Book Review: Forward

Image: The cover for the press packet of the series is a navy blue in the top left corner that transitions to black at the bottom. Across the center from the bottom left corner to the top right is a wide set of thin lines in different shades of blue- light in the middle and darker on the edges. Above the halfway mark of the cover is the words "please enjoy" in small, white capital letters and below that "FORWARD" in letters transitioning from white to light blue, top to bottom. The "W" is bent like a fast-forward icon and is pink and light blue.

The six short stories in Amazon's Forward series are all listed separately on the website and on goodreads. I decided to review all of them at once since they are, by nature, short. The series features six prominent authors in fiction, most known for their science and/or speculative fiction. Like any collection of short stories, some are better than others. I enjoyed reading most of them, but the ones I didn't love weren't terrible or a total waste of my time. 

The only author I was familiar with before reading this series was the legendary N.K. Jemisin, so I can't speak to if this collection is definitely a good representation of these authors' longer form works. What I will say is that Blake Crouch definitely earned himself a new reader with his entry in the series. I will do my best to discuss each story without any spoilers. This means I'll be saying less about each one, but it's probably for the best.

The first story in the series is Ark by Veronica Roth which centers a botanist in charge of preserving pieces of nature before the end of the world via a cosmic collision. This story is all about what is going on between characters and the interactions and connections they have. I feel that the author did a good job capturing the complicated experiences and emotions in the lives of the protagonist and others. This is a slow, casual story involving themes that are anything but casual. It was not the most exciting of the collection, but it was an enjoyable read and a good starting off point for the collection.

The second story was my favorite of the collection. Blake Crouch's Summer Frost explores artificial intelligence in really interesting ways. It centers Riley- a video game developer who creates an artificial intelligence that performs differently than it was intended to. Crouch manages to include themes that I don't often associate with AI stories such as witty examinations of humans' interpretations of gender and sexuality, misogyny and gender discrimination in gaming and developer cultures, and how those things translate to an artificial intelligence that is analyzing them. 

The story has some decent representation as well, centering on a lesbian/bisexual/queer woman (she is married to a woman, thus could be any of those) who is a brilliant programmer. She has very real discussions about what it means to exist in a body and to feel for someone- or some thing- else. That said, I am not just giving it cookies because I liked the representation. It is a genuinely well written and rounded story. It held my attention the entire time and included a really cool twist and ending. It is a story that felt complete when it was over, which is something I find lacking in some short fiction. After reading this story, I added Crouch's books to my list of those I want to read.

N.K. Jemisin's Emergency Skin was the third story in the collection and I have quite a lot of feelings about it in multiple directions. This was the entry that sparked my interest in the collection in the first place. I will say that this is a story I liked more once some time had passed, but I am not exactly sure of the reason. I can say that I am the target audience for a story like this that is very heavy on leftist themes of anti-capitalism and communist utopia. The thing is, while it was written beautifully, I think Jemisin was a bit heavy handed with some of the messaging while failing to adequately tackle other intertwined messages. I am being vague because the progression of the story involves many reveals that I don't want to give away. 

Emergency Skin is about a traveler from a far off, tidally locked planet that is returning to Earth in order to collect necessary substances and information. It is narrated by those who are commanding the central character who is returning which was a very interesting narrative style. It becomes clear quickly that the commanders are white supremacists, capitalists, and all other manner of terrible things who believe those left behind are either all dead or are primitive savages. What the explorer finds is quite interesting to say the least.

As I mentioned, the delivery of the messages in this is very heavy-handed, which I have found not to be the case with other things by Jemisin that I have read. So, I would not call this story entirely representative of her work. Her famous Broken Earth trilogy is brilliant in part because the characters are very developed, very flawed, and the obvious underclasses in these books are still imperfect and capable of doing harm. This is not the case in Emergency Skin. I also think Jemisin missed the opportunity to tackle forms of oppression outside of class struggle. While there are mentions of others, there seems to be a suggestion of a simple solution for very large and complex problems. These are the reasons why I have ended up writing more about this story than the others. All of that said, I still enjoyed it. Sometimes it's fun to have something heavy handed, especially if it is well written, which it was. As time passes, I enjoy the story more as I recall the terrible and fantastically creative aspects of the supremacist commanders and their willingness to do anything to hold on to the worlds they have created.

The fourth story was You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles. This is another story focusing more on the characters than anything else. The science fiction aspect of it involves the likely future of designer babies via genetic engineering. The protagonist visits a fertility clinic that explains their work as similar to how credit scores are collected- by examining a variety of information and drawing conclusions about future behavior and other occurrences. Our protagonist is shown several full videos of his potential future children that were chosen by his wife in advance. What begins as an exciting experience becomes an unnerving awakening. I am on the verge of giving away too much about the story, so this one will remain brief. Overall, an enjoyable and interesting story.

The next story was one of my least favorite of the bunch. The Last Conversation by Paul Trembley is written in second person narrative which I generally find off putting with a few exceptions. This story was not one of the exceptions. However, it did hold my interest because there is a mystery to be solved. It surrounds someone waking up after being in a prolonged sleep, confined to what seems like a prison, and being both studied and cared for by a scientist who assures them that they are not in prison. The scientist is very focused on helping the central character recall the memories they have lost. I knew what the big reveal was going to be long before it occurred. The author does manage to capture the kind of fear and despair of existing in an apocalyptic world full of loss and struggle. It wasn't without merit. I was simply not a huge fan of the execution and story overall. If you are buying the whole collection, it is still worth reading.

The final story- Andy Weir's Randomize- was the one hard science fiction story of the bunch, which made it a fun and valuable read. My only exposure to Weir before this was seeing "The Martian" in the theater before knowing it was based on his book. I was not a huge fan of the movie, but it was entertaining enough. However, movies are often not representative at all of the books they are based on, so I did not know what to expect. 

Overall, I enjoyed the science more than I enjoyed the story. It is a story about capitalism and competition that doesn't seem to take issue with either one. It borders on making capitalist exploitation and ingenuity seem, for lack of a better term, cool. We have a brilliant scientist and a cutthroat business owner going head to head in craftiness. It didn't surprise me to find out that Weir identifies as "fiscally conservative." The writing style in general didn't blow me away either. The story is told, though, using super interesting descriptions of quantum computing and quantum entanglement which I found fascinating. I can't say I fully understand how all of it works, but things were still explained enough to create a real sense of wonder in me. It likely helps that I have interest in these topics outside of this story, despite my meager grasp of them. 

Because of how far this story leaned right, the science was not enough to make me fall in love with it. But, like the one preceding it, I don't regret reading it and still think the collection has value as a whole. Forward saved the least enjoyable for last, though perhaps that doesn't matter much given that these stories are all available as single items and are also marketed as such on some platforms. As far as short story collections go, this one has some high and low points but overall provided an entertaining escape from this dying world and gave me a glimpse into many possible futures.   

This was also posted to my goodreads with ratings at the following links:
Ark
Summer Frost
Emergency Skin
You Have Arrived at Your Destination
The Last Conversation
Randomize