by: Ellen
Oh, Greg van Eekhout, Cindy Pon, Rajan Khanna, Ursula LeGuin, Melinda Lo, Ken Liu, K. Tempest Bradford, Daniel H. Wilson, Rahul Kanakia and Paolo Bacigalupi
This is a book of several YA dystopian short stories that
aims for diversity. Much of YA, of speculative fiction and definitely dystopia
is extremely white washed and made up entirely of straight people. GBLT people
are, largely, dead and POC and women frequently take a back seat to the noble
straight, male lead. It’s refreshing to see an anthology of short stories that
focus on minorities.
I’m going to sound all kinds of fluffy but I have to say
I would have appreciated a happy ending or two. I know, it’s dystopia and all,
but only a couple ended with what could be considered actual happy endings and
I do so hate ending on a downer. Overall the book is gritty and dark and sad.
But, at the same time, more realistic for it. These are not kids who manage to
reach inside themselves and change the world, these aren’t kids who manage to
heal all the wounds and these aren’t kids who change the system, lead the
revolution and make the world a better place. They aren’t even kids who can
escape from their conditions and live better lives – sometimes just surviving
is an achievement in these worlds. Which is realistic but… well, grim. The Last Day by Ellen
Oh, a story of World War 2 Japan, where Japan didn’t surrender
after Nagasaki and Hiroshima – and more cities are wiped out is among the
darkest you’ll ever read.
And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of grim here and
there, but it does have a different light on the escapism. I do think one of
the best stories in this light is Gods of
the Dimming Night by Greg van Eekhout
where the protagonist refuses to leave his family and become a hero fighting in
Ragnarok, instead choosing to bring his family money for power and food.
My main complaint will always be that these are short
stories. I’m not a lover of short stories – I feel that they really don’t have
the chance to develop themselves. And I think that’s especially true of this
book which has 11 stories crammed in there – that’s 11 with a foreward and
afterward and it’s not a very long book. Some manage to elegant encompass the
entire story in the short story format: Good
Girl by Melinda Lo with a tragic love story in a dystopian world obsessed
with racial purity. Pattern Recognition by
Ken Liu, a story of a rich western
corporation exploiting poor POC children to be used as computers. What Arms to Hold by Rajan Khanna
is another beautifully tragic story of POC children being used as slaves in the
mines, his escape rather than being used as a tool for the revolution. No, it
doesn’t end with a resolve but, realistically, there is no good resolve that
would come. It has a bittersweet closure of its own.
