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Improbable Botany
Improbable Botany, a brand-new science fiction anthology about alien plant conquests, fantastical ecosystems, benevolent dictatorships and techno-utopias.
Part survival handbook, part page-turner, Improbable Botany is a fond companion piece to many of Wayward’s past collaborations and features newly commissioned short stories by eleven multi-award winning science fiction authors: Ken MacLeod, Cherith Baldry, Eric Brown, Rachel Armstrong, Simon Morden, Adam Roberts, James Kennedy, Stephen Palmer, Justina Robson, Tricia Sullivan and Lisa Tuttle.
The book has been edited by Gary Dalkin, a former judge of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and former editor of Vector: The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association.
http://www.wayward.co.uk/project/impr...
Part survival handbook, part page-turner, Improbable Botany is a fond companion piece to many of Wayward’s past collaborations and features newly commissioned short stories by eleven multi-award winning science fiction authors: Ken MacLeod, Cherith Baldry, Eric Brown, Rachel Armstrong, Simon Morden, Adam Roberts, James Kennedy, Stephen Palmer, Justina Robson, Tricia Sullivan and Lisa Tuttle.
The book has been edited by Gary Dalkin, a former judge of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and former editor of Vector: The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association.
http://www.wayward.co.uk/project/impr...
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 14, 2018
I backed this on Kickstarter because I wanted to read Tricia Sullivan's new story, which is part of this collection. I was not expecting to enjoy all of these stories nearly as much as I did. Most of the authors are new to me, and each of them took the premise of "weird plant" and flew with it, often in very unique, challenging, and interesting directions. I loved reading this and had trouble putting it down, and wanted almost all of these stories to be novels instead. Just a fantastic selection of short fiction, and I will definitely be reading more by these authors.
Mostly sci-fi and speculative fiction, with one slightly random story set in the Sherlock Holmes 'verse. Disability tag for one story where a man with a limp is magically cured, and one with a blind woman who is a normal, competent scientist, thank you. Not enough queer people, but some.
Only two complaints:
1) I did not understand "You Bringers of Oxygen" at all - someone else review this and help me out.
2) How do you have a collection of stories about weird plants with no sex pollen, or indeed, with no pollen of any kind? Missed opportunity!
Mostly sci-fi and speculative fiction, with one slightly random story set in the Sherlock Holmes 'verse. Disability tag for one story where a man with a limp is magically cured, and one with a blind woman who is a normal, competent scientist, thank you. Not enough queer people, but some.
Only two complaints:
1) I did not understand "You Bringers of Oxygen" at all - someone else review this and help me out.
2) How do you have a collection of stories about weird plants with no sex pollen, or indeed, with no pollen of any kind? Missed opportunity!
February 24, 2026
2.5 stars
Unfortunately, this collection of short stories did not work for me. On the one hand, most of the stories had some serious issues with cohesion, were much too vague, and even the ideas that felt innovative in the beginning ended up feeling rather redundant by the third time the same idea was introduced by a new story. “Improbable botany,” it seems, mostly boils down to “what if trees grew technology” or “what if trees were technology.” While there is some variation – and some other ideas as well – those stories mostly suffered from so many other flaws that it didn’t end up making a difference to my overall impression of this collection.
Ken Macleod – “The Bicycle-Frame Tree Plantation Manager’s Redundancy”
2 Stars – Reading the title almost makes reading the story redundant. I don’t mind something going unexplained, but this story takes it toa nigh-comical level with the lack of narrative cohesion making everything seem random and disconnected. “Bicycles grow on trees now. There’s a special engineering-type degree needed to maintain these trees. There’s a corporation but innovation happens on the farm. There is a special sentence that can make you a social outcast.” That is all the explanation you get, good luck. (I really liked the illustration in this story! I didn’t like all of them.)
Adam Roberts – “Black Phil”
2.5 Stars – In contrast to the previous story, I enjoyed puzzling this story together – though it does lay “it all” out at the end, which is maybe a bit redundant. I didn’t enjoy the story much more than the previous one, though, because I disliked how weirdly “wish-fulfillment” it was. The Rockstar botanist who changed the world? It’s such a strange experience reading that because we all know that botanists would never get the Rockstar treatment no matter how much they changed the world. Sadly, not a good kind of strange.
