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Metatropolis (METAtropolis)

by John Scalzi (Goodreads Author), Jay Lake (Goodreads Author), Elizabeth Bear (Goodreads Author), Karl Schroeder, Tobias S. Buckell (Goodreads Author)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 776 ratings · 142 reviews

Five original tales set in a shared urban future—from some of the hottest young writers in modern SF

A strange man comes to an even stranger encampment...a bouncer becomes the linchpin of an unexpected urban movement...a courier on the run has to decide who to trust in a dangerous city...a slacker in a "zero-footprint" town gets a most unusual new job...and a weapons invest...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published June 8th 2010 by Tor Books (first published October 20th 2008)

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Dec 22, 2011 Rae rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Sci-Fi buffs, tree-huggers

Shelves: hooray-a-distopia

I've observed that the way of anthologies seems to be that you win some and you lose some, and METAtropolis adheres to that view. In this unique anthology, all the stories are written in the same, post-oil world, where either you're green, you're stupid, or you're dead. Although all of the stories are connected via world, they have such a range of qualities that I feel that it is only really fair to review each independently of the others.

In the Forests of the Night by Jay Lake was certainly th...more

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Anila *Mafia. That's what you get for listening to it on audio.

I'm perversely glad to hear that Lake's story isn't good, because I'll be spared of thinking...more
Feb 06, 2011 03:00pm

Rae Anila wrote: "*Mafia. That's what you get for listening to it on audio.

I'm perversely glad to hear that Lake's story isn't good, because I'll be spare...more
updated Feb 06, 2011 03:16pm

Anila Oh, oh! In The Goose Girl, I could never figure out if the horse's name was Falada or Salada. Bothered me whole book.
I used to get confused when Briti...more
Feb 06, 2011 04:49pm

Jun 18, 2010 Kiri rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

This book was conceived as a joint project between five authors, in which they co-created the world in which their stories would be set, but then took their stories in very different directions. They're all concerned with the evolution of cities and breakdown of our current capitalistic, consumption-based economy. Not quite post-apocalyptic, nevertheless some of the stories have a distinct survivalist feel to them, and they are all creative and thought-provoking.

I liked how the stories wound ba...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Kim Pallister rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this an anthology of five novellas about cities of the future. The authors collaborated some during it's creation, so they share common elements to the background and setting, but are each very unique.

As well as being fun, compelling stories (the last one in particular is a mind-blower), they each present some really intriguing bits of futurism, revolving around sustainable cities, crowd-sourcing, wisdom of the crowds, distributed networks, and so much more. With five authors th...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Stefan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-story-collection, science-fiction, advance-reading-copy, anthology, www-fantasyliterature-com-review

Metatropolis is an interesting book, to say the least: in addition to being a "shared world" anthology, featuring stories from five authors working in the same "collectively-constructed" future setting, it's also (as far as I know) unique in that it was released first as an audio book (reviewed below by Kat) and only subsequently as a traditional "paper" book, first as a limited edition by Subterranean Press, and now in a shiny new edition by Tor.

The concept of the book's shared world is equally...more Metatropolis is an interesting book, to say the least: in addition to being a "shared world" anthology, featuring stories from five authors working in the same "collectively-constructed" future setting, it's also (as far as I know) unique in that it was released first as an audio book (reviewed below by Kat) and only subsequently as a traditional "paper" book, first as a limited edition by Subterranean Press, and now in a shiny new edition by Tor.

The concept of the book's shared world is equally interesting: due to environmental change and political upheaval, the idea of national government has been superseded by something akin to city states, often self-governed or in partnership with other cities across the world, while outside the city walls the situation may be more similar to what you'd find in a post-apocalyptic novel. Each of the five stories collected in Metatropolis explores the concept of what such a city or society might be like in interesting, different and (mostly) successful ways.

If you're not sold yet, the list of authors reads like a veritable All Star team of current, interesting SFF authors: Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder and John Scalzi, who also served as editor for the entire project.

