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Meet Me in the Future: Stories
When renegade author Kameron Hurley (The Light Brigade; The Stars Are Legion) takes you to the future, be prepared for the unexpected. Yes, it will be dangerous, frequently brutal, and often devastating. But it's also savagely funny, deliriously strange, and absolutely brimming with adventure.
In these edgy, unexpected tales, a body-hopping mercenary avenges his pet elephant, and an orphan falls in love with a sentient starship. Fighters ally to power a reality-bending engine, and a swamp-dwelling introvert tries to save the world--from her plague-casting former wife.
So come meet Kameron Hurley in the future. The version she's created here is weirder--and far more hopeful--than you could ever imagine.
In these edgy, unexpected tales, a body-hopping mercenary avenges his pet elephant, and an orphan falls in love with a sentient starship. Fighters ally to power a reality-bending engine, and a swamp-dwelling introvert tries to save the world--from her plague-casting former wife.
So come meet Kameron Hurley in the future. The version she's created here is weirder--and far more hopeful--than you could ever imagine.
332 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 2019
About the author
Kameron Hurley
94 books2,415 followersKameron Hurley is the author of The Light Brigade, The Stars are Legion and the essay collection The Geek Feminist Revolution, as well as the award-winning God’s War Trilogy and The Worldbreaker Saga. Hurley has won the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Kitschy Award, and Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. She was also a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nebula Award, and the Gemmell Morningstar Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed and numerous anthologies. Hurley has also written for The Atlantic, Writers Digest, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Bitch Magazine, and Locus Magazine. She posts regularly at KameronHurley.com. Get a short story from Kameron each month via: patreon.com/kameronhurley
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
June 23, 2019
I'm generally not that big into short stories and by way of Hurley's introduction, I might have expected her to do a so-so job with these... but Hurley lies. The writer's talents are equal across novels and short fiction. Sorry, Hurley, you're good! lol
Indeed, most of these stories are pretty amazing, delving not only into her Nyx fiction and Legion fiction and even Light Brigade, but this collection has a ton of stories that kicked me hard from a different world altogether. The only other series I haven't read is the Worldbreaker Saga and I'm honestly at a loss as to guess whether the other set of related stories revolving people jumping corpses is related to that or whether this is a taste of a brand new series to come.
If it is, I'm TOTALLY DOWN FOR IT.
Hey! Hey! But what about THIS short story collection? Is it GOOD?
Sorry? Didn't I say?
It's totally engrossing. :) Taken on its own without knowing any of the other novels, it completely works and showcases so much fungal growth, corpse making, body-horror, sexual-orientation-swapping, space-opera, disease-ridden, dog-loving joy as anyone could possibly want. And the worldbuilding is always extremely intense. :)
I will get around to her other novels, but in the meantime, I am on auto-read for anything new that Hurley throws at us. Eagerly.
Indeed, most of these stories are pretty amazing, delving not only into her Nyx fiction and Legion fiction and even Light Brigade, but this collection has a ton of stories that kicked me hard from a different world altogether. The only other series I haven't read is the Worldbreaker Saga and I'm honestly at a loss as to guess whether the other set of related stories revolving people jumping corpses is related to that or whether this is a taste of a brand new series to come.
If it is, I'm TOTALLY DOWN FOR IT.
Hey! Hey! But what about THIS short story collection? Is it GOOD?
Sorry? Didn't I say?
It's totally engrossing. :) Taken on its own without knowing any of the other novels, it completely works and showcases so much fungal growth, corpse making, body-horror, sexual-orientation-swapping, space-opera, disease-ridden, dog-loving joy as anyone could possibly want. And the worldbuilding is always extremely intense. :)
I will get around to her other novels, but in the meantime, I am on auto-read for anything new that Hurley throws at us. Eagerly.
March 14, 2020
I could sum up my thoughts about Meet Me in the Future by saying that all the stories were, if not always good, at least solid, but not one of them was memorable on its own the way I find short stories can be.
These stories are not pretty. They’re not necessarily satisfying. They would, however, be really interesting to discuss, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the whole purpose of how some of these were written. They’re meant to be shared and talked about, not read and put down, I think.
As you’d expect from something Kameron Hurley wrote, many of them are about war. War is an element in the past, still casting a shadow on the main character (Elephants and Corpses), it’s something that is seen as inevitable by a society, but is also a direct danger to it (The Red Secretary, oh had this story a lot to say), or something that is paradoxically seen by some as “bringing civilization” even as it actually destroys it (The War of Heroes), something that is always inherently tied to the dehumanization of someone (When We Fall) and horror, horror, horror as much as an instrument to keep the attention away from the actual enemy (The Light Brigade – I recommend skipping this one if you want to read the book, however), something that needs to end (The Improbable War).
Not all of these were anything remarkable when read on their own. Inside the collection, it’s a running thread, and there is for sure a lot to discuss.
There’s also, of course, a lot of queerness and discussions about gender. The collection starts with a body-hopping mercenary who happens to be a trans man (Elephants and Corpses), and presents gender as something not tied to bodies, even though still relevant to the person, and continues with stories about violent matriarchies (The Women of Our Occupation, possibly my least favorite story, I’m not that interested in reading about speculative reverse sexism), stories in which gender is never stated (The Light Brigade), stories in which there’s only one gender (Warped Passages), and stories in which there are at least four different genders recognized by the society (The Plague Givers, my favorite story). In these stories, women are allowed to be ugly, to be dirty - queer, disabled, brown women are allowed to be all of these things without ever be seen as anything but wholly human, the way a man could be portrayed. The idea that women have to be beautiful is so woven into everything, even everything fictional, that these stories almost feel jarring.
And, since we’re talking about women and imperfections, here women are allowed to be evil or morally gray, humans with the capacity to experience a full spectrum of emotions. I will always be there for portrayals of queer women that are all but soft and unproblematic; in Garda we get a woman who is divorcing from her two wives (if the story had been about that, instead of becoming about a mystery with a main character who wasn’t Nyx but felt exactly like Nyx from the Bel Dame Apocrypha series, I would have liked it a lot more), and in The Plague Givers we get a story about the consequences of a very toxic f/f relationship in a world where magic can bring plague (I loved this one so much).
There are a couple stories that felt like filler (notably, The Fisherman and the Pig was a completely unnecessary sequel to Elephants and Corpses), but overall, this is a collection with a lot of things to say.
Elephants and Corpses – 4 stars
When We Fall – 4 stars
The Red Secretary – 4 stars
The Sinners and the Sea – 3.5 stars
The Women of Our Occupation – 2 stars
The Fisherman and the Pig – 2 stars
Garda – 3 stars
The Plague Givers – 4.5 stars
Tumbledown – 4 stars
Warped Passages – 4 stars
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light – 2.5 stars
Enyo-Enyo – 3 stars
The Corpse Archives – 2.5 stars
The War of Heroes – 3.5 stars
The Light Brigade – 4.5 stars
The Improbable War – 3 stars
These stories are not pretty. They’re not necessarily satisfying. They would, however, be really interesting to discuss, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the whole purpose of how some of these were written. They’re meant to be shared and talked about, not read and put down, I think.
As you’d expect from something Kameron Hurley wrote, many of them are about war. War is an element in the past, still casting a shadow on the main character (Elephants and Corpses), it’s something that is seen as inevitable by a society, but is also a direct danger to it (The Red Secretary, oh had this story a lot to say), or something that is paradoxically seen by some as “bringing civilization” even as it actually destroys it (The War of Heroes), something that is always inherently tied to the dehumanization of someone (When We Fall) and horror, horror, horror as much as an instrument to keep the attention away from the actual enemy (The Light Brigade – I recommend skipping this one if you want to read the book, however), something that needs to end (The Improbable War).
Not all of these were anything remarkable when read on their own. Inside the collection, it’s a running thread, and there is for sure a lot to discuss.
There’s also, of course, a lot of queerness and discussions about gender. The collection starts with a body-hopping mercenary who happens to be a trans man (Elephants and Corpses), and presents gender as something not tied to bodies, even though still relevant to the person, and continues with stories about violent matriarchies (The Women of Our Occupation, possibly my least favorite story, I’m not that interested in reading about speculative reverse sexism), stories in which gender is never stated (The Light Brigade), stories in which there’s only one gender (Warped Passages), and stories in which there are at least four different genders recognized by the society (The Plague Givers, my favorite story). In these stories, women are allowed to be ugly, to be dirty - queer, disabled, brown women are allowed to be all of these things without ever be seen as anything but wholly human, the way a man could be portrayed. The idea that women have to be beautiful is so woven into everything, even everything fictional, that these stories almost feel jarring.
