TITLE: 2020 Visions
PUBLISHER: M-Brane Press
RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2010
PAGES: 284

ISBN: ISBN-10: 0983170908 / ISBN-13: 978-0983170907
PRICE: $13.95 (PB)

The concept behind 2020 Visions is to portray Earth in the immediate future. Sixteen authors have been chosen to answer the question ‘Where do you see the Earth in ten years?’ and the answers are a mixed bag of short stories and novelettes. The uniting theme, however, is that the future won’t bring anything good with itself. Lethal diets, programmed drugs, invasion of privacy, torture, isolation, dysfunctional families, droughts and post-apocalyptic worlds.

Yes, some of the stories have a grain of hope in their outcome, but the anthology is soaked in an all-permeating pessimistic mood, which in the end leaves a bitter taste. Even the fun stories imply some horrific consequences and results developing off-stage. Along with this tiresome dystopian outlook, 2020 Visions left me conflicted in my opinion. The stories range acutely in originality and quality.

One third suffered from lack of originality as they tackled obvious issues: overpopulation in “Birthright” by Mary Robinette Kowal, climate change in “The Persistence of the Butterflies” by Sheila Finch and “A Shelter for Living Things” by Randy Henderson, sentient machines in “The Revelation of Thought” by David Lee Summer along with the end of civilization as we know it in “Dead Rookies” by Jack Mangan. Although I don’t dispute that all these futures are realistic, I want to underline that these concepts are easily imagined and accessible. To me the authors played it safe with ideas, which have been ever present in science fiction as a genre.

I grouped these stories together based on the fact that I failed to establish any connection with the characters. I didn’t care whether the young couple in “Birthright” sold their right or not. I didn’t care for the scientist’s fate in “The Persistence of the Butterflies.” This tendency goes for all the rest. I’m not sure whether the predictability of the worldbuilding killed the stories for me or whether it was the writing, but nothing happened.

Another third peaked my interest, but at the same time had flaws that I could not overlook. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ernest Hogan’s “Radiation is Groovy, Kill the Pigs.” The story followed an insane pacing, an insane plot and mixed aliens, AIs, radioactive marijuana, more than creepy androids, luchador masks and humanoid marijuana plants. Just to name a few. It crossed boundaries, went down the rabbit hole and provoked an emotional reaction. I enjoyed an insane Earth, but most of the time I had no clue about the logic behind events. While I did accept the story for what it was, the pauses to figure the rabid changes in events diminished the otherwise enjoyable experience.

With “Nervewrecking” by Alex Wilson I couldn’t fully enjoy the story, because the character had a disconnected nervous system. The narrator is always on neutral, which is the purpose of the story [finely executed at that], but I think one that requires an acquired taste. I admit that the sex toy accident is hilarious, but since the narrator is senseless there is an intentional disconnection between the character and the reader.

It’s the character again that ruined the irony in Cat Rambo’s “Therapy Buddha,” in which the voice activated Buddha statue shapes the narrator’s decisions. Rambo underlines how people interact more with technology than between each other, but the point is lost with the faceless cubicle worker she portrays. Maybe that’s her angle. Regardless, I couldn’t care less about the man and his midlife crisis at the workplace.

Gareth L. Powell’s “The Bigger The Star, The Faster It Burns” possesses a strong magnetic pull. It’s enigmatic and mysterious, because it develops on two levels as stated in the story’s foreword. I have to praise Powell’s ability to imitate the inertia of life, the sort of ‘there-is-nothing-here-to-piece-as-plot’ storytelling, which accumulates to some hidden meaning. I did not figure what this story is really about [though when I do I feel that I will think about it differently as well] and at face value it’s just not that grabbing, but with a rather bizarre end.

The last third, now this is where the gold is. I was impressed to see how technology bypassed death in the unlikeliest place, the world of gaming, in Jeff Spock’s “teh afterl1fe.” Then I had to laugh out loud at all the funny moments in Alethea Kontis’ “Pocket Full of Posey”, a story with so much humor, soul and high school drama. Jason S. Ridler’s “Showing Light” wowed me with re-imagined wrestlers and family drama. David Boop’s “Organ Cloning While You Wait” won me over with its creepy incest happy end in an Earth, where everyone is a reality TV star.

Emily Devenport’s “If the Sun’s at Five O’Clock, It Must be Yellow Daisies” smote me. It’s a brilliant examination of the human soul in relation to one’s self-perception, relation to food and weight. In this Earth, scientists genetically engineered wasps’ larvae to grow inside the bodies of humans and feed on the fat as part of a brand new diet. The story follows Bonnie, an overweight woman, who loves herself just as she is, but is forced to lose weight or else face unemployment. I can’t fathom how Devenport managed to layer worldbuilding, develop a full character and examine the human psyche in such thoroughness.

The other story is Spencer Ellsworth’s “The Black Plague of Our Generation,” which impresses on an emotional level rather on a speculative. It’s one of the longer stories in the anthology, but worth reading. Ellsworth has a knack for dysfunctional relationships that make the reader choke. The story is pretty straight forward. Discover who killed the inventor of the first drug that effectively treats depression. But as the clues come, one after another old wounds open and bleed. I held my breath through the whole ordeal hoping that Brad would make it whole after the whole ordeal. Brilliant.

This is 2020 Visions. When it shines, it’s brilliant and mind blowing. When it doesn’t, it’s as mediocre as it can get.