Welcome to Dystopia: 45 Visions of What Lies Ahead

Ah, there’s nothing like a good dystopia. They imagine how the world could go to hell, then set likable characters loose inside that pessimistic sandbox. That formula has created an army of iconic protagonists, loathsome villains, and worlds that inspire horror…especially when they seem more likely, given current events.

Instead of focusing on one possible dark future, Welcome to Dystopia is a dystopian machine gun, firing off dozens of shorter glimpses of thoroughly unpleasant variations on the world to come. Identity politics, gender politics, environment, the media…all get their time in the sun here. Plus there’s a robot dog!

But there’s a definite theme here, which could be a selling point or a hindrance, depending on your personal beliefs. All but a few of the stories contained in this collection concern either US immigration or the many horrors that could spiral out of a Trump administration run amok. As such, it’s both funnier than expected and less fun to consider than other dystopian scenarios. As someone wiser than me once said, it’s harder to enjoy and appreciate dystopian fiction when you’re living in it.

Welcome to Dystopia feels very current, but I wonder how it will age four or eight or twenty years from now.