Under the editorship of British palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist Henry Gee, science journal Nature, was awarded the European Science Fiction Society's Best Publisher award in 2005 for its series of short articles and science fiction. Futures from Nature (TOR Books, 2007) bring together in one anthology one hundred of these short works, originally published between 1999 and 2006.
Contributing Authors
Any committed reader of science fiction will be thrilled at the number of names collected here. Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, Vernor Vinge, Gwyneth Jones, Nicola Griffith, Michael Moorcock, Charles Stross, Vonda N. McIntyre, Joan D. Vinge, Ellen Klages, Kathryn Cramer, Bruce Sterling—the list continues with 88 other names that will bring a warm glow of glee to those who appreciate sf and speculative fictions on both an entertaining and intellectual level.
Themes
The subject matter, as one can imagine with such a broad spectrum of contributors is diverse, but the focus remains on an interpretation of the future. Ever wondered why plants refuse to communicate with us? Mike Resnick answers the question in Great Unreported Discoveries No. 163 (it's not just the meat!). Nicola Griffith's Spawn of Satan addresses the moral and ethical issues surrounding ovum donation, calling onto question the decisions we make based on personal perspective. In Arthur C. Clarke's Improving The Neighbourhoodwe trek far into the distant future in the hope of finding answers to mankind's extinction.
For the harder stuff one can always count on Greg Egan, and in Only Connect, he once again displays the themes and subjects, such as mathematics and quantum theory, which often make up the landscapes of his writing. It will stretch your mind like the ever-expanding (contracting?) universe we live in and you will have to read it again, and again, and possibly another time before you're smacked in the face with its beauty; a perfect example of how a skilled writer can turn the most hard-to-crack scientific concepts into a painting on paper.
What makes this anthology such a readable addition to practically any bookshelf is that the stories all come in at under a thousand words. You can dip into it while you wait for the kettle to boil, while expecting a phone call or in the car when you're picking up the kids from school. Their enjoyment will be different to each who read them; some appeal for the ideas they put forth, the style in which they were written, or the sense of imaginative feedback once the last line has been read. And if you've been thinking about branching into reading sf as a newcomer to the genre, Futures from Nature, is a perfect introduction to the work of some of today's most celebrated authors in the field.
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