Submitted by Stephen Redding (Jul 29, 2009)

Bedford hits it right on the head with his review of METATropolis. I actually listened to the book in its incarnation as a free audiobook (I'll go for any book that's free!). Scalzi's introduction to the collection -- and his introductory remarks for each story -- really set the tone for this world creation collective effort. It's important to remember that METATropolis is a collection of linked stories, chock full of inter-referential situations and remarks. Buckell's story and Bear's are largely about the same situation looked at from two different angles, by two different protagonists. Scalzi explains that the method of initial group world creation among the authors, and then sharing of drafts in progress amongst themselves as they were writing created this linkage. So, in some ways, the interstitial nature of the project reflects and imitates the interstitial structure of the authors' world of connected city-states. I agree with Bedford that the weakest link was the first story, but would say that the concept of the city-state of Cascadia (almost an anti-city anarchist collective linking Vancouver to Portland through Seattle)was the most intriguing. I felt that it would have been more effectively dealt with by Kim Stanley Robinson, and was very reminiscent of his social structures. Unfortunately, Jay Lake kind of ran the story into a ditch, getting too caught up in the posturing of its hero, as opposed to really exercising the possibilities of the city. I would like to see more of Cascadia, but by other authors. Buckell had the most coherent story in the set. Mixing noir with environmental was a great touch. I didn't see the steampunk element, though. Bear's story was unsatisfying, in that it ended right when the action started getting good, and left huge room for a sequel with the same heroine. Scalzi was, well, Scalzi: a very competent and funny story with Asimovian elements of regular life in the stainless steel future, a la Caves of Steel. Schroeder's story was pure cyberpunk, really pumping the virtual reality handle, and suggesting the underpinnings of the entire linked-city structure of the set. The story was like one of those Russian nested dolls, shedding multiple skins to open out to new and surprising vistas in each new virtual world. The collection struck me as very up-to-the-minute, crossing concepts of sustainable community environmental with urban decay, and virtual interconnectedness with terrorism and age-old crime and larceny. A refreshing take on the future of cities that lands in neither side of the traditional urban wasteland/glass-and-steel paradise dichotomy that traditionally dictates how science fiction treats our urban landscape. In this it achieves the promise of its title, which Scalzi, in his introduction to METATropolis, explains as meaning "the city -- beyond".