Humanity 2.0

Enjoyable collection of short stories, most of them new to me.

Sometimes you can’t commit to an entire novel because you rarely have time to read, but if you are a sci-fi fan and just need a distraction from time to time, these thought-provoking, intelligently written short stories are fantastic!

Anthologies like this one are why I usually don't read anthologies. Not to say this book was bad, because it wasn't. Instead it was so good that I started liking and then loving the stories. When certain stories were over I was all, "NOOOOOOO!!! That can't be the end! I want more!!!" No joke, a few of these stories should have won major awards for thinking outside the box. I was sure this was going to be a book about upgrades to bodies and "wetware" and I wasn't disappointed, but these authors surprised me. Yes, there was some of that I expected, but that wasn't the gist of any of the stories. It was the people and situations that took my imagination and ran with it. I was very impressed. My favorite story was definitely "The Waves" - in which a storyteller has to make a choice, possibly to not belong to the human race again. Also, "An Endless Series of Doors" reminded me very much of some of Heinlein's work, such as "Tunnel in the Sky". "Picnic on Nearside" was disturbing for its intimations of adults having sex with children, but no less than, you guessed it, Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love" I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Worth it just for a brief return to Steel Beach and Jody Lynn Nye's look at mindjacking, cold sleep, and casual tech based telepathy.There is great variety to be had from the i initial story which reminded me of Asimov's Last Question to hive styled specialization in space to alien symbiosis causing neurogenesis and brain development in new fashions and even the consequences of a manifest destiny and desire for hegemony and homogeneity leading to the grinding of hamlet's mill when the wheel turns. I liked the idea of humans adapting to chlorophyll reminding me of Eon by Greg Bear.

I like the style of writing common in the old days of sci-fi that told the story in a linear fashion and with clarity, where I didn't need to use my imagination to figure out what might be going on but could use it with the new ideas presented and put myself in the story. This collection adheres to this style very well and I will definitely get another when it comes along.