1. H.G. Wells – The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (1894)
Favorite line: He was a shy, lonely, rather ineffectual man, provided with just enough income to keep off the spur of necessity, and not enough nervous energy to make him seek any exacting employments. He might have collected stamps or coins, or translated Horace, or bound books, or invented new species of diatoms. But, as it happened, he grew orchids, and had one ambitious little hothouse.
2. Ursula K. Le Guin – Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971)
A group of scientists, including one misunderstood misanthropic empath, explore a planet populated only by plants. Some 70’s typical problematic characterizations, but still worth a read.
Favorite line: Nothing here ate anyone else. All life-forms were photosynthesizing or saprophagous, living off light or death, not off life. Plants, infinite plants[.]
3. Pat Murphy – His Vegetable Wife (1985)
A farmer, living on an alien planet, buys seed to plant a vegetable wife who he is convinced will feel no pain. Trigger Warning: Imagine if you condensed the gender-based violence typical of The Handmaid’s Tale (the book not the show) and Ex Machina into 5 short pages.
Favorite Line: She stood in the window, waiting for the sun. When it warmed the earth, she would plant the man, as she had seen him plant seeds. She would stand with her ankles in the mud and the wind in her hair and she would see what grew.
4. Nnedi Okorafor – Mother of Invention (2018)
Text | Audio: Part 1 & Part 2 [Levar Burton Reads]
Wonderful illustrations by Shyama Golden (illustrated entirely on the iPad)
Climate chaos unleashes a massive pollen storm of a GMO supergrass in Nigeria, leading a pregnant woman to form a deeper relationship with her smart home.
Favorite line: “Shit,” he said. “Why did I make these goddamn smart homes so smart?”
5. Tobias S. Buckell – The Machine That Would Rewild Humanity (2020)
Text and Audio [Escape Pod]
As I’m in the middle of reading Isabella Tree’s Wilding (2018) and learning more about Stewart Brand’s de-extinction desires, this piece about A.I. wishing to reintroduce humans after one or more mass-extinction events was an intriguing read. The story execution is less grim than one might imagine given the subject matter.
Favorite Line: I wrote a thesis about the Haitian Revolution’s impact on slave-owner’s fears and how that was mirrored in late 20th century science fiction.
Punk Tropicale 