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2047: Short Stories from Our Common Future
As citizens on this blue planet of ours, we are currently experiencing great changes when it comes to global warming, pollution, and toxic substances—such as microplastic—that end up in our food and our drinking water. In addition, flora and fauna are disappearing from the places where we played when we were children, and natural resources are being depleted around the world.
Life as we know it is changing. Some say these changes are happening faster than ever, which means we need to adapt faster too. So are we?
Thirty years ago, the United Nations created a vision for our common future: one Earth, where we could all live together without damaging the planet for future generations.
In this short-fiction anthology, ten authors look another thirty years into the future, giving their perspectives regarding how we might—or might not—adapt to the changes around us in the year 2047.
Life as we know it is changing. Some say these changes are happening faster than ever, which means we need to adapt faster too. So are we?
Thirty years ago, the United Nations created a vision for our common future: one Earth, where we could all live together without damaging the planet for future generations.
In this short-fiction anthology, ten authors look another thirty years into the future, giving their perspectives regarding how we might—or might not—adapt to the changes around us in the year 2047.
171 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 29, 2017
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About the author
Tanja Rohini Bisgaard
8 books8 followersFor my children's books in Danish please see the profile T. R. Bisgaard
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 21, 2018
This anthology uses the power of fiction to immerse us in new dystopian futures, as a means of warning us of what may come to pass over the next 30 years if we don’t change our ways, and tackle climate change and environmental degradation. It is a collection of bold cli-fi short stories and poetry which use innovative writing styles to convey the type of future we might face. The way in which David Zetland and Isaac Yuen chose to tell their stories through diary entries and a time-travel manual respectively, were cases in point. One of the great things about an anthology is the diverse range of topics and stories that are covered, which makes them appealing to a wide audience of readers. I believe this cli-fi anthology is no different and given that the stories cover planetary destruction as well as topics such as AI, they could be equally appealing to sci-fi fans. Overall this is a timely publication and I hope it goes some way towards educating readers about the urgency of climate change.
February 6, 2018
This is only the second collection of short stories that I have reviewed, and again I am finding the process unexpectedly challenging. All the short stories I try to write myself turn into novels, and I prefer to read novels. So maybe short story collections just aren’t my thing.
With that warning, I’d still highly recommend this book. I found it in a Facebook group for Cli-Fi authors, where the book's editor, author Tanja Rohini Bisgaard, posts. And I’m surprised there aren’t more story collections like this competing for reviewer eyes and space. The variety of stories is broad, and the opening story, Still Waters by Kimberly Christensen, about the beaching suicide of a pod of whales in Seattle, which mirrors the disintegration of the protagonists’ relationship and their very lives, packs a huge emotional punch. I was worn out after reading it and I wasn’t sure that any of the other stories in the collection could match it. I was right; none of them did.
The rest are of more uneven quality, and all the choices are slanted towards North America and Europe (Bisgaard currently lives in Denmark), but the stories cover a wide range of protagonist ages, genders, professions, and voices, and an even wider range of consequences in the worlds imagined. Bisgaard's own story, The Outcast Gem, is a moving tale of two sisters, one consigned to a shadow life as the consequence of a European one-child policy. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in Oakridge Train by Alison Haldermaand, a story about a young woman meeting her boyfriend’s family for the first time, but it didn’t. The people in that story actually seemed happy, and their world on the mend.
Other stories that I particularly enjoyed included Driftplastic by John A Frochio, about an artist who works with plastic trash as his medium, and Dear Henry by David Zetland, told entirely as a series of letters from one Henry H Sisson to the next, starting back in 1880. The last story, Willoy’s Launch by LX Nishimoto, about the CEO of a company that created intelligent, potentially world-saving, service robots, was kind of confusing to me. It introduced too many abbreviations and too many new concepts at a rapid clip. I didn’t always understand what was happening during the action sequences, or how Willoy was saving the world by holding down a button at the end. It’s good to end the book on a positive note, though, and I could totally see it as a movie.
That was perhaps my favorite aspect of this collection, and why it worked so well despite its flaws: it wasn't all grim dystopia, there was little-to-no gratuitous violence, and a significant number of the protagonists were women. This collection is a creative mix that invites the reader to step into the minds and worlds of the characters, not merely watch and be entertained.
With that warning, I’d still highly recommend this book. I found it in a Facebook group for Cli-Fi authors, where the book's editor, author Tanja Rohini Bisgaard, posts. And I’m surprised there aren’t more story collections like this competing for reviewer eyes and space. The variety of stories is broad, and the opening story, Still Waters by Kimberly Christensen, about the beaching suicide of a pod of whales in Seattle, which mirrors the disintegration of the protagonists’ relationship and their very lives, packs a huge emotional punch. I was worn out after reading it and I wasn’t sure that any of the other stories in the collection could match it. I was right; none of them did.
The rest are of more uneven quality, and all the choices are slanted towards North America and Europe (Bisgaard currently lives in Denmark), but the stories cover a wide range of protagonist ages, genders, professions, and voices, and an even wider range of consequences in the worlds imagined. Bisgaard's own story, The Outcast Gem, is a moving tale of two sisters, one consigned to a shadow life as the consequence of a European one-child policy. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in Oakridge Train by Alison Haldermaand, a story about a young woman meeting her boyfriend’s family for the first time, but it didn’t. The people in that story actually seemed happy, and their world on the mend.
Other stories that I particularly enjoyed included Driftplastic by John A Frochio, about an artist who works with plastic trash as his medium, and Dear Henry by David Zetland, told entirely as a series of letters from one Henry H Sisson to the next, starting back in 1880. The last story, Willoy’s Launch by LX Nishimoto, about the CEO of a company that created intelligent, potentially world-saving, service robots, was kind of confusing to me. It introduced too many abbreviations and too many new concepts at a rapid clip. I didn’t always understand what was happening during the action sequences, or how Willoy was saving the world by holding down a button at the end. It’s good to end the book on a positive note, though, and I could totally see it as a movie.
That was perhaps my favorite aspect of this collection, and why it worked so well despite its flaws: it wasn't all grim dystopia, there was little-to-no gratuitous violence, and a significant number of the protagonists were women. This collection is a creative mix that invites the reader to step into the minds and worlds of the characters, not merely watch and be entertained.
February 21, 2019
Interesting collection
Wide variety of stories on various possible futures.
Interesting themes with various degrees of optimism. I recommend this book for a nice read.
Wide variety of stories on various possible futures.
Interesting themes with various degrees of optimism. I recommend this book for a nice read.
July 2, 2021
Probably a 3.5 -- there are some good stories in here, and some that I didn't enjoy as much. Some of them are pretty bleak, which is appropriate given the subject, but that doesn't make the collection easier to read when taken as a whole.
August 6, 2020
interesting short stories
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews