We Who Will Destroy the Future

by Margaret Killjoy

The 29th century treats the 21st like a prison colony. One convict, Maya, dreams of a jailbreak. Or, failing that, revenge.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

15 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2018

About the author

Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Reviews

[Beige · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. It immediately grabs you and sucks you in. A very original take on the future and time travel.

Read or listen for free here: https://resonanceaudiodistro.org/2018...

I will definitely read more by Killjoy.

[Ashley Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brought to you by the WBTM Short Story of the Week crew

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.Very original story all around—at least it's nothing like anything I've ever read before. The author efficiently builds the world and gives us a sense of time and place, without it becoming too overly wordy, and the result is a crisp, streamlined story with some satisfying twists, a few very unconventional characters, and a stunning ending.

Read it for free HERE.

[Kandice · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the stars!

That was a fantastic read. It felt very much like an updated Philip K. Dick story. Long on world building, short on detail, but packs a punch like a boxing kangaroo. This would lend itself to the screen perfectly, and like all the Dick adaptations, despite their very short story length, would need a film to cover it all.

Phenomenal!

[Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and intense. A short story that manages to briefly outline a whole (not so new) world (I apologise for the Disney reference) and a strong main character.

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t handle waking up at five to serve coffee. I can’t handle how much my coworkers care about coffee. I can’t handle everyone running around like their political choices have merit when I know the economy is going to collapse in less than a century. I can’t stand pretending like I don’t know things. I can’t stand waiting in line and taking busses and how people treat animals like pets and I can’t stand all the shit and piss fucking tragedies of the era. There’s nothing for me here. Nothing.

I really like the idea behind this short story and I loved the way Killjoy deals with "describing" the future. It's genious, because she doesn't really describe it at all, instead she lets Maya be angry about things that are different, she mostly describes the things from our time, which creates a mirror to what is in the future - she says "I can't handle how people treat animals like pets", so we know that animals in the future are treated differently, but how? Have animals full citizenships? Can humans talk with animals? Or are just animals considered revolting, so why would anyone want to have one at home? Or are there just no animals? The possibilities are wide and I loved that. There are enough details to make out contours, but the specifics are supplied by each individual reader.
I wasn't that big fan of the story, but I guess it's mostly because I was listening to it in bed and I almost fell asleep five minutes before the ending. The ending was definitely great and if you were half asleep like me, unexpected.

https://resonanceaudiodistro.org/2018...

[James Gifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully made chapbook short story with a letterpress cover. The story itself moves along quickly, and the philosophy is unstated but firmly present. A small twist at the end (apart from being a structural tactic) really makes the protagonist "gel" as a character and makes the readers rethink how we approach her. I liked this a lot.

[Valentine]

Really enjoyed this time travel story. It's got such an interesting premise and Margaret Killjoy managed to build upon it subtly, with just the right amount of worldbuilding detail for a story of this length.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

read at: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/libra...

I rather liked this:
"All the times humanity developed the power to destroy itself utterly, and it never had. Or, more likely, it had done it a hundred million times in a hundred million ways in alternate spacetimes, but of course Maya could not have been born into a world that did not exist."

I thought that this was well written; I liked the call backs, the slight twist to the ending, the tone, and the how the time frames are portrayed (past & present).

[rixx · Rating 3 out of 5]

**We Who Will Destroy the Future** is a nice little time travel short story, available at https://resonanceaudiodistro.org/we-w.... Good story, good setting, very good narrator voice.