Entanglements: Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and Friends

by James Patrick Kelly, Sheila Williams (Editor), Sheila Williams (Introduction), Mary Robinette Kowal, Nancy Kress

Overview

12 award-winning science fiction authors from around the world offer original tales of relationships in a future world of evolving technology.

For fans of anthologies like Soonish and Netflix's Black Mirror

In a future world dominated by the technological, people will still be entangled in relationships—in romances, friendships, and families. This volume in the Twelve Tomorrows series considers the effects that scientific and technological discoveries will have on the emotional bonds that hold us together.
 
The strange new worlds in these stories feature AI family therapy, floating fungitecture, and a futuristic love potion. Imagine genetic alterations to code for altruism, or digital avatars that can interface with other avatars on dating sites, running sample conversations to find appropriate matches, or artificial assistance animals.
 
Contributions include Xia Jia's novelette set in a Buddhist monastery, translated by the Hugo Award-winning writer Ken Liu; and a story by Nancy Kress, winner of 6 Hugos and 2 Nebulas. A full story list:
 
James Patrick Kelly, Your Boyfriend Experience
Mary Robinette Kowal, A Little Wisdom
Nancy Kress, Invisible People
Rich Larson, Echo the Echo
Sam J. Miller, The Nation of the Sick
Annalee Newitz, The Monogamy Hormone
Suzanne Palmer, Don't Mind Me
Cadwell Turnbull, Mediation
Nick Wolven, Sparklybits
Xia Jia, The Monk of Lingyin Temple, translated by Ken Liu    
 
Also includes an interview with Nancy Kress by Lisa Yaszek, and Tatiana Plakhova's beautiful "data abstract" illustrations serve as frontispiece to each of the stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262359337
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Series:	Twelve Tomorrows
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	75,611
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Sheila Williams is the multiple Hugo-award winning editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and the editor or coeditor of more than two dozen anthologies.

Tatiana Plakhova works as an art director, graphic designer, and illustrator. Her work can be found at complexitygraphics.com.

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, Ken is also the translator for Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, Hao Jingfang's "Folding Beijing," Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide.
http://kenliu.name Twitter: @kyliu99
https://www.facebook.com/authorkenliu

Read an Excerpt

AN ENTANGLEMENT IS A COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP. THIS IS TRUE WHETHER IT refers to a brother with a drug addition, a child genetically altered without her parents’ knowledge, friends getting together for their “weekly bad rosé night,” a casual hookup arranged by a personal avatar, or a particle whose quantum state can’t be described independently of one or more other particles even when those particles are very far apart. Science fiction explores the future, and it does that very well. The future can’t be explored without also considering the effects that scientific and technological discoveries will have on all the relationships that tie us to each other. Entanglements is the sixth volume in the Twelve Tomorrows series and the first to have a central unifying theme. The book’s ten fiction authors were asked to write tales about the emotional bonds that hold us together. They had a broad canvas. Their tales could be about families, friends, or lovers, but they all were asked to explore different ways in which these bonds would be affected by our ever-evolving knowledge of science and advances in technology. I’m sure the relationships of the future, be they romances, platonic friendships, or family ties, will be just as loving, messy, complex, affirming, disturbing, heartbreaking, all-embracing, and fulfilling as they are today. They will be affected by our changing world. Infrastructure changes brought on by our warming planet, scientific discoveries, and technical innovations will put new stress on the forces that entangle us with each other even as they relieve some of the issues that complicate life.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction Sheila Williams ix

1 Invisible People Nancy Kress 1

2 Profile: Nancy Kress Lisa Yaszek 25

3 Echo the Echo Rich Larson 35

4 Sparklybits Nick Wolven 51

5 A Little Wisdom Mary Robinette Kowal 75

6 Your Boyfriend Experience James Patrick Kelly 93

7 Mediation Cadwell Turnbull 123

8 The Nation of the Sick Sam J. Miller 135

9 Don't Mind Me Suzanne Palmer 151

10 The Monogamy Hormone Annalee Newitz 171

11 The Monk of Lingyin Temple Xia Jia (translated by Ken Liu) 185

Artwork: Tatiana Plakhova 215

Contributors 217

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/29/2020

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. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

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.”

—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

"The 10 very different thought experiments presented in this volume make for a fun ride, revealing that human relationships will continue to be as complicated and affirming in the future as they are today. I would recommend the Netflix approach to this highly readable collection: Binge it in one go, preferably with a friend."

—Science

"All told, Entanglements is a massively successful anthology, one which should put MIT Press on everyone's radar."

 —Lightspeed

"These books are always something to look forward to..."
  —Locus

From the Publisher