And, since we’re talking about women and imperfections, here women are allowed to be evil or morally gray, humans with the capacity to experience a full spectrum of emotions. I will always be there for portrayals of queer women that are all but soft and unproblematic; in Garda we get a woman who is divorcing from her two wives (if the story had been about that, instead of becoming about a mystery with a main character who wasn’t Nyx but felt exactly like Nyx from the Bel Dame Apocrypha series, I would have liked it a lot more), and in The Plague Givers we get a story about the consequences of a very toxic f/f relationship in a world where magic can bring plague (I loved this one so much).
There are a couple stories that felt like filler (notably, The Fisherman and the Pig was a completely unnecessary sequel to Elephants and Corpses), but overall, this is a collection with a lot of things to say.
Elephants and Corpses – 4 stars
When We Fall – 4 stars
The Red Secretary – 4 stars
The Sinners and the Sea – 3.5 stars
The Women of Our Occupation – 2 stars
The Fisherman and the Pig – 2 stars
Garda – 3 stars
The Plague Givers – 4.5 stars
Tumbledown – 4 stars
Warped Passages – 4 stars
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light – 2.5 stars
Enyo-Enyo – 3 stars
The Corpse Archives – 2.5 stars
The War of Heroes – 3.5 stars
The Light Brigade – 4.5 stars
The Improbable War – 3 stars
June 23, 2019
I read the stories already via Patreon. Fantastic collection of diverse, layered, strong characters and worldbuilding. It is Kameron Hurley, after all, so I am definitely and unapologetically biased.
October 17, 2019
Kameron Hurley has this incredible ability to occupy the spaces known to the science fiction canon but somehow occupy them subversively. Just like the novels I've read by her, the stories are violent and gritty, and not always hopeful.
Some favorites:
*Elephants and Corpses* could live in the universe of Altered Carbon but with a twist.
*The Plague Givers* deals with a fallout of a relationship that might have the power to destroy the world.
*Tumbledown* features a paraplegic warrior on a frozen planet.
This collection came out August 20, 2019, and I had a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
Some favorites:
*Elephants and Corpses* could live in the universe of Altered Carbon but with a twist.
*The Plague Givers* deals with a fallout of a relationship that might have the power to destroy the world.
*Tumbledown* features a paraplegic warrior on a frozen planet.
This collection came out August 20, 2019, and I had a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
September 4, 2019
Loved it! 🥰😍 RTC (maybe lol)
August 26, 2019
2.5 Stars. Thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was really expecting to love this book, but it sadly fell a bit short for me. I really liked the concept, and I enjoyed some of the individual stories, but overall, I found the experience of reading this collection to be a bit tedious. I think Hurley explores the same themes (such as gender and a a person's relationship with their own body) in a lot of her fiction, and while I think that can be a good thing, in the case of a short story collection, it can make all of the stories start to bleed together in the mind of the reader. At least, that is something I found to be true for myself. I have read and enjoyed one of Kameron Hurley's novels (The Stars Are Legion), and am interested in reading more from her in the future... but I think I will stick with her longer fiction going forward.
I was really expecting to love this book, but it sadly fell a bit short for me. I really liked the concept, and I enjoyed some of the individual stories, but overall, I found the experience of reading this collection to be a bit tedious. I think Hurley explores the same themes (such as gender and a a person's relationship with their own body) in a lot of her fiction, and while I think that can be a good thing, in the case of a short story collection, it can make all of the stories start to bleed together in the mind of the reader. At least, that is something I found to be true for myself. I have read and enjoyed one of Kameron Hurley's novels (The Stars Are Legion), and am interested in reading more from her in the future... but I think I will stick with her longer fiction going forward.
September 29, 2022
A nested story of war, genocide, and choices. Violent and gory and very Kameron Hurley.
Merged review:
Gender roles are reversed in this short story of war, resistance, and occupation. It was good, but not Hurley's best work.
Merged review:
I've rated most of the stories contained in this excellent collection separately. Kameron Hurley is a phenomenal writer.
Merged review:
Gender roles are reversed in this short story of war, resistance, and occupation. It was good, but not Hurley's best work.
Merged review:
I've rated most of the stories contained in this excellent collection separately. Kameron Hurley is a phenomenal writer.
April 27, 2020
Después de terminar las relecturas que había empezado desde el año pasado, me puse a leer ARCs que tenía pendientes desde hace mucho tiempo y que venia posponiendo. Uno de esos libros pendientes es este.
Mi relación Kameron Hurley sigue siendo ambigua: empecé abandonando lo primero que intenté de leer de ella y el siguiente intento si me gustó mucho. Este es mi tercer libro y para mi pesar, ha caído en un punto intermedio: me ha gustado mucho por momentos, en otros me he aburrido.
Cuando leo libros de historias cortas, es muy difícil poder juzgarlas como un conjunto y no siempre puedo leer más de dos relatos del tirón. Cuando leo la lista de los títulos, me sorprendo de los que si puedo recordar claramente la sensación que me dejaron y otros con los que apenas recuerdo de que iban. Aquí son más los que recuerdo que los que no.
Dentro de la fantasía y la ciencia ficción, los temas que toca la autora son variados. Las protagonistas son muchas mujeres, hay personajes con sexualidades no normativas (hay un relato en el que se habla de cuatro géneros) y hay una gran presencia de la visión del cuerpo, su relación con el género y la dinámica de estos seres en sociedades destruidas, corrompidas y afectadas por la guerra. Da igual que sean de la raza que sean, todos sufren y sus vidas pierden valor y por ende sus cuerpos pasan a ser mercancía, algo que alterar, destruir y poseer.
Hay dos historias cortas Warped Passages y The Light brigade, que terminaron siendo las novelas que he leído de la autora (The starts are legion, que no terminé y The Light Brigade, libro que si me gustó mucho). Hubo relatos en los que me sentí realmente interesada y entretenida. Elephants and corpses y The fisherman and the pig comparten al mismo protagonista. Nev, un mercenario de cuerpos que tiene la habilidad de cambiar a otro cuerpo cuando el que tiene esta por morir. Este personaje fue el que más me interesó de todas las historias. Creo que por que la autora lo dotó de un cierto humor que me gusto mucho.
Hay otras historias como The red secretary que tocan temas muy puntuales sobre la guerra y como nadie sale limpio de ella. En algún se cometen actos terribles. Hay otras historias que plantean futuros alternativos muy interesantes en los que el protagonista debe desaprender lo que ha siempre ha entendido como cierto y afrontar las verdades que duelen y desestabilizan (The sinners and the sea es un buen ejemplo).
Hay historias con toques de humor que me gustaron mucho y me mantuvieron intrigada. Garda, es una historia de una investigadora que se está divorciando de sus dos esposas y me pareció muy solida. En el aspecto más fantástico, Hurley también presenta historias muy entretenidas. Quisiera destacar Tumbledown, la historia de una joven discapacitada que debe hacer un viaje imposible para entregar unas medicinas en medio de una plaga. También The plague givers, una historia de fantasía en la que una historia de amor fallida se concluye en medio de la destrucción.
Hay otras historias que no las encuentro particularmente memorables o que hayan creado una gran impresión en mi. No puedo puntualizar bien en que fallaron para que no me gustaran, creo que fue más una falla de conectar con el personaje y hacer que su historia, por breve que fuera, me mantuviera interesada.
La misma Hurley admite en el prólogo que no siente que los relatos cortos son lo suyo, pero yo creo realmente que es una escritora solida y con buenas ideas. Hay relatos que brillan y son interesantes por si solos, otros que se sienten incompletos y se me hicieron hasta aburridos. Pero eso no desmerita que es una buena autora con ideas muy buenas.
Sin duda, si ya eres fan del trabajo de la autora, esta colección de relatos vale mucho la pena. Yo sigo pensando que el trabajo de la Hurley es interesante y potente, y espero leer más cosas de ella.
