elizabeth Bear. Narrator: Jonathan Davis. Too slow, a spy thriller should be read with more energy. This could have been an interesting story. There are a lot of elements here: seasteading, aquaculture, potential problems that might arise from living in an isolated environment. I'm sorry that it was written as a spy thriller. It could have been so much better. I did appreciate the subtle Star Trek references (Jeffries tubes? Invisibility cloaks? Made me chuckle.) ***
The Desire Lines, by Karl Schroeder. Narrator: Sanjiv Jhaveri, okay narrator except his Spanish accent fluctuates between Spanish & Indian.. Can't decide about this story. It certainly left me thinking. I have an opinion where my desire line would go, but I'm not the planner. I was in the Amazon Basin recently, and I thought the story has a good sense of place. ****
Midway Bells & Dying Breeds, by Seanan McGuire. Narrator: Jennifer Van Dyck. One of my favorite stories in the anthology. Very creative and unique. I loved the carnival setting and the idea that they were sort of a "vintage" attraction. The theme of traditions and traveling slowly across the land was a refreshing counterpoint to the rest of the stories that explore technology, alternate realities and alternatives to living with the earth. *****
Tensegrity, by Tobias S. Brickell. Narrator: Scott Brick. Not one of my favorites. I liked the main character from the beginning and Eve really grew on me throughout. By the end the story had really caught my interested and I wanted to hear more. But unfortunately, it took 3/4 of the story to build up to a point where I a) understood what was going on, or even what Skyhome was; and b) cared about any of it. Also, yet another story with too much intrigue, not enough story. It didn't help that Scott Brick is one of least favorite narrators, way too slow and dry (sorry Scott Brick lovers, I know there are a lot of you). ***
Forest of Memories, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Narrator: Allyson Johnson. Good narration.. Interesting and thoughtful. The reader gets two stories in one: The story-within-a-story - the narrator as a seller of memories - differs from the way this device is often used. It also fits right into the Metatropolis: Green Space collection. The memory shared by the narrator is also fascinating. It's not confusing or hard to follow, but it intentionally leaves a lot of questions unanswered. What's really going on with the deer? Who is the male character? Is it Bashar? Maybe, maybe not. Read on and see what you think. Another favorite in this collection. *****
Let Me Hide Myself in Thee, by Ken Scholes. Narrator: Dion Graham, Robin Miles. Good narration.. I can't decide whether I like this story or not. I enjoyed hearing more about Bashar's family. Some interesting ideas and follow ups to plots from previous books/stories. But again, a too much of a shoot-'em-up for me. Being vague to avoid a spoiler, but I also thought Charity's plot line was too convenient. In fact, the whole plot was a little too pat. ***
I rated each story separately and came up with a 3.71 average, higher than I thought. But I just can't bring myself to give it 4 stars, no matter how much I love the Bashar character and the 2 superior stories in the book.
Rock of Ages, by Jay Lake. Narrators: Mark Boyette, Dion Graham, Robin Miles. Bashar is esp. well narrated. I really liked Jay Lake's stories in the first 2 books a lot and Bashar has always been one of my favorite characters in the series. But I thought this story was really hard to follow. There was too much unexplained technology and too much intrigue. I got the overall gist, but no matter how much I tried, I just didn't understand a lot of what was going on in the story. *** (I should give it a 4th star because I love Bashar and his narrator)
Green and Dying, by Elizabeth Bear. Narrator: Jonathan Davis. Too slow, a spy thriller should be read with more energy. This could have been an interesting story. There are a lot of elements here: seasteading, aquaculture, potential problems that might arise from living in an isolated environment. I'm sorry that it was written as a spy thriller. It could have been so much better. I did appreciate the subtle Star Trek references (Jeffries tubes? Invisibility cloaks? Made me chuckle.) ***
The Desire Lines, by Karl Schroeder. Narrator: Sanjiv Jhaveri, okay narrator except his Spanish accent fluctuates between Spanish & Indian.. Can't decide about this story. It certainly left me thinking. I have an opinion where my desire line would go, but I'm not the planner. I was in the Amazon Basin recently, and I thought the story has a good sense of place. ****
Midway Bells & Dying Breeds, by Seanan McGuire. Narrator: Jennifer Van Dyck. One of my favorite stories in the anthology. Very creative and unique. I loved the carnival setting and the idea that they were sort of a "vintage" attraction. The theme of traditions and traveling slowly across the land was a refreshing counterpoint to the rest of the stories that explore technology, alternate realities and alternatives to living with the earth. *****
