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Future Americas
Predicting the future has long been a cornerstone of science fiction. Now seventeen farseeing authors have taken up the challenge of gazing into the future and seeing where America may be the day after tomorrow. From an America where history has become myth and misinformation amid the ruins of a once-vast land...to a place where the only existence for genetic misfits is as slaves to the "Gawders"...to a company intent on cloning the world's species, both extinct and endangered, back to a balanced ecosystem, here are original stories that will have readers thinking about the future, and about how their own actions now could make a difference tomorrow.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2008
2 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Martin H. Greenberg
909 books165 followersMartin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 24, 2015
If one were to use the 16 stories in this anthology as a guide for what to expect in America’s future, then we can expect a bleak future indeed. I suppose I should have deduced that from the cover art.
Unfortunately, there is very little to recommend here. First of all, the title is misleading as many of these stories aren’t so much about America’s future but instead are speculations on the future in general. Several stories are nothing more than political sarcasm, and given the publication date at the end of GW Bush administration, it isn’t hard to guess which political party gets skewered. That can be OK but only if the story is well written.
My two favorite stories were the first (“A Souvenir to Remember” by Brendan DuBois) and the last (“The Power of Human Reason” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch). Both stories were well written and demonstrated some thought-provoking scenarios. It's too bad they were lumped in with so many duds. The other stories tended toward the silly or the simply forgettable.
Disappointing.
Unfortunately, there is very little to recommend here. First of all, the title is misleading as many of these stories aren’t so much about America’s future but instead are speculations on the future in general. Several stories are nothing more than political sarcasm, and given the publication date at the end of GW Bush administration, it isn’t hard to guess which political party gets skewered. That can be OK but only if the story is well written.
My two favorite stories were the first (“A Souvenir to Remember” by Brendan DuBois) and the last (“The Power of Human Reason” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch). Both stories were well written and demonstrated some thought-provoking scenarios. It's too bad they were lumped in with so many duds. The other stories tended toward the silly or the simply forgettable.
Disappointing.
Read
July 28, 2019This is a short story anthology of science fiction. So, it sort of goes without saying it's about "future." The settings are in North America (not necessarily still "the U.S.") The stories are varied. At least one struck me as not clearly in the future. At least one has a nice punchline. Being short stories tends to limit being able to portray a society in breadth and depth. So, they tend to focus on a particular area (sometimes with references to broader aspects.) Part of me wants to say it would be better as "light reading," but some of the topics or descriptions aren't "light."
May 25, 2022
Future America, or just random SF stories that happen to take place in America? And most of the former are immediately dated, with some stories being merely a vehicle for espousing a hatred of people such as Clarence Thomas and Alberto Gonzales that's going to seem quite unhinged to future generations.
June 4, 2018
There wasn't really anything too shocking in the prospective futures. Overall, it was a decent read but there wasn't a single memorable short story in it which means it's more of a time-killer book than a must read.
October 4, 2012
Future Americas: All right, not great.
JDN 2456205 EDT 13:17.
I finished reading Future Americas, a collection of short stories by 16 current big-shot SF authors about, as you might imagine, the future of America. It's a mixed bag. I do like that they had a fairly even mix of men and women authors. The fact that all the authors are American is, I suppose, to be expected given the topic. But it would have been interesting to get some outside views on America's future.
I guess these specific reviews are slightly spoilerish?
Brendan DuBois's story “A Souvenir to Remember” is quite good, and a poignant reflection of the real inequality and injustice in today's society.
“Suffer the Children” by Barbara Nickless is interesting, but overall vaguely unsatisfying. “Better Guns” by Jean Rabe is just a stupid paranoid Southerner fantasy.
Ed Gorman's “The Baby Store” is very interesting in concept, though I didn't really like the way it was executed. It exaggerates the issues to the point where the real problems seem minor by comparison. For a much better handle on it, see the movie GATTACA.
