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L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future 25
Embark on Voyages of Imagination and Wonder.
Discover the new visionaries of imagination in the Writers of the Future—celebrating 25 years of showcasing the best new talent. Established in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard expressly for the aspiring writer, Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction. Never before published first-rate science fiction and fantasy stories selected by top names in the field.
Some of the best Sci Fi of the future comes from Writers of the Future and you can find it in this book." —David Hartwell, Editor
*Includes essays written by professionals of the craft: L. Ron Hubbard, Robert Silverberg & Ron Lindahn
564 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 26, 2010
This is an important book more for what it represents than for the quality of the literature. It represents the investment that speculative fiction makes in its young writers. Every year, twelve new writers win significant money and acclaim by winning the quarterly contests and getting their stories publishing in this yearly anthology. It's a tradition that should continue for a long time. While most of these stories are forgettable, the writers do display some young talent and one story, "After the Last Sunset, Again," is a real gem. And finding these gems make reading the whole anthology worthwhile.
April 10, 2020
I loved this little collection of short stories and novelettes. There is no theme to this, so I never knew what the next story would bring. Since I also haunt the websites of some publishers and magazines that regularly post short fiction from established science fiction and fantasy authors, I could also tell that these were certainly newcomers. But they were all excellent, whether or not the stories were to my taste.
My only minor quibbles were that the collection skewed primarily to science fiction and that since I viewed it on my black-and-white Kindle, I didn't get to fully appreciate the illustrations. The contest for which this publication represents the winning entries features new illustrators as well as writers, and I was a little sad that I couldn't fully appreciate the award-winning art.
My only minor quibbles were that the collection skewed primarily to science fiction and that since I viewed it on my black-and-white Kindle, I didn't get to fully appreciate the illustrations. The contest for which this publication represents the winning entries features new illustrators as well as writers, and I was a little sad that I couldn't fully appreciate the award-winning art.
June 29, 2017
Writers of the Future is one of the few contests targeted explicitly at early career writers, with realistic financial rewards rather than "exposure" (people die of exposure, you know). Stories are chosen by a panel of scifi elders quarterly. With such a collection, there's going to be a lot of variance, but I enjoyed 7 of these 8 stories.
I'd like to call out for special attention "The Shadow Man" by Donald Mead, which is a creepy and wistful look at life in Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb, and "The Assignment of Runner ETI" Fiona Lehn, which has a great Hunger Games style athletic-competition as public policy endurance race at the center of a story about teamwork and human limits.
I'd like to call out for special attention "The Shadow Man" by Donald Mead, which is a creepy and wistful look at life in Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb, and "The Assignment of Runner ETI" Fiona Lehn, which has a great Hunger Games style athletic-competition as public policy endurance race at the center of a story about teamwork and human limits.
June 18, 2020
I read this book right after finishing Vol. XXIV. Volume 24 was better than this anthology. I "really liked" more of the stories in Vol. 24. I struggled to finish some of the stories in this volume because they had excessive colorful descriptions. I'm more interested in story than wordcraft. I liked The Candy Store the best even though it reminded me of Stephen King's Needful Things novel. I also liked The Shadow Man and Gone Black. I do think though that this contest is a wonderful opportunity for new writers. I bought about a dozen of these, so I will get through them in due time. Ultimately, I gave it 3 stars because "I liked it".
May 26, 2012
I enjoyed it, some of the stories were top notch and others not so much though each had their merits.
My favorites were all in the First Quater of grading actually, Gone Black, The Farthest Born, and The Assignment of Runner ETI. While the last was... emotionally stale the idea itself was enough to keep the story alive.
Gone Black was simply phenomenal, from beginning to end. It balanced action action and character growth in one less than 17000 word story. The Farthest Born had me clutching my heart and the Assignment of Runner ETI had me wondering about where our world was headed.