"In the Forests of the Night" by Jay Lake opens Metatropolis with a powerful story about a mysterious and charismatic stranger arriving in Cascadiopolis — a hidden city situated in the Cascades area that stretches from Portland up to Vancouver. As the first story in the anthology, it unfortunately bears the burden of having to include some world-building information, which is (more or less gracefully) handled by including extracts from economics and sociology texts that draw up the anthology's shared world future in a few quick strokes. Passing over those necessary info dumps, you'll find a beautiful story, effectively displaying a number of different perspectives, written in gorgeous, dense prose that just begs to be reread. The story lays on the William Blake a bit too thickly — the main character's name Tygre is one thing, but naming part of the city Symmetry was a bit much for me. Still, filled with characters that have the raw power of archetypes, this is nothing short of an excellent story. (Four stars.)

Tobias Buckell's entry, with the groan-inducing title "Stochasti-City", switches us over to a drastically changed Detroit, and to Reginald, an ex-military bar bouncer who becomes involved in a unique urban rebellion. The story has a not-quite-here-yet future realism that reminded me of Cory Doctorow, with several elements that seem as if they could be happening today — but not quite. I enjoyed Reginald's story of gradual personal awakening, the more subtly handled world-building touches, and especially the sense of real social change occurring in the story. (Three stars.)

Next up is Elizabeth Bear's "The Red in the Sky is our Blood," the gripping story of Cadence Grange and her not-quite-stepdaughter Firuza. It describes another unique social experiment, cleverly hinted at in Tobias Buckell's story, and also refers back to the Cascades setting of "In the Forests of the Night," which pulls the entire anthology so far into a coherent whole and helps its fictional world become more real. This story also contains the most beautiful prose in the entire anthology (which is saying a lot, given that it also features Jay Lake). Just read this gem of a sentence: "Cadie could picture the conversation like intersecting fingers, locked at the base but pointing in incompatible directions, pushing against one another." (Four stars.)

John Scalzi's story "Utere Nihil Non Extra Quiritationem Suis" (which, I believe, is Latin for "Look, I'm smart and know impressive quotes") just didn't work for me. Its protagonist Benjamin has the smarmy, sarcastic sense of humor of almost every character in the author's novels, and the plot, involving a slacker forced into gross manual labor, somehow manages to be improbable at first and predictable towards the end. It also involves large amounts of pig excrement. There are some interesting looks at people living in a city-based society, contrasted effectively with life outside in the wilderness, but aside from this, I could have done without it. Still, if you generally enjoy John Scalzi's style and sense of humor, you will probably like this story too. (One star.)

Thankfully, Karl Schroeder's "To Hie from Far Cilenia" closes out Metatropolis with a sizzling mind-bender of a story about technology-enhanced "virtual" levels of society that overlay — and influence — everyday reality. The ending rattles a bit, but there are enough stunning ideas (cyranoids!) to make "To Hie from Far Cilenia" a story that's almost impossible to summarize, but also one you're guaranteed to remember for a long time. (Four stars.)

Taken all together, Metatropolis is a unique and mostly high quality collection of connected stories by some of today's most exciting authors. On one level, the anthology has an important and relevant message about the state of our present society and the direction we're heading in. On another, it's just a great read with some truly memorable stories. Check it out.

(This review was also published at the Fantasy Literature website: www.fantasyliterature.com --- come check us out!)(less)

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Mar 22, 2010 Kat Hooper rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

METAtropolis: It’s not a utopia. It’s just maybe something that sucks a little less

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and it turns out that all those eco-freaks were right all along. We humans destroyed the planet and now we’ve got to live with the mess we’ve made. Many world governments, including the U.S., have been essentially dismantled and large, mostly independent and self-governing city-states have taken their place.

