Diverse Energies

Today's post is on Diverse Energies edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti. It is a short story collection of eleven stories; is 314 pages long including a preface, an afterword, and information about the authors, and is published by Tu Books. The cover has a city landscape in orange with the title and the author’s names in white. As that this is a short story collection the point of view changes from piece to piece, giving the reader a little bit of everything. The intended reader is young adult but some of the stories are really very good so any anyone over the age of about 15 should read and enjoy. There is some language, talk about sexuality, and alternative lifestyles. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

 
From the dust jacket- In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful.
In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing culture, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society’s far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction.

 
Review- This is an interesting and fun read. Like all short story collections I have read some of the stories fit perfectly and some do not but do not let that stop you. In my opinion the best story in this collection is Good Girl by Melinda Lo. But there are so many good stories in this one. All the stories handle the short format with ease and excellence. There is everything from a boy who the descendant of Odin to a girl who is out of step with time. There is a lot of dystopian in this collection but that is not surprising because dystopian is very hot right now. The dystopian is varied from story to story. In one because things are changing in time the world is falling apart in front of the main characters eyes. In another acid rain, over-population, and the 19^th Dalia Llama mix with a young boy just trying to eat. All the writing styles are different so the reader does not get bored with reading the same thing over and over again just with different authors.

 

I give this one Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.