“Jesus Runs” by George Zebrowski was just bizarre, and it is already falsified by the fact that Obama appointed some new Supreme Court Justices. “The Rotator” by Pamela Sargent is intriguing, but it used a fascinating time-travel/alternate-reality story to basically just talk about how Dick Cheney is a psychopath.
“Acirema the Rellik” by Robert Jeschonek started out really fascinating, and could have gone all sorts of places, and then just collapses into a pointless bloodbath that is made even more intolerable by its undertones of self-hating guilt.
“Family Photos” by S. Andrew Swann was a good story, if a bit dark, but there's nothing really SF about it.
“Our Flag Was Still There” by Steven Mohan is has the most compelling concept of America's future, though it gets a little bit sappy at the end. Still, overall I think it was my favorite. Mike Resnick's
“The Last Actor” is really just the standard lamentation that art is dying (apparently it has been for centuries?), and it's particularly obnoxious coming from a guy who makes millions selling literature in today's market.
“The Great Chain of Being” by Brian Stableford is... interesting, I'll give it that. Bizarre, but interesting.
“Attached to the Land” by Donald Bingle is some kind of weird Old West fantasy thing about living off the land and how cities are evil and corrupt.
“The Thief Catcher” by Theodore Judson is just a poorly executed story all around; I cared nothing for the characters, had trouble understanding the plot, and learned very little about the setting. There's a lot of exposition about the technology, even though the technology is not that interesting. The story goes nowhere.
“Unlimited” by Jane Lindskold is a neat little story, which almost certainly will happen sometime soon. But it doesn't really have a plot or characters, just a setting and a premise which play themselves out and then the story ends. Nothing really happens.
“Switching off the Lights” by Peter Crowther has a very fascinating premise, and then cuts out before we really see anything. We have no idea where the funnels come from, why they are here, or even what happens when you go through them. The ending is about as ambiguous as it's possible to be.
Finally, “The Power of Human Reason” by Kristine Kathryn Rush is a boring mystery story that manages to be nanopunk and Luddite at the same time.
JDN 2456205 EDT 13:17.
I finished reading Future Americas, a collection of short stories by 16 current big-shot SF authors about, as you might imagine, the future of America. It's a mixed bag. I do like that they had a fairly even mix of men and women authors. The fact that all the authors are American is, I suppose, to be expected given the topic. But it would have been interesting to get some outside views on America's future.
I guess these specific reviews are slightly spoilerish?
Brendan DuBois's story “A Souvenir to Remember” is quite good, and a poignant reflection of the real inequality and injustice in today's society.
“Suffer the Children” by Barbara Nickless is interesting, but overall vaguely unsatisfying. “Better Guns” by Jean Rabe is just a stupid paranoid Southerner fantasy.
Ed Gorman's “The Baby Store” is very interesting in concept, though I didn't really like the way it was executed. It exaggerates the issues to the point where the real problems seem minor by comparison. For a much better handle on it, see the movie GATTACA.
“Jesus Runs” by George Zebrowski was just bizarre, and it is already falsified by the fact that Obama appointed some new Supreme Court Justices. “The Rotator” by Pamela Sargent is intriguing, but it used a fascinating time-travel/alternate-reality story to basically just talk about how Dick Cheney is a psychopath.
“Acirema the Rellik” by Robert Jeschonek started out really fascinating, and could have gone all sorts of places, and then just collapses into a pointless bloodbath that is made even more intolerable by its undertones of self-hating guilt.
“Family Photos” by S. Andrew Swann was a good story, if a bit dark, but there's nothing really SF about it.
“Our Flag Was Still There” by Steven Mohan is has the most compelling concept of America's future, though it gets a little bit sappy at the end. Still, overall I think it was my favorite. Mike Resnick's
“The Last Actor” is really just the standard lamentation that art is dying (apparently it has been for centuries?), and it's particularly obnoxious coming from a guy who makes millions selling literature in today's market.
