Futures - Four Novellas - Watching Trees Grow

Futures is part of an ongoing series of novella anthologies. Contributing to this volume are Peter Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Paul McAuley, and Ian McDonald. The stories are quintessential sf. Suspense they have aplenty, and action and space travel are givens. Conveying something about today's world as well as an alien future, "Tendeleo's Story," the most notable of the four, concerns Tendeleo's struggle to survive as the alien chaga takes over her world; it isn't lacking in thrills, but it's also a human story. "Making History" looks at an issue that obtains in our world, too: who writes history, and how do those writers arrive at their conclusions? Satisfying enough as sf, this quartet of tales lacks something if one is looking for pure literary pleasure.