Improbable Botany

by Gary Dalkin (Editor), Rachel Armstrong, Cherish Baldry

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...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Danielle Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Garrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some really provoking, beautiful and sometimes disturbing short stories in the realm of strange plants.

[Durandana · Rating 2 out of 5]

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