Authors: Neil Gaiman, Ann Halam, Scott Westerfield and more.
Edited by: Jonathan Strahan
Published in April 2008, The Starry Rift is an anthology of short stories that spookily predict the conditions we find ourselves in today. Take ‘The Surfer’ by American author Kelly Link for example. Adorno ‘Dorn’ Yoder is kidnapped from soccer practice in his hometown in Philadelphia by his father, who drugs and smuggles him away to escape a flu pandemic that is taking over the world. They fly to Costa Rica, one of the few countries that’s safe, and in Link’s tale, a far superior nation to the United States. The story goes on to show Dorn and his father’s life in quarantine, interacting with fellow passengers, guarded by the military under strict government rules, coming to terms with the loss a pandemic brings and the slow realization that life will never be the same again. Link’s is but one of the many tales that eerily reflect current times and the stories also find a way to ground you into reality through science fiction tales of dystopian ‘what if’ tomorrows. As the editor of the anthology, Jonathan Strahan, writes in the Introduction, “The Starry Rift is not a collection of manifestos-but it is both entertainment and the sound of us talking to tomorrow.”