Live Without a Net FROM THE PUBLISHER
This anthology of stories from today's top masters of speculative fiction offers visions of futures near and far, glimpses of alternative histories, and dark journeys down roads not taken. What does await us at the end of a different tunnel? What would we find in dimensions where the seemingly inevitable vastness of cyberspace has been replaced by things both surprising and strange? The answers are in the startling and ingenious imaginations of the SF masters who dared to go there, to dream, to warn, and to fathom the alternatives. Welcome to science fiction unplugged and set free to be... Live Without A Net.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Taking a post-Internet, post-computerized world as its unifying theme, Anders's (The Making of Star Trek: First Contact) uneven anthology showcases 18 mostly male British authors (not all of whom will be familiar to U.S. readers), whose contributions range from disconnected, inconclusive pieces to delightful shaggy-dog stories. Most focus on sophisticated biological technologies, such as Charles Stross's provocative "Rogue Farm," about "multi-human beings" and Stephen Baxter's sad little tale about slave-drones and successive revolutions, "Conurbation 2473." Other established names include Michael Swanwick, David Brin, Rudy Rucker and S.M. Stirling. But the longest entry belongs to relatively obscure Brit John Meaney. In Meaney's entertaining novella, "The Swastika Bomb," bioform animals serve as tanks, airplanes, bombs and deadly viruses, against an alternative history of the Battle of Britain in which the Axis and the Allies race to develop a nucleic instead of a nuclear bomb. All the stories are competently written, but few leave a lasting impression. (July 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
From Chris Roberson's tale of an alternate China in which the Chief Computator pits his skills with an abacus against a foreigner's new invention, the Analytical Engine, to Rudy Rucker's freewheeling story of a world without machines, the 18 stories in this collection revolve around a future without the Internet, virtual reality, or cyberspace. Contributions by Stephen Baxter, David Brin, S.M. Stirling, and other notable sf authors make this a good addition to sf or short story collections in large libraries. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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