Have you ever heard about one book, or brand that you never had the chance to read or try, but you knew it was simply legendary? Or heard about an author, got curious and then out of the blue you see their your in your local store and just gasp in surprise and delight? Well, this was our reaction when we got this book.

If you are a scifi lover, you probably have heard of the legendary anthology: “Writers of the Future”, and yeap, you bet this is the latest review of the latest edition (39th) of this piece of art. A dream come true? You bet!

This massive anthology, features stories and illustrations from different authors and artists and I must say, the first impression you get is that this anthology is nothing short of wicked. Here’s why I say this, although yes, the illustrations are vivid, inviting full of colour and vibrancy from the different illustrators, the stories selling points or blurbs will want to to start flipping pages and running through the stories ASAP, as soon as you finish giving off a good laugh after you read some of them. This is a gem!

The first story, Kitsune, is interesting and starts building up fairly quickly, presenting both a mixture of nonchalant-style narrative with sarcastic humour, and a growing layer of mystery in two directions, the foxes and the disappearances. The rawness of some passages will make you say an inner wow, like this one:

” Except that I have to cut my life down into small, manageable chunks until I don’t see anything like meaning, not anymore. So every time my mother tells me she’s proud of me, something inside me dies a little more, blackens at the edges, withers”

This is the kind of writing that you as a reader will remember.
Still in the story of Kitsune, one thing that grabs you is the mother-daughter relationship and the little details of it, like how the mother is always trying to support her child, and the daughter, now grown, is not receiving it very well due to the lacks that she sees in herself. It’s interesting and very relatable, and if you like foxes, then this story will have you gripped!

Although Kitsune is a captivating and mysterious story, and I understand where it is coming from, there is a tone of dismiss for the male characters, or the concept of men, that may feel a bit… off, and male readers may feel bad reading it, yet it takes little of the quality of the story.

The second story has an inviting start. A city vampire, strolling around. Hahahhaha who would have thought about this? Hahahahah, and to add to that, a freaking dragon with a chihuahua that transforms, in reverse? Love it!!! Hahahahahah. This is so cool and original! Ah!

And what if The Grim Reaper became human? Hahahhaahahh, oh my. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not overeaching here when I say that this story will make you tear from laughing. Imagine Death itself experiencing life and having to adapt itself to a busy city for a day, hahahahaahah and the author puts lots of funny situations and reactions that at times you are not expecting, hahaha. This is delightful! BRILLIANT, just a brilliant story, that spins around death, the horrors of taxi cabs, defecation and taxes, hahahahahahahahaha. Brilliant!!

Under my cypress, however, is a story that touches on what’s real and what’s not, in a future, hyper digitalized world, a cyberpunk story that will leave you thinking and doubting about your concepts of reality.

Besides the stories, there is one “extra” detail about this anthology that will make you laugh and enjoy it even more. The introduction of the writers and illustrators. Brilliant stuff, and sometimes, they are better than the story, very well done.

Now, there are a LOT of great stories, with legendary writers, and with many themes, and if you love space and space travel, ( mixed with diplomatic tenis ball aliens, and rainbow planets where captains get lost for decades and have to be rescued by a reporter with no previous spaceship or space travel experience… ) well, you are in for a DELICOUS treat! These stories are amazing!!! And if you are a writer, you want to pay attention to the story of “Circulate”, great advice there.

One thing that makes you go: “What?!” in scifi, is when authors show us, just how big and unreal space and the solar system is, with maths! Like this:

” Think about it this way. If the Sun was the size of my fist—about five centimeters across—Jupiter would be only a tenth of that and about thirty meters away, okay?” Ten seconds later, the other woman nodded. She had undoubtedly heard such comparisons before. “Well, using that same scale, Pluto would be over two hundred meters away and the outer reaches of the Oort cloud would be almost ten kilometers farther than that. We’re talking about one and a half light-years. That’s almost halfway to Alpha Centauri. To get here in less than two centuries means they’re traveling at almost one percent the speed of light. That’s amazingly fast.” Especially when you took into consideration their ship was the size of a small moon and damaged to boot.”

This anthology is amazing. No other word can describe it. It’s surprising at every turn, with amateur space pirates trying to steal the ship of a newly apointed pilot (but they don’t know that the ship is armed with humour, doughnuts, and a frozen salmon), where scenes like this hit you in the face with: “ Time for the mother of all emergency overrides, the one used only in moments of absolute extremis, like being boarded or pulled into a black hole. Or being driven out of my mind by a freaking alarm. Control could sue me later. If there was a later. The override was a hardwired red button covered by a plastic tip top. Some smartass had scrawled “End-of-the-World Switch. Do Not Touch!” on it in permanent marker. “, writing advices and sharing of methods of better performance and going back to aliens and dragons, plus unemotional people that see the potential of Venus in a space deal. Wow, what an experience. Amazing, amazing, amazing! If scifi is not your style, after you read this, it will be. If it is, you already know what to do, grab your copy now.

Pros:

• EXCELLENT stories all the way
• Writing advices
• Each story is unique. Seriously. These aren’t your averages “once upon a time” stories. Brilliant selection
• All of the stories are worth the read. Some are much better than the others, but all stories are worth your time.
• Many of them will make you laugh out loud
• Stories get deep into the facts, calculations and scientific stuff.

Cons:
None

Cover score: 9.0/10

Book score: 9.2/10

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