Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, edited by David Brin and Stephen W. Potts

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(Near-Future SF) What happens when everyone can snoop on everyone else? (77,145 words; Time: 4h:17m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Elephant on Table, by Bruce Sterling

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(Near-Future SF) Tullio and Irma serve the eccentric, 104-year-old, Chief—the last prime minister of Italy—in his “Shadow House,” a place immune from surveillance. (7,930 words; Time: 26m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

Eminence, by Karl Schroeder

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(Near-Future SF) Nathan watches helplessly as the alternate currency he created collapses, taking down his friends and family with it. (6,499 words; Time: 21m)

Rating: ★★★★☆ Clever, Plausible, Fun

Recommended By: JStrahan

The Disconnected, by Ramez Naam

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(SF) The 22nd Century is a much better place, so why are you uncomfortable investigating things that seem to be illegally kept secret? (2,311 words; Time: 07m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Public Domain, by Scott Sigler

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(Near-Future SF) In a world where everything is recorded, Hoyt uses publicly-available online data to see if his girlfriend is cheating on him. (4,608 words; Time: 15m)

Rating: ★★★★☆ Powerful, Realistic, Thought-Provoking

Vectors, by Stephen Gaskell

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(Near-Future SF) Zoe’s young brother is dying of an undiagnosed genetic disease, and the only way to save him is to get illegal access to proprietary global databases that cross-reference DNA and disease. (6,608 words; Time: 22m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

Preferences, by Cat Rambo

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(Near-Future SF) Alanna and Howin take a cruise to forget their recent loss, but Alanna gets annoyed at the way the ship anticipates the things she wants. (1,800 words; Time: 06m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Street Life in the Emerald City, by Brenda Cooper

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(Near-Future SF) A group of homeless people get signed up to help test a new drone system that’s supposed to look after people. (5,172 words; Time: 17m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

AfterShift Memories, by David Ramirez

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(Medical SF) Dr. Bayani practices medicine in San Francisco, but the automation is making him feel useless. (3,634 words; Time: 12m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

First Presentation, by Aliette De Bodard

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(SF; Xuya) Thanh attends her ex’s “First Presentation,” where her child will be connected to their society’s network. (5,507 words; Time: 18m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

Your Lying Eyes, by Jack Mcdevitt

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(Near-Future SF) The narrator learns that a brilliant engineer has developed a consumer technology that will reveal when anyone is lying. Is it really a good thing to release this to the public? (2,630 words; Time: 08m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

FeastWar, by Vylar Kaftan

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(Near-Future SF) A group of online gamers who win points by eating the right foods come together to save the world from a bio weapon. (6,014 words; Time: 20m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Eyejacked, by David Walton

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(Near-Future SF) Patrick’s wife, Alicia, has become an online star, but the constant exposure of every detail of their lives is ruining their marriage. (4,649 words; Time: 15m)

Rating: ★★★★☆ Timely and Touching

The Werewolves of Maplewood, by James Morrow

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(Slipstream) To fight the tyranny of his small town’s olfactory-information processor, Mr. Winkleberg resorts to the lycanthropy he dabbled in as a youth. (5,550 words; Time: 18m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Planetbound, by Nancy Fulda

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(SF) You are the first space-bred human to try to walk on Earth since independence, and dealing with gravity turns out to be a lot harder than you’d expected. (3,580 words; Time: 11m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Mine, Yours, Ours, by Jack Skillingstead

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(Near-Future SF) Members of I.O.E can get replacement organs when they need them, but they have to be prepared to donate one when asked. Emily discovers she has a hard time doing that. (4,205 words; Time: 14m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

The Tell, by David Brin

Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft, 2015; ~11,600 words
Rating: 2, Not recommended  Recommended By:    SFEP

The narrator is a magician who helps debunk con men, but he gets involved in serious, high-tech efforts to uncover the truth and predict the future.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

The author has chosen to use this as a vehicle to voice his political opinions, rather than to tell a story. There is some amount of action but no actual plot, and 70% or more of the text is infodumps outlining a manifesto. Even if one agrees with most of the manifesto, it makes for a tedious read.

The Tumbledowns Of Cleopatra Abyss, by David Brin

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Jonah is a young man in a matriarchal human society hiding at the bottom of an ocean on a far-future Venus whose terraforming seems to be going wrong after thousands of years. (15,600 words; Time: 52m)

Rating: ★★★★★, Award-Worthy

Recommended By: LTilton