Customer Reviews

Future Boston: The History of a City 1990-2100

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Title: Future Boston
Author: Various Authors
Original Publication: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. 1994
ISBN: 0-312-89028-1

Synopsis:

The city of Boston is sinking into the ocean more and more every year. As the problem becomes more severe, the city of Boston is shocked with a new event... aliens have landed and Boston is now the official place for the new interstellar port. Follow the lives of many different people, all intertwined in some way, as the city of Boston faces great changes including flooding, alien invasion, and revolution.


Review:

Future Boston is a collection of short stories from eight science fiction writers who have made their homes in Boston, including Alexander Jablokov, Steven Popkes, Jon Burrowes, and David Alexander Smith. The true star of the collection is the city itself, marvelously rendered by each author in explicit detail through the future the created for America's first city.

Though each writer brings their own style, they all found a way to make the story appear seamlessly crafted. Each story progresses the tale of Boston, with characters that are well developed and masterfully detailed. Characters such as Bishop 24, the half centipede, half praying mantis sent to earth to watch over the humans, are magnificently rendered and their continuity through different stories is impressive.

The stories bring with them different types of conflict all throughout the collection, and culminate in a revolution much like this country faced in the late 1700's. The authors did a good job using the Revolutionary War as a parallel to theirs, and the story of those involved is quite intriguing. The tale of the revolution, Ye Citizens of Boston, is by far the gem in this collection of quality short stories.

I have to admit that I was impressed by this book for the mere fact that eight people came together with a common vision and expertly crafted a future world out of their present home. The stories flow well throughout, arranged chronologically, and the inclusion of characters from previous or future tales was well done. I would have to recommend this to any reader of short stories, even if they are a New York Yankees fan who would at least enjoy Fenway Park becoming little more than a marsh.


Version Read: Paperback, Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. 1995
Length: 384 pages

This collection of stories mixes together a little of everything that makes science fiction enjoyable: a solid basis in the hard and soft sciences and a wonderfully imagined future, with a twist of pure fun. The contributors, all members of a science fiction workshop, first planned out the future history of Boston and then related it in this series of interconnected tales.

The quality of the writing, overall, is remarkably good and the future they lay out is intriguing. You don't have to be a Bostonian to enjoy these stories.

Several of the contributors are prominent for other award-winning work--Sarah Smith, Alexander Jablokov, and Geoffrey Landis, among others. Their stories here are excellent.

It's realistic and even plausible. They definitely pulled it together. These authors know the little things about this city that make it entrance those of us who might wander far away, but who know in our hearts Boston is home. The inter-stories between the big ones are brilliant.