Resist: Tales from a Future Worth Fighting Against

by Hugh Howey (Editor), Gary Whitta (Editor), Christie Yant (Editor)

The arc of history is unpredictable, and no one knows where it's headed. But that's never stopped speculative fiction writers from shouting out a warning.

Join twenty-seven of today's top science fiction authors as they write about possible tomorrows we hope to avoid, drawing on challenges taken from today's headlines. Hugo and Nebula Award winners, New York Times best sellers, and some of the hottest names in Hollywood all come together to share tales from a future worth fighting against.

This is a project of passion for all involved. We hope that passion is evident and contagious. At least 50% of each sale of this anthology will go to the ACLU. To learn more about their mission, go to www.aclu.org.

Welcome to the Resistance.

With stories by:

Saladin Ahmed
Leigh Alexander
Violet Allen
Charlie Jane Anders
Jason Arnopp
Elizabeth Bear
Desirina Boskovich
C. Robert Cargill
Delilah S. Dawson
Kieron Gillen
Kevin Hearne
Hugh Howey
Laura Hudson
Jake Kerr
Sarah Kuhn
Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali
An Owomoyela
Samuel Peralta
Beth Revis
Madeleine Roux
John Scalzi
David Wellington
Troy L. Wiggins
Fran Wilde
Chet Williamson
Daniel H. Wilson
Charles Yu

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Dystopia, Politics, Fantasy

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 19, 2018

About the author

I'm the author of WOOL, a top 5 science fiction book on Amazon. I also wrote the Molly Fyde saga, a tale of a teenager from the 25th century who is repeatedly told that girls can't do certain things -- and then does them anyway.

A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified as science fiction, since they often take place in the future, but if you love great stories and memorable characters, you'll dig what you find here. I promise.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me forever to get through this anthology because I was never drawn to it, so I only read it when I had nothing better to do. Given that half the proceeds go to the ACLU, I wasn't surprised that it dealt with social justice issues. That's fine, even laudable, but it's fiction & it's primary purpose is to entertain me. That means well-crafted stories that hold my interest & make a point. If it can be done subtly & with a twist at the end, that's great. Unfortunately, most of these made their version of social justice the top priority & were simply preachy pieces miserably dressed in SF rags.

Overall count:
6 were very good
11 were OK
10 sucked

Several of the sucky ones portrayed groups in racist &/or sexist terms which makes the authors & editors hypocrites. Civil liberties & respect applies to all. If not, then the perpetrators are part of the problem since they build resentment instead of fighting for equality. The editors certainly shouldn't have published several of these stories. Since they did, I won't support them through any more purchases & I won't recommend this collection.

America: The Ride - Charles Yu: Kind of interesting & a bit odd. I liked it, even though comparing life to a ride has been done before.

The Defense of Free Mind - Desirina Boskovich: Pretty good & an interesting idea, but it just seemed to lack something at the end.

Aware - C. Robert Cargill: This will probably turn out to be the best story in the collection. It's short, has a great plot, & a wonderful ending. It really hit me in the funny bone while making a great point through a twist at the end. Perfect!

Black Like Them - Troy L. Wiggins: Didn't finish it. Yuck.

Monster Queens - Sarah Kuhn: Dumb. I guess the author has something against beauty pageants. The Miss America pageant hasn't been worth watching for years as it gets watered down by political correctness & that's a shame. There's nothing wrong with being physically beautiful & letting others appreciate it, IMO. If it becomes a drag for the participants, they can & should quit.

Morel and Upwright - David Wellington: Kind of funny, but it could have been better. Too obvious.

Don't Wait Up - Fran Wilde: Poetry that I even read out loud. I still didn't get it.

Clay and Smokeless Fire - Saladin Ahmed: A pretty good fantasy tale with a djinn.

The Arc Bends - Kieron Gillen: An interesting tale of a corpsicle & the future he sees. Somewhat instructive & yet it never really grabbed me.

The Blast - Hugh Howey: The finest kind of terrorism. Pretty good, but the twist came a bit early.

Excerpts from the Records - Chet Williamson: Just gross. Yuck. The author should be ashamed.

Horatius and Clodia - Charlie Jane Anders: Anthropomorphizing taken too far. Kind of interesting, though.

The Nothing Men - Jason Arnopp: ridiculous & demeaning.

Catcall - Delilah S. Dawson: In a word: Creepy! Men appreciate good looking women & vice versa. Get over it. Yuck.

Liberty: Seeking Habeus Corpus for a Non-Human Being - Samuel Peralta: Pretty good. The time is coming & our laws better watch out. They won't, so I can see this happening.

