'Better Worlds' is a collection of 11 optimistic science fiction short stories that is billed as a science fiction project about hope, and is available to read for free on The Verge website.
As is the way with some anthologies I've read, I found the collection a bit hit and miss with their stories. There were more hits than misses though as I did enjoy the majority of them, in particular 'A Theory Of Flight' by Justina Ireland - a story about a daring plan to build an open-source rocket could help more people escape Earth; 'A Model Dog' by John Scalzi - about an overbearing CEO that demands that his employees engineer a solution to his dad’s aging dog; and 'Monsters Come Howling In Their Season' by Cadwell Turnbull - about an island commonwealth that integrates an AI to defend itself against a worsening hurricane season.
The stories, although set in the near future, really a modern and current feel to them, with their real world settings and world building giving you a sense that technology in the future can be a benefit and inspire hope for humankind, plus with LGBT and POC characters as some of the main players in the stories, 'Better Worlds' also shows that the future portrayed in this anthology is assuredly a diverse and sanguine one.
Overall, 'Better Worlds' is something a bit different and was a pleasant change to read Sci-Fi that takes a more optimistic view of technology in the future instead of the dystopia that sometimes seems to be the default for science fiction.
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