Tensegrity, by Tobias S. Brickell. Narrator: Scott Brick. Not one of my favorites. I liked the main character from the beginning and Eve really grew on me throughout. By the end the story had really caught my interested and I wanted to hear more. But unfortunately, it took 3/4 of the story to build up to a point where I a) understood what was going on, or even what Skyhome was; and b) cared about any of it. Also, yet another story with too much intrigue, not enough story. It didn't help that Scott Brick is one of least favorite narrators, way too slow and dry (sorry Scott Brick lovers, I know there are a lot of you). ***
Forest of Memories, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Narrator: Allyson Johnson. Good narration.. Interesting and thoughtful. The reader gets two stories in one: The story-within-a-story - the narrator as a seller of memories - differs from the way this device is often used. It also fits right into the Metatropolis: Green Space collection. The memory shared by the narrator is also fascinating. It's not confusing or hard to follow, but it intentionally leaves a lot of questions unanswered. What's really going on with the deer? Who is the male character? Is it Bashar? Maybe, maybe not. Read on and see what you think. Another favorite in this collection. *****
Let Me Hide Myself in Thee, by Ken Scholes. Narrator: Dion Graham, Robin Miles. Good narration.. I can't decide whether I like this story or not. I enjoyed hearing more about Bashar's family. Some interesting ideas and follow ups to plots from previous books/stories. But again, a too much of a shoot-'em-up for me. Being vague to avoid a spoiler, but I also thought Charity's plot line was too convenient. In fact, the whole plot was a little too pat. ***
January 1, 2021
Why do I read books in a series out of order? Because, I don't check to see they are part of a series. Oops.
It didn't matter with this book. It was great!
Set in Seattle, every short story shares the Green Space idea. Yes, the environment and companies and capitalists attempting ruining it. It is in a post-apocalyptic future shared by multiple authors. It gets pulled together in the end so it doesn't leave you feeling like you are being jerked between stories.
I love this. Maybe because I lived in Seattle for six years. I knew Washington state and got joy in hearing about my most recent home through the eyes and voices of others.
For my first book of 2021, this was an inspiring way to start.
5 Capitol Hill references out of 5.
It didn't matter with this book. It was great!
Set in Seattle, every short story shares the Green Space idea. Yes, the environment and companies and capitalists attempting ruining it. It is in a post-apocalyptic future shared by multiple authors. It gets pulled together in the end so it doesn't leave you feeling like you are being jerked between stories.
I love this. Maybe because I lived in Seattle for six years. I knew Washington state and got joy in hearing about my most recent home through the eyes and voices of others.
For my first book of 2021, this was an inspiring way to start.
5 Capitol Hill references out of 5.
February 28, 2026
A solid conclusion to the trilogy and some fun final stories with reoccurring characters from the other books. Much like the other books, this installment still felt very cohesive between authors. I personally had preferences of some of the stories, but as a whole, they're all rather good; well written and interesting.
This isn't an end to the world, but it does feel like the end of the series(in a good way). They go even further into the future and have more interesting developments in their technology, social development, and how they're using currency. It's a sci-fi so those things are discussed, but it's not explained in such a way that it takes away from the story. I feel like they all did a good balance of making sure that you know what was going on without being weird about it.
This isn't an end to the world, but it does feel like the end of the series(in a good way). They go even further into the future and have more interesting developments in their technology, social development, and how they're using currency. It's a sci-fi so those things are discussed, but it's not explained in such a way that it takes away from the story. I feel like they all did a good balance of making sure that you know what was going on without being weird about it.
March 28, 2020
Auch der dritte Band ist absolut perfekt. Jede einzelne Story und das ganze Konzept zusammen. Die Reihe gehört mit Sicherheit zum Besten, was ich in 40 Jahren an Sci-Fi gelesen bzw. gehört habe. Auch narrated ist es hervorragend. Das Ganze in Zeiten von Covid19 zu hören ist allerdings - speziell.
