 MetatropolisEdited by Jack Scalzi Rating on an arbitrary 5-point scale: 4 out of 5 |
Metatropolis is a science fiction anthology exploring, as it claims, the “future of cities”. That’s not strictly accurate. It’s really a collection of stories that explore the question: If we as a species are going to survive the mistakes of our forebears (particularly ecological mistakes), what will human society have to look like? It’s pretty clear that we won’t be able to ratchet up world living standards to the stereotypical 2.4 kids in the suburbs mid American ideal. Resources are too finite and indeed running out. If our profligate carbon society doesn’t right itself soon, if we face a Century of Judgment, then what will emerge from the drowned coasts and droughted interiors?
The five authors (Jack Scalzi, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, and Karl Schroeder) don’t really offer blueprints and white papers, of course. They offer five distinct tales, appropriately interdependent, that explore a possible future. This is a shared world on the model of Aspirin’s Thieves’ World, though not quite so sprawling or tightly woven. It is clear that the authors spent considerable time together thrashing out their shared world — though, in keeping with the theme, much of that might have been online and virtual.
So, does the book succeed?