Blogmas Day 8 | Forward Collection (Review)

The Forward collection was published my Amazon earlier this year, and consists of 6 novellas exploring the future of technology. Curator, Blake Crouch, was curious to explore it himself and to see how other authors would approach it.

Each of these this vastly popular authors has explored very different topics, and the stories range from the fairly new future, to many years down the line.

Ark by Veronica Roth ★★★☆☆

It’s only two weeks before an asteroid turns home to dust. Though most of Earth has already been evacuated, it’s Samantha’s job to catalog plant samples for the survivors’ unknowable journey beyond.

While this is set pretty far in our future, at it’s core it’s much more a story of human connection than a hard science fiction. In fact the science in here is pretty current (except for the fact most of humanity has travelled into space). The relationship in here (purely platonic) is sweet and I liked the way it was built up. But didn’t blow me away.

 

Summer Frost by Blake Crouch ★★★★★

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map.

I absolutely adored this. I don’t think I’ve ever given a short story 5 stars, but this was the absolute perfect length. It gave me a bit of a Ex Machina vibe, so basically AI is my vibe (let me know if you have any suggestions!)

 

Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin ★★★★☆

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out eons ago.

This has such an unsettling vibe to it, and I thought it was really cleverly done. A solid read, and makes me want to pick up NK Jemisin’s full length novels.

 

You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles ★★★☆☆

When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.

This was fine. It’s an interesting topic, and feels sort of near-future. Shows at it’s core that the ‘perfect’ person or life on the face of it but can take a turn.

 

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay ★★★★☆

Imagine you’ve woken up in an unfamiliar room with no memory of who you are, how you got there, or where you were before. All you have is the disconnected voice of an attentive caretaker. Dr. Kuhn is there to help you—physically, emotionally, and psychologically. She’ll help you remember everything. She’ll make sure you reclaim your lost identity. Now answer one question: Are you sure you want to?

So I originally gave this 3 stars because of the writing style – which I hated. It was written in second person, and I got really annoyed that the Doctor would say the characters name and it would be blanked out. I thought it was a strange choice. However the story itself was brilliant. I loved what happened, and the way it was done. I’m super intrigued to read on of Paul Tremblay’s novels, but definitely need to check to make sure they’re not in second person narrative!

 

Randomize by Andy Weir ★★★☆☆

An IT whiz at the Babylon Casino is enlisted to upgrade security for the game of keno and its random-number generator. The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house—unless human ingenuity isn’t entirely a thing of the past.

This was actually the novella that brought this collection to my attention (I adore The Martian), but ended up being my least favourite. It was fine, but I was never particularly invested and have basically forgotten what happened.

 

Overall a really interesting collection, and I’m sure different people will have different favourite. Let me know what you thought if you’ve picked any of these up!

Follow me:     GoodReads   |   Twitter   |   Instagram