Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction is set to release on February 12, 2013, which is only two short months away! (Where did the time go?) In the meantime, reviews are starting to come in for the anthology, the first of which is from award-winning and bestselling author Piers Anthony and has been published in his December 2012 Newsletter.

Excerpted from Piers Anthony’s December…I mean… Dismember 2012 Newsletter:

I read FUTUREDAZE: An Anthology Of YA Science Fiction, edited by Hannah Strom-Martin and Erin Underwood, for blurbing. This is to be published by UNDERWORDS PRESS http://underwordspress.com in February 2013, both print and ebook. YA stands for Young Adult, what in my day was called juvenile. I vaguely expected somewhat sanitary, simplified stories, the kind that parents, teachers, and librarians approve. The hell! It turned out to be aimed [at] young readers, yes, but these are hard-hitting pieces with alternating poems. I don’t properly understand poetry, so will pass on that; it seems competent here. The stories are something else. They don’t hesitate to tackle significant issues like ambition, desire, and mortality. There are too many to cover completely here, so I’ll mention some. “Clockwork Airlock” is really a competent retelling of “The Lady or the Tiger” transposed to SF. “Spirk Station” has future teen lingo in an alien culture and danger that only alien contact can bring; I might subtitle it “Beware of Aliens Bearing Gifts.” “The Stars Beneath Our Feet” is perhaps my favorite, wherein on a sneak space trip the boy suddenly kisses the girl and she complains about his trying to suck her face off, but actually she likes him as they work together to save themselves from probable doom, and winds up sucking some face herself. I like that girl. “Powerless” shows a boy who is allergic to electricity. He can’t use any electronic device, and it could kill him if he tried. That really isolates him. He loves a girl who understands, but she’s part of the electronic culture. “A Voice in the Night” has the novel idea of recovering a space traveler’s lost last words by intercepting a message 40 light years downwind, as it were. “The End of Callie V” shows Death calling courteously to terminate a fifteen year old android girl; her time is up, but he’s really nice about it. “String Theory” has a 17 year old girl involuntarily exploring alternate world versions of herself, trying to find her way home; many are unpleasant. “Hollywood Forever” shows that stardom in the future is not necessarily any better than it is today; the stars may look a lot finer and happier than they are. “The Cleansing” depicts mass euthanasia to extend limited resources; I told you, these stories don’t pussyfoot. “Over It” tells of a girl who gets raped in virtual reality; since nothing physical happened she’s supposed to just get over it. She doesn’t, and I don’t blame her. Rape really is more emotional than physical, forced pseudo intimacy. “Me and My Army of Me” describes a plan wherein a boy who must fight a bully will summon multiple copies of himself from the future to reverse the odds. Overall, this is a fine assembly of science fiction stories that are provocative, entertaining, and sometimes nervously mind-stretching. They should appeal to teens, and to their parents.

Thank you so much, Piers! We are glad you enjoyed the book.

More Futuredaze news will be coming soon!