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.

Amor Towles’s You Have Arrived at Your Destination is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

I liked this one! It's more litfic than sci-fi, but that's okay. I see reviews going into detail about the plot, so I won't do that.

I'm still thinking about the Jemisin story in this collection, and these two work really well together. If we decide there is an ideal life, whose ideals are we upholding? Both stories raise that question, but this one is much subtler. I could probably write a lot about it and it isn't very long. I'll just talk about one thing.

I noticed that all the Daniels had to figure everything out for themselves, with no family support post-college, while the bartender's (unfinished) story ends with his family helping the daughter with whatever she's going through. Sam, in contrast, because of having to help his own father, seems to have rejected the whole concept of being there for his family; he doesn't even know why his wife chose Daniel 2 as one of the options.

It's a really interesting story. I have been meaning to read this author's novels, so maybe I'll do that soon.

Wasn't sure what to expect, but I love Amor Towles's stuff so... This was interesting. I wish it was a little longer, but otherwise it was good. The afterward about the collection of short stories makes me interested in reading the others.

(I'm counting this cuz I've also read some big books, so I figure it averages out a bit.)