Tomorrow Factory felt like such a catch when I got a review copy on Edelweiss. But then when I started reading it, it just failed to capture me. It’s written well, and the ideas are fresh and quite strong, but I guess in the end it just wasn’t for me. You’ll like it if you’re into the eerie and cold robotic future scifi though!
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★★★☆☆ 3 stars
Tomorrow Factory is a collection of short stories that are quite out of this world – set sometime in the somewhat far future, they all paint a desolate, cold, but very interesting world where some things are done by ones depraved, and some – merely by the ones incredibly bored. From the criminal who uploaded himself into a war machine to protect his daughter to the bioship who wanted to have its whole family within it – it’s all about consciousness seeking an outlet and expressing oneself. If you are a fan of dystopian and very inventive stories, you will enjoy this collection.
The Stories Have A Running Theme
A GIF of an animated face looking around a bleak city and melting in the rain
It was hard to pick out at first because the stories are so different from one another, but they do have a running theme. Having closed the last page of this book, you will see a very specific kind of world in front of your eyes, and it’s by showing all these different people that the author wanted to show you the diversity of this world, I think. The running theme is pretty dystopian, like I mentioned, and that’s why it was hard to read for me – it doesn’t shy away from gore or just the eerie/creepy, and it certainly doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Some of the stories will make you ponder the direction we’re clearly heading in. Most of them highlight some problem of society or humanity as a whole, like short stories commonly do, but some of them also celebrate the more positive traits of what it is being human. The only problem with that is that it’s usually not humans being… human.
Different Kinds of Consciousnesses
A GIF of robot hands built specifically for clapping, and they’re… clapping
Which brings me to the next point. There are so many different kinds of consciousnesses here – the construct who uploaded himself into an illegal robotic body and is trying to dream. The rebel who uploaded himself into a war robot to stay alive to protect someone he loved. The alien loner who helps humans lie to themselves about how desolate and destroyed their real world is. So many different creatures, so many goals, so many points of view. That is certainly one of the most interesting points of this collection.
Being Human Is The Connection
A GIF of mannequins making faces and looking scared sitting on a plane
While trying to locate the common ground of all these stories, I realized that mostly they are about AI or some other non-human consciousness, either attempting to become human, or having a hard time figuring themselves out – trying to learn to dream, trying to get a body, to experience illness or to integrate themselves with other humans, even if that means physically. It’s not the only theme of the stories, but it’s certainly a common one. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don’t. In a way, that made for an interesting analysis of what it is being human in general. Where does it begin and where does it stop? What makes the equation complete? What closes the circuit?
Where It Fell Short For Me
While the themes and the atmosphere were certainly interesting, and I can agree that it’s a wonderful debut, I feel like it’s not really for me. It was dark, brutal and I found my mind wandering at times. It felt long and I struggled through it. At times I felt like I’m not being engaged. Ultimately, that’s my usual problem with short stories, because for me, it’s the characters that drive a book, but even that said, the stories were too dark and too desolate. Another thing I didn’t quite understand is that there were a couple of ‘stories’ that were a paragraph long. I must be too simple to understand the point of that.
If you’re a fan of very futuristic or dystopian scifi, or even horror, then definitely read Tomorrow Fiction. But if you read scifi for the characters and a clean future, then Tomorrow Fiction is not for you.
Beware Of The Triggers
As I mentioned before, there is a lot of gore and possibly some horror elements to this book. You will naturally find violence too. It wouldn’t be enjoyable for sensitive or young readers.
Other Books You Might Like
Tomorrow Fiction was incredibly similar to Central Station! (Funny in a way, cause I also didn’t enjoy that one a whole lot, for the same reasons.) So if Central Station was your jam, you will definitely enjoy Tomorrow Fiction.
I thank Talos Press for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange to my honest opinion. Receiving the book for free does not affect my opinion. You can buy the book here at Book Depository and buying using this link supports the blog.
Do you read a lot of dystopian science fiction and have you read Tomorrow Fiction or Central Station?
I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.
I have seen some mixed reviews for this book, so I understand you reaction. However, I did enjoy Central Station so I may try it! Thanks for the review:-)
Oh, if you enjoyed Central Station, then I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this one too 🙂
Mmmmh too many triggers for me Evelina! I can understand why this was not for you. I hope your next read is a 5 stars!
Yep, exactly! Well, I’m actually in a bit of a slump and “currently reading” more than ten books – so I guess the bright side of that is that AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE should be a five star read xD
Bah. I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you, Evelina! I love picking up short story collections, but they almost always end up a 3 star read for me. I expected, starting out your review, that it would be for similar reasons as my own. Nope! I often find the stories aren’t well connected enough, or the writing style and characterization is just so different between stories I can’t love them all. This feels totally different. Were you expecting the blood and gore? Yeah. Not for me. This is the biggest risk for me with Sci-Fi! Sometimes it’s perfect. Most… Read more »
Yeah, somehow most short story collections also fail to make me fall in love with them. Don’t know why! Maybe cause they’re just… I don’t know. For me, it’s always about the characters, and you have to lose the characters when you’re reading short stories. And often, short stories are also just so cold and weird xD
Nah, if I had known about the blood and gore, perhaps I wouldn’t have grabbed it 😀 I’m not a blood and gore person!
Anthologies are tricky. I like getting a chance to try different authors style and writing but if it is a novella related to a series it can be tough if you have not read the series. Also novella length sometimes is not enough to fully develop the characters or concept or to let them have any growth which is one of my favorite things in books – when a character grows, learns and develops. This subject matter is interesting; I’m just not sure it can be done well in shorter works? Anne – Books of My Heart
Agreed! It can be done though – I have read at least one (probably more) novellas which feel like a full-length book, and I just don’t know how? They were so good. Magic, I guess? Haha 😀
I think I saw you post a picture of this on Instagram and it immediately caught my attention because it sounds exactly like something I would enjoy (and also super relevant to my research aha)
As much as I like dark stories. not too sure about this collection. I sure love that cover though. And great review, Evelina!
Yes, it was the cover that drew me in 😀 thank you!
I’m sorry this wasn’t a better read for you. I think all of the areas you struggled with would be problematic for me as well so I’ll probably skip this one. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it though.