National Civic Review, Number 3, Fall 2000 Wired for Civic Engagement Using New Technology t... Book

Going down the list by order...

* "The Wedding Album" by David Marusek - One of my favorite sci fi stories period. It's a singularity story of an AI created in the moment of a wedding photograph. I can't even begin to describe it but trust me when I say it's totally unlike anything you've ever read.

* "10^16 to 1" by James Patrick Kelly - Amazingly well done story taking place in the 1960s where a young boy is told he must change history. It's a lot of pressure for a kid to handle...sometimes children take on too much responsibility...

* "Winemaster" by Robert Reed - Didn't Eddie Murphy kind of steal the plot to this for "Meet Dave"? He did? Oh. Awkward.

* "Galactic North" by Alastair Reynolds - I love me some Reynolds and this is no exception. A truly epic, no holds barred space opera thriller.

* "Dapple: A Hwarhath Historical Romance" by Eleanor Arnason - ugh. Just. Ugh. Just skip this one. You'll thank me.

* "People Came From Earth" by Stephen Baxter - zzzzzzzzzz

* "Green Tea" by Richard Wadholm - Semi okay vengeance story but somewhat typical of its genre.

* "The Dragon of Pripyat" by Karl Schroeder - Meh.

* "Written in Blood" by Chris Lawson - Future Muslims doin their future Muslim thing. Not that interesting.

* "Hatching the Phoenix" by Frederik Pohl - Neat little story of humans spying on a species that used to be like us as they have their own Cold War and nuclear showdown. Pretty decent.

* "Suicide Coast" by M. John Harrison - Dark, depressing

* "Hunting Mother" by Sage Walker - very Darwinian story that takes survival of the fittest literally. I was not a fan of the ending.

* "Mount Olympus" by Ben Bova - zzzzzzzzzz

* "Border Guards" by Greg Egan - Not horrible but not really thrilling, either.

* "Scherzo with Tyrannosaur" by Michael Swanwick - Yay dinosaurs! Yay time travel!

* "A Hero of the Empire" by Robert Silverberg - alternate universe where Mohammad got killed off by the Roman Empire, which survived. Not really a point, but I think definitely conservative wank fodder.

* "How We Lost the Moon, A True Story by Frank W. Allen" by Paul J. McAuley - Meh.

* "Phallicide" by Charles Sheffield - Woman gets back at her ultra religious rapist Mormon relatives by making the men infertile. Kickass.

* "Daddy's World" by Walter Jon Williams - One of the most brilliant virtual reality or dystopia stories I've ever read. Hell is your parents trying to make you live in their universe.

* "A Martian Romance" by Kim Stanley Robinson - Semi okay.

* "The Sky-Green Blues" by Tanith Lee - Lyrical. Tanith Lee always writes lush, oddly beautiful stories.

* "Exchange Rate" by Hal Clement - boring

* "Everywhere" by Geoff Ryman - Awesome.

* "Hothouse Flowers" by Mike Resnick - Hitting us over the head with the moral of treating elderly people well. Satire dystopia, but good.

* "Evermore" by Sean Williams - Atmospheric, creepy, deserving of the Raven semi reference.

* "OF Scorned Women and Causal Loops" by Robert Grossbach - A great story of teleportation and irony.

* "Son Observe the Time" by Kage Baker - Kage Baker always rocks the house.