Under the direction of John ...more

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Sep 04, 2009 Karlo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Occasionally you get lucky and a book you read causes you to positively thrum with energy; you may even look at things differently when you put the book down. I'm not saying world or life changing, but perhaps a momentary wobble in perspective or thinking. It left me with a lopsided smirk/grin and itchy arms. This book did that for me; but it kinda snuck/sneaked up on me.

Lake starts it off, and I was pleasantly surprised by his story. I didn't quite get if he was doing a run-and-gun Merc-style...more Occasionally you get lucky and a book you read causes you to positively thrum with energy; you may even look at things differently when you put the book down. I'm not saying world or life changing, but perhaps a momentary wobble in perspective or thinking. It left me with a lopsided smirk/grin and itchy arms. This book did that for me; but it kinda snuck/sneaked up on me.

Lake starts it off, and I was pleasantly surprised by his story. I didn't quite get if he was doing a run-and-gun Merc-style story or something Techno-nomadic. He messed me up for a while in his use of names (I actually processed two versions of the story in parallel; one with humans, one with animals [echoes of Simak's City running in my mind:]). The image of a town that is functionally a forest; not Robin Hood or Swiss Family Robinson, but really with low to zero footprint was a radical concept. By the time it finished, I ended up with a religious/spiritual residue. Lake's use of cooking and food in a few scene's was very evocative. This was my favourite story.

Buckell's story was more grounded in more familiar tropes; a little cyberpunk filtered through a recessionary US lens; a little anarchistic feel somewhere between Hakim Bey's TAZ and Doctorow's Little Brother. I really didn't see the Caribbean influence I expect from him, which was interesting. Watching HBO's Hung (guilty, guilty) also provided additional context for a city in decline. The re-purposed buildings were nicely handled, and the manner in which the protests were coordinated and staged was very new to me. Wonderful.

Bear's story; complementary as it was to Buckell, had a wonderful cadence to it's story. The manner in which she leads us and the POV character through the rondel of the story was throughly engaging, allowing me to focus my wonder on the world Bear revealed.

Scalzi's story was the easiest to digest, with his voice most like that of a Heinlein juvenile. I found it easy to follow, and the plot was the easiest to predict. It was my least favourite story, but that might be to due to my having reached a saturation point with regards to his style.

Schroeder; my neighbourhood author (he lives about 10 mins from me) leaves me with more questions than answers. I, like the characters, feel that I've been led to a boundary of understanding that I cannot cross. I appreciate that he makes me question my concepts / structures by the end of his story, and also reminds me that sometimes in every model of perception, some things are dangerous.

Great job folks!

(less)

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Apr 27, 2009 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: popcorn

Not nearly as pretentious as the name implies. This is a collection of short stories imagining the cities of the future. The authors collaborated on a "shared universe," and then wrote individual stories reflecting aspects of the universe. The first story is self-serious and predictably preachy-- evil capitalism, global warming, failure of representative government, etc. It's uphill from there, however. We get less Self-Destructive-Tendencies-of-this-Depraved-Species hogwash and more objective i...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Kohl Gill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sci-fi, environmentalism, sustainability fans

Recommended to Kohl by: MacBreak Weekly

Shelves: audible, listened

METAtropolis is an example of what sci-fi authors do best: show us what's achievable, what's possible, and motivate us to make that future real. My favorite chapters were the first - In the Forests of the Night by Jay Lake (read by Michael Hogan) - and fifth - To Hie from Far Cilenia by Karl Schroeder (read by Stefan Rudnicki) - though the fourth - Utere Nihil... by John Scalzi (read by Alessandro Juliani) - was campy and amusing.

Audible.com has the first chapter as a free download, so you can t...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Muccamukk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Usual mixed bag for a collection like this. I quite enjoyed several of the stories (first, third and last), and only outright disliked one (the fourth by John Scalzi). Except for Gavril in the last story, none of the characters seemed especially memorable. (And I couldn't help but notice that except for the story by Elizabeth Bear, all the focal characters were men, which left the world feeling rather unbalanced).

