Glimpses of Future Fiction

Rick Klaw has written a very complimentary review of Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge in print and online at the Austin Chronicle. Rick praises the “dazzling John Picacio cover” and calls Ken MacLeod’s “Jesus Christ, Reanimator” “possibly the best short-story title of the decade.” He concludes:

“In his introduction, Anders states that his goal is to emulate previous groundbreaking science-fiction-anthology series, most notably Fredrick Pohl’s Star SF (six volumes from 1953 to 1959) and Damon Knight’s Orbit (21 volumes, 1966-1980). If successive volumes equal the quality of this excellent debut, Fast Foward will go a long way in achieving Anders’ hope and might even inspire a new generation.”

Meanwhile, Locus Online has posted Gary K. Wolfe’s review of Ian McDonald’s forthcoming Brasyl online. I’ve quoted from this review before, so I’ll sample my favorite bit here:

“A few years ago, in an academic book titled Brazilian Science Fiction, M. Elizabeth Ginway employed a term invented by the Brazilian critic Roberto de Sousa Causo to describe an emerging tradition of high-tech postcolonial SF then emerging in Brazil. ‘Tupinipunk,’ an amalgam of cyberpunk and the name of an indigenous tribe, was characterized by ‘iconoclasm, sensuality, mysticism, politicization, humanism, and a Third World perspective’. With his very enjoyable Brasyl, McDonald may have given us the first tupinipunk novel to appear from outside the borders of Brazil itself.”