***********************************
ENGLISH REVIEW
After finishing all the rereads that I had started last year, I started reading all the ARCs that I had waiting for a long time. This is one of them.
My relationship with Hurley is still ambiguous: I DNFd the first book I tried to read and the second attempt I really liked. This is my third book and sadly, it fell somewhere in the middle: I liked it most of the time, still, I found myself really bored.
When I read books of short stories, it is very difficult to judge them as a whole and I cannot always read more than two stories back to back. When I read the list of titles, I am surprised that I can clearly remember the feeling that some stories left me, others I hardly remember them. Good thing is that there are more of those that I remember.
Within fantasy and science fiction, Hurley stories have a wide scope. The protagonists are mostly women, there are characters with non-normative sexualities (there is a story that speaks of four genders) and there is a clear vision of one's body, its relationship with the gender and the dynamics of the body in destroyed and rotten societies.
No matter what race or planet you are, everyone suffers and your body lose value and it can be used as merch, as something to own, to alter and destroy.
There are two short stories Warped Passages and The Light brigade, which ended up being the novels I have read by the author (The starts are legion, that I did not finish and The Light Brigade, a book I really liked).
There were stories I really liked. Elephants and corpses and The fisherman and the pig share the same protagonist. Nev, a body mercenary who has the ability to switch to another body when the one he has is about to die. This character was the one that interested me most of all the stories. I think that because the author gave him a certain humor that I really liked.
There are other stories like The Red Secretary that touch on very specific topics about the war and how nobody comes out clean from it. At some point, terrible acts happen. There are other stories that propose very interesting alternative futures in which the protagonist must unlearn what he has always understood to be true and face the truths that hurt deep (The sinners and the sea is a good example).
There are stories with hints of humor that I really liked and kept me intrigued. Garda, is a story of a private investigator who is divorcing her two wives and I found it very solid. In the most fantastic aspect, Hurley also has very entertaining stories. I would like to highlight Tumbledown, the story of a disabled woman who must make an impossible journey to deliver some medicines in the midst of a plague. Also, The plague givers, is a fantasy story in which an unfinished business with a terrible woman ends in the midst of destruction.
There are other stories that I don't find particularly memorable or that have made a big impression on me. I cannot really point out why I did not like them, I think it was more a matter of keeping me entertained.
Hurley herself admits in the prologue that she does not feel that short stories are her thing, but I really think she is a solid writer with wonderful ideas. There are stories that shine and are interesting on their own, others that feel incomplete and even boring. But that does not detract from the fact that she is a good author with very good ideas.
Without a doubt, if you are already a fan of the author's work, this collection of stories is very worthwhile. I still think the Hurley's work is interesting and powerful, and I look forward to reading more of it.
Mi relación Kameron Hurley sigue siendo ambigua: empecé abandonando lo primero que intenté de leer de ella y el siguiente intento si me gustó mucho. Este es mi tercer libro y para mi pesar, ha caído en un punto intermedio: me ha gustado mucho por momentos, en otros me he aburrido.
Cuando leo libros de historias cortas, es muy difícil poder juzgarlas como un conjunto y no siempre puedo leer más de dos relatos del tirón. Cuando leo la lista de los títulos, me sorprendo de los que si puedo recordar claramente la sensación que me dejaron y otros con los que apenas recuerdo de que iban. Aquí son más los que recuerdo que los que no.
Dentro de la fantasía y la ciencia ficción, los temas que toca la autora son variados. Las protagonistas son muchas mujeres, hay personajes con sexualidades no normativas (hay un relato en el que se habla de cuatro géneros) y hay una gran presencia de la visión del cuerpo, su relación con el género y la dinámica de estos seres en sociedades destruidas, corrompidas y afectadas por la guerra. Da igual que sean de la raza que sean, todos sufren y sus vidas pierden valor y por ende sus cuerpos pasan a ser mercancía, algo que alterar, destruir y poseer.
Hay dos historias cortas Warped Passages y The Light brigade, que terminaron siendo las novelas que he leído de la autora (The starts are legion, que no terminé y The Light Brigade, libro que si me gustó mucho). Hubo relatos en los que me sentí realmente interesada y entretenida. Elephants and corpses y The fisherman and the pig comparten al mismo protagonista. Nev, un mercenario de cuerpos que tiene la habilidad de cambiar a otro cuerpo cuando el que tiene esta por morir. Este personaje fue el que más me interesó de todas las historias. Creo que por que la autora lo dotó de un cierto humor que me gusto mucho.
Hay otras historias como The red secretary que tocan temas muy puntuales sobre la guerra y como nadie sale limpio de ella. En algún se cometen actos terribles. Hay otras historias que plantean futuros alternativos muy interesantes en los que el protagonista debe desaprender lo que ha siempre ha entendido como cierto y afrontar las verdades que duelen y desestabilizan (The sinners and the sea es un buen ejemplo).
Hay historias con toques de humor que me gustaron mucho y me mantuvieron intrigada. Garda, es una historia de una investigadora que se está divorciando de sus dos esposas y me pareció muy solida. En el aspecto más fantástico, Hurley también presenta historias muy entretenidas. Quisiera destacar Tumbledown, la historia de una joven discapacitada que debe hacer un viaje imposible para entregar unas medicinas en medio de una plaga. También The plague givers, una historia de fantasía en la que una historia de amor fallida se concluye en medio de la destrucción.
Hay otras historias que no las encuentro particularmente memorables o que hayan creado una gran impresión en mi. No puedo puntualizar bien en que fallaron para que no me gustaran, creo que fue más una falla de conectar con el personaje y hacer que su historia, por breve que fuera, me mantuviera interesada.
La misma Hurley admite en el prólogo que no siente que los relatos cortos son lo suyo, pero yo creo realmente que es una escritora solida y con buenas ideas. Hay relatos que brillan y son interesantes por si solos, otros que se sienten incompletos y se me hicieron hasta aburridos. Pero eso no desmerita que es una buena autora con ideas muy buenas.
Sin duda, si ya eres fan del trabajo de la autora, esta colección de relatos vale mucho la pena. Yo sigo pensando que el trabajo de la Hurley es interesante y potente, y espero leer más cosas de ella.
***********************************
ENGLISH REVIEW
After finishing all the rereads that I had started last year, I started reading all the ARCs that I had waiting for a long time. This is one of them.
My relationship with Hurley is still ambiguous: I DNFd the first book I tried to read and the second attempt I really liked. This is my third book and sadly, it fell somewhere in the middle: I liked it most of the time, still, I found myself really bored.
When I read books of short stories, it is very difficult to judge them as a whole and I cannot always read more than two stories back to back. When I read the list of titles, I am surprised that I can clearly remember the feeling that some stories left me, others I hardly remember them. Good thing is that there are more of those that I remember.
Within fantasy and science fiction, Hurley stories have a wide scope. The protagonists are mostly women, there are characters with non-normative sexualities (there is a story that speaks of four genders) and there is a clear vision of one's body, its relationship with the gender and the dynamics of the body in destroyed and rotten societies.
No matter what race or planet you are, everyone suffers and your body lose value and it can be used as merch, as something to own, to alter and destroy.
There are two short stories Warped Passages and The Light brigade, which ended up being the novels I have read by the author (The starts are legion, that I did not finish and The Light Brigade, a book I really liked).
There were stories I really liked. Elephants and corpses and The fisherman and the pig share the same protagonist. Nev, a body mercenary who has the ability to switch to another body when the one he has is about to die. This character was the one that interested me most of all the stories. I think that because the author gave him a certain humor that I really liked.
There are other stories like The Red Secretary that touch on very specific topics about the war and how nobody comes out clean from it. At some point, terrible acts happen. There are other stories that propose very interesting alternative futures in which the protagonist must unlearn what he has always understood to be true and face the truths that hurt deep (The sinners and the sea is a good example).
There are stories with hints of humor that I really liked and kept me intrigued. Garda, is a story of a private investigator who is divorcing her two wives and I found it very solid. In the most fantastic aspect, Hurley also has very entertaining stories. I would like to highlight Tumbledown, the story of a disabled woman who must make an impossible journey to deliver some medicines in the midst of a plague. Also, The plague givers, is a fantasy story in which an unfinished business with a terrible woman ends in the midst of destruction.
