By a bunch of people.
I usually like those books where there's a bunch of short stories on a theme, but not this one. Most of them are really weak and bad.
- "A Rose For Emily" by Esther M. Friesner. Unpleasant story about a scorned woman from a Southern family completely losing her shit because their automated French chef kitchen is a bit snobby. Frankly, the only one you like in there is the girl's dad. Everyone else is unbearable and the ending is even creepier. I usually like this author, but ugh.
- "Waiting for Juliette" by Sarah A. Hoyt: Irritating story about Romeo and Juliette perpetually thinking each other is dead or something and repeatedly going into cold sleep in attempts to meet again, but nobody can successfully manage to get them both up and awake at the same time. This was just annoying as hell rather than cute.
- "Boys" by Dave Freer: Strange story about a girl's automatic bar machine wanting to trap her inside her home forever. Doesn't have much to do with boy-chasing, as you'd think, but there's a stealth math reference in there.
- "Trainer of Whales" by Brenda Cooper: Single mom living in an underwater dome had to give up her dream (title) job for the sake of her kid, but when an emergency happens...
- "Good Old Days" by Kevin J. Anderson: This is flat out Jetsons fanfic in which George discovers the joys of actually like, doing something for himself, and wondering what the fuck he does at work every day.
- "Kicking and Screaming Her Way To The Altar" by Alan L. Lickiss: Rich bratty woman wants an android made of her dad so he can be at her wedding. Except she was 8 when he died, and the made-to-every-detail android dad doesn't fit her childhood memories of him being seven foot tall. She throws a lot of fits. It's really annoying. What is with all of the annoying characters in this book? Is this a trend?
- "Alien Voices" by P.R. Frost: Interesting, semi-creepy tale about a ballerina getting her knees fixed with nanobots-- except the nanobots do not approve of her pushing her limits, or wearing pointe shoes, and stuff like that. It's a battle between the two sides. Gets a little melodramatic when the dancer gets suicidal when they won't let her do what she wants. Good potential, but a bit weird and I don't know who to root for here.
- "Inside Job" by Loren L. Coleman: Virtual cop does his job virutally as well as in real life. Tries to be a noir story, but it doesn't really work that well.
- "A Small Skirmish in the Culture War" by Mike Resnick and James Patrick Kelly: TV/literary snob does not approve of Rodney Dangerfield's jokes, which he's never even heard of before. Seriously, I don't know what the hell this story has to do with "The Future" (I'm not sure what time period this takes place in, but it doesn't sound terribly future-y), and the characters are annoying and it didn't really make sense to me.
- "Dark Wings" by Lisanne Norman: This is possibly the best story of the lot, as it features a fellow crash-landing on a planet that has another native species that isn't human...and let's just say the word "faerie" seems relevant here. While the romance just kinda pops up out of nowhere ("wait, what, you're making out?" I thought), otherwise it's interesting.
- "My Father, The Popsicle" by Annie Reed: Orphaned, barely legal girl who grew up poor finds out that she did have a dad--and he's cryogenically frozen. More crucially, Dad had money... This one wraps up a wee bit fast, but it's one of the better stories in this collection anyway.
- "Destiny" by Julie Hyzy: Grandma is building a shuttle so she can be with her dead husband. Meanwhile, the narrator married a deadbeat jackhole who clearly married her for her money and that's it. Narrator debates whether or not to put her grandmother into a virtual home. It is implied that she does this with the husband instead, but it's not confirmed. The ending is odd. I'm still not sure what is going on with the shuttle either.
- "Cold Comfort" by Dean Wesley Smith: Astronaut about to die on an android gets surprised. He also finds out something about his "perfect astronaut's wife." He's okay with it.
- "The Stink of Reality" by Irene Radford: Unpopular college professor invents "Sensaroma," makes money, gets ticked off, can't stand smells any more. Mostly this dude is just rather jerky and unpleasant to read about, so I didn't care about what happens to him.
- "Yellow Submarine" by Rebecca Moesta: The story of a kid getting his first car. Except it's a submarine. Pretty simple.
- "Good Genes" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: a couple finds out that their child is genetically perfect-- and should they cash in on that? Good, well reasoned story.
Overall, I'm giving it two stars. It's not great, but there's a few in here that aren't too bad.
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