#FutureLand

[reasoningdaily]

Futureland - Walter Mosley

Futureland - Walter Mosley

Projecting a near-future United States in which justice is blind in at least one eye and the ranks of the disenchanted have swollen to dangerous levels, Mosely offers nine interconnected stories whose characters appear and reappear in each others' lives. For all its denizens, from technocrats to terrorists, celebs to crooks, "Futureland" is an all-American nightmare just waiting to happen.

Nine interconnected short stories capture the high-tech world of the United States in the near future, capturing the lives and fates of such characters as Ptolemy Bent, a child genius whose merciful actions land him in a privatized prison, and Fera Jones, a heavyweight boxing champ who abandons the ring for a political career. 75,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Futureland is bestselling mystery author Walter Mosley's first science fiction book since Blue Light, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Futureland's nine linked stories will provide an accessible and intelligent introduction to written science fiction for mystery or mainstream fiction fans who do not normally read the genre.

Experienced science fiction readers, however, may be less than satisfied with Futureland. Reading it, you might decide Mr. Mosley grew up reading SF, respects the genre, and still watches SF movies, but has read little SF written during or after the New Wave of the 1960s. However, something more may be going on here than a genre newcomer making beginning-SF-writer mistakes. Mr. Mosley may be deliberately, and craftily, creating SF accessible to his large non-SF readership and to others who are strangers to this genre.

Some have labeled Futureland cyberpunk, and it does present a dark, infotech-saturated, corporation-controlled future; but it is in fact an inversion of cyberpunk. Instead of that subgenre's cliche of cool, cutting-edge, street-smart, but not very believable outlaws who out-hack and outwit powerful multinational corporations, this Dante-esque collection presents outlaws and outcasts who may be street-wise, but who have little chance of overcoming the corporations and governments that control, and sometimes take, their lives. Like shockingly few other SF works, Futureland directly examines the lives of the working and the nonworking classes, the poor and the marginalized, the criminal and the criminalized. In other words, Futureland is set in a world quite alien to many veteran SF readers, and is therefore a book they should try. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

After the qualified success of his first science fiction novel, Blue Light (1998), Mosley (best known for such mystery fiction as the Easy Rawlins series) returns with nine linked short stories set in a grim, cyberpunkish near-future. Unfortunately, heavy-handed plotting and unconvincing extrapolation weaken the collection's earnest social message. "Whispers in the Dark" introduces prodigy Ptolemy Bent, who will grow to be the smartest man in the world in spite of his poverty-ridden childhood. Ptolemy reappears in "Doctor Kismet" as an adviser to assassins trying to kill the richest, most corrupt man in the world and as the brains behind a series of global plots to overthrow the status quo in "En Masse" and "The Nig in Me." Champion boxer and much-hyped female role model Fera Jones steps away from the ring to take hands-on responsibility for the influence she wields in "The Greatest." With its easily befuddled talking computer justice system, "Little Brother" is more Star Trek than high-tech cyberpunk. In more familiar territory for Mosley, PI Folio Johnson investigates a series of murders linked to Doctor Kismet in "The Electric Eye." Although packaged as SF, this book is likely to disappoint readers of that genre who've already seen Mosley's themes of racial and economic rebellion more convincingly handled by authors like Octavia Butler. Mystery fans, on the other hand, are far more likely to embrace this latest example of Mosley's SF vision, with its comfortably familiar noirish tone and characters, than they did Blue Light. (Nov. 12)Forecast: With a five-city author tour and national print advertising, both mainstream and genre, this title book should be slated for solid sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Mosley's first foray into writing science fiction since Blue Light (LJ 10/1/98), these interrelated stories, set in the near future, read as a natural but chilling extension of our present. From child genius Ptolemy Bent, sentenced to prison for euthanizing his grandmother and uncle, to female boxer Fera, who becomes a feminist icon for the 21st century, his characters battle for both personal survival and a chance to turn back the clock. In this futuristic world, privacy is little but a memory and prejudice and suspicion still sour race relations. Mosley's reputation as the best-selling author of the Easy Rawlins mysteries may entice a number of his regular readers to pick up this book, where they will find some of the same bleak outlook, flashes of insight, and true-to-life African American characters. An additional audience will come from iPublish.com, where the first two stories were previously published as e-books. Recommended for all public libraries. - Rachel Singer Gordon, Franklin Park P.L., IL Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Mystery star Mosley tries his hand at science fiction again, to better effect than in the novel Blue Light (1998). For these nine interconnected stories, he conjures a mid-twenty-first-century world in which one company is the most powerful force in the world and political correctness is the law. The only significant revolutionaries are black, and blacks and whites are still highly antagonistic. All Mosley's good guys are black, including the smartest man in the world, imprisoned for assisting the deaths of his ailing grandmother and uncle; the world's heavyweight boxing champ--a six-foot-nine-inch woman who goes into politics after KO'ing the male heavyweight champ in less than a minute of round one; a private dick who solves cases with the help of a greatly enhanced artificial eye; and a regular-joe worker who becomes the reader's eyewitness to the dawn of a new world when a backfiring biological weapon kills everyone who isn't at least 12.5 percent black. Lest that last bit of business seem too black-triumphalist, the worker-hero quickly discovers that intraspecies predation hasn't vanished. Ably slinging the technobabble to explain the odd wonder-gadget in his tales, and greasing them with plenty of "oh-baby" sex, Mosley creates sf in which Shaft and Superfly would feel at home. Can ya dig it? Ray Olson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Walter Mosley is the author of the New York Times bestselling Easy Rawlins novels. He lives in New York City.