There are other stories that I don't find particularly memorable or that have made a big impression on me. I cannot really point out why I did not like them, I think it was more a matter of keeping me entertained.
Hurley herself admits in the prologue that she does not feel that short stories are her thing, but I really think she is a solid writer with wonderful ideas. There are stories that shine and are interesting on their own, others that feel incomplete and even boring. But that does not detract from the fact that she is a good author with very good ideas.
Without a doubt, if you are already a fan of the author's work, this collection of stories is very worthwhile. I still think the Hurley's work is interesting and powerful, and I look forward to reading more of it.
June 12, 2022
Rep: achillean, sapphic, trans & nonbinary characters
January 5, 2020
I'm not a natural short fiction writer.Well... Kameron Hurley may feel more comfortable writing at novel length, but... I think I like her short stories better, at least based on Meet Me in the Future and her earlier collection Apocalypse Nyx, which "carried me along with its exotic scenery and visceral intensity," just about a year ago.
—"An Introduction: Meet Me in The Future," p.i
As with all of Hurley's work (that I've read so far, anyway), though, Meet Me in the Future is best not read at mealtimes... she remains consistently fascinated with the messy and organic, often violent and brutal natures of beasts—most especially including human ones. These are not stories for the faint of heart, for children, or for the easily distressed. But they do have power, and vision, and inventive integrity, and Hurley did keep me reading through tale after tale.
Those tales are, in order (Table of Contents via Tachyon Publications this time):
"Elephants and Corpses"
This is the first of two tales in Meet Me in the Future featuring Nev, the corpse-jumper (though he prefers the term "body mercenary"), who can transfer into—and rejuvenate—a new body when his old one dies. Within limits, of course. Most such fictional beings are monsters and villains, but Hurley makes Nev into a sympathetic and engaging protagonist.
"When We Fall"
An industrial accident involving a new kind of sentient warship leaves its victim unsure of... many things. While consistent in outline with Hurley's other stories, this one seems unusually... hopeful?
"The Red Secretary"
This one's about a hostage situation where the hostage is... a super-weapon. Kind of. But mostly it's about Arkadi, the negotiator who's sent in to talk to the soldiers who don't want to go so very gently into the good night that awaits all such combatants, after the conflict ends.
"The Sinners and the Sea"
Lies have a way of coming back and biting the liar... even when the ones who are lying embody an entire culture.
"The Women of Our Occupation"
The title of this one pretty much says it all.
"The Fisherman and the Pig"
A second Nev tale, this one featuring among other creatures Nev's pet pot-bellied pig, whose name is Pig. Poignantly points out the problems of maintaining continuity when one goes body-hopping.
"Garda"
Dead people keep washing up on the black glass beach, downstream from the factory with the offworld workforce. Corporate malfeasance appears to be involved... and perhaps Inspector Abijah Olivia can figure out how. If she's lucky enough to stay alive.
"The Plague Givers"
The swamp is traditionally a place of pestilence... but also of refuge.
"Tumbledown"
One of the more interesting stories in this collection involves an urgent delivery of medications and a protagonist who was disabled by an earlier wave of the very plague for which she now must complete that delivery. Compare and contrast with "The Cold Equations."
"Warped Passages"
Something of an origin story for The Stars Are Legion... although Hurley's Introduction says she now almost regrets having said so much about that beginning, and urges the reader to consider this "just one interpretation. One version of the truth."
"Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light!"
A flash fiction, almost impossibly short to carry the weight of its burden—and yet, she persisted.
"Enyo-Enyo"
Enyo is the pilot of a satellite that travels around the galaxy and through time, a craft which bears her own name as well as a prisoner whose name Enyo no longer remembers. Sometimes she thinks that's funny.
"The Corpse Archives"
The stories of the Keepers are written on the bodies of their archives. But the Keepers are growing fewer...
"The War of Heroes"
Just one thought: calling yourself a hero doesn't make you one.
"The Light Brigade"
This is what happens when you make a metaphor literal—transmitting soldiers as light solves one problem, to be sure, but causes many others.
"The Improbable War"
Improbable, and brief—only two pages long, but definitely a high-impact way to end this collection.
Meet Me in the Future did seem rather roughly copy-edited. I'm not sure where the word "clammering" came in, for example (from context, it should be "clambering"); there's no such thing as an "ocular scelera" (it should be sclera); and I noticed one rather amusing name switch, from "Dysnomia" (which is "a marked difficulty in remembering names or recalling a word"—and also, as a proper noun, the moon of the dwarf planet Eris—both of which make a certain amount of sense in context) to "Dysmonia," which doesn't seem to carry any such connotations. However, I suspect most readers will overlook all of these.
This review does mark a couple of milestones for me, too... it is my last one for the 2010s, and my 902nd on Goodreads overall. Which makes the years from 2010 through 2019 a pretty good decade, at least in that one respect.
And, somehow, I'm still not tired of doing this. Make of that what you will, my friends. In the meantime, I plan to keep reading.
September 8, 2019
Kameron Hurley’s heart belongs to novels. Meet Me in the Future’s introduction tells the reader as much instantly. And yet this is her second collection (third, depending on whether you believe the book itself or Hurley’s Wikipedia). To that end, some parts of Meet Me in the Future are considerably stronger than others. These stories represent Hurley’s particular fascinations: womens’ place in society, the impermanence of bodies; plague and pathology. Some she communicates well in sparkling stories, but others collapse under their own weight.
The collection opens with one of its best stories, “Elephants and Corpses”. “Elephants and Corpses” is a vignette in the life of body mercenary Nev, who spends his days fishing up corpses to inhabit, even though his battlefield days are behind him. Nev shows up in the later story “The Fisherman and the Pig”, at a time when body mercenaries are even less relevant. Both stories speak to a rich character who exists in a curious world with unplumbed deaths. One could happily read a full novel either about Nev or the society that birthed him, and the satisfaction these stories provides is emblematic of the strongest elements of the collection. Hurley acknowledges the tricks that she performs to make Nev a sympathetic character in the body of the text, but it’s difficult to resent her for it.
The grounding of Nev stands out in particular against the multiple free-standing stories that have deliberately opaque settings. “The Plague Givers” is something of a novella in which there are four genders. Hurley presents her worlds as if they’re established, and maybe the reader doesn’t have time to get an entire history of the Plague society, but there’s no real entrée to any of these gender concepts. It wouldn’t matter so much if her pronoun system wasn’t utterly confounding. One of the genders is “pan”, and instead of he/his, she/her, they/them or even zie/zir pronouns, the pan have “per/per”. This stylistic choice renders multiple passages difficult to parse without repeated backtracking. Research suggests that this particular system was inspired by Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time , but one hopes that Piercy incorporated the per pronoun with more finesse than Hurley has here.
It’s unfortunate, as “The Plague Givers” is otherwise a workable story, although by the time that it appears it is starting to feel familiar within the context of the collection. Hurley oscillates between presenting disease as neutral or a force of evil, but the scope of the world is too large for the ground that “The Plague Givers” covers. We have context for the Bet, the protagonist, but it is difficult to know what anything in her society means.
This contextless existence carries across to the “The Corpse Archives”, potentially the weakest story in the collection. The communication of the protagonist’s existence is sketchy, and descriptors are withheld until it is too late for them to influence the story. It is set in something like a maze of interlocking hexagons, and it feels like the reader might never escape. Mysteries that cannot be resolved can only carry a reader so far; Hurley does not provide enough information for any gaps to be filled on the reader’s own recognisance, rendering “The Corpse Archives” more frustrating than arresting. Combined with “The Plague Givers”, both stories represent Hurley’s occasional confusion on a sentence level across the entire collection: names, pronouns and words are frequently repeated redundantly and, even when the ideas are solid, the prose does not provide the momentum needed to propel a reader from one story to the next.
Outside of those two stories, Meet Me in the Future is a more assured mixture of science fiction and fantasy pieces, and Hurley is clearly skilled in both registers. “Garda” is a deep dive into the life of an alcoholic private eye whose two wives left her for each other and, and the character and planet that she resides on are fascinating; the investigation is functional enough, but it is window dressing for the world building it enables.
Special mention also goes to “The Women of our Occupation”, the description of a society occupied by an exclusively female foreign force. This is the example of a story that is able to stand on its own while raising a series of titillating but unanswerable questions. If much of Meet Me in the Future is variations on themes, “The Women of our Occupation” is the platonic ideal of many of them.