I found the shared world building had several neat ideas such as turking, Edgewater...more

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Jun 05, 2012 tr00don added it · review of another edition

Well, I disagree with the reviews implying that some of the stories in this collection are less good than the others. I was reluctant to pay the $30 price this book was initially listed at. So I waited and I purchased it when it was on sale at... $6! Man, it is worth the $30 that I wouldn't shell out, all of it! The stories are different, each in its own way, but they gradually add up mystery and knowledge about this near future hypothetical society. The last story does stand out, partly because...more

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Apr 14, 2011 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Metatropolis is an interesting project: it is a shared-universe project which explores the post-consumer face of cities. Overall, I think that it attempts more than it achieves - the authors have a tendency to veer into no-second-law-of-thermodynamics-land, which is a lovely place, but seeing it like that jarred me out of the moment. The stories are by and large pretty good: all of the authors are talented, but I wasn't left with the "and then what happened?" moment regarding the characters.

I th...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Tina rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting collection of stories, as they all took place in the same future world. I think what I really liked about the collection was the setting - the future was an interesting mix of degraded, almost post-apocalyptic outskirts surrounding technologically-advanced cities, which I don't see as a far-fetched idea (I mean, look at Detroit)! Yet, each of the stories stand alone, and that's where my rating drops a little - I really liked two of the stories, enjoyed one, and the other...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Andreea Daia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ab, science-fiction, novella, cyberpunk, read-2012, utopia, hugo-nominee

The stories of this anthology are rather heterogeneous in feel and content, though located in the same geographical area, which give them a common playground.

In the Forests of the Night by Jay Lake is in my opinion the second best in the collection and it is by far the most character-driven story, or at least as much as one can accomplish this task in the limited space of a novella. Tyger Tyger, the main character, has almost a mystical glow about him. Any moment, you expect him to do something...more The stories of this anthology are rather heterogeneous in feel and content, though located in the same geographical area, which give them a common playground.

In the Forests of the Night by Jay Lake is in my opinion the second best in the collection and it is by far the most character-driven story, or at least as much as one can accomplish this task in the limited space of a novella. Tyger Tyger, the main character, has almost a mystical glow about him. Any moment, you expect him to do something extraordinary, a miracle or at least a monumental deed. The fact that up to the very end, we don't learn his true identity, only fuels the transcendent atmosphere surrounding his persona. However we learn a lot about his interior dialogue and his emotional state. Stylistically speaking, this story is written in the most interesting technique of the entire collection, with the point of view switching between several characters and an omniscient narrator. What I found special about the technique is that no two voices sound the same - they have an individuality of their own like the characters they belong to. (4 stars)

The next three stories (Stochasti-City by Tobias Buckell, The Red in the Sky is Our Blood by Elizabeth Bear, and Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis by John Scalzi) are very similar in message and, to some extent, in content. They all focus on their authors' ideas of utopia (or what they consider the next best thing). They have a very activist vibe, all of them promoting a green(er) way of life. I think they are interesting, but they didn't hold my attention too well. The Red in the Sky is Our Blood by Elizabeth Bear has the most elegant writing style in the whole anthology. (3 stars overall for these stories)

"To Hi from Far Celinea" by Karl Schroeder, the best novella of METAtropolis, brings a truly fascinating concept and an innovative cyberpunk plot. This story alone would be worth getting the book! Mr. Schroeder creates an (pseudo-)alternative reality so avant-garde that it left me breathless. I don't want to spoil anyone's please of discovering this reality for himself/herself, so I won't say anything about this concept and its hypotheses. The writing is matter-of-fact and the characters are only sketched, but that doesn't make the ideas of the story less powerful. (4.5 stars)(less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Cale rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a thought-provoking collection of short stories revolving around a shared future-world. The stories don't overlap much; nor do the primary factors in the stories, but that just means it manages to blow one's mind in a multitude of different ways.
There are 5 stories in the book; one (Scalzi's) is very fun, but not particularly futuristic. Two were serious mental trips into technologies that don't feel like they're as far away as the stories intimate, and their primary technologies (real-l...more

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Jul 15, 2012 RK rated it 3 of 5 stars

Metatropolis is an anthology book with stories by Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder.

