Entanglements

Starred review from June 29, 2020
Hugo Award–winning editor Williams collects 12 stories that dissolve the distance between humans and technology in this outstanding addition to the Twelve Tomorrows anthology series (after Twelve Tomorrows), which focuses on the relationships of the future. Technological advancements are compassionately juxtaposed with human frailties in Nick Wolven’s bighearted “Sparklybits,” in which the only stay-at-home mother of a multi-mom family must make a decision about their virus-infected smarthome. Chinese author Xia Jia’s fiercely ethical “The Monk of Lingyin Temple,” translated by Ken Liu, introduces a nanotech designed “so that people can, through the medium of the cloud, experience one another’s suffering.” Rich Larson’s wrenching “Echo the Echo” explores grief through neural upload technology. Balancing out this philosophical fare are more plot-oriented genre works such as Annalee Newitz’s “The Monogamy Hormone,” about a love triangle resolved through polyamory, and Suzanne Palmer’s “Don’t Mind Me,” in which parents implant content filters into their children’s brains. Pairing scientific precision with emotional insight, this accessible anthology makes a powerful case for featured author Nancy Kress’s assertion that “stories are made out of and for people.” Readers will be captivated.