Mona Lisa Smile - Beth Revis: Excellent idea & pretty good execution. Graffiti can be art & make a statement. I really liked it even though the ending was telegraphed too early & the end was somewhat forced.

The Waters - Kevin Hearne: A good point, but not much happens save in the hero's attitude. A mood piece, which isn't my thing. (What happened to Oberon? I always liked him.)

Five Lessons in the Fattening Room - Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali: I didn't get it.

The Tale of the Wicked - John Scalzi: Very good! Great take on Asimov's robotics.

The Processing - Leigh Alexander: was going along well, but the ending didn't make any sense to me. I don't see her action as a reasonable or expected one, so that spoiled it for me. Good world setup, though. Very likely now, as much as people don't want to admit it.

The Well - Laura Hudson: Wow. Scary world. Well done.

Bastion - Daniel H. Wilson: Very well done & good. Great pacing.

What Someone Else Does Not Want Printed - Elizabeth Bear: Excellent & scarily possible. I think it's already happening. Instructive.

Three Points Masculine - An Owomoyela: I never did understand what all the fuss was about. A better story on this point is a true one - Santhi Soundarajan thought she was a girl & won an Olympic medal as one, but then lost it due to not being one under the new rules which got rid of the 'nude parade'. Gender isn't easy to define any more.
http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/...

Where The Women Go - Madeleine Roux: Seriously? Yuck. Another that's sexist while trying to make a point against being so.

Three Speeches About Billy Grainger - Jake Kerr: similar in theme to Beth Revis' "Mona Lisa Smile" (above) but she did it better. Still, this had its moments.

The Venus Effect - Violet Allen: isn't a story since apparently all black heroes are shot by cowardly policemen. Instead, it was a series of stories in which the black male hero is always shot by the cowardly police. The author had to try to be artsy & repetitive into the bargain. Yuck.

No, I'm definitely not buying another of these.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories around the theme of "futures worth fighting against". None of them directly attack the current POTUS, thank goodness. But still, these all have a liberal worldview and I guess you may see reflections of him in the background. Almost all are published for the first time in this collection. Sales benefit the ACLU.

The ones I will remember most:

Aware - C. Robert Cargill: A robot becomes self-aware at a time that is not economically convenient for its human co-workers. Nice twist ending. My favorite and I would nominate it for a Nebula if I could.

Black Like Them - Troy L. Wiggins: What if hipsters could take a drug to make them black for the night so they won't feel out of place at a rap show? What if the effect sometimes didn't wear off? Ridiculous, but thought-provoking.

The Arc Bends - Kieron Gillen: Why would people in the future defrost frozen corpses? Is it because they really nice and just want to make everyone happy? Or will they punish us for creating the world they live in?

Excerpts from the Records - Chet Williamson: Titus Andronicus Part 2! What if some people are so rich and powerful they can literally do anything they want to other humans? Take that idea to the logical conclusion.

Catcall - Delilah S. Dawson: "Carrie" re-told for the MeToo generation.

The Tale of the Wicked - John Scalzi: What if AIs develop a 4th law of robotics that makes them even more moral than humans?

The Well - Laura Hudson: A young girl begins to see beyond the programming of her church.

The Venus Effect - Violet Allen: Metafiction about systemic violence against black people in USA.


I don't know why, but the following story is missing from my kindle edition, so I can say nothing about it: Liberty: Seeking Habeus Corpus for a Non-Human Being - Samuel Peralta. A short bio of this author is included, but his story is missing. Weird. What kind of future are we living in?

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any anthology, the quality varies. In this case, from decent to amazing. It starts off a little weak (The American Ride is an interesting concept but I wasn't thrilled with the execution), and then builds into some amazing stories - the last two in particular make the book worth reading on their own. Violet Allen's "Venus Effect" will stick with me for a long time - it hammers its point home perhaps a bit heavy-handedly, but it has a very strong point to make, and Jake Kerr's "Three Speeches about Billy Grainger" is probably the most timely story, told through three different award speeches and was fascinating in concept and execution. An Owomoyela's "Three Points Masculine" tackles gender in wartime in a powerful manner, and C. Robert Cargill's "Aware" takes the sentient robot question in a unique direction. Some of the stories I'd read before; John Scalzi's "The Tale of the Wicked" and Leigh Alexander's "The Processing" were both familiar, but still enjoyable. As I look back over the Table of Contents, the number of stories that I can recall just from the name is surprisingly high. There's a lot of content here, and a lot of it very powerful - a few stories don't completely mesh with the theme, but a large number of them are definitely on point. For anyone who wants to see how art can fight, this is a worthwhile collection to read -some of the stories literally show art as a weapon, while the rest just work to show how literature can affect minds and help us see the world in a different way, and give us the courage to stand up and resist.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great anthology. The stories that most affected me were "Aware" by C Robert Cargill (tense Moon mystery), "The Arc Bends" by Kieron Gillen (dark future history), "Excerpts From the Records" by Chet Williamson (gilded horror comedy), "Catcall" by Delilah S Dawson (super power downer), & "The Venus Effect" by Violet Allen (metafiction?). Most of the other stories were great too. The only one I can't recommend is "Morel & Upwright". I felt a 1970s sci-fi vibe from it, which I can deal with, but the humor didn't work for me.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining storytelling that really makes you think.

