David Brin (blog) has written plenty of award-winning, and even good, science fiction so it was no surprise that he was selected as the honoree at New England Science Fiction Association’s 2003 Boskone convention. Each year, NESFA produces a limited edition book of short stories and essays by the Guest of Honor and so gave us Brin’s Tomorrow Happens (this month they’ll ship Giant Lizards from Another Star from Ken Macleod).
This slim volume is an eclectic mix of material, alternating short stories and essays, some of which you can read online if you like since it’s now out of print.
- Stones of Significance is probably my favorite tale, about a future where humanity and artificially intelligent computers have melded and descendents of groups like the NAACP and PETA are arguing for the rights to personhood of the day’s incredibly sophisticated fictional characters;
- my favorite essay is The Self-Preventing Prophecy, in which Brin considers why many (all?) the bad futures we have considered likely over the years didn’t come true;
- Aficionado is an extended play on words;
- the essay Probing the Near Future considers the trend of what many in the blogosphere now call citizen media or participatory journalism as it rolls into other areas of endeavor as well;
- We Hobbits are a Merry Folk is a very contrarian, immediately post-9/11 look at Lord of the Rings.
recommended
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