Meet Me in the Future: Stories is a collection that errs on the side of the positive. The best concepts on display here could be fleshed into novels — two of them, in fact, were published in novel form before being collected here — and there is only one story that could stand to have been cut entirely. Hurley is an author of no small talent, but one suited to a larger scale. Meet Me in the Future: Stories is a diving off point for bigger things: an escape pod dreaming of being a star destroyer.
The collection opens with one of its best stories, “Elephants and Corpses”. “Elephants and Corpses” is a vignette in the life of body mercenary Nev, who spends his days fishing up corpses to inhabit, even though his battlefield days are behind him. Nev shows up in the later story “The Fisherman and the Pig”, at a time when body mercenaries are even less relevant. Both stories speak to a rich character who exists in a curious world with unplumbed deaths. One could happily read a full novel either about Nev or the society that birthed him, and the satisfaction these stories provides is emblematic of the strongest elements of the collection. Hurley acknowledges the tricks that she performs to make Nev a sympathetic character in the body of the text, but it’s difficult to resent her for it.
The grounding of Nev stands out in particular against the multiple free-standing stories that have deliberately opaque settings. “The Plague Givers” is something of a novella in which there are four genders. Hurley presents her worlds as if they’re established, and maybe the reader doesn’t have time to get an entire history of the Plague society, but there’s no real entrée to any of these gender concepts. It wouldn’t matter so much if her pronoun system wasn’t utterly confounding. One of the genders is “pan”, and instead of he/his, she/her, they/them or even zie/zir pronouns, the pan have “per/per”. This stylistic choice renders multiple passages difficult to parse without repeated backtracking. Research suggests that this particular system was inspired by Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time , but one hopes that Piercy incorporated the per pronoun with more finesse than Hurley has here.
It’s unfortunate, as “The Plague Givers” is otherwise a workable story, although by the time that it appears it is starting to feel familiar within the context of the collection. Hurley oscillates between presenting disease as neutral or a force of evil, but the scope of the world is too large for the ground that “The Plague Givers” covers. We have context for the Bet, the protagonist, but it is difficult to know what anything in her society means.
This contextless existence carries across to the “The Corpse Archives”, potentially the weakest story in the collection. The communication of the protagonist’s existence is sketchy, and descriptors are withheld until it is too late for them to influence the story. It is set in something like a maze of interlocking hexagons, and it feels like the reader might never escape. Mysteries that cannot be resolved can only carry a reader so far; Hurley does not provide enough information for any gaps to be filled on the reader’s own recognisance, rendering “The Corpse Archives” more frustrating than arresting. Combined with “The Plague Givers”, both stories represent Hurley’s occasional confusion on a sentence level across the entire collection: names, pronouns and words are frequently repeated redundantly and, even when the ideas are solid, the prose does not provide the momentum needed to propel a reader from one story to the next.
Outside of those two stories, Meet Me in the Future is a more assured mixture of science fiction and fantasy pieces, and Hurley is clearly skilled in both registers. “Garda” is a deep dive into the life of an alcoholic private eye whose two wives left her for each other and, and the character and planet that she resides on are fascinating; the investigation is functional enough, but it is window dressing for the world building it enables.
Special mention also goes to “The Women of our Occupation”, the description of a society occupied by an exclusively female foreign force. This is the example of a story that is able to stand on its own while raising a series of titillating but unanswerable questions. If much of Meet Me in the Future is variations on themes, “The Women of our Occupation” is the platonic ideal of many of them.
Meet Me in the Future: Stories is a collection that errs on the side of the positive. The best concepts on display here could be fleshed into novels — two of them, in fact, were published in novel form before being collected here — and there is only one story that could stand to have been cut entirely. Hurley is an author of no small talent, but one suited to a larger scale. Meet Me in the Future: Stories is a diving off point for bigger things: an escape pod dreaming of being a star destroyer.
An ARC of Meet Me in the Future: Stories was provided by Tachyon Publications. It was published internationally on August 20, 2019.
July 25, 2020
Not often I read collections of short stories but this author I like so I decided to give it a go. There are good stories and I am happy that I've read them :)
January 17, 2023
In an author's note Hurley also asks what happens if we change the pronuns. This then turns a fantasy into reality. Not so strange, or so very strange according to what your mind wants to accept or at least ponder about.
Read with a strange sort of feeling of satisfaction by me. Ha, what is sauce for the goose, is certainly sauce enough for the gander.
Read with a strange sort of feeling of satisfaction by me. Ha, what is sauce for the goose, is certainly sauce enough for the gander.
January 7, 2020
Hmm. I didn't totally enjoy reading these, but looking back there were some darn good stories there.
Wild imagination, occasionally taking us close to what you might call fantastic SF, or SF edging on magic (of the Clarke kind).
Do read the introduction, as it sets the stage nicely with Hurley saying where's she's coming from.
Overall it's a bit dark, but not too much. There's definitely a feeling of "I want to tell a story about a person who faces challenge X, now what kind of world would present that challenge?" or "what kind of world would it have to be for THIS to happen as-if-normal, and what would it be like to be a not-very-powerful person in that world?"
I was also left with a feeling of density, like fruitcake vs a macaron. I remember more than should have fit into a book that size.
Not entirely my style, but I applaud it.
Wild imagination, occasionally taking us close to what you might call fantastic SF, or SF edging on magic (of the Clarke kind).
Do read the introduction, as it sets the stage nicely with Hurley saying where's she's coming from.
Overall it's a bit dark, but not too much. There's definitely a feeling of "I want to tell a story about a person who faces challenge X, now what kind of world would present that challenge?" or "what kind of world would it have to be for THIS to happen as-if-normal, and what would it be like to be a not-very-powerful person in that world?"
I was also left with a feeling of density, like fruitcake vs a macaron. I remember more than should have fit into a book that size.
Not entirely my style, but I applaud it.
March 8, 2023
Some of the stories are pretty good I especially like the body mercenary stories but it’s just too grim. Not one story is even slightly light hearted or ends well. War genocide torture and murder galore. Bad pick for a vacation read!
June 16, 2020
Each story would do well on its own, but together they're kinda too similar. Overwhelmingly bleak.
March 24, 2021
Great stories just so much war...
July 29, 2019
Good stories even if I've appreciated some more than others.
The author's touch is always here, strong women who frequently have jobs, strengths and habits usually gifted to male characters, diverse sexuality and animals - with a special care about them (the reader doesn't need to be afraid that horrible things will happen to them).
He worlds imagined are all rather harsh and injust, this is not some bedtime stories !
I took time to read them all, because if all different they have many shared points (thanks to the author's personality) and Ì needed to pause regularly, not to get tired.
The author's touch is always here, strong women who frequently have jobs, strengths and habits usually gifted to male characters, diverse sexuality and animals - with a special care about them (the reader doesn't need to be afraid that horrible things will happen to them).
He worlds imagined are all rather harsh and injust, this is not some bedtime stories !
I took time to read them all, because if all different they have many shared points (thanks to the author's personality) and Ì needed to pause regularly, not to get tired.
August 8, 2019
I got this e ARC from Netgalley after requesting it.
I enjoy short stories or anthologies,"Meet Me in the Future" asks how futures could play out - both ours and for worlds in fiction. What's the future if not something of a reflection of history's many nows, like a glimpse in a mirror or still water, a the kaleidoscope of possibilities, changeable still because every person carries their history and the history of imagined and dreamed stories. A lot of these short stories understandably dance between biology and technology.
Elephants and Corpses - Nev, a old "body mercenary", someone who if they die in one body can - if they've touched a dead body nearby - swap their "soul" or "spirit" into the dead body and animate it. He holds onto humanity though a animal contact, a elephant and later a turtle given to him by Tera his "body manager". Occult religious business and body mercenary workshop mix and Nev sorts out what he can from the mess left.
When We Fall - I'd love to have a much longer story on Aisha, a jack of all trades and her fleet of warship's avatars Mirabelle and others of the Komani Enterprises freed by a tomato.
The Red Secretary - Arkadi negotiates and must make a connection with a soldier who knows their end, because they've killed the enemy and gotten their hands dirty, who hold a weapon hostage, with nothing to lose because the end of the war means all who have bloodied their hands get incinerated.
