Meet Me in the Future: Stories

Kameron Hurley has not so quietly become one of the major voices in speculative fiction. Her particular science fiction blends the natural with the unnatural creating an organic technology for her host of myriad near future and far future worlds. In Meet Me in the Future, Hurley gives us her first short story collection made up primarily of the stories she first offered up to fans through her Patreon account (a service allowing creatives to connect directly with fans to support their work).

As always, two themes dominate Hurley’s stories—war and the body. In each of the tales, we encounter individuals having to make deeply intimate and emotional choices whose immediacy always revolves around some existential threat to themselves as well as the world they are immersed in. Readers do more than sympathize with these characters; they are drawn into their inner lives in a profoundly empathetic manner coming to realize “There was no greater sin than touching a piece of a world that wasn’t yours.” Hurley makes us complicit in touching her worlds, the worlds of these characters, and such a transgressive framing makes each story feel urgent, timely, and utterly estranged. It is a delightful collection that will challenge and grip readers.