Communications Breakdown: SF Stories About the Future of Connection

by Jonathan Strahan (Editor)

An exciting science fiction collection that looks at what future communication might look like and how our shifting relationships with technology could change this most human of capabilities.

In Communications Breakdown, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan asks some of the world's best science fiction writers to consider how the very idea of communication might change in the future. Rich terrain for speculation, this anthology brims with human stories about the future face of our age-old need to connect. As cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson said, “The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed.” So what happens when inequalities keep the future from everyone's front door? Who is in control? These stories show humanity's ability to construct the best possible worlds while also battling our potential to inflict unlimited harm.

Communications Breakdown features contributions from Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Famer Cory Doctorow, the winner of the Times of India AutHer Award Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Hugo Award winner Ian McDonald, as well as an interview with digital privacy activist Chris Gilliard by author and journalist Tim Maughan. Breaking down how we think about communication, Communications Breakdown calls readers to look at how vulnerable our modes of communication—and indeed, we ourselves—are.

Contributors
Elizabeth Bear, S.B. Divya, Cory Doctorow, Chris Gilliard, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Ken Macleod, Tim Maughan, Ian McDonald, Anil Menon, Premee Mohamed, and Shiv Ramdas. Artwork by Ashley Mackenzie

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Technology

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 31, 2023

Reviews

[Yev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here Instead of There - Elizabeth Bear
A band of anarchists are squatting in an abandoned seastead. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot compete against private business. Hurricane warnings are paywalled.
Ok

Moral Hazard - Cory Doctorow
A homeless transwoman hopelessly in debt to MIT, the publisher of this anthology, uses a loophole to incorporate every homeless person into their own personal LLC. That way they'll be included in the continuous government bailouts meant for too-big-to-fail corporations.
Meh

Sigh No More - Ian McDonald
A coronal mass ejection 5-8 times more powerful than the Carrington Event wipes out electronics. More are expected to occur soon. Regardless, the Shakespeare play must be performed.
Blah

Less Than - Lavanya Lakshminarayan
A wealthy queer woman is a pro gamer and married to her ideal husband. Everything and everyone, except him, demands that she become pregnant and raise a child. She begins to believe that all of society is colluding to brainwash themselves into believing what society what has deemed best for them. That personal choice is being stripped away from everyone, not with violence and oppression, but through algorithms and social pressure.

An analogy for my feelings on this story is an adult being utterly shocked at learning that meat comes from animals and going on at length about this deeply disturbing revelation to a vegan.
Blah

What about Privacy? - Tim Maughan
Tim Maughan interviews Chris Gilliard about privacy and the professed obliviousness of those who enable massive harm, especially in the tech industry. The previous story was a gentle rebuke hoping that the lesser enablers, the assumed audience reading the story, would see themselves in the story and then change their behavior. This interview instead treats it with the seriousness and forthrightness it deserves.

The Excommunicates - Ken MacLeod
Some time ago people were banned from being online for spreading misinformation. They became known as the Excommunicates. The Church of the Book believes in the sanctity of all information and is where the Excommunicates congregate. Some of their children want a different life.
Blah

Noise Cancellation - S.B. Divya
She and her child have EHS, Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome, and the contemporary world with its smartmatter construction and electronics everywhere makes living miserable. However, she finds somewhere they can live without worry. Will she have to choose between her wife and child?
Ok

My City Is Not a Problem - Tim Maughan
Billions have been spent on an AI that will advise how to best run London. What will its advice be? How this story goes for you will depend entirely on your political preferences. I found it to be amusing.
Enjoyable

Cuttlefish - Anil Menon
Genetic engineering went wrong and now the affected children who inherited the condition are abused and tormented. A family tries to find a solace in a rural luxurious house. The butler shares in their anguish.
Ok

Company Man - Shiv Ramdas
He's gotten a new artificial heart, but due to a mishap, they want to repossess it. Corporations have far more rights than natural persons, so even with his powerful position, his continued survival is very much in doubt. This was a very humorous story in an absurd way. I laughed a lot.
Highly Enjoyable

