Diverse Energies

By: Greg van Eekhout, Ken Liu, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, K. Tempest Bradford, Paolo Bacigalupi, Daniel H. Wilson, Ellen Oh, Cindy Pon, Rahul Kanakia, Tobias S. Buckell, Joe Monti

Narrated by: James Chen, Catherine Ho, Kurt Kanazawa, Neil Shah, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Jasmin Walker, Nick Walther

Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education

A collection of dystopian short stories featuring diverse main characters and by authors of color.

"No one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul." -President John F. Kennedy, from a speech at University of California, March 23, 1962

In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful. In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing cultures, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society's far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction. Includes stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Daniel H. Wilson, and more.

©2023 Tobias S. Buckell (P)2023 Recorded Books

Violent, depressing and not the best Le Guin

I push through the stories because I wanted to get to Le Guin and hope to find some gems on the way. I did find one which was a great tale of the Truman show variety and an interesting reflection on the consequences of utopian corporate behaviour. But a hyper violent bloody deli battle was just gratuitous. Le Guin was good as always but lacked the kind wisdom that I love about her more developed novels.
People are too easy to give lots of stars which leads some us dissatisfied.

I always like short stories because

I can flip through the short stories which were not so great. 1st half much better than 2nd half - v. imaginative and concisely written. (the only story I liked in the 2nd half was a woman scouting 'round and about on some messed-up planet) Overall, a great book to get.