L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XXIV by Algis Budrys

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XXIV Reviews

• 
  Barbara

  Some stories I really loved ("Taking a Mile" by J. Kathleen Cheney, "Hangar Queen" by Patrick Lundrigan, and "Cruciger" by Erin Cashier were my favorites), some left me disappointed or indifferent, and the rest fell somewhere in between. Overall, I enjoyed more of the stories than not, so worth a read.
• 
  Jared Millet

  I've noticed these Writers of the Future volumes in bookstores for years, but I never actually read one until I started entering the contest myself. (That pretty much sums up the market for short fiction: like poetry, it's only read by those who want to write it.) Anyway, given that these are all previously unpublished writers (at least in the pro markets) the stories here are fairly outstanding - better overall quality than the average issue of Analog or Asimov's.
  
  My faves in this volume:
  "Bitter Dreams" - a Gunslinger-style take on the Australian Outback,
  "Hangar Queen" - an old-school Artificial Intelligence/space battle story,
  "Circuit" - in which a subversive book is the main character, and
  "The Girl Who Whispered Beauty" - a story that's practically a Brian Froud painting come to life.
• 
  Kim

  Of all the stories in this book-- most of which I found very good-- my favorites were Taking a Mile and Epiphany.
• 
  Corinne

  So far only read:
  
  ~~ Cruciger by Erin Cashier - 3.5*
  
  That was an ambitious short story and a difficult start for me. I'm not the strongest SF reader so I had to restart it a couple times. I'm not sure I followed it completely nor understood the big picture that was trying to be conveyed but I did enjoy my time listening to the story.
  
  Earth's people are dying and instead of wasting time trying to find out who caused the plague, they build an AI and put all their memories and knowledge into it. They taught it to think for itself. They "froze" some people to be woken on parts of the AI's journey to a location to create a new earth. There are eggs and sperm frozen to restart humanity at some point. When the AI is traveling with all the human knowledge, it gains some humanity and some empathy. When the location for New Earth is found the AI is at first dissecting and discarding the squid-like inhabitants but then thoughts on religion and a God's responsibilities and how it effected the demise of the humans on Earth are considered. These things are taken into account when dealing with the squid-like inhabitants and for creating the new Earth. Learning to understand and interact with the squid guys takes up a big part of the story and was how the AI learned to apply empathy.
  
  The podcast host's commentary was interesting and raised the idea of some who want something done "by any means necessary". That doesn't always have to be a bad thing.
  
  I really liked Erin Cashier's The Alchemist's Feather (2009) so I hung in through the rough start of the above story, hoping I would start enjoying it. I did.
• 
  T. Gilbert

  I like reading short stories because they fit better in my daily schedule. I picked this up and read every story, enjoying most of them. I felt each of the authors were very imaginative. I thought the best story was Circuit and found it emotionally moving. I also thought Bitter Dreams, Cruciger, and Simulacrum's Children were exceptional. This is a wonderful contest to have for new and old writers who are striving to make it professionally. I will be reading more volumes.
• 
  Scott

  I'm not usually a big short story reader, but I wanted to see what sorts of things are getting people published today. There are a few nice pieces in this book (I especially liked "Epiphany" and "Simulacrum's Children"), but mostly I was underwhelmed. It seems like the Writers of the Future judges are looking more for something edgy and unique than they are simply a good sci-fi or fantasy story.
• 
  Lancelot Schaubert

  This volume has as many golden nuggets as turds. I would recommend these stories:
  
  Bitter Dreams
  Snakes and Ladders
  Circuit
  & Cruciger
  
  Cruciger specifically deals with A.I., linguistics, and culture preservation in a way I've yet to see another story duplicate. I can see why it took first in its quarter.
• 
  Tony

  Of the two Writers of the Future audiobooks (Vol. 23 & Vol. 24), I enjoyed this one the most. A diverse collection of well crafted tales. Absolutely the best of the upcoming authors. Hard to nail down my favorites in the collection since there were so many good ones, and that makes for a good read.
• 
  Anthony Patten

  A thoroughly entertaining collection! Fans of robots especially should pick this one up.
• 
  Bruce Deming

  I thought this volume excellent in variety, quality of writing, entertainment and unique ideas. It was a new satisfying adventure in imagination.
• 
  Dan Bischoff

  Some really good stories, some OK. All in all, very entertaining.
• 
  Josehf Lloyd

  Great book I like to return to it from time to time