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Any thoughts on K. Tempest Bradford's challenge to read no straight white cis men for a year? 

 

I'd have to specify that as nothing by people who as far as I know could be straight white cis men. Sexuality and cis status aren't always covered in the author blurb. Even so, I'd have a ton to read. And honestly, if I didn't have to read books for school, I'd probably manage it without even thinking.

 

I checked this, because one of the side effects of living in a sexist society is that when a group is 50% women, women are seen to dominate. According to my shelf, of the last sixty books I read, not counting mandatory reading, 17 were by men, and one had male and female contributors. I don't know the sexual orientation or cis status of most of those men, and for many I don't know their race - but when I do know, they're white, cis and heterosexual.

 

To make this into a real challenge for me, I'd have to break it into segments. Say, 5 books by non-white men, 5 by trans men, 5 by non-binary trans people, 5 by non-heterosexual men, 5 by disabled people, 5 by non-white women. Because reading white non-heterosexual women would be completely within my comfort zone. 

Check out Scott Reads It! for giveaways, reviews & more!The problem with reviewing anthologies is that usually the stories are extremely inconsistent and uneven. Diverse Energies' stories range from excellent page turners to absolutely terrible stories that I could barely read. All of the stories feature people of diverse ethnicities, it was definitely nice to read about POCs for a change. My Favorites:Freshee's Frogurt by Daniel H. Wilson - This short story is actually an excerpt from Robopocalypse, a book that I've had on my "To-Read" list for a while. This story is in the form of an interview, "World War-Z" style, and it is 100% mindless fun. I definitely need to read Robopocalypse soon. Gods Of The Dimming Light by Greg Van Eekhout- This story was so unusual and original! I love how Norse mythology was incorporated into it and I'll definitely check out the author's novels. Good Girl by Malinda Lo - A strange story that reminded me of Enclave for some reason, but it still was pretty original. This story features an unconventional LGBT romance which was interesting to read. Not-So-Good Stories: A Pocket Full Of Dharma by Paolo Bacigalupi - I expected alot more from this short story considering how popular Shipbreaker is. This story was pretty generic and was nothing special. Solitude by Ursula K. Le Guin - This story was so uninteresting and I couldn't bear to read any more of it. I actually quit reading this story because I was so bored out of my mind.

This is a book of several YA dystopian short stories that aims for diversity. Much of YA, of speculative fiction and definitely dystopia is extremely white washed and made up entirely of straight people. GBLT people are, largely, dead and POC and women frequently take a back seat to the noble straight, male lead. It’s refreshing to see an anthology of short stories that focus on minorities.I’m going to sound all kinds of fluffy but I have to say I would have appreciated a happy ending or two. I know, it’s dystopia and all, but only a couple ended with what could be considered actual happy endings and I do so hate ending on a downer. Overall the book is gritty and dark and sad. But, at the same time, more realistic for it. These are not kids who manage to reach inside themselves and change the world, these aren’t kids who manage to heal all the wounds and these aren’t kids who change the system, lead the revolution and make the world a better place. They aren’t even kids who can escape from their conditions and live better lives – sometimes just surviving is an achievement in these worlds. Which is realistic but… well, grim. The Last Day by Ellen Oh, a story of World War 2 Japan, where Japan didn’t surrender after Nagasaki and Hiroshima – and more cities are wiped out is among the darkest you’ll ever read.And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of grim here and there, but it does have a different light on the escapism. I do think one of the best stories in this light is Gods of the Dimming Night by Greg van Eekhout where the protagonist refuses to leave his family and become a hero fighting in Ragnarok, instead choosing to bring his family money for power and food.My main complaint will always be that these are short stories. I’m not a lover of short stories – I feel that they really don’t have the chance to develop themselves. And I think that’s especially true of this book which has 11 stories crammed in there – that’s 11 with a foreward and afterward and it’s not a very long book. Some manage to elegant encompass the entire story in the short story format: Good Girl by Melinda Lo with a tragic love story in a dystopian world obsessed with racial purity. Pattern Recognition by Ken Liu, a story of a rich western corporation exploiting poor POC children to be used as computers. What Arms to Hold by Rajan Khanna is another beautifully tragic story of POC children being used as slaves in the mines, his escape rather than being used as a tool for the revolution. No, it doesn’t end with a resolve but, realistically, there is no good resolve that would come. It has a bittersweet closure of its own.While these really did well in the short story format, others handled it poorly and, I think, felt more like prologues for something greater. Blue Skies by Cindy Pon sets up a wonderful story where the Haves rule over the Wants and a Want boy kidnapping a Have girl to gain money to try and change society – it has vast potential that is only hinted at in the short story. Freshee’s Frogurt by Daniel H. Wilson was definitely the weakest story in the collection – was mercifully short and barely even established a prologue for a greater dystopia. Why tell the story of the first shots of a war which we never see? Similarly Next Door by Rahul Kanakia, a great story of an extreme class divide and one boy and his boyfriend trying to find their own home, felt like setting up for more. Especially since it appeared in the same book as Blue Skies, it felt like the relationship was introduced as an after-thought since it was brushed on so shallowly.While they aren’t prologues I also think Uncertainty Principle by K. Tempest Bradford spent a lot of time setting up an extremely complex world with a changing reality and time travel – and how this one girl can see how the time shifts and reality changes. It felt like it was a perfect set up of the world but after all that effort the story ends – it’s a difficult and mind bending concept to fit into a short story. A Pocket Full of Dharma by Paolo Bacigalupi also introduced a complicated world I wanted to see more of – the story itself was relatively self-contained (and bittersweet tragic) but the setting was worth a revisit.Read More

The Good

1. The characters.  The majority of the characters in this story were compelling, tragic, and well-developed. Their endings weren't always happy, but they did feel honest, and the way the characters accepted their fates was noble. (I'm a fan of unhappy endings anyway. They're more realistic.)
2. The plots. The stories themselves, while not always the most well-written, were interesting, intense, and suspenseful. The only story that was the absolute exception to this rule was the final one, which felt entirely too long and drawn out in my opinion.
3. The extrapolation. The stories were all based in the future and extrapolated on how future events might unfold in relation to events and technology that are developing today. I liked this aspect of the anthology because I felt like it made the stories feel more relevant.

The Bad

1. Hit and miss.  While there are a few really really fantastically written stories in this collection, there are some that just miss the mark. For this reason, I couldn't give the overall collection as high a rating as it might have deserved if some of the stories were removed.
2. The violence.  The violence in many of the stories was very graphic. While this wasn't a huge problem for me, it might be for some readers.