Justina Robson – “Strange Fruit”
3 Stars I’m a bit sick of the hyper close connection between women and flowers but I can appreciate someone trying to turn that around deliberately. As in, this flower is not inherently “female” and dangerous but it has been bred to appear/be both by humans trying to take advantage of human biases. It’s a small difference but significant enough. Plus, the “world” seemed interesting. My one gripe is that almost every aspect seems underdeveloped to me and I’m not sure a longer version of the story would have amended that as it seems like it was written by a person who has no idea how genetics works. (Of course, I may be wrong and a longer version of this would have been awesome. Perhaps we could have shifted from “detective solving botanical crimes against the corrupt elite” to a more wholesome “eat the rich” place?)
Simon Morden – “Shine”
3.5 Stars – I actually really liked the beginning of the story and how vague it was in many regards. Not as random as the first story – or overexplained at the end as the second one. It certainly was a vibe, I could say. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the ending. What is it with the idea that we can manipulate plants into growing metal fruits?
Lisa Tuttle – “Vegetable love”
3 Stars – Very predictable but a “pleasant” read in its own way.
Eric Brown – "The Ice Garden"
2.5 Stars – I feel this story lacks some imagination and depth. It’s not a bad story but with such a basic idea and without an interesting twists, there’s not much more to it than it being an decent, somewhat boring, read.
Rachel Armstrong – “The Living Stones of Venice”
3 Stars – The rating is entirely based on how innovative I think the idea is. The execution, I felt, was very lacking. Similarly to the first story, there seems to be a lack of narrative cohesion that keeps the elements of the story disconnected and weird to follow.
Cherith Baldry – “The Adventure of the Apocalypse Vine or Moriarty’s Revenge”
1.5 Stars – This was so silly and stupid. I’ve read all Sherlock Holmes stories so I know that there are a few duds among them but this was exceptionally stupid. From the magical plant to a beam that attracts an asteroid that can then be “reversed” within a couple of minutes? My god.
Stephen Palmer – “You Bringers of Oxygen”
2 Stars – I want to give this a higher rating because I can appreciate a silly-goofy time when I see one but the story was borderline nonsensical to read. It simply didn’t feel like any amount of brain power I could muster would help me make sense of the narrative.
Tricia Sullivan – “Who Lived in a Tree”
3.5 Stars – This is by far the best story of the collection so far. I can acknowledge that and also admit that I’m really tired of the way humans imagine “intelligent” plant life. It’s always much too human, which has always seemed reductive to me. In this case it’s a little bit worse because it’s not just human but technological – so a product of humans, not even us authentically.
James Kennedy – “Advent”
4 Stars – Okay, this is by far the best story of the collection, followed by the previous one but it’s not as close as it might seem. This was weird and unexplained enough to be intriguing without ever being confusing or disconnected. The emotions were captured well and raw in a way none of the other stories were. It had an actual point and the aspects of the plants was so much more interesting than in most of the other stories. It wasn’t just “plants do technology now” but spoke to an emotional engagement with the subject matter that I had hoped most of the stories would portray. I would recommend reading this story – but not so much the rest. (Another case where I thought the illustration was quite effective and good.)
Unfortunately, this collection of short stories did not work for me. On the one hand, most of the stories had some serious issues with cohesion, were much too vague, and even the ideas that felt innovative in the beginning ended up feeling rather redundant by the third time the same idea was introduced by a new story. “Improbable botany,” it seems, mostly boils down to “what if trees grew technology” or “what if trees were technology.” While there is some variation – and some other ideas as well – those stories mostly suffered from so many other flaws that it didn’t end up making a difference to my overall impression of this collection.
Ken Macleod – “The Bicycle-Frame Tree Plantation Manager’s Redundancy”
2 Stars – Reading the title almost makes reading the story redundant. I don’t mind something going unexplained, but this story takes it toa nigh-comical level with the lack of narrative cohesion making everything seem random and disconnected. “Bicycles grow on trees now. There’s a special engineering-type degree needed to maintain these trees. There’s a corporation but innovation happens on the farm. There is a special sentence that can make you a social outcast.” That is all the explanation you get, good luck. (I really liked the illustration in this story! I didn’t like all of them.)
Adam Roberts – “Black Phil”
2.5 Stars – In contrast to the previous story, I enjoyed puzzling this story together – though it does lay “it all” out at the end, which is maybe a bit redundant. I didn’t enjoy the story much more than the previous one, though, because I disliked how weirdly “wish-fulfillment” it was. The Rockstar botanist who changed the world? It’s such a strange experience reading that because we all know that botanists would never get the Rockstar treatment no matter how much they changed the world. Sadly, not a good kind of strange.