The Sinners and the Sea - Arret must choose the truth, the story, he can live with, the one that tells of a sea burying sinners hundreds of years ago and being a Guardian means containing ancinet relics - or that the relics are from people murdered by Guardians only a generation ago, and his people living in the sky survivors chosen by no god at all.
The Women of Our Occupation- I had a little laugh with this story, when the world Feminazi comes up, likely I'll be showing this story to someone.
The Fishermen and the Pig- Another Nev story, after living as a old fisherman for years with only a pig and a turtle for company, he gets caught up in a nercomancer plot to bring back the dead with black toxin from a long ago war, although I didn't like Branka's cliffhanger ending.
Garda-A who done it mystery with a serial killer involving alien "boys" after a future war; focus is on Abijah's divorce to two wives and how she works with Pats, who she's known in that war.
The Plague Givers - I would love a whole novel on Elzabet Addisalam, swamp dwelling stuffed hydra making former Plague Hunter with her history of a former lover a Plague Giver Hanere, their son Makdas, her partner Kelab -and later Lealez.
Tumbledown- Sarnai, who got plague as a child and lost her legs and her fathers and mother to it on a alien world where dogs and bears don't seem to look as the ought to, uses a sled to get tumbledown plague serum to a distant village.
Warped Passages - Malati and pilot and Kariz a engineer are siblings who lost their mother to the anomaly that holds their generation ships of the Legion still, caught in space, trapped, their choices are to change themselves or be changed.
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full Of Light!- Moria follows generations of her mothers, grandmothers, and likely sisters, aunts and other women who fight monsters, for one less monster they'll trade their lives a sacrifice for the promise of generations of women to come.
Enyo-Enyo -A fascinating dark take on how a ship takes to life among the stars and how time passes and acted out in "snapshots" of different futures.
The Corpse Archives - Anish and Chiva make and unmake a history of aliens, their people, and their stories written on bodies, textbooks of "history".
The War of Heroes - Yousra, a midwife, makes a choice to take the war to the alien "heroes" who have made her people monstrous.
The Light Brigade- The war, a corporate one against aliens, people from Mars who turned barren Earth to free paradise, turned soldier who fight them into light, who can see glimpses of the future and can travel, like light, anywhere - and possibly, any when.
The Improbable War - Khiv uses the wall, a engine of memory to the souls of soldiers, to fight a old enemy and end war, forever.
I enjoy short stories or anthologies,"Meet Me in the Future" asks how futures could play out - both ours and for worlds in fiction. What's the future if not something of a reflection of history's many nows, like a glimpse in a mirror or still water, a the kaleidoscope of possibilities, changeable still because every person carries their history and the history of imagined and dreamed stories. A lot of these short stories understandably dance between biology and technology.
Elephants and Corpses - Nev, a old "body mercenary", someone who if they die in one body can - if they've touched a dead body nearby - swap their "soul" or "spirit" into the dead body and animate it. He holds onto humanity though a animal contact, a elephant and later a turtle given to him by Tera his "body manager". Occult religious business and body mercenary workshop mix and Nev sorts out what he can from the mess left.
When We Fall - I'd love to have a much longer story on Aisha, a jack of all trades and her fleet of warship's avatars Mirabelle and others of the Komani Enterprises freed by a tomato.
The Red Secretary - Arkadi negotiates and must make a connection with a soldier who knows their end, because they've killed the enemy and gotten their hands dirty, who hold a weapon hostage, with nothing to lose because the end of the war means all who have bloodied their hands get incinerated.
The Sinners and the Sea - Arret must choose the truth, the story, he can live with, the one that tells of a sea burying sinners hundreds of years ago and being a Guardian means containing ancinet relics - or that the relics are from people murdered by Guardians only a generation ago, and his people living in the sky survivors chosen by no god at all.
The Women of Our Occupation- I had a little laugh with this story, when the world Feminazi comes up, likely I'll be showing this story to someone.
The Fishermen and the Pig- Another Nev story, after living as a old fisherman for years with only a pig and a turtle for company, he gets caught up in a nercomancer plot to bring back the dead with black toxin from a long ago war, although I didn't like Branka's cliffhanger ending.
Garda-A who done it mystery with a serial killer involving alien "boys" after a future war; focus is on Abijah's divorce to two wives and how she works with Pats, who she's known in that war.
The Plague Givers - I would love a whole novel on Elzabet Addisalam, swamp dwelling stuffed hydra making former Plague Hunter with her history of a former lover a Plague Giver Hanere, their son Makdas, her partner Kelab -and later Lealez.
Tumbledown- Sarnai, who got plague as a child and lost her legs and her fathers and mother to it on a alien world where dogs and bears don't seem to look as the ought to, uses a sled to get tumbledown plague serum to a distant village.
Warped Passages - Malati and pilot and Kariz a engineer are siblings who lost their mother to the anomaly that holds their generation ships of the Legion still, caught in space, trapped, their choices are to change themselves or be changed.
Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full Of Light!- Moria follows generations of her mothers, grandmothers, and likely sisters, aunts and other women who fight monsters, for one less monster they'll trade their lives a sacrifice for the promise of generations of women to come.
Enyo-Enyo -A fascinating dark take on how a ship takes to life among the stars and how time passes and acted out in "snapshots" of different futures.
The Corpse Archives - Anish and Chiva make and unmake a history of aliens, their people, and their stories written on bodies, textbooks of "history".
The War of Heroes - Yousra, a midwife, makes a choice to take the war to the alien "heroes" who have made her people monstrous.
The Light Brigade- The war, a corporate one against aliens, people from Mars who turned barren Earth to free paradise, turned soldier who fight them into light, who can see glimpses of the future and can travel, like light, anywhere - and possibly, any when.
The Improbable War - Khiv uses the wall, a engine of memory to the souls of soldiers, to fight a old enemy and end war, forever.
February 7, 2019
I loved APOCALYPSE NYX when I got to read it and I have yet to pick up the GOD'S WAR books or anything else by Hurley, but I did get to read the short stories in MEET ME in the FUTURE and I must say, I was even more impressed with her raw, beautiful stories and characters.
Hurley is unapologetic about the stories (read her Introduction for more information).
I will hunt her books down and read them all. There are very few authors I feel that way about, but Hurley is definitely one of them.
Hurley is unapologetic about the stories (read her Introduction for more information).
I will hunt her books down and read them all. There are very few authors I feel that way about, but Hurley is definitely one of them.
September 24, 2019
So, this is going to be a short review, because I don’t have much to say other than these are fantastic! Go buy this collection.
Her writing is fascinating, and her imagination absolutely captivating. This collection has a good range of stories, some short, some long and all intriguing like you wouldn’t believe. Even weeks after reading them I find myself just thinking about some of her stories.
Overall a great collection, and one that I would recommend to absolutely anyone who loves short stories (and even those who aren’t necessarily big on short fiction.) Definitely a collection that I’ll be purchasing for a reread.
Like this review? Find more like it at:
https://www.cheyannealepka.com/chey-s...
Her writing is fascinating, and her imagination absolutely captivating. This collection has a good range of stories, some short, some long and all intriguing like you wouldn’t believe. Even weeks after reading them I find myself just thinking about some of her stories.
Overall a great collection, and one that I would recommend to absolutely anyone who loves short stories (and even those who aren’t necessarily big on short fiction.) Definitely a collection that I’ll be purchasing for a reread.
Like this review? Find more like it at:
https://www.cheyannealepka.com/chey-s...
July 4, 2019
Grata sorpresa esta colección de relatos. Por el título y por lo que había leído de ficción de Hurley antes (únicamente «Las estrellas son legión») pensaba que serían relatos de cifi tirando a especulativa. Sin embargo, me he encontrado un conjunto de historias tanto de fantasía como de ciencia ficción que son puro entretenimiento; y la verdad es que me ha alegrado bastante. Me lo he pasado pipa con estos relatos y creo que el libro merece mucho la pena.
Sale a finales de agosto en Tachyon, a los que agradezco el ejemplar. En breve reseña en profundidad en el podcast.
Sale a finales de agosto en Tachyon, a los que agradezco el ejemplar. En breve reseña en profundidad en el podcast.
