Imagine the moment when the present ends, and the future begins - when the world we knew is no more and a brave new world is thrust upon us. Gathering stories by nine of today's most incisive minds, Seeds of Change confronts the pivotal issues facing our society today: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution. Many serve as a call to action. How will you change with the future? These nine stories sow seeds of change across familiar and foreign territory, from our own backyards to the Niger Delta to worlds not yet discovered. Pepper, the mysterious mercenary from Tobias S. Buckell's Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin, works as an agent for change - if the price is right - in "Resistance." Ken MacLeod envisions the end-game in the Middle East in "A Dance Called Armageddon." New writer Blake Charlton imagines a revolutionary advance in cancer research in "Endosymbiont." Award-winning author Jay Lake tackles technological change and the forces that will stop at nothing to prevent it in "The Future by Degrees." Other stories by K.D. Wentworth, Jeremiah Tolbert, Mark Budz, Ted Kosmatka, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu range from the darkly satirical to the exotic. All explore the notion that change will come.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This thought-provoking anthology of nine original stories posits near-future paradigm shifts in everything from race relations (in Ted Kosmatka's vivid and moving N-Words, where cloned Neanderthals encounter violent hatred from Homo sapiens) to the morality of uploaded consciousness (in Blake Charlton's clumsy but charming Endosymbiont), with varying success. The hero of Jay Lake's The Future by Degrees invents an energy-saving thermal superconductor only to be pursued by corporations protecting their business, with predictable results. Pepper, the mercenary hero of Tobias S. Buckell's Crystal Rain, refuses to assassinate a dictator in the morally contrived Resistance. Considerably more powerful is Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's Spider the Artist, which combines African folk tales and advanced robotics in a chilling story about a rising social conscience in the Nigerian oil fields. Despite weak spots, this anthology accurately reflects many of today's most pressing political and social issues, and will give readers plenty to think about and argue over. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Grade 11 Up—For this collection, each author was asked to write a story about a paradigm shift, a turning point when the world changes. It is an intriguing concept, and issues such as global warming, recycling, technological advancement, and political revolution are given interesting treatments. Ted Kosmatka's "N-Words" tackles cloning, racism, and evolution. Blake Charlton's "Endosymbiont" will be enjoyed by fans of Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Holt, 2008). Tobias S. Buckell's "Resistance" is an eerie take on voter apathy, while K. D. Wentworth's "Drinking Problem" is a hilarious look at recycling taken a step too far. All of the stories were written specifically for this book, and the selections give a good sampling of a wide range of science fiction voices. It also aptly illustrates the fact that this genre, while set in the future, can often be inspired by issues we face today. Each story is preceded by a biographical sketch of its author. An introduction by the editor unifies the concept of the anthology. While short-story collections can be hard sells, larger libraries with avid science fiction readers will want this title.—Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent collection projecting current issues or paradigm shifts into the future,
This review is from: Seeds of Change (Hardcover)
This collection edited by slush god John Joseph Adams contains stories of paradigm shifts in the future (this review is based on an Advanced Reader Copy; the anthology is scheduled for release late August 2008). From his introduction:
"I asked the contributors to this anthology to write about paradigm shifts - technological, scientific, political, or cultural--and how individuals and societies deal with such changes. The idea is to challenge our current paradigms and speculate on how they might evolve in the future, either for better or for worse." Many of the stories, instead of being about future paradigm shifts, are projections of current issues or ailments (racism, global warming, corporate spies and piracy) into the future but also contain new shifts brought about by new technology and ethical issues about usage (how should we or even should we not) of these new technologies. The anthology starts with a bang, with a story of future prejudice. Of the nine stories Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton, Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu and Drinking Problem by K.D. Wentworth were my personal favorites. * N-Words by Ted Kosmatka; eloquently captures the passion and pain of past and current prejudice and echoes them onto a future where a certain type of clones have become the latest persecuted ethnics. * The Future by Degrees by Jay Lake; a solution is developed for efficient energy usage (little waste heat, high efficiency) and everyone will kill to get it; * Drinking Problem by K.D. Wentworth; DNA coded one-per-customer-per-lifetime beer bottles with AI chips and various conversational modes make this story more horror than scifi for a committed beer drinker like myself. * Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton; virtual medicine plus the ability to upload people's consciousness into "nueroprocessors" are the technology that supports Blake Charlton's story of creating a new type of post-human. The main character is a young girl who was suffering from cancer, and was the first "uploaded", before the technophobes pushed through laws governing such creatures, to make sure they didn't pull a Terminator and take over the world. This was a superbly written story revolving around well-defined characters with excellent science to back it up. * A Dance Called Armageddon