Live Without a Net

Darger and Surplus #0.6

by Lou Anders (Editor), Stephen Baxter, David Brin

Exploring various alternatives to the information age, a collection of thought-provoking short stories speculates about a future without cyberspace or high-tech machines in works by Stephen Baxter, David Brin, Michael Swanwick, and other leading authors. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Alternate History, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

388 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

LOU ANDERS is the author of the novel Once Upon a Unicorn, the Thrones & Bones trilogy of fantasy adventure novels (Frostborn, Nightborn, and Skyborn), and the novel Star Wars: Pirate’s Price. He is the recipient of a Hugo Award for editing and a Chesley Award for art direction. In the tabletop roleplaying game world, Anders is the creator and publisher of the Thrones & Bones: Norrøngard campaign setting. He has also done game design for Kobold Press, River Horse, and 3D Printed Tabletop. In 2016, he was named a Thurber House Writer-in-Residence and spent a month in Columbus, Ohio, teaching, writing, and living in a haunted house. When not writing, designing, and editing, he enjoys playing roleplaying games, 3D printing, weightlifting, and watching movies. He lives with his wife, children, and two golden doodles in Birmingham, Alabama. You can visit Anders online at louanders.com or on Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks.

Reviews

[Vera Brook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rich collection of stories that imagine a variety of futures without the internet and cyberspace.

Here are some of my favorites - all of them highly recommended! I will definitely be going back to reread them, to try to figure out how the authors accomplished so much in so few words.

"Singletons in Love" by Paul Melko
"Reformation" by Alex Irvine
"I Feed the Machine" by Del Stone Jr.
"Dobcheck, Lost in the Funhouse" by Mike Resnick and Kay Kenyon
"Smoke and Mirrors: Four Scenes from the Post-Utopian Future" by Michael Swanwick

And there were probably more great stories that I'm forgetting.

The only glitch in the collection was the story that read like erotica, with literally pages of graphic descriptions of sex, starting from the first line (and with the theme of virtual reality as sexual wish fulfillment somewhere in there). Nothing against the genre, but it was a jarring transition and made me imagine a manuscript somehow ending up in the wrong pile.

[Jesse Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been some time since I've read this anthology, but it means something when a short story collection primarily consisting of authors I'm not otherwise familiar with makes a good impression. The concepts presented here are varied, but many are fascinating, and I will be revisiting it again.

[Bruce Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

By and large a very solid collection. I discovered a few new authors to check out, so I'm satisfied. There were definitely a lot of interesting ideas floating around.

[Nick de Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read years ago, lost, found, re-read. The Paul Di Filippo story stuck with me, and there's a good introduction to the Darger and Surplus setting.

[Earl Truss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I liked it. The first half was very good - I enjoyed the stories - but the last half was much weaker.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

What would life be without the Internet or even computers? That’s the premise the stories in this anthology address. While all of them fit the premise, most of them are not all that interesting. I was a bit surprised by that, considering the authors included: Stephen Baxter, David Brin, Charles Stross, S.M. Stirling Michael Swanwick and Mike Resnick. The rest of the authors are names I am not familiar with.

My favorite story is 0 One by Chris Roberson. It tell of a society where all necessary mathematics are done on abacuses and the post of Chief Computator is one of the most respected in the land, until a man shows up with a machine that calculates by itself. The ending was really a surprise.

None of the others stories are bad, which is unusual since I usually detest at least one story in every anthology I have ever read, but none stand out, maybe that’s why the bargain book store had so many copies.

I can’t recommend a whole book for one story, so look elsewhere and you will find much more worthwhile collections, unless you are really interested in the premise.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great stories in here, some deal with the "fall" of the Internet and some deal with alternate forms of communication (really alternate!).

One thing to to note, the last story contains some pretty graphic sex...for those who are not comfortable with that sort of thing, you might want to skip that story. It's an intriguing story, but I can see how some folks might be uncomfortable with the sex.

[Alexis Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing collection of non cyber punk stories. 2 that were pulled from larger stories and dropped here with little context kept this book from being 5 stars for me. Brilliant work by a long list of brilliant authors.

[bluetyson]

Live Without a Net by Lou Anders (2004)

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of stories, a few in here I wish were parts of actual series and can only hope will be expanded into longer stories in the future.

[Al Cormier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of stories.