Praise for Futuredaze

Reviews and Blurbs for
Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction

Visit the book page for Futuredaze.

“All of the stories are refreshingly short, 10 pages or fewer, encouraging readers to read the next and the next until the book is gobbled down. Fun for fans familiar with adult sf, and an enticing gateway for those new to the genre.” –Booklist, Lynn Rutan

“Futuredaze is a fantastic choice for YA (and older) readers who enjoy science fiction and fantasy.” -–ForeWords Reviews, Leia Menlove

“[Futuredaze] is a great anthology, offering some of the strongest YA fiction I’ve seen in years. There’s something for everyone here, and not just young adults, but the not-so-young adults too.” —Tangent Online, Barbara Melville

“I love this collection! It offers all the ideas, speculation and creativity I look for in quality science fiction, but it presents them with a nimble verve, with humor and with a focused attention to the interests and concerns of teen readers. Each story works as science fiction, while also resonating at a wonderfully energetic, youthful frequency. That pleasantly surprised me again and again.” —David Anthony Durham, author of The Acacia Trilogy

Some of the stories are thought-provoking, some of the stories are charming, and some of the stories are poems. A fine anthology for young adults of every taste. —Mike Resnick, award winning science fiction writer and editor

A delightful surprise—young stories of a new sort: stories with a sense of wonder and a wary, expectant look at the universe. —C.J. Cherryh, award winning science fiction writer

FUTUREDAZE has a wide range of imaginative stories—science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, poetry, all with a common thread of younger protagonists, but the ideas and stories are for dreamers and armchair adventurers of all ages. —Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars Jedi Academy trilogy

Opening this amazing collection is like visiting one of those All-You-Can-Eat restaurants, except everything in Futuredaze is freshly-made and yummy.  Choose from funny stories and sad stories, stories that will make you think and make you laugh, stories set in space or in the future or just down the street, assuming you live on the strangest street in town.  Something for every taste, including some delicious poems to savor between courses.  You may want to be careful though, because this is exactly the kind of book I would have loved when I was a teen, and I grew up to be a science fiction writer! —James Patrick Kelly, winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards.

The editors of Futuredaze, a speculative anthology for young adults (or anyone partial to well-written, high-concept “Future Fantasy”), could have called it, justifiably, Futuredazzle. Its twenty-one tales and twelve poems range far and flashily over a host of genre tropes, making them all new again. Its contributors — from veterans like Gregory Frost, Nancy Holder, Jack McDevitt, Chuck Rothman, and William John Watkins, to up-and-comers like Danika Dinsmore, Rahul Kanakia, Dale Lucas, and Katrina Nicholson — all weigh in with brilliantly powerful and/or amusing tales. The poets herein also shine. I came away dazzled, and you will too. —Michael Bishop, author of Count Geiger’s Blues and Brittle Innings

I read FUTUREDAZE: An Anthology Of YA Science Fiction 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. —Piers Anthony, 2012 Dismember Newsletter