September 23, 2019
One of my new favorite authors. Worth it alone for the two Nev stories about a body-swapping mercenary who's seen far too much death.
June 22, 2019
Kameron Hurley has quickly become on of my favorite fiction authors. I have been immersing myself in her collection of works and adding more to my shelf to read next. I was excited to get the chance to read her forthcoming short story collection, Meet Me in the Future, for the aforementioned reasons but also because I had not read any of her short stories yet.
Short story collections are this odd measure of diversity in talent in which a favored author can perform unexpectedly badly or a mediocre author can rock your world. They can often be a collection of amazing stories mixed with ones that are so bad it is difficult to understand how they were allowed to be published at all. In Hurley's case, an excellent author of novels performs excellently in the short story realm as well, despite her claims in the introduction that she is not a short fiction writer. I started bookmarking my favorite stories to list in this review. But, by the end of the book, I had bookmarked most of the stories which basically made the practice unnecessary. It is rare not only that someone performs superbly across mediums but also that a collection of shorts is excellent the whole way through. It is obvious that these stories were written and chosen with care and intent to produce something great.
I want to focus a bit on the introduction, because it was enlightening to me why it is that Hurley draws me in so well even when she is covering themes that don't often attract me. I often think I am not really into themes of war, grotesque and gory body horror, or which lean more fantasy than science fiction at times. Yet, I feel completely immersed in Hurley's works that often completely center these things. I have come to realize that it is how someone presents them to me that matters. The reality is that not enough authors' writing involving these themes has the insight Hurley's has. She discusses in the introduction that she lives with serious chronic illness and disability and had grandparents who lived through the Nazi occupation, one of whom was captured on suspicion of being part of the French resistance movements. I also knew that she is a feminist who is formally educated in South African resistance movements (available in the author biography at the end of the book.) These all inform her writing in ways that captures a reality of struggle and suffering that is not just written for the sake of shock or disturbance.
The ways disability and illness inform several stories is in intimate and real portrayals of disabled life. There is one character with leg braces who describes formerly being told she is "lucky' by doctors who only focus on her ability to eventually walk again and not her permanent catheter, her (implied) ostomy bag, her sex life, or that trauma is never "lucky." This is an experience countless sick and disabled people have dealt with with doctors, self included. This character is not portrayed as a victim nor is she portrayed as inspirational, which are often the only fates for those with disabilities. She's a disabled person being human with advantages and struggles. Other stories often also include excretory functions and other fun stuff we often ignore in injury and violence because we are too squeamish or afraid. Yet, disruption of these functions is common in illness, injury, and/or disability and often requires outside help and support from both technologies and human beings. Basically, Hurley has a realistic take on what it likes to be sick and/or disabled that is likely formed by her own experiences.
Another theme in many stories is that of gender nonconformity, transgender experiences, and straight up cross-gender body swapping. Again, Hurley goes at these themes in a way that separates her from others who either make the story all about the person's gender or who tokenize trans and GNC characters for points with no understanding of gender dynamics. Hurley's portrayal of these characters and societies is unique and fantastical while still holding on to the here and now enough that we can recognize them. LGBTQ and polyamorous women of many kinds are a common theme in Hurley's books and stories. This was present across most of the stories in the book. But, the creative ways Hurley explored multiple genders via futuristic or parallel words and multiple stories about body swapping was more present in this book.
There are a couple of stories that may excite those who have read and enjoyed "The Stars are Legion" and "The Light Brigade." (Possibly others, but I have not read all of her books yet.) They include inspiration for the books or events that predated the narratives in the novels. There are familiar themes of technology combining with flesh in ways that are different from the usually human or android representations. There are themes of colonization and oppression that capture the horrific realities via the medium of fiction. There are repeated occurrences of nonhuman animals used as a vehicle for oppression via the description of their commonplace mistreatment as an excuse for mistreatment of marginalized humans. Hurley manages all of these things in ways I have not experienced in other science fiction and/or fantasy that I have read. There are times when Hurley's messages are heavy handed, which can bother me, but for some reason does not when she does it. There are many other times where the themes and messages are woven intricately in complicated ways throughout the stories, creating the experience of the story as reality, even if it's in space, a parallel world, or a million years in the future.
If you like Hurley's work, you will likely enjoy this book. If you are unfamiliar with her work, I think this book could be good to dip your toes into it. Overall, it is a good representation of her styles and talent. "Meet Me in the Future: Stories" is due out in August of 2019 and is definitely a recommended read.
This was also posted to my blog.
Short story collections are this odd measure of diversity in talent in which a favored author can perform unexpectedly badly or a mediocre author can rock your world. They can often be a collection of amazing stories mixed with ones that are so bad it is difficult to understand how they were allowed to be published at all. In Hurley's case, an excellent author of novels performs excellently in the short story realm as well, despite her claims in the introduction that she is not a short fiction writer. I started bookmarking my favorite stories to list in this review. But, by the end of the book, I had bookmarked most of the stories which basically made the practice unnecessary. It is rare not only that someone performs superbly across mediums but also that a collection of shorts is excellent the whole way through. It is obvious that these stories were written and chosen with care and intent to produce something great.
I want to focus a bit on the introduction, because it was enlightening to me why it is that Hurley draws me in so well even when she is covering themes that don't often attract me. I often think I am not really into themes of war, grotesque and gory body horror, or which lean more fantasy than science fiction at times. Yet, I feel completely immersed in Hurley's works that often completely center these things. I have come to realize that it is how someone presents them to me that matters. The reality is that not enough authors' writing involving these themes has the insight Hurley's has. She discusses in the introduction that she lives with serious chronic illness and disability and had grandparents who lived through the Nazi occupation, one of whom was captured on suspicion of being part of the French resistance movements. I also knew that she is a feminist who is formally educated in South African resistance movements (available in the author biography at the end of the book.) These all inform her writing in ways that captures a reality of struggle and suffering that is not just written for the sake of shock or disturbance.
The ways disability and illness inform several stories is in intimate and real portrayals of disabled life. There is one character with leg braces who describes formerly being told she is "lucky' by doctors who only focus on her ability to eventually walk again and not her permanent catheter, her (implied) ostomy bag, her sex life, or that trauma is never "lucky." This is an experience countless sick and disabled people have dealt with with doctors, self included. This character is not portrayed as a victim nor is she portrayed as inspirational, which are often the only fates for those with disabilities. She's a disabled person being human with advantages and struggles. Other stories often also include excretory functions and other fun stuff we often ignore in injury and violence because we are too squeamish or afraid. Yet, disruption of these functions is common in illness, injury, and/or disability and often requires outside help and support from both technologies and human beings. Basically, Hurley has a realistic take on what it likes to be sick and/or disabled that is likely formed by her own experiences.
Another theme in many stories is that of gender nonconformity, transgender experiences, and straight up cross-gender body swapping. Again, Hurley goes at these themes in a way that separates her from others who either make the story all about the person's gender or who tokenize trans and GNC characters for points with no understanding of gender dynamics. Hurley's portrayal of these characters and societies is unique and fantastical while still holding on to the here and now enough that we can recognize them. LGBTQ and polyamorous women of many kinds are a common theme in Hurley's books and stories. This was present across most of the stories in the book. But, the creative ways Hurley explored multiple genders via futuristic or parallel words and multiple stories about body swapping was more present in this book.
There are a couple of stories that may excite those who have read and enjoyed "The Stars are Legion" and "The Light Brigade." (Possibly others, but I have not read all of her books yet.) They include inspiration for the books or events that predated the narratives in the novels. There are familiar themes of technology combining with flesh in ways that are different from the usually human or android representations. There are themes of colonization and oppression that capture the horrific realities via the medium of fiction. There are repeated occurrences of nonhuman animals used as a vehicle for oppression via the description of their commonplace mistreatment as an excuse for mistreatment of marginalized humans. Hurley manages all of these things in ways I have not experienced in other science fiction and/or fantasy that I have read. There are times when Hurley's messages are heavy handed, which can bother me, but for some reason does not when she does it. There are many other times where the themes and messages are woven intricately in complicated ways throughout the stories, creating the experience of the story as reality, even if it's in space, a parallel world, or a million years in the future.
