Savage Humanists

by Fiona Kelleghan (Editor)

Science Fiction with a Bite!

What if we were modified neurologically so we could only tell the truth? What if aliens beamed us proof that God didn't exist? What if the sideshow freak you're seeing is really a visiting alien? What if a teleportation accident created a duplicate you?

Meet the Savage Humanists: the hottest science-fiction writers working today. They use SF's unique powers to comment on the human condition in mordantly funny, satiric stories, each accompanied by commentary by renowned SF scholar Fiona Kelleghan.

Every author in this anthology has been nominated for the Hugo or Nebula Awards - or both! - and many have won. In these pages, you'll find the top names in the SF field including:

Jonathan Lethem (author of the novel Gun, with Occasional Music), James Morrow (The Philosopher's Apprentice), Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars), Robert J. Sawyer (Rollback), Connie Willis (The Doomsday Book), plus Gregory Frost, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, and Tim Sullivan.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2008

Reviews

[Marsha]

This off-kilter series of science fiction features a mainly all-male roster. Normally, I don’t care about gender statistics in anthologies. However, when the emphasis in the foreword (which goes on for almost 70 pages!) is on the justified anger authors may feel at the state of the world and where they think we’ll wind up if certain matters go unchecked, you have to wonder why there aren’t more women in the authorial lineup. Don’t women get angry? Aren’t we civic minded enough to express outrage and concern?

All that aside, this anthology does dig under your skin. The authors review past atrocities and current social injustices. We’re made to review the iniquities practiced in the name of religion and how it can be used as a tool in the hands of the rich and powerful. Aliens haven’t invented space travel so much as mastered its intricacies. Enlightenment doesn’t always bring peace. In fact, it can bring the opposite. And the usual trope of banned literature and the literal underground it spawns make their appearance here as well.

This isn’t light or easy fiction to read, by any means. While one story posits how science fiction presents absurdist hope, as in the form of ordinary dweebs gaining superpowers, these stories give us little to none of that simple outcome. We are forced to think about the horrible situations spread across the pages and wonder what, if anything, we can do about them.

[Brian Gaston]

A good collection of stories with a message and includes some strong authors

[Paul Rubin]

Uneven as with many anthologies based around a theme. Some good, some not so good.

[Terry]

The Savage Humanists is an collection of science fiction short stories. The focus of this anthology is stories that use science fiction to comment and satirized the human condition. As with and collection of short stories there some good stories and there are some bad stories. For the most part this collection achieved it goals making you think about what it is to be human. Almost every story story had me thinking about the subject the author writing about. Some stories really didn't interest me, but Invaders, Think Like a Dinosaur and Flashes were my favorites. I am glad I was introduced to them. Overall not a spectacular book, but there are some stories here that need to be read.

[S.]

The introduction was quite interesting. The stories made a case supporting Kelleghan's intro--as they should. Thought-provoking read. (Okay, so I'm not good at writing reviews. I liked the book--the stories--even though I didn't agree with them all or enjoy them all. A collection leaves room for other ideas to fall into the cracks.)

[Scotchneat]

An interesting collection of stories, even if the intro was a bit academic.

Some big names are collected here, and this is the home of the very first Robert Sawyer story I've ever loved!