Each story is short enough to read by itself and does not have to be read to understand the others but there are subtle links between the stories that expand the bleak future.

Each story takes place in a different city except for Elizabeth Bear's and Tobias' stories. This does not harm either since as I said before neither of them are interlocking.

The first story entitled "In...more Metatropolis is an anthology book with stories by Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder.

Each story is short enough to read by itself and does not have to be read to understand the others but there are subtle links between the stories that expand the bleak future.

Each story takes place in a different city except for Elizabeth Bear's and Tobias' stories. This does not harm either since as I said before neither of them are interlocking.

The first story entitled "In The Forests of the Night" by Jay Lake follows a man named Tygre Tygre into the city of Cascadia in the North West and chronicles his brief stay before events spin out of his control. This story has been getting bashed so I'll try and give a different review of it. Jay's universe building threatens to over take the story at times. Several characters are introduced in the beginning and their story arcs are easy enough to follow until the end comes too quick because there is no act 3 as the noose around Tygre's neck twists, the story promptly ends in two pages. So promptly I re-read it to confirm the antagonist managed to make it out to Cascadia before Tygre's final moments. For the sake of the story I would have dropped a few of the pages of the universe building and tightened up the narrative a bit more.

The second story by Tobias Buckell entitled Stochasti-City takes place in Detroit and chronicles the journey of a bouncer that becomes a general in an war between the police and ecoterrorists. The shift from one jungle to the next is not jarring even if the story themes are different. The bouncer has stayed off the grid and kept his money hidden until events out of his control lands him in need of some fast cash. Tobias's story is a bit more of the hero's journey and in my opinion should have been led off with instead of Jay's. Protagonist and Antagonist are given enough page time to make the story an enjoyable read.

The Red in the sky is our blood by Elizabeth Bear follows a protagonist in Tobias' Detroit but is not effected by the events which in hindsight would have been a great interlocking story to see the effects. The story feels like Jay's where the characters and universe building have to duke it out for page length. Unfortunately, in the end, the universe building wins and the character answers the call of the hero but the story feels like it should be longer.

John Scalzi's story with the nigh unpronounceable name as most reviewers have already said is probably the best of the book. This is due to mix of universe building and story that feels natural. Moving from Detroit to New St. Louis the story focuses on Benji and his new job as pig poop farmer. Yep, you heard right. And, yes, there are Thunderdome references in there as well so you can see where this is headed. All of the characters are well thought out and are fairly likable even the antagonist is someone what dimensional instead of chewing scenery.

The last story by Karl Schroeder began great with some radioactive reindeer from Chernobyl and quickly digresses into a bore fest with multi-online-games within games and a dash of Steampunk overtones just to try satisfy the geeks. The story revolves around a missing something something that I honestly could not care less about because the idea presented was trying too hard and it just went right over my head.

So, in closing, is this book a library book or should you buy it?

I'm going to go with library book. If the first and last stories were tighter and with better narrative it would go into the buy column but alas the book is not worth spending $24.99 on the hardcover, the ebook price isn't worth it either.(less)

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Feb 17, 2012 Leilani rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anthologies, science-fiction

It's a shame this collection started on such a weak note with the Jay Lake story (and one that lasted so long), but at least hearing it read by Tigh was entertaining. And what was that whole messiah-thing about? This story was a whole lot of build-up and then suddenly something happens offstage.

The Tobias Buckell and Elizabeth Bear stories that followed were huge improvements, and featured interesting extrapolations of what societies might build to try to live in a sustainable fashion in the re...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Betsy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, sci-fi, short-stories, my-top-10-of-2011

Audiobook, various narrators.

Not your typical dystopic sci-fi. Yes, the world has come to social & environmental ruin. But as another reviewer said, these are stories of hope. They are stories in which people have dealt, adapted and, for the most part, risen above in new ways.