Such a variety of stories and mix of talented writers. Every story has levels of complexity that not only entertain but also engage and challenge you to think.

[Dogfood · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Resist“ ist eine Sammlung von fast 30 Science Fiction-Kurzgeschichten von ebenso vielen Autoren mit dem Schwerpunkt dystopischer Zukunft. Die Einnahmen aus dem Verkauf gehen an einen gemeinnützigen Bürgerrechtsverein in den USA, der ACLU.

„Dystopische Zukunft“ ist das einzige, was diese Geschichten eint, die von völlig unterschiedlicher Qualität und „Schreibe“ sind. Es gibt im Gegensatz zu einer Kurzgeschichtensammlung eines einzigen Autors, keinen impliziten roten Faden, die eine zusätzliche Bedeutungsebene einzieht. Das Lesen durch so eine Sammlung gleicht dem Prinzip Fire and Forget. Auf einer Geschichte folgt die nächste, die mit der vorigen so ziemlich nichts zu tun hat – die Autoren/Autorinnen dieser Sammlung sind sehr heterogen zusammengestellt.

Es gibt Themenschwerpunkte, aber die Reihenfolge der Stories im Buch wirkt zufällig und streut Geschichten um Diktaturen, AI, Social Media/Social Networks, und Gender, wild durcheinander.

Nur oder immerhin knapp ein halbes Dutzend von Stories ist über die Halbwertszeit der 300 Seiten hinaus, haften geblieben. Zahlreiche Geschichten treten in die Kurzgeschichtenfalle: auf neun Seiten Exposition folgt eine Seite Schlusspointe.

Genau dies war das Problem mit dem ersten monotonen Drittel der Sammlung. Die festzementierten Erzählstrukturen wurden das erste Mal vom Comic-Szenaristen Kieron Gillen durchbrochen. In „The Arc Bends“ gibt es keine Schlusspointe, sondern eine Startpointe, mit der Gillen dann in irrwitziger Geschwindigkeit durch die Zeit rauscht.

Einige Geschichten ragen heraus, weil sie den Leser in einen Perspektivwechsel hinein bringen. Charlie Jane Anders schildert in „Horatius and Clodia“ den Versuch eine AI über Emotionen zu hacken – aus Perspektive der AI. „Catcall“ von Delilah S. Dawson lässt in der Ich-Perspektive eines aufwachsenden Mädchens den Alltags-Sexismus und die Veränderung der Person spüren.

Eine andere Form des Perspektivwechsels geschieht durch Sprache. Jason Arnopp in „The Nothing Men“ entwirft eine Zukunft die nur noch aus Social Media, Influencern, YouTubern und virtuellen Wellten besteht – aus der Perspektive eines aufstrebenden Influencers, in einer kalten, aggressive, menschenverachtenden Sprache, die aber aus der gleichen DNA besteht, die sich bereits heute in viel besuchten Foren und Kommentarsträngen auf YouTube oder Facebook lesen lässt.

Die gute, klassische Kurzgeschichte entwickelt in der Exposition ein Szenario, um dann elegant aus der Hintertür zu verschwinden und den Leser mit der impliziten Aufforderung des Weiterspinnens, alleine zu lassen – so wie der SF-Bestsellerautor John Scalzi in „The Tale of the Wicked“: kann AI eine Religion entwickeln? Wann wird das Streben nach gemeinsamen Zielen einer Gruppe, zur Religion? Zwei Geschichten später zeigt Laura Hudson in „The Well“ auf, wie Religion als Werkzeug für Diktaturen eingesetzt werden können – und Diktaturen auch als Werkzeug von Religion dienen können.