“The Great Chain of Being” by Brian Stableford is... interesting, I'll give it that. Bizarre, but interesting.
“Attached to the Land” by Donald Bingle is some kind of weird Old West fantasy thing about living off the land and how cities are evil and corrupt.
“The Thief Catcher” by Theodore Judson is just a poorly executed story all around; I cared nothing for the characters, had trouble understanding the plot, and learned very little about the setting. There's a lot of exposition about the technology, even though the technology is not that interesting. The story goes nowhere.
“Unlimited” by Jane Lindskold is a neat little story, which almost certainly will happen sometime soon. But it doesn't really have a plot or characters, just a setting and a premise which play themselves out and then the story ends. Nothing really happens.
“Switching off the Lights” by Peter Crowther has a very fascinating premise, and then cuts out before we really see anything. We have no idea where the funnels come from, why they are here, or even what happens when you go through them. The ending is about as ambiguous as it's possible to be.
Finally, “The Power of Human Reason” by Kristine Kathryn Rush is a boring mystery story that manages to be nanopunk and Luddite at the same time.
February 23, 2015
I was afraid as I hit the seventh story in this 16 story anthology because I was bored or confused by every work so far; my reading partner, who gave me the book, was dreading us reading another one together. Then finally we hit upon a story that we could feel connected to, that wasn't confusingly written, and that we wanted to talk about in not simply complain about. That was "Family Photos" by S. Andrew Swann and it gave me the motivation to keep reading. After finishing all 16 stories I can say that only five them stood out as worth our time reading. Now literary taste is very personal, I'll admit that, but with co-readers dislike 2/3rds of an anthology, that doesn't speak highly of the collection.
However if you are considering buying or reading this book, you need to know that this is not a horror or apocalyptic anthology. This is merely different visions about life in the future USA. Most of the stories may seem dark but a few show bright or positive changes in society or environment. That surprised me since the mantra of so much political talk and the pop media vision of the future has been grower darker and more repressed over the past few decades.
However if you are considering buying or reading this book, you need to know that this is not a horror or apocalyptic anthology. This is merely different visions about life in the future USA. Most of the stories may seem dark but a few show bright or positive changes in society or environment. That surprised me since the mantra of so much political talk and the pop media vision of the future has been grower darker and more repressed over the past few decades.
November 20, 2012
There's a few interesting stories, but for the most part these are fairly unmemorable, and a few of the more memorable ones are actually annoying. Most unforgivable of all, this collection doesn't come close to living up to the theme promised on the cover, of "Future Americas". Most of these are just stories of things that could happen in the future, most of them don't particularly have much more to do with America besides happening to be set there. I checked this out to kill time on my commute when I forgot my other book, and I suppose it's good enough for that, but I can't recommend it too highly.
unowned-to-buy
May 9, 2010I bought this in ebook format at fictionwise.com, but the publisher decided they wanted more money, so I couldn't download it.
Fictionwise refunded my money after a few weeks, so now I have to decide if I'll ever buy this again.
Unlikely.
Fictionwise refunded my money after a few weeks, so now I have to decide if I'll ever buy this again.
Unlikely.
August 16, 2015
Nothing noteworthy. I skimmed it a second time to see if any stories were worth keeping. They weren't. Since the book includes sacrilege about digging up Jesus' bones and cloning the DNA a number of times for political purposes this one goes in the trash instead of getting traded.
August 27, 2016
Anthology of the daftest SF-stories I have ever read. If the bragging of how many awards these crap authors is true I've lost all respect for the SF-awards they supposedly have won. Anyone can write better and more interesting stories than these :-(
February 24, 2009
Read from 6/16 to 6/28.
February 20, 2011
Some of these stories are pretty weak.
Read
August 28, 2012Yep, I have a story in this anthology. Can the future of the American west be different than most imagine? See what you think.
November 2, 2015
interesting collection, more hits than misses, but no real standout story for me
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews