io9: seeds of change

New Stories by Tobias Buckell and Jay Lake, Free Online

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:31:21 PDT

Yesterday we told you about a great new anthology edited by John Joseph Adams called Seeds of Change, and today we have a nice treat for your brain. Adams has posted some of the stories from the anthology online for you. Most awesome is one called "Resistance," by Tobias Buckell — it's about Pepper, one of the characters in his outerspace ninja vs. zombies novel Sly Mongoose. The other we're excited about is Jay "Escapement" Lake's story "The Future by Degrees," which is a swashbuckler about thermal superconductivity. Check them out, and buy the book!

Two Political Scifi Anthologies Out This Week

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:00:00 PDT

If you like science fiction with a progressive bent, two new anthologies out this week will make your brain bubbly. John Joseph Adams, editor of Wastelands, reports that his new anthology Seeds of Change is now available. Each story is crafted as a call to action, a tale intended to make you want to change the future. Another cool anthology, The Darker Mask, hits shelves this week too. Edited by Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers, it's a collection of stories dealing with superheroes and race. Snap them up now, while they're hot!

"Fiction Can Be A Mode of Social Change" in Cool New Anthology

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:27:02 PDT

A terrifically interesting new anthology called Seeds of Change hits bookstores this summer, featuring original stories from nine scifi authors dealing with near-future scenarios where the world completely changes. Essentially, it's a political take on the idea of the singularity and it features two of my favorite smartypants authors, Tobias Buckell and Ken MacLeod. Edited by F&SF editor John Joseph Adams, Seeds of Change deals with everything from voting to U.S. oil companies in Africa. Contributor Blake Carlton describes the anthology as dealing with how "fiction can be a mode of social change."

According to Publisher's Weekly, the anthology features:

Near-future paradigm shifts in everything from race relations (in Ted Kosmatka's vivid and moving “N-Words,” where cloned Neanderthals encounter violent hatred from Homo sapiens) to the morality of uploaded consciousness (in Blake Charlton's clumsy but charming “Endosymbiont”), with varying success. The hero of Jay Lake's “The Future by Degrees” invents an energy-saving thermal superconductor only to be pursued by corporations protecting their business, with predictable results. Pepper, the mercenary hero of Tobias S. Buckell's Crystal Rain, refuses to assassinate a dictator in the morally contrived “Resistance.” Considerably more powerful is Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's “Spider the Artist,” which combines African folk tales and advanced robotics in a chilling story about a rising social conscience in the Nigerian oil fields.

I can't wait to dig into it!

Seeds of Change [via Amazon]