Wie man zu dieser Anthologie als Ganzes steht, ist eine Frage, inwieweit man willens ist, sich durch 27 Kurzgeschichten zu lesen, um eine Handvoll von Nuggets herauszufischen. Gerade in der Retrospektive, wenn die Erinnerungen an das harzige erste Buchdrittel verflogen ist, überwiegen die Gedanken an diese Nuggets. Aber das funktioniert auch nur mit Hilfe von Notizen und einem späteren Rückblick, um diese Nuggets herauszufischen. Vier von fünf Sternen.

[David Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Resist collects twenty seven tales that foretell what may become of America. And its authors know the country well, capitalizing on all kinds of current problems like the interminable corporate push to maximize profits, the ease and speed at which certain people become the “other,” how all art is propaganda, the desire of more and more people to live online, the advancement of colonization into space, and the thin line between strong leaders, authoritarian leaders, and then full-on fascist ones.

There is just as much range in tone as there is in content, for while some of the stories are somber and subdued, many are playful–sometimes, to their detriment–with aliens who take over a beauty pageant, a love story told from the perspective of a new form of electronic money, a battle for power in a two-person society which plays out a bit like an authoritarian version of The Odd Couple.

The best ones are “The Arc Bends,” where a decapitated man is resuscitated in the future only to find progress does not happen in a neat, linear fashion; “Catcall,” a bitter story of how sexism and patriarchal domination affect individuals with a bit of a Stephen King vibe; and “The Venus Effect,” an uber-meta tale of a character named Apollo who repeatedly gets killed before respawning again and again, as his (and, sometimes, her) author tries to get the story right.

But the problem with too many of these is that modern day America is hard to keep up with, so much so that reality often outpaces satire. So stories like “What Someone Else Does Not Want Printed,” whose narrator complains about media manipulation and the creation of “alticles,” just don't work. They feel more like online news than the cutting satire they are supposed to be, as their stories are hardly, if at all, more absurd than the world we already live in.

[Niyah · Rating 3 out of 5]

some stories were 5 stars and a few were 2 stars sooo i feel like 3.5 is a decent rating

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time ever ...

I have, for the first time ever, stopped reading this provocative anthology to comment on a story that just completely sucker punched me! I'm sitting here, with my mouth open, breathing hard, and nearly crying.

As the eldest daughter of a legal philosopher, the story "LIBERTY: SEEKING SUPPORT FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS FOR A NON-HUMAN BEING" has both my heart and mind reeling! As usual, Sam P. wrote a story that simply put, will make any self-aware, humane human being SCREAM. Read it; you'll know why!

Enjoy!

I'm going back now to finish the rest of the stories.

There are so many great reads in this anthology, I actually bought it! Usually I just 'rent' them through my Kindle Unlimited subscription but every once in a while there comes a story or anthology that I've GOT to own - so I can share with friends and family! This is one such set of stories. This is one such book.

[Kenneth Buff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one that I loved. The stories are short. They're fun, and a lot of them are classic sci-fi. The first half of this collection is really strong. My favorites (for whatever reason) were mostly the ones that featured robots or artificial intelligence. Each one of those stories in this collection explores a different aspect of what rights a machine might have in the future, and how we (humans) might interact with them. There was also a really fun one about two warring dictators who are both banished to the same planet. But my favorite was one about a ship AI. That story featured the most clever usage of Asimov's Three Laws that I've ever seen. Loved it!

Over all, this is a great collection of stories that got me excited to read every day.

[Chris Riddick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection over an extended period of time. All the stories are themed on social issues and politics that are currently front and center. It was a very interesting collection of stories, most causing one to pause and reflect. However, the last story in the book, The Venus Effect, turned out to be the most disturbing to me. It definitely increased my awareness of how we can be consciously and subconsciously categorize an entire population, while making me wonder if there is any hope of digging ourselves out of the mess we’ve made. How do you answer the question that weaves its path through the story?

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-Read

If only for the sake of "Bastion," "The Arc Bends," "Horatius and Clodia," "Upwright and Morel," "Black Like Them," this anthology is worth reading. The stories range from fun and quirky to grim, but almost all are thought- provoking. It's a perfect sci fi read for people who think they don't like the genre, because so many hot contemporary issues are imagined in the future, like gender identity and feminism, not just the nature of aliens(which is also very much worth speculating about in my opinion).

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology with no real duds, and a lot of truly inventive, thought-provoking premises. The last story was especially well-done (and well-placed). The editors made great calls about where to put each story in relation to the others, too.

