Meeting Infinity
Johnathan Strahan, ed.
Solaris Books
Paperback $14.99, ebook $8.99
Before we get started, I’d like to thank Solaris books for the review copy of Meeting Infinity. It’s the fourth volume in the series of anthologies entitled Infinity Project. I’ve not read all of them yet, but for the most part I’ve liked the ones I have read. (The inaugural volume Engineering Infinity is reviewed here.) Strahan’s taste is close enough to mine that I know any anthology he edits is probably going to have more stories I like than dislike.
Having said that, Meeting Infinity probably diverges from my taste more than most of his anthologies, although I did find myself liking the majority of the stories (including a few that I thought went off the rails into heavy-handed sociopolitical messages at the end). It contains 16 stories. They range from near future dystopias to far future scenarios. Here are some highlights:
“Drones” by Simon Ings concerns a future in which pollination is done by hand. Marriage is a highly politicized and economized institution, with most men remaining single. One of the better done dystopias in the anthology.
Nancy Kress almost always delivers, and “Cocoons” is no exception. On an alien planet, the local equivalent of spiders have a bite that causes humans to enter a cocoon and come out as something else, a something that can see the future.
Gregory Benford, another consistent writer, returns to the setting of his novel Great Sky River with “Aspects”, in which a group of humans moves across a planet while hunting and being hunted by a mechanical alien.
A society in which people can reboot their lives and start over in a new body is the setting of “Memento Mori” by Madelaine Ashby. A woman whose job is screening applicants for the re-versioning process encounters a man who knew her in her previous version. She’s completely wiped all memory of her earlier self and has no way of knowing if he’s trustworthy. I especially liked the setup in this one.
The story that most connects with infinity is “All the Wrong Places” by Sean Williams. A man chases his lost love through space and ultimately time, trying to recapture the joy of their earlier romance. This one is part of a larger series that I’d be interested in reading.
“Exile From Extinction” by Ramez Naam tells the story of a refugee fleeing the solar system in the wake of a war between humans and their AIs.
Ian McDonald has gained a reputation through his novels of creating detailed near future worlds and often write short stories set in those worlds that are separate from the novels. “The Falls: A Luna Story” seems to fall into this category. McDonald’s latest novel is Luna: New Moon. I may have to put it on my list. This story concerns a psychiatrist who is treating an AI which will be placed on a probe and dropped into Saturn’s atmosphere, eventually to fall to its death. Juxtaposed with this is the story of her daughter. The daughter takes up increasingly risky hobbies, which culminate in a fall.
The other stories either weren’t to my taste or started strong and switched to preaching to a greater or lesser degree at the end. With two exceptions, and those two stories I actively disliked. They are “Desert Lexicon” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew and “Body Politic” by Kameron Hurley. (I read Hurley’s first novel, and this story reminded me of why I have no interest in ever reading another.) Both stories are bleak dystopias set in wartime which protagonists I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with. They were devoid of hope, wonder, or any sense of adventure or fun, all of which are reasons why I like science fiction.
So to sum up, Meeting Infinity is a good anthology, but not a great one. At least not according to what I look for. YMMV. Strahan is an accomplished editor, though, one whose works I’ll continue to read.