
Forward
Stories of Tomorrow
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About this listen
2020 Audie Award Finalist for Best Short Stories/Collection Audiobook
For some, it’s the end of the world. For others, it’s just the beginning. With brilliant imagination, today’s most visionary writers point to the future in a collection curated by bestselling author Blake Crouch. These stories range from darkly comic to deeply chilling, but they all look forward. Featuring stories by Andy Weir, Amor Towles, Veronica Roth, N. K. Jemisin, Paul Tremblay, and Blake Crouch; with narration by Evan Rachel Wood, David Harbour, Jason Isaacs, Rosa Salazar, Steven Strait, and Janina Gavankar.
ARK, by Veronica Roth, read by Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld)
On the eve of Earth’s destruction, a young scientist discovers something too precious to lose, in a story of cataclysm and hope by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent trilogy.
It’s only two weeks before an asteroid turns home to dust. Though most of Earth has already been evacuated, it’s Samantha’s job to catalog plant samples for the survivors’ unknowable journey beyond. Preparing to stay behind and watch the world end, she makes a final human connection.
SUMMER FROST, by Blake Crouch, read by Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel)
A video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.
Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision - veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?
EMERGENCY SKIN, by N. K. Jemisin, read by Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery)
What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award-winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.
An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.
YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR DESTINATION, by Amor Towles, read by David Harbour (Stranger Things)
Nature or nurture? Neither. Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.
When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question the choices he has made in his life.
THE LAST CONVERSATION, by Paul Tremblay, read by Steven Strait (The Expanse)
What’s more frightening: Not knowing who you are? Or finding out? A Bram Stoker Award-winning author explores the answer in a chilling story about human consciousness.
Imagine you’ve woken up in an unfamiliar room with no memory of who you are, how you got there, or where you were before. All you have is the disconnected voice of an attentive caretaker. Dr. Kuhn is there to help you - physically, emotionally, and psychologically. She’ll make sure you reclaim your lost identity. Now answer one question: Are you sure you want to?
RANDOMIZE, by Andy Weir, read by Janina Gavankar (True Blood)
In the near future, if Vegas games are ingeniously scam-proof, then the heists have to be too, in this imaginative and whip-smart story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.
An IT whiz at the Babylon Casino is enlisted to upgrade security for the game of keno and its random-number generator. The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house.
©2019 Ark © 2019 by Veronica Roth. Summer Frost © 2019 by Blake Crouch. Emergency Skin © 2019 by N. K. Jemisin. You Have Arrived at Your Destination © 2019 by Amor Towles. The Last Conversation © 2019 by Paul Tremblay. Randomize © 2019 by Andy Weir. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Editor's Pick
This is exactly how I like my techno-anxiety
"While I've watched a few Black Mirror episodes over the years, I've generally found them to be too much to binge, and (confession) I have to have my husband test-watch them first to weigh in on whether or not he thinks they will keep me up at night worrying. I'm fascinated by these kinds of near sci-fi stories with dystopian themes, but I struggle to take them in on screen. So I'm LOVING the Forward Collection—it brings the vibe of Black Mirror, but it walks that perfect line that allows me to engage my inner nerd while keeping my inner stress-case at bay. Each story in this collection is served up by big name writer (I was so intrigued to hear the author of Gentleman in Moscow tackle this genre, and N.K. Jemisin, who tends more towards fantasy, may have written the smartest sci-fi story I’ve heard all year!). As a bonus, this collection is performed by an all-star cast including Jason Isaacs and Evan Rachel Wood among others. Happy bingeing!" —Emily C., Audible Editor
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Great short story!
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The Beast You Are
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Paul Tremblay has won widespread acclaim for illuminating the dark horrors of the mind in novels and stories that push the boundaries of storytelling itself. The fifteen pieces in this brilliant collection, The Beast You Are, are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart.
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Unfinished stories doesn’t equal short stories
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Run
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Five days ago, the epidemic of rage began. Four days ago, the rash of senseless murders swept the nation. Three days ago, the president addressed the country and begged for peace—even as the murders increased tenfold. Two days ago, the killers began to mobilize. One day ago, the power went out. And tonight, the killers are reading the names of those to be killed over the Emergency Broadcast System.
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Torture Porn
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At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep. But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways. The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade.
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Needs a better reader
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Eerie
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On a crisp autumn evening in 1980, seven-year-old Grant Moreton and his five-year-old sister Paige were nearly killed in a mysterious accident in the Cascade Mountains that left them orphans.It's been 30 years since that night. Grant is now a detective with the Seattle Police Department and long estranged from his sister. But his investigation into the bloody past of a high-class prostitute has led right to Paige's door, and what awaits inside is beyond his wildest imagining.
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Amazing!......Until
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By: Blake Crouch, and others
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In Bloom
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Journalist Heidi Cohen is in Cape Cod investigating the sources of recurring toxic algae blooms along the coast. A local named Jimmy has his own theory for her. Every year the fetid growth gets worse—but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows. Decades ago, something happened to Jimmy that he’s never forgotten. Is Heidi ready for the real story?
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Interesting short
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Paul Tremblay
What listeners say about Forward
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- John W
- 02-15-20
Very weird ride
So, I often don't like short story anthologies, and especially don't like reviewing them, because some of the stories are almost always significantly better than others (that's even true when they're all by a single author). I'm also more of a novel/novella reader than a short story reader, because I tend to feel like short stories are lacking something in their resolutions. With those two general caveats, here's my attempt to review this collection.
First off (and probably most important for an audiobook), the performances were great. Some of them were better than others, especially in terms of differentiating character voices, and I found some of the voices preferable to others for whatever reason, but none of their voices are grating on the nerves, and they all read well and at good paces (and reading properly is more important to me than doing good character voices).
But the stories are a mixed bag (3 stars is the average - hence that rating both for story and overall - I did not like some of them). In descending order:
"Ark" (the first) was good - it left me simultaneously satisfied and wanting more. I don't understand the hate it gets - people say it's boring, but the story is entirely about the characters and what it is to face the end of the world. It's not about the action. 5 stars!
"Randomize" (the last) was at least entertaining - I just felt like it was a bit underdeveloped and rushed and didn't really explore the implications of what it was dealing with. I was mostly, but not fully, satisfied, and definitely wanted more. 4.25 stars.
"Emergency Skin" (the third) was decent, especially considering how hard it is to do second-person present perspective (it's probably the best attempt at it I've ever seen), but it felt a bit preachy and also a bit underdeveloped (I now know NK Jemisin's political views, because one of the characters told us that's the way to an ideal society, but the proof of that was lacking), and it cut off at a weird point. I was not fully satisfied, but I may have been satisfied if there had been more. 3.5 stars.
"You Have Arrived at Your Destination" (the fourth) was okay for a while, but then it spun out of control and ended way too jarringly and on the wrong foot. Weird ending, wasn't satisfied, but I at least found myself wanting to see where things went beyond it. 3 stars.
"The Last Conversation" (the fifth) wasn't jarring, but it had the opposite problem - it was predictable. Attempted second-person present, but didn't do it as well as "Emergency Skin." And it was creepy. Creepy predictable and something lacking in the its ? Not a good mix, at least not for me. But it wasn't terrible. Because the conclusion was as expected, the story was at least done, but I did not find myself wanting anything more to do with it and kind of wished I hadn't spent the time. 2 stars.
"Summer Frost" (the second), well, it's a weird case. This is worth a kind-of spoiler warning - I'm not going to say how it ended, but I am going to describe how the ending felt. I thought I was going to like it. I initially thought it was striking a good balance between being predictable and being jarring. It was moody at times, but also optimistic. Then it ended. Jarringly, creepily, on a major downer. Presumably, it's meant to be a plot twist, but wrapping things up on such a big plot twist and tone shift left me saying, "Wait, what? What did I just listen to?" And it left some plot holes. Not satisfying, and I wanted my time back. 1 star.