If you like Hurley's work, you will likely enjoy this book. If you are unfamiliar with her work, I think this book could be good to dip your toes into it. Overall, it is a good representation of her styles and talent. "Meet Me in the Future: Stories" is due out in August of 2019 and is definitely a recommended read.
This was also posted to my blog.
August 12, 2019
Kameron Hurley is someone whose work I've been meaning to read for ages. I was going to buy The Stars are Legion after hearing it described at Nine Worlds a couple of years ago as "lesbians in space", which seemed very relevant to my interests, but then it turned out that it's no longer available as an ebook in the UK, so when I received a e-ARC of her new short story collection, Meet Me in the Future, via Netgalley, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to give her work a try.
There are sixteen stories in Meet Me in the Future, all set in far-distant futures. Some are clearly set on other planets, some in space, some might be on far-future Earth. Some of the futures feel like the future, with spaceships and imagined technology; some are futures which feel more like fantasy, set in more low-tech societies. The latter category includes two stories which I particularly liked, 'Elephants and Corpses' and 'The Fisherman and the Pig', which are about the same character, body mercenary Nev, who has the ability, at the moment of death, to transfer his conciousness into any corpse within range. Other favourites included 'When We Fall', an absolutely delightful love story about an orphan and a spaceship; 'The Sinners and the Sea', which is set in a society of floating islands above a drowned, dead world and reminded me rather of Le Guin; 'The Plague Givers', set in a world of steamy, plesiosaur-haunted swamps, with a wonderful too-old-for-this-shit middle-aged heroine racing against time to prevent the lover and enemy she defeated thirty years earlier from unleashing a plague that will destroy everyone in their world, with bonus multiple and fluid genders; 'Tumbledown', the story of a paraplegic woman racing across a frozen planet to try to deliver a vital serum to a plague-threatened community; and 'Warped Passages', which I gather from Hurley's introduction is a prequel of sorts to The Stars are Legion, set on a hige space fleet which has been trapped for three generations by an anomaly which holds their ships in place.
Hurley's writing vividly evokes the very different worlds her stories are set in; her characters are sympathetic and human and interesting. Some of the stories make for difficult reading; there's a lot of war and violence and destruction in them, and some body-horror which I struggled with ('The Corpse Archive' was almost too much for me), but they are often beautiful and generally hopeful stories, ending with the prospect of better things to come even where the futures they describe are darker. The collection is also delightfully diverse; there are lots of queer, trans and non-binary characters, women in traditionally 'male' roles such as soldiers and priests, and societies where women are privileged over men, and there are also explorations of disability and race issues through a science fictional lens. I liked this a lot, and will definitely be reading more of Hurley's work in future.
There are sixteen stories in Meet Me in the Future, all set in far-distant futures. Some are clearly set on other planets, some in space, some might be on far-future Earth. Some of the futures feel like the future, with spaceships and imagined technology; some are futures which feel more like fantasy, set in more low-tech societies. The latter category includes two stories which I particularly liked, 'Elephants and Corpses' and 'The Fisherman and the Pig', which are about the same character, body mercenary Nev, who has the ability, at the moment of death, to transfer his conciousness into any corpse within range. Other favourites included 'When We Fall', an absolutely delightful love story about an orphan and a spaceship; 'The Sinners and the Sea', which is set in a society of floating islands above a drowned, dead world and reminded me rather of Le Guin; 'The Plague Givers', set in a world of steamy, plesiosaur-haunted swamps, with a wonderful too-old-for-this-shit middle-aged heroine racing against time to prevent the lover and enemy she defeated thirty years earlier from unleashing a plague that will destroy everyone in their world, with bonus multiple and fluid genders; 'Tumbledown', the story of a paraplegic woman racing across a frozen planet to try to deliver a vital serum to a plague-threatened community; and 'Warped Passages', which I gather from Hurley's introduction is a prequel of sorts to The Stars are Legion, set on a hige space fleet which has been trapped for three generations by an anomaly which holds their ships in place.
Hurley's writing vividly evokes the very different worlds her stories are set in; her characters are sympathetic and human and interesting. Some of the stories make for difficult reading; there's a lot of war and violence and destruction in them, and some body-horror which I struggled with ('The Corpse Archive' was almost too much for me), but they are often beautiful and generally hopeful stories, ending with the prospect of better things to come even where the futures they describe are darker. The collection is also delightfully diverse; there are lots of queer, trans and non-binary characters, women in traditionally 'male' roles such as soldiers and priests, and societies where women are privileged over men, and there are also explorations of disability and race issues through a science fictional lens. I liked this a lot, and will definitely be reading more of Hurley's work in future.
November 20, 2019
A really interesting mix of stories here.
While I felt like the worldbuilding for a few of them was a little slippery, they almost always came around to an interesting and stunning point. The ideas fleshed out and explored here (like the story about the recurring war where, at the moment peace is signed, everyone who shed blood agrees to be put to death) are ones that need to be mulled over, something that sits in the back of your head that you take out like an uneasy fidget spinner on a sleepless night, or while waiting for the world to happen.
Hurley has a gift for vivid imagery, and I enjoy her brittle, hard-edged, messy, complicated characters a lot. And if she slides a little too far into the kind of obsessive body horror that is uncomfortable to read, it's never not without its point.
While I felt like the worldbuilding for a few of them was a little slippery, they almost always came around to an interesting and stunning point. The ideas fleshed out and explored here (like the story about the recurring war where, at the moment peace is signed, everyone who shed blood agrees to be put to death) are ones that need to be mulled over, something that sits in the back of your head that you take out like an uneasy fidget spinner on a sleepless night, or while waiting for the world to happen.
Hurley has a gift for vivid imagery, and I enjoy her brittle, hard-edged, messy, complicated characters a lot. And if she slides a little too far into the kind of obsessive body horror that is uncomfortable to read, it's never not without its point.
August 22, 2019
As I am a big fan of Kameron Hurley maybe this review is biased ;) but honestly the collection is both alarming and amazing at the same time. Everything contained in this collection is beautifully written. If I had to relate this to something I would say it's close to Karin Tidbeck's Jagganath collection. Eerie, delicate, and at the same time a bit violent in parts. Almost like a grotesque interpretive dance that you cannot drag your eyes away from.
Some of these stories are tiny little bursts of fiction, some are longer tales. Works well for not sitting down to read them all at once if you like that sort of thing. I read this from beginning to end in the order they were listed in, and found the layout to be satisfying. It was to experience the short version of The Light Brigade.
Some of these stories are tiny little bursts of fiction, some are longer tales. Works well for not sitting down to read them all at once if you like that sort of thing. I read this from beginning to end in the order they were listed in, and found the layout to be satisfying. It was to experience the short version of The Light Brigade.
February 7, 2024
Sorry, I don't want to meet you in this future. The stories were downbeat and depressing, and mostly seemed to be about war and suffering, those that made any sense. Most felt as if I'd picked up a book and read a chapter at random. There was no context. I couldn't even read one story, if that it what it was, it just appeared to be a jumbled collection of words which made no sense (Enyo-enyo). Maybe I'm missing something, because some other reviewers managed to get something from these stories. Unfortunately, I didn't find the secret key.
May 14, 2020
Det var intressant att ta del av 16 ganska komplexa noveller. Likaså var det en bra ingång till Kameron Hurleys sätt att skriva för mig. Ett detaljrikt språk genomsyrar novellerna. Relationen till kroppen är ett tema t ex i The Fisherman and the Pig som handlar om Nev som vandrar från kropp till kropp och på så sätt ändrar sitt yttre. Nev måste övertyga "The Pig" att han är en stark man i sig själv. Det finns en kort version av "The Light Brigade", i vilken personer kan färdas med ljusets hastighet, under ett krig. Jag förstår att Kameron Hurley har skrivit en roman med samma namn. Jag vill läsa mer av Kareron Hurley då något i mörkret, intensiteten och svärtan lockar mig.
April 13, 2021
Great science fiction usually tells a deeper more relatable story about present day. This book is good y’all. I don’t know much about Kameron Hurley, but this book of short stories is really a fresh voice in science fiction. It’s hard to describe what it is about, suffice to say- it’s far, far in the future. It’s topical, it’s imaginative, and it leaves you thinking about it after you’ve finished. I look forward to reading more of Kameron Hurley’s work. You should check this book out. It doesn’t disappoint.
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