Entanglements: Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and Friends
240Entanglements: Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and Friends
240Paperback
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
For fans of anthologies like Soonish and Netflix's Black Mirror
In a future world dominated by the technological, people will still be entangled in relationships—in romances, friendships, and families. This volume in the Twelve Tomorrows series considers the effects that scientific and technological discoveries will have on the emotional bonds that hold us together.
The strange new worlds in these stories feature AI family therapy, floating fungitecture, and a futuristic love potion. Imagine genetic alterations to code for altruism, or digital avatars that can interface with other avatars on dating sites, running sample conversations to find appropriate matches, or artificial assistance animals.
Contributions include Xia Jia's novelette set in a Buddhist monastery, translated by the Hugo Award-winning writer Ken Liu; and a story by Nancy Kress, winner of 6 Hugos and 2 Nebulas. A full story list:
James Patrick Kelly, Your Boyfriend Experience
Mary Robinette Kowal, A Little Wisdom
Nancy Kress, Invisible People
Rich Larson, Echo the Echo
Sam J. Miller, The Nation of the Sick
Annalee Newitz, The Monogamy Hormone
Suzanne Palmer, Don't Mind Me
Cadwell Turnbull, Mediation
Nick Wolven, Sparklybits
Xia Jia, The Monk of Lingyin Temple, translated by Ken Liu
Also includes an interview with Nancy Kress by Lisa Yaszek, and Tatiana Plakhova's beautiful "data abstract" illustrations serve as frontispiece to each of the stories.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780262539258 |
---|---|
Publisher: | MIT Press |
Publication date: | 09/15/2020 |
Series: | Twelve Tomorrows |
Pages: | 240 |
Sales rank: | 1,022,577 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Sheila Williams is the multiple Hugo-award winning editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and the editor or coeditor of more than two dozen anthologies.
Read an Excerpt
AN ENTANGLEMENT IS A COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP. THIS IS TRUE WHETHER IT refers to a brother with a drug addition, a child genetically altered without her parents’ knowledge, friends getting together for their “weekly bad rosé night,” a casual hookup arranged by a personal avatar, or a particle whose quantum state can’t be described independently of one or more other particles even when those particles are very far apart. Science fiction explores the future, and it does that very well. The future can’t be explored without also considering the effects that scientific and technological discoveries will have on all the relationships that tie us to each other. Entanglements is the sixth volume in the Twelve Tomorrows series and the first to have a central unifying theme. The book’s ten fiction authors were asked to write tales about the emotional bonds that hold us together. They had a broad canvas. Their tales could be about families, friends, or lovers, but they all were asked to explore different ways in which these bonds would be affected by our ever-evolving knowledge of science and advances in technology. I’m sure the relationships of the future, be they romances, platonic friendships, or family ties, will be just as loving, messy, complex, affirming, disturbing, heartbreaking, all-embracing, and fulfilling as they are today. They will be affected by our changing world. Infrastructure changes brought on by our warming planet, scientific discoveries, and technical innovations will put new stress on the forces that entangle us with each other even as they relieve some of the issues that complicate life.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction Sheila Williams ix
1 Invisible People Nancy Kress 1
2 Profile: Nancy Kress Lisa Yaszek 25
3 Echo the Echo Rich Larson 35
4 Sparklybits Nick Wolven 51
5 A Little Wisdom Mary Robinette Kowal 75
6 Your Boyfriend Experience James Patrick Kelly 93
7 Mediation Cadwell Turnbull 123
8 The Nation of the Sick Sam J. Miller 135
9 Don't Mind Me Suzanne Palmer 151
10 The Monogamy Hormone Annalee Newitz 171
11 The Monk of Lingyin Temple Xia Jia (translated by Ken Liu) 185
Artwork: Tatiana Plakhova 215
Contributors 217