by Ken MacLeod; the fifteenth winter of the Faith War, a reminder of the never-ending struggle between Christianity, Muslims and Jews fighting for who's interpretation is most correct, and a reminder that though only a small percentage of us are there, wars affect us all. Nice description of the Sony Ericsson Cyber-sight upgrade glasses as well. * Arties Aren't Stupid by Jeremiah Tolbert; genetically manufactured classes of "humans", some braniacs, some tin-men, some thicknecks and some arties (artistic), break out their mold, freeing themselves and inflicting change upon the order of their world. The wording of the conversation got in the way a little (arties aren't stupid, but they do talk funny), but the story was quite excellent. * Faceless in Gethsemane by Mark Budz; if you could have surgery to remove the impression of faces, would you? What would you see, and how would not jumping to first impressions about how someone looked or what color their skin is change you? There is an air of prejudice and persecution in this story that I'm not sure I agree with (would people really protest because other people modified how they perceive other's faces?) but the concepts are interesting, the story well written...and it reminds me of when I rubbed my closed eyelids and saw colors and visions (Mr. Budz, I thought it was just me.) * Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu; a beatutifully written story about man (woman) and machine, set what Nigeria is and may continue to become: a country raped and pillaged for it's oil, where it's people lose hope but continue somehow to search for hope...and find it amongst the aritificially intelligent keepers of the pipelines. Music soothes the savage AI beast, it seems. * Resistance by Tobias S. Buckell; Pepper, of Mr. Buckell's Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin and the forthcoming Sly Mongoose, is hired to take out the dictator of a techno-democracy. Similar to a society in Sly Mongoose, this world (Haven) gave everyone a vote on everything; but they tired of that and created AI's to vote as they would. Then the AI's created the ruler "Pan". Was it their own vote, or did the AI take over? The only Pepper story I've read with a low (zero) body count.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seeds of Change Review,
By brookereviews "B" (tampa, florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Seeds of Change (Hardcover)
Seeds of Change is an anthology that contains nine short stories confronting issues that our society faces today such as: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution. All with a Science Fiction twist. This is a book that activist will enjoy, and if as readers, we don't understand the problems our world faces, Seeds of Change can really open our eyes to them. I really enjoyed what John Joseph Adams has done here. As an author and editor he has put this information out there in an entertaining way, in an attempt at making people more aware. The authors are knowledgeable about the issues, and have taken the time to write intelligent Scifi stories for readers to enjoy. Seeds of Change is a fantastic addition to anyone's book collection, and I highly recommend it to all readers to check it out. John has also put together a great website for Seeds of Change that contains three free stories (with excerpts of the rest), as well as interviews, author bios, and a book trailer featuring dramatized excerpts of each story and an original musical score. http://www.seedsanthology.com/ Don't forget to go there and check that out :)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice collection,
By
This review is from: Seeds of Change (Hardcover)
I'll start with an introduction pulled from the Seeds of Change web site to give you a taste of what this anthology is all about:
"Imagine the moment when the present ends, and the future begins-when the world we knew is no more and a brave new world is thrust upon us. Gathering stories by nine of today's most incisive minds, Seeds of Change confronts the pivotal issues facing our society today: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution." A heady claim, to be sure, but Seeds of Change delivered, for me, seven out of nine times. That calls for an explanation: There are nine stories in total; two of them didn't do it for me, and I had to stop reading. But of the seven stories I did finish, I found each of them both entertaining and thought-provoking. That's a rare combination, IMO. Often an author will go too far into the literary realm, which is all well and fine when one is looking for that sort of thing. But these days I'll take entertaining over literary nine times out of ten. It was a pleasant surprise that Seeds of Change provided both, and probably why I found it such an easy read. Of the seven stories I completed, the most entertaining were those by Jay Lake, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, and Ted Kosmatka. Tobias Buckell was up there as well, but I found his Pepper story contribution a bit of a letdown. Perhaps I'd gotten too used to the character's zombie butt-kicking ways from Sly Mongoose that to see him thoughtful and almost introspective threw me. On the other hand, this anthology is about change, so seeing things in a different light may be what it's all about. Seeds of Change scores a ten on quality of writing. Regardless of what I might have thought about a story's theme or characters, the authors each come through with a wholly engaging style. That goes for the two stories I didn't finish as well. For the record, those two were "A Dance Called Armageddon", by Ken MacLeod, and "Artists Aren't Stupid", by Jeremiah Tolbert. There was nothing inherently wrong with either story. The oration simply wasn't doing it for me. At my age (I'm 38), that's enough for me to give it a pass. But that fact takes nothing away from the anthology. If you're looking for a healthy dose of thought-provoking literature leavened by a hefty shot of entertainment to put an exclamation on these final summer days, I highly recommend Seeds of Change.
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