Most lackluster tales? After The Final Sunset, Again, The Garden of Tian Zi and The Dizzy Bridge. With the first story, it's probably because I just don't enjoy selfish characters. The Garden of Tian Zi... just had me wanting more emotion and less science and The Dizzy Bridge was just confusing. I feel as though the latter was the type of tale that focused more on "what's not being said" but that type of writing is hard to relate to in a short story.
Overall, I'm happy I read it. I learned something, got inspired and was kept entertained. I couldn't see myself reading the whole anthology more than once, though certain stories will probably be a staple for me in the future.
My favorites were all in the First Quater of grading actually, Gone Black, The Farthest Born, and The Assignment of Runner ETI. While the last was... emotionally stale the idea itself was enough to keep the story alive.
Gone Black was simply phenomenal, from beginning to end. It balanced action action and character growth in one less than 17000 word story. The Farthest Born had me clutching my heart and the Assignment of Runner ETI had me wondering about where our world was headed.
Most lackluster tales? After The Final Sunset, Again, The Garden of Tian Zi and The Dizzy Bridge. With the first story, it's probably because I just don't enjoy selfish characters. The Garden of Tian Zi... just had me wanting more emotion and less science and The Dizzy Bridge was just confusing. I feel as though the latter was the type of tale that focused more on "what's not being said" but that type of writing is hard to relate to in a short story.
Overall, I'm happy I read it. I learned something, got inspired and was kept entertained. I couldn't see myself reading the whole anthology more than once, though certain stories will probably be a staple for me in the future.
April 29, 2016
I adore short story anthologies, especially when multiple authors are involved, but I avoided this series for a long time because L Ron Hubbard's religious cult scares me. Then, I received two volumes (29 and 30) in exchange for reviews and now I'm reading the series backwards. I described the Volume 26 as my least favorite volume (to date) but it's now tied with this one.
What I like about this book/series is the exposure to authors that I haven't read before but this book, like Vol. 26, is dull. Many of these short stories revolve around the same themes so the stories began to feel repetitive as I read on and, maybe because I'm reading this volume years after its publication date, none of the ideas felt new. I needed several weeks to get through this volume because I kept putting the book aside in favor of other books. I will pick up Volume 24 - I am eager to read some of the older volumes, to see the earlier works of authors I may already be familiar with - but it will be at my leisure.
What I like about this book/series is the exposure to authors that I haven't read before but this book, like Vol. 26, is dull. Many of these short stories revolve around the same themes so the stories began to feel repetitive as I read on and, maybe because I'm reading this volume years after its publication date, none of the ideas felt new. I needed several weeks to get through this volume because I kept putting the book aside in favor of other books. I will pick up Volume 24 - I am eager to read some of the older volumes, to see the earlier works of authors I may already be familiar with - but it will be at my leisure.
December 2, 2010
Amazing. There are a bunch of fantastic stories in this book. I should have been keeping notes on each one for a proper review. I may go back and make some notes yet and do a story by story analysis.
Possibly one of the best anthologies yet. Diverse, interesting, unique. Most of the writing is top notch and I didn't want to put the book down.
That said, it's a lot of pages and the short stories are not really short. Most probably qualify for novella status.
Possibly one of the best anthologies yet. Diverse, interesting, unique. Most of the writing is top notch and I didn't want to put the book down.
That said, it's a lot of pages and the short stories are not really short. Most probably qualify for novella status.
November 28, 2011
I read The Shadow Man, Life in Steam, The Assignment of Runner ETI, and Gone Black. Gone Black was the best out of what I read, and actually a decent story. I was pretty disappointed overall with the selection of short stories. This is my first experience reading the winning selections of WOTF. I hope every year is not as dull as this.
August 31, 2015
This was an okay collection of stories, but none of them were quite good enough to make me want to read more by the authors included. I read another WotF anthology that had much better stories in it, so I suppose it's just a question of what's submitted each year.
July 26, 2011
amazing book...hopefully the story that I am trying to finish will be good enough to win and be published
November 3, 2015
Another fine outing from Writers of the Future.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews