You guys, I’m so excited to tell you about a new Kickstarter campaign that starts TODAY from one of my favorite small UK publishers, Unsung Stories. 2084 takes the classic Orwell novel 1984 and re-imagines it from today’s social and political viewpoint. 2084 is a collection of eleven original speculative fiction stories that take a peek into what the year 2084 might be like. Here’s more information about the anthology from the Unsung Stories press release:
As the events of 2017 reveal an ever more complex relationship between people and their governments, classic dystopian literature is proving its relevance once again. But as readers turn to classics, like Nineteen Eighty-Four, writers are also looking to our future, and what may lie there.
Unsung Stories have gathered eleven leading science fiction writers who have looked ahead to 2084, as Orwell did in 1948, for a new anthology – writers such as David Hutchinson, Christopher Priest, Lavie Tidhar, James Smythe, Jeff Noon and Anne Charnock, who are already famous for their visions of the near future.
Speaking about the anthology, George Sandison, Managing Editor at Unsung Stories, said, “We knew when we first started work on the anthology that the idea was timely, but the start of 2017 has really hammered home the importance of speculative fiction.
“Dystopian fiction gives us a space in which to explore today’s fears, and the nightmares of society. For many people the events of the last eighteen months have brought those dark futures much closer, so it’s inevitable that we turn to literature to help us understand why.
“The ideas at work in 2084 range from the familiar to the fantastic, but all are bound by a current and relevant sense of what we could lose, what’s at stake. As with Orwell’s work, decades from now, we will be looking back to our stories, to better understand today.”
2084 will be published by Unsung Stories in July 2017 and features leading writers, including Christopher Priest, David Hutchinson, Lavie Tidhar, James Smythe, Anne Charnock and Jeff Noon.
2084 has a mix of well-known and new-to-me writers, which I think is always a good thing. I’ve discovered new writers that I love by reading their work in anthologies, so I’m very excited to try out a couple of these authors that I’m unfamiliar with, as well as read more from some of my favorites.
Here is the complete list of authors who are featured in this collection:
- Desirina Boskovich
- Anne Charnock (author of Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind and A Calculated Life)
- Ian Hocking (author of Deja Vu)
- Dave Hutchinson (author of The Fractured Europe Sequence)
- Cassandra Khaw (author of Hammers on Bone and Rupert Wong: Cannibal Chef)
- Oliver Langmead (author of Dark Star and Metronome)
- Jeff Noon (author of Vurt, Automated Alice, Pollen and more)
- Christopher Priest (author of The Prestige, The Dream Archipelago, The Gradual and many more)
- James Smythe (author of The Australia Trilogy, The Echo, The Explorer and more)
- Lavie Tidhar (author of A Man Lies Dreaming, Osama and Central Station)
- Aliya Whiteley (author of The Beauty and The Arrival Of Missives)
Behold the beautiful cover designs! One is exclusive to the Kickstarter, and the other will be published by Unsung Stories at a later date. I think they’re both gorgeous:
About the book:
In 1948 Orwell saw a world in flux, at risk of losing liberty so recently won. In response he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, a prophetic book. Now, in 2017, the themes are still with us.
This anthology of new short stories draws together leading science fiction writers – famous for their visions of our near future – and asks them to look into our future, to the year 2084.
Put humanity on trial as the oceans rise. Slip over borders in a Balkanised Europe. Tread the bizarre streets of cities ruled by memes. See the world through the eyes of drones. Say goodbye to your body as humanity merges with technology.
Warnings or prophesies? The path to Paradise or destruction? Will we be proud of what we have achieved, in 2084?
Our future unfolds before us.
What a great time for this book. I’m really interested to see what the stories contain. I’ve never contributed to a Kickstarter campaign before but hey, there’s a first time for everything – especially given how relevant I think this topic is right now.
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I just backed it and wow, it’s going to be funded way before the deadline! Yay!