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Cover Illustration
by
John
Picacio
ISBN 1591024862
February 2007
$15.00 US Trade Paperback
Read "Wikiworld" online now! |
Fast
Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge
Table of
Contents:
Robert Charles Wilson - YFL-500
Justina Robson - The Girl Hero's Mirror Says He's Not the One
Paolo Bacigalupi - Small Offerings
Robyn Hitchcock - They Came From the Future
Kage Baker - Plotters and Shooters
Tony Ballantyne - Aristotle OS
Elizabeth Bear - The Something-Dreaming Game
Stephen Baxter - No More Stories
A.M. Dellamonica - Time of the Snake
Larry Niven & Brenda Cooper - The Terror Bard
Louise Marley - p dolce
Ken MacLeod - Jesus Christ, Reanimator
Mike Resnick & Nancy Kress - Solomon's Choice
Ian McDonald - Sanjeev and Robotwallah
Pamela Sargent - A Smaller Government
Mary A. Turzillo - Pride
Robyn Hitchcock - I Caught Intelligence
George Zebrowski - Settlements
Gene Wolfe - The Hour of the Sheep
John Meaney - Sideways from Now
Paul Di Filippo - Wikiworld
Reviews:
“[A] wonderful new sf anthology ... the first installment in a new,
annual sf anthology series edited by Lou Anders. Anders is setting out
to continue the tradition set in original sf anthology series like Damon
Knight's ORBIT, which I was practically weaned on. Volume one has some
stupendous stories.... At 400+ pages, there's plenty here for everyone.
There is, however, one absolute knock-out story in this that is among
the most exciting pieces of fiction I've read in years: Paul Di
Filippo's incredible 'Wikiworld,' a vividly imagined, funny and weird
story about a world run on gifts, wikis, rough consensus and running
code. Anders and Di Filippo have put the story online, so you can get an
idea of what's in store for you with this excellent volume.” -Cory
Doctorow for BoingBoing.net
“The solid, straightforward storytelling of the 19 stories and two poems
that Anders (Futureshocks) gathers for this first in a projected
series of all-original SF anthologies speculates on people's efforts to
'make sense of a changing world.' The contributors don't necessarily
assume that humans will find it easy or even possible to cope with all
the changes around and within them - but they'll try, which is just part
of SF's continuing dialogue about the future. The collection's strongest
pieces include Robert Charles Wilson's character study of an
almost-artist in search of a muse ("YFL-500"), Mary A. Turzillo's
dissection of love ("Pride"), Paul Di Filippo's witty extrapolation of
electronic consumerism and democracy gone berserk ("Wikiworld") and Ken
MacLeod's understated, moving report on the Second Coming ("Jesus
Christ, Reanimator"). All the selections in this outstanding volume
prompt thoughtful speculation about what kind of tomorrow we're heading
toward and what we'll do when we get there.” -Publishers Weekly
Starred Review
“More than
a score of stories by favorite writers like Justina Robson, Kage Baker
and Gene Wolfe. Oh, and don’t start on the lovely Rudy-Ruckerian 'WikiWorld'
by Paul Di Filippo unless you want to have your head spin several times
to giggles and joy." -San Diego Union-Tribune
“Sf anthologies generally trace their roots back to the classic Amazing
Stories magazine series, which began in 1926. Having edited a number of
sf collections, Anders understands this historical context; his
introduction to his fifth anthology is an invitation to the young
acolyte reader as well as the grizzled veteran to sit back and enjoy the
‘amazing’ enlightenment possible in reading sf shorts. The names on the
list of contributing authors read much like an all-star roster of
current American and British sf writers. From stories by Tony Ballantyne
about software and David Hume to the problems associated with raising
genetically cloned saber-toothed cats in Mary Turzillo's story ‘Pride,’
the writers tackle moral, ethical, and philosophical issues. Anders is
your guide, and the limits of your imagination determine the level of
enjoyment and amount of wisdom to be garnered from this anthology.
Recommended for both public and school libraries.” -Library Journal
“Lou Anders has edited a couple of first-rate anthologies over the past
few years, and with this book he initiates what one hopes will be a
series of original anthologies. I enjoyed Fast Forward 1, and I
certainly hope it continues for years....First rate work ... well worth
reading ... on balance a pretty fine anthology.” -Rich Horton in
Locus
"[D]efinitely promising: many first-rate contributors, some striking
individual stories....many SF readers will enjoy Fast Forward 1
cover to cover." -Nick Gevers in Locus
"With Fast Forward 1, Anders has brought together some of the
most visionary voices in the genre to postulate on our future, to
entertain us with their visions of where our world will be in the
proverbial subsequent frames. The writers are of a varied enough
sampling to give something of a state of the genre status, and with the
quality of the stories, this state of the genre is good. One of the best
things about this anthology is the '1' following Fast Forward,
which like the stories contained between the covers, points to something
readers of the genre can anticipate every year.” -SFFWorld.com
“Presented with a nod towards the old, 'classic' sci-fi anthologies,
Anders has assembled a collection of 21 fresh, forward looking views
into our future. Some, like Paolo Bacigalupi’s 'Small Offerings' are as
frankly disturbing as they are thought provoking....Mike Resnick and
Nancy Kress team up in 'Solomon’s Choice' a stunning collaborative
effort where one man must decide what or if the future will hold
anything for a branch of humanity’s offshoots....Inventive and thought
provoking, with solid storylines and imaginative twists, this excellent
new sci-fi collection delivers.” -MonstersandCritics.com
“Lou Anders has a very ambitious goal – to start a new anthology series
in the tradition of past landmarks like Damon Knight’s Orbit and
Frederik Pohl’s Star SF. I have not read those series, but it’s safe to
say that Anders is on the right track with Fast Forward 1....
Anders speaks to science fiction’s ability to show us something new, to
make us think. He goes on to remind us that so many important people
behind advances in our society don’t just stand on the shoulders of
previous scientists and engineers, but also on the inspiration provided
by early science fiction writers. Science fiction is critical thought,
it is skepticism, and it is rationalism....Short stories are always
difficult for me to review, and collections even more so....Fast
Forward 1 is better than most – 7.5 / 10.” -Neth Space blog
“There are two things I need to mention up front: one, I generally read
anthologies from front cover to back, and two, I never like every story
I come across. Thus, I was surprised when I found myself pleasantly
enjoying story after story in Fast Forward 1...a great anthology,
filled with numerous and diverse stories...bound to please any fan of
science fiction.” -FantasyBookSpot.com,
"We're living through the Golden Age of the science fiction short story
and Lou Anders' Fast Forward 1 is as good a survey of the latest,
greatest and best as you could hope to find. Science fiction is not just
about the future, it's about passion, about vision, about imagining
tomorrow so we better understand today. Fast Forward 1 is a book
that meets that challenge, and firmly establishes Anders as one of the
brightest and best of the new generation of editors working in science
fiction. We're lucky to have him, and to have this book, and I, for one,
can't wait to see Fast Forward 2. Fast Forward 1 is a definite
contender for best anthology of the year."
— Jonathan Strahan, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year
“Such a bargain! Yes, this is yet another
New-Science-Fiction-by-Sort-of-New-Writers anthology series, and yes, we
can pile these up and use them as one of those new-fangled orbital
elevators that will be the de rigueur cool tech for SF novels for the
next umpty-ump months....There are a lot of the unusual suspects here,
you know, must-buy, to-die-for names – including, but not limited to,
Justina Robson, Elizabeth Bear, Tony Ballantyne, Robert Charles Wilson,
Ken Macleod and Ian McDonald – but also some real you'd-never-expect 'em
gems like Robyn Hitchock, everybody's favorite really weird musician." —
The Agony Column
"So what's
good here? A story by Kage Baker ('Plotters and Shooters') is set in her
Company universe but which is not a Company story, but a space opera in
the form of a look at war in space above and beyond. Or how about a
witty look at the future of wikis? 'Wikiworld' by Paul Di Filippo takes
the ideas of Cory Doctorow one step further by showing what would happen
in a society run on gifts, wikis, fast and lose consensus, and running
code. The Something-Dreaming Game' by Elizabeth Bear is a gem of a great
story as is Gene Wolfe's 'The Hour of the Sheep'. Most everything is
superb here... Overall I think Anders has done an exemplary job of
putting together first rate anthology." -Green Man Review
"Behind the
dazzling John Picacio cover, Fast Forward opens strongly with the
Hugo-winning Robert Charles Wilson's "YFL-500," a tale of futuristic art
and the dreams that fuel it. Several stories throughout equal the
quality of the first....In his introduction, Anders states that his goal
is to emulate previous groundbreaking science-fiction-anthology series,
most notably Fredrick Pohl's Star SF (six volumes from 1953 to 1959) and
Damon Knight's Orbit (21 volumes, 1966-1980). If successive volumes
equal the quality of this excellent debut, Fast Foward will go a
long way in achieving Anders' hope and might even inspire a new
generation." -The Austin Chronicle
"An
anthology inspired by its editor's declaration that 'science fiction is
a tool for making sense of a changing world' contains quite a range of
stories, from Elizabeth Bear's 'The Something-Dreaming Game,' in which
children play a fainting game (basically autoerotic asphyxiation), and
one girl communicates with the possibly last member of an alien species,
to Tony Ballantyne's 'Aristotle OS,' in which a journalist with computer
problems upgrades from the familiar, platonic OSs to Aristotle; the
different systems operate on the theories of the philosophers
referenced, causing some very interesting problems when the journalist
connects to the Internet with its wealth of contradictory information.
Ken MacLeod's 'Jesus Christ, Reanimator' is an interesting take on the
second coming, replete with fascinating rationalizations by both
scientific and Christian establishments, none of which wants to take
Jesus on faith. Louise Marley tells a time-travel story about a
particular performance instruction, p dolce, in the music of Brahms.
Other contributions by familiar and new names fill out a worthy menu of
engrossing forays into wildly, creatively varied futures." --Regina
Schroeder, Booklist
"All the
entries are strong with the best being those concentrating on everyday
people dealing with commonplace technology like Paul Di Filippo’s 'Wikiworld'
and Justina Robson’ 'The Girl Hero’s Mirror Says He’s Not the One' (in
Mappa Mundi world) and those bringing the past into the future
such as Tony Ballantyne’s 'Aristotle OS' and Ken McLeod’s 'Jesus Christ,
Reanimator.' This is a fun collection that forecasts where technology
will take humans including those left behind struggling with yesterday’s
artifacts." -Alternative-worlds.com
"This
anthology is proof hard science fiction is still a vibrant, worthwhile
endeavor for any writer; here's hoping this anthology series has a long,
healthy life." -Ideomancer
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