I enjoyed the ways that the completely separate stories referenced each other. You could tell that the authors collaborated to a certain extent although each offered their own very individual vision.

I liked this enough...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Bookworm Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What interested me was the self labelling on the front cover - A collection of stores in a shared future...yes, now seeing that in print I realize it's a bit weird to find that interesting. But, I really like books that take a look at the world in the near future, especially those horribly depressing post apocalyptic ones!

Looking this book over I realized this book had a couple of things against it, at least in my eyes. One, it was not a book about a post apocalyptic world, which I initially tho...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Lew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This book comprises five short stories by different well known Science-Fiction authors, who got together to create a future urban world in which all the stories take place.
"In the Forests of the Night" by Jay Lake - Interesting story but it seems to have more to it or at least I would liked to have had more.
"Stochasti-City" by Tobias S. Buckell I liked this story better and came to a better conclusion.
"The Red in the Sky is Our Blood" by Elizabeth Bear Wasn't crazy about this one and I'm not sur...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Victor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished Metatropolis, an Science Fiction anthology edited by author John Scalzi ( Agent to the Stars, The Android's Dream ). Unlike a lot of anthologies out there this one has a little twist to it. The various author's involved - Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, and project editor John Scalzi - got together and built the principles of the world first before starting on their individual stories. After that they would share what they had written so far and continue...more I just finished Metatropolis, an Science Fiction anthology edited by author John Scalzi ( Agent to the Stars, The Android's Dream ). Unlike a lot of anthologies out there this one has a little twist to it. The various author's involved - Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, and project editor John Scalzi - got together and built the principles of the world first before starting on their individual stories. After that they would share what they had written so far and continue to build on the idea.

And what is the idea you ask? A world in the future. Were life as we know it has changed. For the better? That is up to you to decide. Each story showing people having to deal with the effects of climate change and what each of these areas of the world do to cope with their environment and live.

From the Pacific Northwest to Sweden, each story brings it's own unique perspective on the world of the future.

Story one, In the Forests of the Night, set in the Pacific Northwest, features a city were Anarchism, in the true since, rules and governs a zero footprint - self-sustaining society. Were scientist and activist work together to feed and protect a community living off the grid so to speak.

Two, Stochasti-city, set in Detroit is a story of a man who gets caught up in a life he did not expect to be in. A bouncer who gets involved with a movement of people, very much like the folks in the Pacific Northwest, who want to change Detroit but come up against against a Blackwater type private military force that polices the city.

The Red in the Sky is Our Blood, also set in Detroit of a women who is asked to help a group of where every individual's personal wealth, so to speak, is based on their actions. The more they contribute the more personal wealth they have.

Utere nihil non extra quiritationem suis, John Scalzi's contribution is set in a eco-friendly city/state. The story of a slacker making his way through in life in a city where, if you do not take an aptitude test by the time you are 20 you get shown to the city border. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I think the idea is awesome. The idea that each individual is given a job that is in there skill level but is very much a part of how the whole community works together. It is a coming of age story too. This one was probably my favorite story out of the bunch - but I am Scalzi fan so what can I say.

And last, To Hie from Far Cilenia, a story of a investigator is asked to help Interpol track down some plutonium and how this leads him into a new society built on an "online economy" that also helps the individuals of the real world. Pretty intreging story but I felt it the ending was little abrupt.

All in all it was a great set of stories. It was a fascinating read. Stories of survival, society and people working together to help make humanity about the WORLD community again and not the individual.(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Nicholas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting and ambition anthology. The central concepts that united the individual novellas is the city of the future. Specifically, the city in a post-peak-oil future.

I didn't care so much for the narrative of Jay Lake's In the Forest of the Night. I did a great job of laying out the exposition needed to explain the common setting, but I found the Tyger Tyger character to be flat and poorly fleshed out. The story centered on his messianic charm, so that let some of the air out of the tires....more

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Feb 08, 2012 Melanti rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, anthology, sci-fi, 2012

The first couple of stories in this anthology started off rather slowly, but by the time that Elizabeth Bear’s story came around, I was really into it.