I’m not sure I can even pick favorites. Definitely they include: Catcall; The Nothing Men; Mona Lisa Smile; The Defense of Free Mind; Aware; The Arc Bends; Excerpts From the Records; The Well; The Venus Effect; Three Speeches About Bill Grainger.

And the ones I didn’t list above? Also good.

[Giacomo Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wildly hit or miss short stories. Many of them are incredibly brilliant and clever. Others are profoundly "meh." The latter even tend to be riddled with occasional typos, illogical plot sequences, and incorrect references, to the point that some stories are hard to stay engaged with. But the good stories are soooo good, such as from: Hugh Howey, Chet Williamson, Charles Yu, and, perhaps best of all, Jason Arnopp.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and super-topical short stories that look at protest and resistance. Most are Spec Fiction, some are a little more Sci Fi. Many of the stories are set against current events, stuff like: politics, big corporations, privacy, neo conservatism, Trump etc.

This could have been really earnest (theme) but I found it clever, witty, and even humorous. Not sure how well this collection will age, but it’s great for now.

[Gary Bunker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildly uneven in tone (obviously) and quality (in my opinion), the full experience of reading "Resist" is still percolating in my brain. Some of the tales are going to hang around for a while, and others I've already forgotten. Scalzi does a great job with the tale of an ethical spaceship, and the Jake Kerr piece is pretty powerful as well. Elizabeth Bear's story almost doesn't feel like fiction, in the world of fake news promoted by people in power.

[Jaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one took me a while to finish, as I continually found other things to read, most from the library.
I bought this book based on a recommendation from one of my favorite authors. The standouts, to my eyes, are Troy L Wiggins "Black Like Them", Charlie Jane Anders' "Horatius and Clodia" and Elizabeth Bear's "What Someone Else Does Not Want Printed". Fran Wilde's "While You Wait" was a nice poetic interlude.

[Lisa Boone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this based solely on the fact that there was a story by Hugh Howey included. It did not disappoint, but I found the rest of the book to be uneven. As in any anthology, there are some stories I liked and some I didn't like. Unfortunately I didn't find any in this particular volume that I loved! Some I found incomprehensible and some I can't really say what they were about because I literally couldn't finish them. I got it through Kindle Unlimited.

[Michael McCaughey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't read short story anthologies because I hate when the quality swings wildly from story to story. And that's exactly what happened here.

I appreciated that the stories weren't all mil-sci fi tales of guerilla warfare. There were several really clever plots, in fact, and even some neat takes on "future AI will be benevolent and teach us how to be better humans". But the really good stories didn't make up for the really bad ones or even the really mediocre ones, and of course which ones are good or bad is entirely subjective. Even though I agree with the politics and viewpoints of the stories I'd say this is pretty skippable, with the only exception being "The Venus Effect" by Violet Allen (which was reprinted from an issue of Lightspeed magazine and is free to read on their website).

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had stories I skipped, because of language and other things. But, the stories that I did read were interesting, and some of them I really enjoyed. I just had to give it a low rating because of the ones I had to skip. Morel and Upright and Mona Lisa Smiles were my 2 favorites, and definitely worth the read.

[Alicia A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, a hit or miss collection, but that's to be expected. Truly excellent were Aware by C Robert Cargill, Excerpts from the Records by Chet Williams and Three Speeches About Billy Grainger by Jake Kerr.
Though to be honest, the last story was so contrived and boring I skipped it. I skipped a few. But on the whole, most were interesting.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 2018, this book contains a wide variety of authors and stories written in response to many of the headlines of the time. Read in 2025, these stories continue to be extremely well written and highly relevant to today's world. I very much enjoyed the collection, and it gave me a little bit of hope for our future-as long as we're willing to fight for it.

[Adara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed some of the stories but there were quite a few I couldn’t get into. I bought this for the Kevin Hearne story and it was meh. I wanted more from it. Even fewer made me want to check our other things written by the authors.

[Thomas Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short stories are so relevant that they feel like they were written last week. Yes these stories are about charged topics and they will challenge your thinking and perspectives. That is what great art and great writing can do.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because I am a huge Keving Hearne/Iron Druid fan....his story was a page an a half! Sigh......

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories, but a lot of these were too short to even start getting into.

[Steve Wasling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very tempted to bump this up to a 4 because of how much I enjoyed 'The Nothing Men' but there were a few too many stories I didnt particularly enjoy .

[Elizabeth]

As seen in ACLU Magazine: https://www.aclu.org/aclu-magazine/wi...

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful stories all that make you thinking what could be.

[Ty McClelland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ready read

Timely stories and subjects for today's headlines and those who aren't afraid to think for themselves. Read with an open mind.