Ich wünschte, es gäbe mehr davon.
Ich wünschte, es gäbe mehr davon.
April 30, 2023
I increasingly like cooperative projects across borders, especially when it comes to developing ideas about the future. Cli-fi is moving closer and faster to reality than we should wish for, but it may also serve as a warning and incentive to use knowledge and technology that is already in the making.
July 5, 2022
7. So this was a work of varied authors but I think. that the plot was just way too depressing for me to enjoy. I didn't find anything to hook me further into the story so I reluctantly decided to DNF. Unable to recommend. to the normal crew.
December 23, 2017
Aaaaand I'm done with the series. This volume had little that was new or thought-provoking.
December 16, 2020
Definitely worth reading for some of the stories, though others weren't to my taste, pulling the rating down. Really enjoyed parts of it though, and some great, original ideas.
March 13, 2021
Very interesting ideas and stories about the future of earth and humanity.
August 13, 2021
The best of the three in my opinion. These stories interconnect more within this volume, as well as to previous volumes.
August 15, 2021
Good fun and an interesting read to pass the time
November 5, 2023
I loved every story in this collection. A glimpse of possible close futures, on the back of hope and despair for how our environment and societies could turn out.
April 27, 2014
This is actually a worthy coda to the trilogy. I saw Noah today (to wit: Noah reframed as a religious fundamentalist and our world as a post-apocalyptic dystopia) in a shopping mall in Luanda, Angola ("globalization") and I identified a number of themes that connected with the themes in the series (man's destruction of the world, humanity not deserving this blue planet, etc.). I also recently heard/read Dave Eggers' The Circle and also, lots of connections (i.e., the consequences of permanent integration and interlinking of people and systems; in this series, the view is more ambivalent than in The Circle). There is this expression, "exercise of style" -- more than that, I thought these were exercises of intelligence. A stellar selection of practicing science-fiction writers writing on spec, speculating on the near future and showing off their grasp of their trade. In some cases pure brilliance, always interesting. And the readers, who in the course of the series included Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek actors, and professional (and maybe also one or two not so professional) readers of audiobooks, were mostly highly commendable. There are a handful of original, insightful and intriguing ideas on the future of cities and our place in the world, both physical and virtual, that amply justify investing in the company of these texts and voices.
December 17, 2015
Regarding the stories:
I think I'm getting a little tired of this series.
The concept the series started with - innovative ways to deal with climate change - is now far from the case since we're now decades (almost a century?) after the initial focus on utra-eco-friendly societies began, and I'm not entirely sure that the technology by now really WORKS with that ultra-eco-friendly concept.
But I still love some of the technology that has been introduced and the applications of it.
Augmented Reality glasses being used to do LARPing? Oh yeah! Definitely! And the application of it here seems a natural evolution of the uses presented in earlier books.
Regarding the narration:
I've heard other audiobook fans complain about men trying to do women's voices and sounding like men in drag. I've never heard one that I personally would describe this way.
That is - until this book. Sanjiv Jhaveri sounded really really awful whenever he had to do a women's voice. Yuck.
I think I'm getting a little tired of this series.
The concept the series started with - innovative ways to deal with climate change - is now far from the case since we're now decades (almost a century?) after the initial focus on utra-eco-friendly societies began, and I'm not entirely sure that the technology by now really WORKS with that ultra-eco-friendly concept.
But I still love some of the technology that has been introduced and the applications of it.
Augmented Reality glasses being used to do LARPing? Oh yeah! Definitely! And the application of it here seems a natural evolution of the uses presented in earlier books.
Regarding the narration:
I've heard other audiobook fans complain about men trying to do women's voices and sounding like men in drag. I've never heard one that I personally would describe this way.
That is - until this book. Sanjiv Jhaveri sounded really really awful whenever he had to do a women's voice. Yuck.
October 1, 2014
The authors do a good job of connecting the different stories together without requiring too much recollection of previous stories. Once again, we skip ahead "40" years and the world is different but the same. They handle the time skip better this time than in the second book - no distracting inconsistencies that I noticed.
