2020 Visions

by Rick Novy (Editor), Mary Robinette Kowal (Contributor), Sheila Finch (Contributor)

Some storytellers use the distant future as the setting to make fantastic extrapolations and to explore compelling ideas. In this volume, however, the writers look forward a mere decade and present stunning scenarios, reveal exciting possibilities and warn against the harrowing pitfalls that may lie just a few steps ahead of us. What will life be like ten years from now? Sixteen extraordinary writers offer their own mind-bending answers to that question, their spectacular 2020 Visions…

284 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2010

About the author

Rick Novy makes his home in a suburb of that great metropolitan desert region of Arizona known as Phoenix. He grew up in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater with a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics (double major).

He moved to California and lived in the Bay Area for a decade, during which he earned a masters of science in engineering at San Jose State University. In 1999 he moved to Arizona (it’s a wry heat).

Rick spent 14 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry. He is currently adjunct faculty in the mathematics department at a local community college.

Rick has more interests than he has time to devote. He is a fish keeper suffering from MTS (multiple tank syndrome).

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm one of the contributors to this anthology, but finally had a chance to read it all the way through. The anthology takes a look at the world as it could a mere decade in the future. Some scenarios are probably more likely than others, but I was impressed with the range of topics explored. The topics included water shortages and border crime, the implications of new medical technologies and the rise of artificial intelligence. Likewise, I was impressed with the variety of styles and the emotional range of the anthology. There were light and humorous stories as well as darker stories. Kudos to editor Rick Novy for exploring this topic with such depth and range. I'm pleased to be part of this collection.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard for me to rate an anthology; obviously the quality of the stories vary, in this case from "brilliant" to "why is this in here, and why wasn't it copy-edited?" Works on the former end include "A Shelter for Living Things," by my friend Randy Henderson, "teh afterl1fe," by Jeff Spock, "If the Sun's at Five O'Clock, It Must Be Yellow Daisies," by Emily Devenport, "Pocket Full of Posey," by Alethea Kontis, and "Nervewrecking," by Alex Wilson. The story at the latter end, that almost made me give up on the book, is "Radiation is Groovy, Kill the Pigs," by Ernest Hogan. Yikes.

Overall, though, worth the read.