A spectacular book. Not only for the stories, which are indeed hit and miss, which is to be expected from most anthologies, but for the project. Tony Smith and the District of Wonders set out to create something that would highlight the benefits that we reap from embracing diversity and this anthology is a testament to that. Some of the stories will challenge your worldview, some might make you uncomfortable, but you will leave enriched.

Again, this is not diversity just for diversity's sake, which seems to be a common point of contention with projects like these (or, say, quotas or affirmative action policies), but it really shows what we have to lose if we ignore what our world and the many different humans on it have to bring to the table. And if the stories don't make it clear, then the author interviews do.

Yes, some of the stories felt a little shallow and if I had rated each story individually and taken the arithmetic mean, it would've gotten maybe 3.5 stars. But make no mistake, there are some spectacular ones here. But the best thing is that this book has been able to do two things: 1. It has inspired me to actively seek out communities of writers that I never would've gotten to in any other way (mostly because of the authors' recommendations in their interviews), 2. it has validated my view that diversity is not only important because of moral considerations, but that it has real, concrete value that is hard to see if you haven't encountered it but hard to overlook once you have.

Highly recommended. ( )

A (reprint) anthology celebrating the diversity that exists in the world of speculative fiction. True to that spirit, the stories themselves - which are generally pretty good - also show a great diversity, covering many subgenres of sf and fantasy.

Individual story ratings:

* "Introduction by Dr. Amy H. Sturgis (-)
* "Mother's Love" by Dayo Ntwari (****)
* "The Blood That Pulses in the Veins of One" by JY Yang (**)
* "Where It Ends" by Swapna Kishore (***)
* "The Remaker" by Fábio Fernandes (****)
* "The Night Train" by Lavie Tidhar (*****)
* "The Dust Garden" by Ken Liu (***)
* "The Galaxy's Cube" by Jeremy Szal (****)
* "The Mummer's Tale" by Samuel R. Delany (**)
* "Falling Sky" (excerpt) by Rajan Khanna (****)
* "Defying Gravity and Other Daily Grievances" by Eve Shi (***)
* "Notes Toward a Performance: The Narrow Bridge, December 2001" by Vajra Chandrasekera (*)
* "Slipping Sideways" by Carmelo Rafala (***)
* "The Seed Keeper" by Yukimi Ogawa (***)
* "From Scotland with Love" poem by Hal Duncan (*)
* "A Sailor Girl Goes Ashore" by Margrét Helgadóttir (***)
* "The Last Tale of Ambrose Bierce" by Luis G. Abbadie (***)
* "Virus" by Jonathan Dotse (***)
* "Violation of the TrueNet Security Act" by Taiyo Fujii (***)
* "Candy Girl" by Chikodili Emelumadu (**)
* "The Battle of the Palm Trees" by Yasser Bahjatt (***) ( )