Make Shift

May 21, 2021
This new anthology presents stories by a range of sf authors that attempt to give a snapshot of the ""post-pandemic future."" While the stories vary in tone, setting, and, at times, historical plausibility, there are some general shared concerns common to all of the stories, primarily how societies come to be shaped to endure future pandemics. Some stories present radically different worlds, such as Ken Liu's ""Jaunt,"" which presents a history where telepresence robots have replaced the now-outlawed tourism industry, narrated mostly through primary documents and interviews. Other stories are more grounded in everyday life, like Cory Doctorow's ""Making Hay,"" in which two young people working on reclamation projects to resist climate change deal with their depression and anxiety, or Rich Larson's ""Koronaparty,"" where an aging gay widower expat in Prague goes through some emotional turmoil when he suspects there will be an unsafe gathering in his neighborhood. While the anthology is understandably a little uneven, there are enough strong entries to make this worth a look for anyone interested in near-future sf.

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