Drowned Worlds
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
We stand on the brink of one of the greatest ecological disasters of our time the world is warming and seas are rising, and yet water is life; it brings change. Where one thing is wiped away, another rises.
Drowned Worlds looks at the future we might have if the oceans rise good or bad. Here you’ll find stories of action, adventure, romance and, yes, warning and apocalypse. Stories inspired by Ballard’s The Drowned World, Sterling’s Islands in the Net, and Ryman’s The Child Garden; stories that allow that things may get worse, but remembers that such times also bring out the best in us all. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan has put together sixteen unique tales of deluged worlds and those who fight to survive and strive to live.
The brand new anthology from multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan, featuring stories set in futures wracked by the deluge, from some the best writers in SF, including Kim Stanley Robinson, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Charlie Jane Anders, Lavie Tidhar, Jeffrey Ford, and James Morrow.
Reviews with the most likes.
There were so many talented writers in this selection of short stories, and I really enjoyed all the different takes on what a post-climate change world would look like. Some were more rooted in reality than others, but almost every one of these stories was enjoyable in its own right.
What I valued most though was just the opportunity to get snippets of so many well-known and up-and-coming SFF writers. It really helped me to get an idea of whose writing appealed to me more. Kim Stanley Robinson and Charlie Jane Anders topped the list for me, but I also loved the stories by Paul McAuley, Ken Liu, Lavie Tidhar and Catherynne Valente, and am now eager to read more of their work.
I think it really says a lot when you ask an author to write about a specific theme, and see what they come up with. And to see how diverse all the stories ended up being was a total pleasure, despite the bleak subject matter. Also, a surprising amount of the stories were light-hearted (or at least had light-hearted moments). The future is not all doom and gloom, even if in retrospect, maybe not causing global warming would've been nice.
I think Valente put it best at the end of her story, which was also the end of the book: “We can't go back, not ever, not even for a minute. We are so lucky. Life is so good. We're going on and being alive and being shitty sometimes and lovely sometimes just the same as we always have, and only a Fuckwit couldn't see that.” - Well said!
