Surviving Tomorrow: A Charity Anthology

by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Editor), Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card

Surviving Tomorrow is a charity anthology of stories about everyday people living through extraordinary, history changing times. Facing societal collapse or personal tragedy, some may lose who they are, some will suffer greatly... all will find new ways of being, of surviving, or not as the case may be. There may be a zombie wedding, definitely an alien abduction, nanotech gone awry, computer geeks saving the world, and a myriad of other world-altering events. Over half of the twenty-nine stories in Surviving Tomorrow are published here for the first time. Most are short enough to be read in a few minutes' time-perfect for a brief respite from the very real worries of our own moment in time. Importantly, all profits from Surviving Tomorrow go to providing COVID-19 tests directly to the front lines of this crisis. If purchased through the survivingtomorrowanthology.com website, you can earmark the profits for one of several charities. Available in a limited, numbered, gold-leaf embossed collector's edition as well as hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook, Surviving Tomorrow will provide hours of enjoyment even as it saves lives. Contributing Claire Ashgrove, Roshni "Rush" Bhatia, Livia Blackburne, Orson Scott Card, Beth Cato, Brenda Cooper, A.C. Crispin, Cory Doctorow, Raymund Eich, Tori Eldridge, Alan Dean Foster, Julie C. Frost, Neil Gaiman, C. Stuart Hardwick, J. Kent Holloway, Jonathan Maberry, Andrew Mayne, K.D. McEntire, Seanan McGuire, Jody Lynn Nye, Kathleen O'Malley, Kristine Katherine Rusch, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Ken Scholes, Martin L. Shoemaker, Scott Sigler, Robert Silverberg, John Skipp, Peter J. Wacks, Jay Werkheiser, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Mercedes M. Yardley.

Genres: Anthologies, Fiction, Fantasy

466 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 24, 2020

About the author

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is a national bestselling author and Hugo nominated editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His fourth novel, Simon Says is a page-turning near future thriller. His debut novel, The Worker Prince received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. His children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Books For Kids and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in Tales of The Talisman, Straight Outta Tombstone, The X-Files: Secret Agendas, Predator: If It Bleeds, Decision Points and many more.

He edited the anthologies Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 for Flying Pen Press, Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age for Every Day, Shattered Shields with coeditor Jennifer Brozek (Baen, 2014), Mission: Tomorrow (Baen, 2015), Galactic Games (Baen, 2016), Decision Points (WordFire, 2016), Little Green Men--Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey (Baen, 2017), Monster Hunter Files with Larry Correia (Baen, 2017), Joe Ledger: Unstoppable with Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin's Griffin, 2017), Predator: If It Bleeds and Infinite Stars And Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers both for Titan Books, 2017 and 2019.

As editor, he has edited books for Grail Quest Books, Wordfire Press, Delabarre Publishing and authors including Andy Weir's The Martian which hit number 6 on the New York Times Bestsellers list in 2014, Alan Dean Foster, Mike Resnick, Frank Herbert, Todd McCaffrey, Tracy Hickman, Angie Fox, Leon C. Metz , Ellen C. Maze, David Mark Brown, and more.

He’s also the author of the bestselling nonfiction book How To Write A Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction.

Bryan can be found online at Facebook, on Twitter as @BryanThomasS and @sffwrtcht and via his website.

Reviews

[Beth Cato]

Not a review. Includes my story "The Sweetness of Bitter."

[Melissa Hatcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say I was not sure what to expect from this anthology, but Neil Gaiman... so I dove right in. I mean what is better than Neil Gaiman and donating to a good cause. The proceeds from this anthology go straight to helping the global pandemic we are experiencing right now, COVID-19.

So obviously I am partial to one of the authors of these 29 short stories but I also discovered some new authors to follow from picking up this book. These stories offer up the chance to read from several different genres and they are all fast reads. So when you don't have a lot of time but would rather spend the time you do have doing something better than say social media, then here you go.

While some stories are dystopian, I mean pandemic, others are more traditional fiction and others are science fiction so there's a little something for everyone and who knows maybe you'll find something else you like while you journey through these stories.

Happy reading!

[Israel Laureano · Rating 1 out of 5]

En general las historias son sosas, planas, con un corte infantil o juvenil. Tiene cuentos de grandes autores como Cory Doctorow, Neil Gainman, el fanático Orson Scott Card o Robert Silverberg. Desgraciadamente sus historias son –en el mejor de los casos– ocurrencias bien escritas. Casi todas las antologías, por malas que sea, tienen uno o dos cuentos que destacan aunque sea poquito. Aquí lo que más destaca son las narraciones ocurrentes.

[Schnaucl · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good stories, including some I'd read before. There were some truly bleak stories, which I wasn't expecting for some reason. I think that's one reason why it took me so long to finish.

I'd read Cory Doctorow's When Sysadadmins Ruled the Earth before and it remains a favorite. I'm always surprised how quickly I fall in love with the main character and his whole family.

[Sam - Spines in a Line]

Decided to dnf at about the 30% mark. I enjoyed some of the stories but some really weren't my thing and overall the collection felt very depressing. There were few standouts and with such a long collection, I don't feel like spending so much time on it just to finish. Thanks to the publisher for a copy to review

[Leni Iversen · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I wouldn't rate most of these stories more than two stars. There were a few good ones that bring up the average, but I'm not sure it was worth mining through all the rest in order to find them. But at least it was for a good cause.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of new and old stories.

[Bill Rand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of stories, though many of them have been published in other formats.

[Wade · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole this was a fairly average anthology, which is mostly due to it having short stories from 14 different authors. For every story I enjoyed there was probably another one I didn't like so much.
Some of the stand-outs are from the big name authors in here, but there were also some strong showings from authors I had never heard of before.

While (almost) all the stories are based around some apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, or dystopian setting there is are pretty divergent approaches. Some of the stories are hopeful, a few are strangely cute, and some are just bleak. The more depressing ones definitely seem front-loaded, so if that's the reason you would consider dropping it you hold out a little longer.

I received an advanced reader copy

[Richard Skolek · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is pretty disappointing. I get, it was made for a worthy cause and, as the editor admits, there was very little time, but the quality of the stories is really poor. There are a few great ones (written by O. S. Card, N. Gaiman and A. C. Crispin and K. O'Malley) and a lot of mediocre ones. And then, there are a few that are just really, really bad. So bad that even my creative writing students would be ashamed tu put forward something like that.

[Susan Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting compilation of short stories which centred about survival in one way or another. An easy and fast read albeit a few which were more of a novella. All in all, it is for a worthy cause.

You can read here for my full review:
http://www.sholee.net/2020/09/mpov-su...

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology raising money for a great cause.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've really been enjoying these stories. Some are hard science fiction some are soft fantasy just barely outside reality. All of them have been very well written and engaging.