The introduction alone, to this collection, has given me a lot to think on. There’s also an m/m romance story between a teenage boy and an AI who is also a cyberengineered super-intelligent rat! (In this story, same-sex relationships are accepted, but human/AI romantic relationships were the “the sort of thing that was whispered about, something that lived in the shadows.”)
The question of whether to stay on a planet that’s been destroyed by (white, wealthy) human activity is very different here than in a typical white space travel story. They assume a greater responsibility for protecting the Earth than I’m used to from a dystopia. These stories include a relationship with the land that isn’t common in science fiction stories. This collection is such a refreshing change of perspective. As I was reading Love after the End, I was reminded just how colonialist SFF often is as a genre, whether it’s about “conquering new worlds” and literally establishing colonies, or centring Medieval England in fantasy stories, or just holding up white, straight, cis, male protagonists as the heroes.
0 kommentar(er)
