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TFF-X: Ten years of The Future Fire
This anthology is a mix of reprints from the first decade of The Future Fire magazine, and new, experimental, unusual or aspirational pieces that push boundaries or play games that might tickle Borges, Calvino and Kafka. With both old and new stories, the editors hope to give a taste of what they’d like to see more of in the next decade, and in the process supply voracious readers with 29 short stories and other pieces of writing full of progressive ideas, underrepresented voices, socially important tales, and of course entertaining, quality fiction! This paper book gives the stories, half of them previously published but in digital form only, another time and space to be enjoyed in.
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
204 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 18, 2016
Stuff I Read - TFF-X: Ten Years of The Future Fire ed Djibril al-Ayad Review
It's refreshing to find a collection that doesn't limit itself solely to SFF short fiction but also manages to draw in SFF poetry and art as well, and provide such a wide range of genres and themes and experiences. From the very first piece it's a powerful collection that celebrates not only what The Future Fire has been doing for the past decade but also celebrates the power of politically-minded SFF to push for change and to open eyes to the truths of the world that are often more easily approached through fiction, and SFF in particular. And there's a lot of stuff in this collection, new and old, drawing a very impressive table of contents and a very impacting assortment of SFF work.
The collection leans on the shorter side, not overall but on a story and poem basis, many of the pieces flash or slightly longer, which I think serves both to keep the pacing of the book as a whole rather quick and also to keep the reader hungry for more. Which is a brilliant way to do a collection like this, which does point back to a publication, so that anyone wanting more, wanting to see the first parts in the multi-part poems or the stories set in the same worlds as some of these stories can just go to The Future Fire and check them out. It's a little frustrating to me that those stories that are so strongly linked are not included in this anthology, because it would lend that extra context, but I understand why that choice was made and it is that extra incentive to look at TFF beyond this anthology.
But the works! "Nasmina's Black Box" by Jennifer Marie Brissett opened up the collection with a raw power and violence and a complete lack of flinching away from any of it, showing how brilliant minds can be seen as a threat, how people can become complications can become victims, and how hope and resistance remain even in a world of monsters. I also loved "Shadow Boy and the Little Match Girl" by C.A. Hawksmoor, which tells the story of a person fractured by lost love, a boy having to deal with being in the body of a girl and a girl not wanting to return to pain she's left behind. It pairs well with James Bennett's "Half Light Love" in which a man revisits his past and his idea of sin, the love he might have shared with another and didn't.
And really there's not enough space here to mention all the stories, but the quality of them all is quite high and I love the amount of diversity in the voices and the characters and the situations. There's plenty of queer representation and characters of color and stories that might not always give people a happy ending but provides moving and poignant portraits of humans striving for something better. Working against systems that are broken and corrupt and harmful. Yearning for a life where they can be free and whole. And it just works and if this is what The Future Fire puts out regularly then we should all be reading their work. As for this collection, it is an exemplar of excellent SFF fiction, poetry, and art, and gets a 9.25/10 from me!
It's refreshing to find a collection that doesn't limit itself solely to SFF short fiction but also manages to draw in SFF poetry and art as well, and provide such a wide range of genres and themes and experiences. From the very first piece it's a powerful collection that celebrates not only what The Future Fire has been doing for the past decade but also celebrates the power of politically-minded SFF to push for change and to open eyes to the truths of the world that are often more easily approached through fiction, and SFF in particular. And there's a lot of stuff in this collection, new and old, drawing a very impressive table of contents and a very impacting assortment of SFF work.
The collection leans on the shorter side, not overall but on a story and poem basis, many of the pieces flash or slightly longer, which I think serves both to keep the pacing of the book as a whole rather quick and also to keep the reader hungry for more. Which is a brilliant way to do a collection like this, which does point back to a publication, so that anyone wanting more, wanting to see the first parts in the multi-part poems or the stories set in the same worlds as some of these stories can just go to The Future Fire and check them out. It's a little frustrating to me that those stories that are so strongly linked are not included in this anthology, because it would lend that extra context, but I understand why that choice was made and it is that extra incentive to look at TFF beyond this anthology.
But the works! "Nasmina's Black Box" by Jennifer Marie Brissett opened up the collection with a raw power and violence and a complete lack of flinching away from any of it, showing how brilliant minds can be seen as a threat, how people can become complications can become victims, and how hope and resistance remain even in a world of monsters. I also loved "Shadow Boy and the Little Match Girl" by C.A. Hawksmoor, which tells the story of a person fractured by lost love, a boy having to deal with being in the body of a girl and a girl not wanting to return to pain she's left behind. It pairs well with James Bennett's "Half Light Love" in which a man revisits his past and his idea of sin, the love he might have shared with another and didn't.
And really there's not enough space here to mention all the stories, but the quality of them all is quite high and I love the amount of diversity in the voices and the characters and the situations. There's plenty of queer representation and characters of color and stories that might not always give people a happy ending but provides moving and poignant portraits of humans striving for something better. Working against systems that are broken and corrupt and harmful. Yearning for a life where they can be free and whole. And it just works and if this is what The Future Fire puts out regularly then we should all be reading their work. As for this collection, it is an exemplar of excellent SFF fiction, poetry, and art, and gets a 9.25/10 from me!
May 2, 2016
I admit that I knew nothing about FUTURE FIRE magazine, but happily got a chance to read the ten-year anniversary anthology and color me surprised with real happiness! This is an excellent anthology of stories from the magazine and I can happily state that these stories were completely different, wonderful, and well-written. It was curated by Djibril al-Ayad and Cécile Matthey with, what I believe to be love of speculative fiction and their magazine. I enjoyed this collection and hope that FUTURE FIRE has another ten years and another anthology to come.
February 5, 2016
I'm biased, because my work is in this collection. But I really enjoyed the other stories, so I'm giving it 5 stars. Caveat emptor!
April 3, 2016
A solid collection of stories and not-stories that leave you with more questions than answers.
November 29, 2017
No anthology is perfect, but anthologies from The Future Fire come awfully close. This collection is no exception and has some real SF/F gems.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews