The anthology assembles dystopian classics along side more contemporary works. Included is Harlan Ellison's classic, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman among other notable stories from notable speculative fiction authors like Ursula Le Guin and Robert Silverberg. Here, too, are contemporary writers, like rising star Paolo Bacigalupi.
(NOTE: The ebook edition does not include three classics that appear in the print edition. Those are: The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick, Billennium by J. G. Ballard, and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. These are literary greats, in my view, but as this review is from the ebook, I don't include those works here except to say that Harrison Bergeron is one of those "everyone reads it in high school" stories. I have no doubt these improve the already wonderful anthology.)
Unsurprisingly, the book offers a panoply of dystopias, and only a few of the expected Big Brother variety. Adams' has edited here a thoughtful variation on theme, a Noah's Ark of awful places we never want to visit. Fortunately, most of them we want to read. Taken as a whole, the collection is superb. At their best, the stories are profoundly troubling and timeless. Sadly, a few -- blissfully only a very few -- are political screeds that can't carry the torch of the classic and contemporary greats within.
There are 30 stories in Brave New Worlds ebook edition (33 in print). Rather than comment on all, I'll settle for highlighting ones I thought were outstanding as well as a couple that I thought stumbled:
The Best
Three stories in this collection stood out:
The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm is a wonderfully cryptic narrative told through the eyes of a girl in an impossibly strict (and violent) school for girls. The story is beautifully constructed and leaves readers piecing together three generations of totalitarian education. It's a haunting, fascinating work.
The aforementioned "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison is one of the funniest black humor stories I've ever read. It deserves its already established reputation as a classic of science fiction, and it lays bare the absurdity of those who know what's best for you.
Finally, Cory Doctorow's The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away is a well-realized, well-crafted work. It's one of the longest in the collection for good reason. Doctorow crafts an elaborate landscape for a near-future monk of the digital age who unravels the paradox of his dystopian masters.
The Rest
Other superbly written stories in the collection include:
O Happy Day! by Geoff Ryman is by far the most disturbing work in the anthology. I see other reviewers have wide-ranging reactions for this one, but I found it superb. (Pop Squad by Paolo Bacigalupi runs a distant second on the disturbing scale, and his Blade Runner-esque tale is also excellent.)
Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn is almost sweet, despite knowing all along that the powers that be force people into awful decisions about procreation.
The Lunatics by Kim Stanley Robinson along with Jordan's Waterhammer by Joe Mastroianni, strike me as companion tells of enslaved miners breaking over inhumane circumstances to face oblivion. The tales are both fascinating viewpoints of those who lack full awareness of their awful situation, but nevertheless realize the injustice.
All told, the remaining stories are worth reading. I found about three works that read more as political posturing than accessible narratives, but I wager that any reader could say the same of nearly any thought-provoking fiction.
Brave New Worlds: A-
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