Review by Booklist Review
Future Fiction brings together a wide array of international authors whose work presents a variety of possible futures throughout the globe. Unsurprisingly, many of these stories focus on the possibilities of technology to transform society, for better or worse. These stories range from the more optimistic, such as Xia Jia's Tongtong's Summer, about piloted robots granting new possibilities for the elderly, and Carlos Hernandez's The International Studbook of the Giant Panda, in which piloted robot pandas demonstrate mating for their natural counterparts, to grimmer entries, such as Pepe Rojo's Grey Noise, in which implants that transform people into constantly transmitting cameras alter the psyches of both the implantee journalists and their audience. There are also a few stories that represent futures incredibly distant or strange, such as Clelia Farris' Creative Surgery, set in a world in which surgery and other physical sciences work almost as effectively as magic, and the bodies of humans and animals can be transformed at whim. Highly recommended for readers looking for engaging, thoughtful, and exciting science fiction from around the globe.--Keep, Alan Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This mostly unsuccessful anthology showcases authors from all over the world, including Zimbabwe (Tendai Huchu), Cuba (Carlos Hernandez), Greece (Michalis Manolios), and Italy (Clelia Farris), and four of its 12 stories originated in languages other than English. Unfortunately, the geographic and cultural diversity on display does not produce a similarly rich and exciting body of work. There are highlights: Hernandez's "The International Studbook of the Giant Panda" manages to make panda conservation efforts humorous, touching, and genuinely transgressive, and Clelia Farris's "Creative Surgery" is an unpredictable and gorgeous ride through a completely original mind. But many of the pieces feel dated and trite (such as James Patrick Kelly's "Bernardo's House," in which the android avatar of a sentient house, characterized as a naive adolescent girl, reminisces fondly about the human man who built her and used her for sex) or simply inconsequential (such as Manolios's confused and confusing "The Quantum Mommy"). This severs as a decent introduction to several writer U.S. readers may not have been aware of, but as a reading experience in itself, it falls short. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
