Twelve Tomorrows 2016

Maybe it’s all the classic scifi I’ve been reading, or maybe it’s just me, but the 2016 Twelve Tomorrows feels a bit weaker than the last installment. The crazy idea is still there (Bruce Sterling and MIT team up on near-future SF), but the stories aren’t up to the same caliber, and some of the invited amateurs fall flat entirely.

The themes this year are apps, children, violence, and the messy intersection of all of these things in the gamification of crime, education, commerce, whatever else you have. Charles Stross, Jo Lindsey Walton, and Ned Beauman deliver the standouts that’ll stick with me. Still worth it, but overall, I had a better time with the last issue of Clarkesworld.