Justina Robson – “Strange Fruit”
3 Stars I’m a bit sick of the hyper close connection between women and flowers but I can appreciate someone trying to turn that around deliberately. As in, this flower is not inherently “female” and dangerous but it has been bred to appear/be both by humans trying to take advantage of human biases. It’s a small difference but significant enough. Plus, the “world” seemed interesting. My one gripe is that almost every aspect seems underdeveloped to me and I’m not sure a longer version of the story would have amended that as it seems like it was written by a person who has no idea how genetics works. (Of course, I may be wrong and a longer version of this would have been awesome. Perhaps we could have shifted from “detective solving botanical crimes against the corrupt elite” to a more wholesome “eat the rich” place?)
Simon Morden – “Shine”
3.5 Stars – I actually really liked the beginning of the story and how vague it was in many regards. Not as random as the first story – or overexplained at the end as the second one. It certainly was a vibe, I could say. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the ending. What is it with the idea that we can manipulate plants into growing metal fruits?
Lisa Tuttle – “Vegetable love”
3 Stars – Very predictable but a “pleasant” read in its own way.
Eric Brown – "The Ice Garden"
2.5 Stars – I feel this story lacks some imagination and depth. It’s not a bad story but with such a basic idea and without an interesting twists, there’s not much more to it than it being an decent, somewhat boring, read.
Rachel Armstrong – “The Living Stones of Venice”
3 Stars – The rating is entirely based on how innovative I think the idea is. The execution, I felt, was very lacking. Similarly to the first story, there seems to be a lack of narrative cohesion that keeps the elements of the story disconnected and weird to follow.
Cherith Baldry – “The Adventure of the Apocalypse Vine or Moriarty’s Revenge”
1.5 Stars – This was so silly and stupid. I’ve read all Sherlock Holmes stories so I know that there are a few duds among them but this was exceptionally stupid. From the magical plant to a beam that attracts an asteroid that can then be “reversed” within a couple of minutes? My god.
Stephen Palmer – “You Bringers of Oxygen”
2 Stars – I want to give this a higher rating because I can appreciate a silly-goofy time when I see one but the story was borderline nonsensical to read. It simply didn’t feel like any amount of brain power I could muster would help me make sense of the narrative.
Tricia Sullivan – “Who Lived in a Tree”
3.5 Stars – This is by far the best story of the collection so far. I can acknowledge that and also admit that I’m really tired of the way humans imagine “intelligent” plant life. It’s always much too human, which has always seemed reductive to me. In this case it’s a little bit worse because it’s not just human but technological – so a product of humans, not even us authentically.
James Kennedy – “Advent”
4 Stars – Okay, this is by far the best story of the collection, followed by the previous one but it’s not as close as it might seem. This was weird and unexplained enough to be intriguing without ever being confusing or disconnected. The emotions were captured well and raw in a way none of the other stories were. It had an actual point and the aspects of the plants was so much more interesting than in most of the other stories. It wasn’t just “plants do technology now” but spoke to an emotional engagement with the subject matter that I had hoped most of the stories would portray. I would recommend reading this story – but not so much the rest. (Another case where I thought the illustration was quite effective and good.)
December 27, 2018
Some really provoking, beautiful and sometimes disturbing short stories in the realm of strange plants.
July 14, 2021
2/5 - The Bicycle-Frame Tree Plantation Manager's Redundancy, by Ken Macleod
0/5 - Black Phil, by Adam Roberts
0/5 - Strange Fruit, by Justina Robson
2/5 - Shine, by Simon Morden
1/5 - Vegetable Love, by Lisa Tuttle
2/5 - The Ice Garden, by Eric Brown
2/5 - The Living Stones of Venice, by Rachel Armstrong
2/5 - The Adventure of the Apocalypse Vine, by Cherith Baldry
2/5 - You Bringers of Oxygen, by Stephen Palmer
2/5 - Who Lived in a Tree, by Tricia Sullivan
4/5 - Advent, by James Kennedy
0/5 - Black Phil, by Adam Roberts
0/5 - Strange Fruit, by Justina Robson
2/5 - Shine, by Simon Morden
1/5 - Vegetable Love, by Lisa Tuttle
2/5 - The Ice Garden, by Eric Brown
2/5 - The Living Stones of Venice, by Rachel Armstrong
2/5 - The Adventure of the Apocalypse Vine, by Cherith Baldry
2/5 - You Bringers of Oxygen, by Stephen Palmer
2/5 - Who Lived in a Tree, by Tricia Sullivan
4/5 - Advent, by James Kennedy
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews