Forward
Written By: Blake Crouch, Veronica Roth, Amor Towles, Paul Tremblay, N.K. Jemisin, and Andy Weir
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: 16 and up

Now here’s a cool anthology.

In my professional life, it’s my job to stay close to technology. As a matter of fact, I’m at a conference this week learning about how science fiction staples like virtual reality, machine learning, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, and data mining are transforming the world of retail–right now.

Seriously, this stuff would freak you out. Or maybe it wouldn’t…I think we’re frogs on the stove top, relaxing in the warm water, not noticing we’re about to boil. Advertising targeted specifically to you. Cars that drive themselves. Robots running fulfillment centers. Computers that can have a phone conversation with a human–without the human knowing they’re talking to a computer. Artificial Intelligence in our homes, always listening. (Hi Alexa!) On and on. And on. This is today. What about tomorrow?

Science fiction is now science fact. I don’t know if we’re ready for it.

This book is part of an anthology called Forward. It looks at technologies we’re at the beginning of like cloning, quantum mechanics, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence and imagines what the ending might be. These stories will make you think. You might find your eyes opening a bit.

Or maybe you’ll just be scared.

Check out this amazing line up of authors. It looks more like a best seller list than a collection of stories (Ranked by how strongly they impacted me):

Summer Frost, by Blake Crouch (the Wayward Pines trilogy)
A video game extra develops a mind of it’s own. Watch out, the robots are coming…

You Have Arrived at Your Destination, by Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow)
Nature or nurture, or just chromosomal manipulation? What happens when you can not only chose your baby’s gender and hair color, but also its personality?

The Last Conversation, by Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts)
You wake up in the dark–no sight, no memories. Do you really want to know who you are? Really?

Randomize, by Andy Weir (The Martian)
The future is scam proof…ya right. Las Vegas, meet quantum computing.

Emergency Skin, by N.K. Jemisin (the Broken Earth trilogy)
Earth was abandoned to climate disaster ages ago. A brave explorer returns to for a recon mission. Things were bad when we left, so prepare for the worst. You can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going to find…

Ark, by Veronica Roth (the Divergent trilogy)
T-14 days until an asteroid collides with the Earth and ends all life. Can there be hope at the end of the world?

I thought these stories were great. Each one is short enough to be read in one sitting. Watch out for some language in a couple of them.

Amazon Prime? Read them for free!

Best for 16 and up.

Happy Reading!