At Every Door a Ghost - Premee Mohamed
A chemical weapon attack kills 100k people at once. Now every scientist's research is heavily scrutinized and nothing can be done. Rumor is that scientists are disappearing and never seen again all the time. Two scientists decide that they can't live like this.
This started out great and declined from there until its lackluster ending.
Ok

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Elizabeth Bear's Here Instead of There, heard on the Escape Pod podcast in 2 parts.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recent Reads: Communications Breakdown. Jonathan Strahan's MIT Press anthology is themed around communication. It's an excellent mix of stories, by writers at the top of their game, drilling down into complex themes. I really enjoyed this one - "Marxist HAL 9000" and all.

[Paul Morisset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ratings:

‘Here Instead of There’ by Elizabeth Bear - 4 stars.
‘Moral Hazard’ by Cory Doctorow - 4 stars.
‘Sigh No More’ by Ian McDonald - 3 stars.

[Houlcroft · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A few fascinating and well crafted stories, with an exploration of communication both directly and indirectly, yet these few stories risked being lost amongst the predictable or overly complex ideas of the majority.

Standouts among the 12 were Here Instead of There, The Excommunicates and Company Man.
While Company Man skirted the same ground as Moral Hazard, that being corporatisation and prioritisation of profits over people, its ongoing consideration of the wider world made it the stronger.
My main complaint is the overtaking focus on AI. The ideas around this were unoriginal and predictable. Disappointing given the strength of these collections in the past.

[Shyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Today the petrol station sign glowed, shop signs flickered, traffic lights ran though their small spectrum. Bus stop indicators flashed random symbols, yet they flashed. Disasters unfold in small scenes. All Armageddons are personal.

A lot of nice premises, but many of the stories felt like they didn’t really know how to conclude. My favorite story here is probably Anil Menon’s “Cuttlefish,” mostly because of shows a character perspective that isn’t so common in SF.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest reaction to Communications Breakdown: it's a book that thinks it's much more clever than it is, and I still kind of enjoyed it. Jonathan Strahan loads the story with winking references and twisty structure, and the scene where the main character literally argues with the narrator is clever for about five pages. Then it starts to feel like a magic trick that keeps explaining itself. For readers who like playful, meta stuff. Skip it if you prefer your stories played straight.

[Michelle Pulignani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating story.

[Paul Fagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favourite short story anthology. Every story was a gem 💎.

There is not a single story in here that I didn't love, and the author line-up was superb. I also feel like this is THE story collection of our time. It deals with tough subjects like inequality, AI, surveillance and tech run amok, but in ways that are often fun, cheeky or surrounded by interesting characters.
And what I love about Strahan's collections is that he gets these stories from top-quality writers. I would say some of the most underappreciated writers working today have stories in here. Writers like Premee Mohamed, Ian McDonald, and Ken MacLeod are just beautiful and powerful with their prose. If they didn't write SF, NYTimes would be gushing over them. And the ideas they come up with... Cory Doctorow's story about incorporating homelessness needs to happen now! And after Lavanya Lakshminarayan's story, I just can't look at Netflix in the same way.

I don't know that I can pick a favourite, but the first story - about what happens when the National Weather Service gets taken over by private interests - comes to the front of my mind with every new natural disaster. As I write this, there are fires in LA and misinformation and delayed notifications are causing chaos among residents, and Elizabeth Bear - for better or for worse - totally anticipated this problem, as well as what's to come. It also had great characters and pacing, so I might give her the top spot.
Company Man by Shiv Ramdas made me laugh out loud, and made me think of a certain Luigi who's not a plumber. The Excommunicates by Tim MacLeod wins for vibes (runner up, McDonald's Sigh No More). But honestly, there's value in every single story... And the interview in the middle. Chris Gilliard's take on surveillance was very eye-opening.

It's a shame so few people seem to know about this book. If you know me, feel free to borrow it from me!