Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 2008

by Rich Horton (Editor), Cory Doctorow, Peter S. Beagle

With the Craigslist of the future, apply for a job on Mars. In the maps of the past, learn the secrets of using dessicated penguin feet as an explorer of the Antarctic. These are just two of the voyages you will take in these pages, just a pair of the places you have been online. Featuring stories by legends such as Peter S. Beagle and Nancy Kress, speculative fiction stars Cory Doctorow and Catherynne M. Valente, newcomers Merrie Haskell and Beth Bernobich, plus many more, Unplugged surfs the Web so you don't have to.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fantasy

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2009

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a way to beat Sturgeon's Law, and it is to collect, to distill, to filter out the crud until you have synthesized something that beats the odds. I won't pretend that I thought every story in this anthology was a winner, but the percentage is very high. Take the itchy inventiveness of Mercurio D. Rivera's "Snatch Me Another," which adds a brilliant little bit of speculative technology to human characters who probably would act just that way. Or the way Jason Stoddard takes two small and plausible advances and builds a touching tale of star-struck slackers out of them, in "Willpower." I also liked the charming cartoon physics and autistic-spectrum protagonist of Will McIntosh's "Linkworlds," and the Gibsonesque teenagers of Tina Connolly's "The Bitrunners."

There are a few more familiar names as well—Peter S. Beagle's contemplative "The Tale of Junko and Sayuri," for example, shows a tremendously talented fantasist still at the top of his game, and there are strong entries here by Nancy Kress, Cory Doctorow and Catherynne M. Valente.

Rich Horton, a regular on the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written (which, if you recognize that reference, should tell you how long he's been around) among other places, has put together a book that lives up to its subtitle, and that's no small feat. Its flaws are trivial and easily ignored; "Sci-Fi" is, after all, a common solecism—at least it wasn't spelled "Syfy" this time—and this book is but one more victim, less wounded than most, of the dying art of proofreading... the Beagle story's title character ended up being called "Sayiri" in the table of contents, the word "stationary" was used to mean notepaper, and there was a confusion between the names "Elliot" and "Eliot" that made me stumble once, early on. The stories themselves, though, beat Sturgeon's odds all hollow.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly I need to explore the world of online science fiction and fantasy further. This collection had a delicious array of inventive speculative fiction. "Air and Angels" painted a gorgeously realized early-20th-century culture, "Snatch Me Another" was chillingly realistic in its portrayal of human abuse of a new multiple-universe technology, "First Rites" was pure beauty amidst the grittiness of the near future, and...explore all these stories for yourself. The stories are more imaginative and less formulaic than in most collections, due no doubt to the comparatively low overhead of online publishing.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this for $2 at Goodwill bookstore, a deal.
The best of this bunch is Peter Beagle's that's a retelling through Japanese fairytale. Docotorow's piece is my second favorite and it comes pretty close to MacLeod's Execution Channel. WTH, Bernobich's Air and Angels: is assumed no one knows The Women That Men Don't See, and a new author can just plagiarize blatantly with impunity, and presumption no one will know or notice. I liked Girl-Prince, too. I really disliked the Hal Duncan.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a lovely anthology. Horton has a fondness for longer stories, which meant a lot of very immersive reads, though my favorite was probably the shortest story, "The Bitrunners" by Tina Connolly. (You had me at teenage criminal gang.)

Also very much enjoyed "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antartica" by Cat Valente.

The only story that didn't work for me was "Not Enough Stars in the Night" which felt very much "These darn kids and their VR!"

Overall, it was fun dipping into this collection from 2008, seeing the things that haunted and confounded us 20-ish years ago. Only a few things felt dated (The aforementioned "Not Enough Stars") but often there was a sense of ... well, just where the public's mind was at the time. How blissfully free of awareness of our own times!

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most compilations, there are some hits & misses here. Overall I found them enjoyable though. My favorite was probably "Snatch Me Another", which strokes my fetish of "here's a revolutionary scifi invention, let's look at the moral/societal ramifications of it".

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Above average for a story collection without a real theme. Though I skipped the first story after a couple of pages, the next one made me glad I kept reading, and on the whole these stories are excellent.

[Josh Storey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the Hal Duncan story, and the Cory Doctorow one. On hold with my other short story collections.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept. Almost all of the stories were good and interesting; some were even better than good.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent set of stories. I didn't relate to all of them, but I could see that they were good. I especially loved the last one (okay, maybe I was biased because of the title).

[Meran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. I rated it 4.6 stars, which when rounding up, makes it 5 stars! I may add the individual story ratings later.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really excellent new sci-fi stories here; I was disappointed when they were all gone.