And Other Advice from The Day After Tomorrow
(a collection of short stories by Scott Edelman)
If you’re un-fond of shaggy dog stories, you can skip to the asterisks below. Sometimes the thing isn’t just about doing the thing. ^_^
When my wife asked me for my remaining cash and told me the title, I felt like I already knew what this book was about – and in a way, I was kinda right. Though we usually prefer the term “uploaded”, singularity enthusiasts (I lack a better term for our little “club”) will recognize instantly the tell-tale marks of transhumanist science fiction. She wanted a copy. I *had to have it*.
What I didn’t know was that this would start an adventure that led us to stalk the author like some kind of weird prey animal, only to then tag him and demand he return the favor.
The first time she’d tried to buy it, Alara only had plastic, and Scott – for whatever reason – could only accept cash. I can’t say whether that’s because he’s just old fashioned or not. By the time she collected me and my wallet, Scott was gone from the book signing table, and nobody knew where he’d wandered off to.
So, after hunting around in the dealer’s room and asking one of his publishers, we decided the best strategy was to ambush him at a book reading a couple hours later – only when we did so, now he didn’t have his books with him. Damnit!
I asked him if he could bring one down to the hotel bar a little later. And so, the hunter became the hunted.
So, I met my friend Typhoon Jim at the Watertable bar. He was sitting in the back having a conversation with a random stranger who turned out to be Gregory Amato, another author. Greg turned us on to Orconomics, which I didn’t know but Alara’d already read. Embarrassingly, I’d forgotten the name of The Daily Grind, but only remembered the plot is a dungeon crawler where the heroes are fighting office supplies. In any case, I agreed to buy Gregory’s book, Burden to Bear, and give it a try. (And, Greg, if you see this post, just a reminder that I’m still waiting for you to accept my friend request or send me an email to tell me who does your awesome cover art.)
The next time I met Scott, he finally had a copy of his book with him. I was leaning on the end of the bar, chatting with a Starfleet admiral. He had no difficulty finding me and my bright red fedora. I slipped 20 dollars out of my wallet like I was buying drugs on a Baltimore city street corner. It was actually pretty exciting – mission accomplished.
Afterwards, Alara sauntered up with a copy of Resistance still in her hand from earlier that evening – another collection with one of Scott’s stories in it. So, the three of us stood at the bar – Scott, Alara, and myself – and we talked for hours.
* * *
So, yeah, OK. About the actual book.
We went home for the evening and Alara read the whole thing within a couple of hours. She’s just like that.
Readers of my other book reviews may recall that I am a very slow and deliberate reader. I take in all the details and let things simmer, because I have to.
So, as of this writing, I’ve only finished one so far, 101 Things To Do Before You’re Downloaded, which is the eponymous first story in the collection.
To be honest, it is probably better that way. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you. But, you’re reading a book review, so you probably want to know at least a little bit about it.
At its heart, this is a story about experiencing a life that’s worth living, being content even if not satisfied — and ultimately coming to terms with age and mortality — as told through the lens of a post-human man, who grapples with his disconnection from social media, among throngs of others who are trying to check items off their bucket list before they check-out of the Earth hotel one last time.
The bucket list itself, the 101, a kind of travelogue really, is a long and interesting one. I’m no expert on how short a quote should be, but here’s an example that resonated with me specifically:
Have sex with a member of all three alien species known to have visited Earth in the order they were encountered.
Become what was once a man. Become what was once a woman. Try to imagine what it was like to have lived in a world of frozen gender.
It was at about this point in the story that I think I figured out at least one point it was trying to make.
If you happened to read my review of Lem’s Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, you may recall I said that it would have hit me very differently had I read it in my 20s:
In my younger years, I may not have easily made the connection about the search for identity and what it means, because I was often sure I understood at the time what life was all about. In middle-age, it [now] somehow felt totally obvious.
The same thing is true with 101 Things To Do – only in the opposite direction.
I’m standing here in the middle of my life, having lived a good bit of it already — with perhaps roughly as much yet to do that I probably still have left in front of me. Whereas, the 101 was compiled by someone who is standing at the far end of that road I haven’t fully walked yet.
And it’s true. Maybe I haven’t literally done everything on the list myself, but I can say “I’ve done a lot of these.” Even for a far-out sci-fi list, some of these hit me weirdly close to home. Sometimes it was the weirder ones, like above, that resonated the most.
In a way, the average reader may be left feeling a bit like the niece / nephew in the story. Maybe nobody will do the list the right way, but the 101 was worth compiling anyway – if only so you can better appreciate the one person who actually did it all, the right way.
Scott Edelman has a long career in science fiction. If you’ve never read anything he wrote before, this book would be a damned fine place to start. You can always work the list backwards. 😉
Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. I also claim with a straight face that the only things on Heinlein’s “Specialization is for Insects” list that I still need to practice with are Writing a Sonnet and Dying Gallantly. Regarding that last one, I can only say “By all means, but you first.”
As for myself, here’s hoping the rest of this collection is just as solid and engaging as the first, and that Scott will give us even more to chew on in the future.
(Update: Later the same day, I’m about halfway through it now. Make of that what you will.)
* * *
I couldn’t tell you where to buy it, since I bought it from him at the hotel bar, but here’s at least one non-Amazon listing I found: https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/101-Things-Before-Downloaded-Edelman-Scott/32380247557/bd
Want to know even more? Find Scott at a sci-fi literature con, or check out his website.