The collection itself is, however, not quite as good as its predecessor. The big problem this time is how well their predictions of future technology come across. And that is uninspired. Nothing terribly "new" is introduced this time around. There aren't really any new/interesting concepts or approaches to technology like in the previous collections. It's a lot of cookie cutter scifi fare for the most part, and it was disappointing.
Still, the overarching story is good and some of the individual entries are very very good. I was quite upset when things ended 1/4 of the way along my drive into work this morning :P
The collection itself is, however, not quite as good as its predecessor. The big problem this time is how well their predictions of future technology come across. And that is uninspired. Nothing terribly "new" is introduced this time around. There aren't really any new/interesting concepts or approaches to technology like in the previous collections. It's a lot of cookie cutter scifi fare for the most part, and it was disappointing.
Still, the overarching story is good and some of the individual entries are very very good. I was quite upset when things ended 1/4 of the way along my drive into work this morning :P
August 31, 2015
This is a collection of short stories all taking place, not only in the same universe, but in roughly the same time period. Some stories take place at the center of major events, while others quietly unfold a thousand miles away.
I loved the world. It takes place in a Green Renaissance, where the damage from centuries past has been healed, but not without a cost. Humanity is changing rapidly in this new world, through genetic modification, change in habitat, or, quite frankly, change in pecking order.
This is third in a series, but I was able to pick this up without any issues. In fact, I think I ended up enjoying it more for that, since it was fun to put the pieces of what happened before together.
I loved the world. It takes place in a Green Renaissance, where the damage from centuries past has been healed, but not without a cost. Humanity is changing rapidly in this new world, through genetic modification, change in habitat, or, quite frankly, change in pecking order.
This is third in a series, but I was able to pick this up without any issues. In fact, I think I ended up enjoying it more for that, since it was fun to put the pieces of what happened before together.
December 9, 2015
This is a collection of short stories/novellas by various authors, set in the same universe as the first two METAtropolis books. As with those, some of the stories are really good, almost 5 star. Others are mediocre to poor, some I would rate as low as 2 star. The overarching story is really good and that's what I'm giving the 4 stars to. Note too that each short story/novella has a different narrator(s). Some are excellent while others are atrocious. I recommend this overall, but be prepared either with your fast forward button, or just to listen thru some less than wonderful parts. The ending is worth wading thru the mediocre parts.
February 21, 2015
The third (and final?) collection of audio-only short stories set in the next 70-80 years follows up quite nicely on the first two collections, and perhaps might actually surpass them for collective excellence. Not all the stories are great, but some are - especially Jay Lake's leadoff story. In fact, in all three of the METAtropolis books, Lake's stories are the standouts - his death last year is a real loss for the sci fi community. Narrators are again mostly excellent, but Dion Graham as the voice of Bashar is the real deal here - one of the best narrators I have ever heard.
December 14, 2013
I enjoyed all the stories again. One thing that was made clear to me was that when the characters talk about moving their eyes and their Isis, they are talking about a bodily update where they can access the internet via their bodies. This is a creepy concept to me and I don't think I would do it, but my husband said he would in a heart beat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2013
A fantastic third in the series. My personal favorites in this anthology come from Tobias Buckell and Jay Lake, but all the stories were involving and in some ways the authors did their best job yet of taking a common thread and weaving it into their various plots.
If you're a fan of near future, speculative science fiction then you need to go get this right away. There is Hugo material herein.
If you're a fan of near future, speculative science fiction then you need to go get this right away. There is Hugo material herein.
March 16, 2014
Warning! You’re entering serious geek territory! Only authorized geeky personnel is to proceed beyond this point! OK, I’m kidding but seriously, this is some awesome hardcore sci-fi... Read the full audiobook review for METAtropolis: Green Space here.
June 23, 2014
Solid continuation of the series. Just like the others, it's a bit heavy handed on the green agenda, but the clear split between the soft and hard greens made for interesting structure. Seems to advocate moderation to get things done.
November 15, 2013
This series continues to be great. I hope they do another one, but not so tied to just one family.
July 20, 2014
I've been a fan of the METAtropolis series since the beginning, and this latest entry does not disappoint. Good quality, well written and performed science fiction.
December 23, 2013
Each trip into this shared universe exceeds my expectations. I only hope there are more....
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