19; A Collection of Short Stories

A collection of six sci-fi stories, exploring worlds ranging from a near-future Floridian beach sinking into the ocean, to a far flung little farming town on a living planet, each with a brief afterword providing commentary on the origins of the story.

First in the collection is “Just Dig,” a quite short short story about asteroid miners, and second is “The War on Hormones,” a novelette following pharmaceutically asexual high schoolers through their senior year at a new performing arts school. “De.mocra.cy” explores gang violence in a democratically-run MMO, “Grumbles” introduces a foul-mouthed robot companion who argues with his owner about what childhood memorabilia to keep, and “Boom Town” tells the story of a family of spice farmers on a living planet, and the conflict that arises amongst them when a massive fuel reserve is discovered beneath their town. Closing out the anthology, “Calamcity,” another novelette, describes the push-and-pull of a beach realty company attempting to save a Floridian beach from total erosion, as sand is torn away as fast as it can be dredged up and replaced.