Brave New Worlds Dystopian Stories Author:John Joseph Adams (Editor) You are being watched. Your every movement is being tracked, your every word recorded. Your spouse may be an informer, your children may be listening at your door, your best friend may be a member of the secret police. You are alone among thousands, among great crowds of the brainwashed, the well-behaved, the loyal. Productivity has never been h... more »igher, the media blares, and the army is ever triumphant. One wrong move, one slip-up, and you may find yourself disappeared -- swallowed up by a monstrous bureaucracy, vanished into a shadowy labyrinth of interrogation chambers, show trials, and secret prisons from which no one ever escapes. Welcome to the world of the dystopia, a world of government and society gone horribly, nightmarishly wrong. What happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life? From 1984 to The Handmaid's Tale, from Children of Men to Bioshock, the dystopian imagination has been a vital and gripping cautionary force. Brave New Worlds collects the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today's most visionary writers. When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state. Will you fight the system, or be ground to dust beneath the boot of tyranny?
Contents:
Introduction (Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories) (2010) • essay by John Joseph Adams
The Lottery (1948) / shortstory by Shirley Jackson
Red Card (2007) / shortstory by S. L. Gilbow
Ten with a Flag (2006) / shortstory by Joseph Paul Haines
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973) / shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account (2008) / shortstory by M. Rickert
The Funeral (1972) / novelette by Kate Wilhelm
O Happy Day! (1985) / novelette by Geoff Ryman
Pervert (2004) / shortstory by Charles Coleman Finlay
From Homogenous to Honey (2006) / shortstory by Neil Gaiman and Bryan Talbot
Billennium (1961) / shortstory by J. G. Ballard
Amaryllis (2010) / shortstory by Carrie Vaughn
Pop Squad (2006) / novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
Auspicious Eggs (2000) / novelette by James Morrow
Peter Skilling (2004) / shortstory by Alexander C. Irvine [as by Alex Irvine]
The Pedestrian (1951) / shortstory by Ray Bradbury
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away (2008) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
The Pearl Diver (2006) / shortstory by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Dead Space for the Unexpected (1994) / shortstory by Geoff Ryman
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (1965) / shortstory by Harlan Ellison
Is This Your Day to Join the Revolution? (2009) / shortstory by Genevieve Valentine
Independence Day (2010) / shortfiction by Sarah Langan
The Lunatics (1988) / novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
Sacrament (2011) / shortstory by Matt Williamson
The Minority Report (1956) / novelette by Philip K. Dick
Just Do It (2006) / shortstory by Heather Lindsley
Harrison Bergeron (1961) / shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Caught in the Organ Draft (1972) / shortstory by Robert Silverberg
Geriatric Ward (2008) / shortstory by Orson Scott Card
Arties Aren't Stupid (2008) / shortstory by Jeremiah Tolbert
Jordan's Waterhammer (1999) / shortstory by Joe Mastroianni
Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs (2003) / novelette by Adam-Troy Castro
Resistance (2008) / shortstory by Tobias S. Buckell
Civilization (2007) / shortstory by Vylar Kaftan
For Further Reading (Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories) (2010) • essay by Ross E. Lockhart.