I mention them in descending order of rating, and therefore put "Summer Frost" last, because my assessment of "Summer Frost" kind of sums up how I felt about the experience as a whole, and why my overall rating matches the story rating despite liking the readers so well. It was a jarring book on the whole - a weird ride, as I put it in my title. Lovely, poignant piece, followed by a "wait, what the heck did I just listen to?", followed by fun and overly optimistic, followed by odd piece that degenerates weirdly somewhere in the middle, followed by creepy but predictable, followed by some fun, but short, entertainment. Kind of felt like the order was intended, so as to give the listener emotional whiplash. So overall, the collection was okay, and some parts were even good, but I wanted about half of my 8 and a half hours back.
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78 people found this helpful
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- Jonah
- 01-09-20
Great Collection (especially Emergency Skin)
This collection has a few forgettable (though no bad) short stories. But Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin and You Have Arrived at Your Destibation by Amor Towels are well worth the price of admission. That said, there’s enough variety for all types of fans and the performances are all excellent.
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12 people found this helpful
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- CJ
- 10-28-19
Listen to this.....NOW!
As a relatively new fan of speculative fiction (but a devotee of N.K. Jemisin), I found these stories are wonderful, fantastic, brilliant, amazing, etc., etc., etc. Do yourself a favor and listen. Right now!
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6 people found this helpful
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- Marcus
- 05-12-20
A middling collection of stories
Collections are always a bit tough to review as, naturally, quality will change from one story to the next. For this collection though, I can honestly say that, for me, none of them really were anything to write home about. A couple were pretty good but with odd or mediocre endings, and one (Weir's I believe -- the last), was just plain boring. I'm not even sure why it was included here outside of a quantum computer being involved.
This was a freebie from Audible, so can't complain too much, but I definitely would have preferred spending 8 hours on something more rewarding.
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- Tayzar
- 03-21-20
Overall entertaining
An interesting collection. One or two gems. The remainder were entertaining and enjoyable enough for me to complete my listening. Each of the narrator's did a commendable job.
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- Ezaki
- 03-21-20
Perfect in Every Way
Imagine the perfect crime gone wrong. And then the logical solution. The last story does.
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- Neal S.
- 05-09-22
Decent sci-fi, given the talent, but not their best
Loved the glass half full, the others felt somewhat familiar territory and more predictable. I’d recommend reading full length novels from the authors.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-11-22
Strange mix, but good
Quite a few really good stories in there, along with some that are kinda meh. The standout for me is definitely Summer Frost.
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- DB Fwoopersong
- 07-26-22
Two stories really stand out!
N.K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is brilliant —and as read by Jason Isaacs even more a treat.
The other standout story was The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay. Poignant and especially interesting as it was published before the Covid Pandemic.
Both of these are full of delightful surprise.
Summer Frost by Blake Crouch also really grabbed my attention, though it’s themes reminded me of other stories, which I won’t give away here, but let’s just say Asimov might disagree with a few premises.
The weakest story was Amor Towles’ You Have Arrived at Your Destination, because it started out so strong and fascinating and then it went off the rails as the narrative completely changed and became confusing and bogged down in the main character’s thoughts. Too long!
The Andy Weir story, Randomize,would have been really interesting to me—if I understood the science more. Otherwise, if was reminiscent of fairy tales in which a clever character finds a loophole out of a tight situation.
The other story, Ark, by Veronica Roth was the most sentimental and had a genuine sweetness to it.
I think this collection is fairly well curated, though not all stories of equal quality.
The readers were all top notch. Particularly, Jason Issacs and his stunning humor!
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- D-bag Pete
- 01-25-23
Pretty “meh”
Couldn’t finish most of the stories due to sheer boredom. The last story is ok though.
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