The anthology does get rather preachy on the ecological propaganda at times (Bear’s story being the most preachy of the set), but that makes sense because all but one of the stories are focused on someone from within a society attempting to recruit an individual from without the society, and thus having to convert the prospective citizen to their...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an excellent collection of short stories. The premise of the collection was nice, that the authors came together to create a world in which all their stories would take place. Then they went off and wrote completely different stories. The world they created was very nice, a place where cities across the world had more in common with each other than with the nations they existed in. A place where carbon footprint was eco-friendly are critical to existance.

Of the stories, I totally enjoye...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Loved this for many reasons. First, the future dsytopia here is not as "dys" as most. It's a hopeful, but not candy coated, potential future (in which Detroit plays a leading role). Second, this was an audio book that was written down, not the reverse. I think this lends the stories momentum. No one seems too worried about fancy language and descriptions, it's straight forward story telling. Third, I loved the idea of authors getting together to create a shared world. Once you're through the fir...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Jonathan Hamlet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ripping-good-scifi-fantasy

Anthologies can be hit or miss, but Scalzi did an impressive job as editor and helsman of this particular crew. The future it imagines is near and believable. All to believable, in a way. From its beginning novella by Jay Lake that introduces Cascadiopolis and its militant greenfreaks to the closer, an overlapping worlds-within-worlds headtrip by Karl Schroeder that resurrects some tired aspects of cyberpunk in an urgent and more heady way, this fictional universe is a compelling one. A collapse...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Rusty rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to this thing last week during my commute to work. It ended up being okay, but no where near as entertaining as I would have preferred. The idea, a rather clever one I think, is that all the authors of the individual stories in this anthology would consult on the worldbuilding and all their stories would inhabit the same universe, so to speak.

So events in one story would get a nod, or mention, in another. Or locations central to one tale would be a footnote in another. I like that id...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Irfon-kim rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

This collection seems to have been written mostly as an intellectual exercise in world building than anything else, and it bears the scars of that. The stories tend to be exceedingly exposition-heavy and rarely connected, for me, on a more human level. I also find that all story collections are somewhat uneven, but this, despite the small number of discrete stories, had more misses than hits. I did greatly enjoy Scalzi's piece, which seemed to be the one story that was more about the character t...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, audio

This was a collection of semi-short stories, they call them novellas but I think they were shorter than that. There were a couple good ones and a couple ok ones. My favorite was the pig story, for sure. The first story about tyger tyger was probably the worst (which is unfortunate, since it could put someone off right away and the penultimate story was my favorite). The last story while fantastically narrated by Stefan Rudnicki (probably one of my favorite readers) the story didn't really captur...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Jeremy Preacher rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

Metatropolis is a neat concept even removed from its origins as an audiobook - a set of five stories set in a shared future world, all focused on the same idea without being necessarily set in exactly the same place or involving the same characters. The "future cities" concept is one I have a personal interest in, and the various takes on it - from closely-managed enclosed cities to hidden anarchoenvironmentalist collectives to the ongoing tragedy of Detroit to MMO-like virtual nations - are dif...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Jimmy Corvan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think I liked the idea of this book more than the execution. As I say that I'd like to state that this is fair from a bad book, it's just not a great book. I found some of the stories to be very interesting and I found other stories to be pretty lack luster.

The best thing about this book is that as a reader, it's an absolute joy to have stories built around world-building. The problem I found with the book is that the worlds are built and then nothing is done with what has been created.

Becaus...more

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About John Scalzi

John Scalzi, having declared his absolute boredom with biographies, disappeared in a puff of glitter and lilac scent.

(If you want to contact John, using the mail function here is a really bad way to do it. Go to his site and use the contact information you find there.)

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