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Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction From The Cutting Edge edited by Lou Anders
01/03/2007 . Source: Tomas L. Martin 
pub: Pyr/Prometheus Books. 407 page enlarged paperback. Price: $15.00 (US). ISBN: 978-1-59102-486-6. Buy Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction From The Cutting Edge in the USA - or Buy Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction From The Cutting Edge in the UK  check out website: www.pyrsf.com www.pyrsf.com
Pyr is only a few years old as a publishing imprint but already creating a name for itself as an exciting place for good Science Fiction and fantasy, with authors like Justina Robson, Mike Resnick, Ian McDonald and Joel Shepherd all having excellent novels - see their US editions printed by editor Lou Anders.
Following the growing success of its novels, the imprint now releases its first short story collection, edited by Anders and featuring work by Stephen Baxter, Gene Wolfe, Ken MacLeod and Kage Baker among 21 contributors.
'Fast Forward 1' has the subtitle 'Future Fiction From The Cutting Edge' and it isn't an exaggeration. There are some excellent stories here. In his introduction, Anders mentions that he aspires to produce a similar collection to that of Damon Knight's prestigious 'Orbit' series that was so influential in its twenty-one volumes. This is heady competition to put onto a new publication but happily it isn't too difficult to see 'Fast Forward' becoming a similarly established name in original SF anthology history.
Highlights of this debut volume include Ian McDonald's 'Sanjeev And Robotwallah', a story set in a future India that also hosted his novel 'River Of Gods'. The story tells of a future war where one side's soldiers fight like computer game players and is stark and memorable storytelling.
Paulo Bacigalupi continues his promise as one of the most exciting new writers of short fiction with the brief but haunting 'Small Offerings'. Tony Ballantyne's humorous 'Aristotle OS' is a short story just as worthy but with a totally opposite mood. Elizabeth Bear and the team of Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress do their reputation no disservice, too, with some good stories.
Mary Turzillo's 'Pride', in which a young sabre-tooth cub clone is brought home by an animal rights campaigner has been receiving a lot of attention and for good reason. It is by turns delightful and chilling.
A. M. Dellamonica's 'Time Of The Snake' follows a war between aliens and humans. Some of the latter have defected to work for the aliens against their fellow men. It's a great little story with a really well worked ending.
There are a few stories in here that didn't work as well for me but there's a lot that did. In particular, the last two stories are sensational, especially Paul di Fillippo's deliciously original 'Wikiworld' in which the politics of the world has become as real-time editable as the online encyclopaedia from which the story's name originates.
Just as worthy and possibly my favourite story in the volume is John Meaney's 'Sideways From Now', which is also one of the longest stories, meandering between a near-future of quantum computing and a fantasy world that might not be as fantastical as it seems. The characterisation and plotting of Meaney's story really hang together well.
All in all, although there are a few weaker efforts, 'Fast Forward 1' has more than enough original and exciting new stories to make it important reading and worthy of more than a couple more editions to follow. Lou Anders has done a good job with this first volume and I hope he continues producing original anthologies if they are as good as this one.
Tomas L. Martin
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