Hadley Rille has put out some solid publications since its inception in 2005, and Destination: Future, edited by Z.S. Adani and Eric T. Reynolds,  is no exception.

The anthology starts out with a flurry of terrific stories, starting with Sara Genge’s “No Jub Jub Birds Tonight,” which manages to incorporate gentle Lewis Carroll references in a surprising tale that twists and turns, full of nifty concepts and cultural conventions. Genge packs so much into the story that you don’t know if she’ll manage to pull off the assemblage in the end, but she does it with applomb.

“No Jub Jub Birds Tonight” is a fabulous story of the friendship between an alien and human. It’s followed by “The Embians,” by K.D. Wentworth, in which a human romance is played out against a first contact story that is lyrical and immersive. Keeping the level of excellence high, Thoraiya Dyer’s “Ambassador” shifts in a cascade of meanings that lead up to a surprising, poignant and uncanny moment of alien and human interaction.  Caren Gussof’s “Games” also details alien and human interaction – as the narrator teaches her alien friend human games, the boundary and shape of their relationship is mapped out, beautifully and movingly.

My favorite story of the anthology is Katherine Sparrow’s “Alienation.” Sparrow’s prose sometimes reminds me of Emshwiller at her best, combining humor and emotion in language that unsettles and delights at the same time. “Alienation” is one of those moments. Most of the stories detail the intersection of alien and human, sometimes a beneficial partnership, other times not, as in Kenneth Mark Hoover’s horrifying “Rubber Monkeys,” which has some truly creepy concept. Erin E. Stocks’ “The Light Stones,” moves in fantasy-ish direction, slightly flavored with Vance or Leiber-like overtones. Like so many of the other stories, it delights and provokes thought.

There’s a shift to slighter, and sometime more stilted stories in the second half of the book, and I could have done without about half of the rest, sometimes inclined to tell rather than show. Many of the stories hold genuine pathos; others reach for it less successfully. Overall, though, the strength of its good stories make Destination: Future well worth picking up, and one of the stronger of recent anthologies.