[laboitediabolique]

Promotional poster for Ozanari Dungeon: Kaze no Tou Original Soundtrack, Futureland Records, 1991

[jumpstartfactoftheday]

The FutureLand location in the JumpStart MMO was stated to be home to "The Secret Society of Dr. Brain". This "Dr. Brain" character actually originated from a series of games that began in 1992. The JumpStart company (then known as Knowledge Adventure) released multiple Dr. Brain games during the 90s, and would later revive the character around 2010 for a new game, The Adventures of Dr. Brain, and for the debut of FutureLand in the MMO.

[jumpstartpicoftheday]

Concept art for FutureLand's Sea Lab, which was shared to official JumpStart social media accounts.

[iseetheworldinmetaphor]

OH-KAY DIALOGUE.

Futureland, Walter Mosley

[the-sweets-addict]

[mermaidinthecity]

I wanna talk to my future ghost when I'm in the cosmic compost. I wanna find out what I'm gonna miss the most so the rest of my time here ain't wasted. Oh, I wanna do so many future things, but I'm scared of what tomorrow brings. I wanna jump ahead, but I don't dare 'cause what if there's nothing there?

Futureland by Grace Potter

[readingwithwrin]

Futureland: Battle for the Park by H.D. Hunter | ARC Book Review

Title: Futureland: Battle for the Park Author: H.D. Hunter Publisher: Random House Children Published Date: November 8th, 2022 Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Mystery, Science Fiction Source: Netgalley & Publisher Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Goodreads Summary: When an extraordinary flying theme park arrives above Atlanta, one boy must stop a sinister force from stealing the park’s tech and taking…

[the-worlds-between-pages]

Futureland Battle for the Park by: H.D. Hunter

Futureland Battle for the Park by: H.D. Hunter

5 stars, 5 stars, 5 stars! This book was amazing, a joy to read and I could not put it down. And I’m grown. Futureland Battle for the Park follows Cameron or Cam-Cam as his mom calls him. Right off the bat I loved this because he doesn’t get embarrassed by his mom ‘s nickname for him! There was no “ew mom, stop it. I’m grow up, that’s not my name.” yada yada. Nope, he actually liked it. He…

[booksteacupandreviews]

Futureland: Battle for the Park by H.D. Hunter, Khadijah Khatib (Illustrator) - STEM based middle grade sci-fi

#Futureland is adventurous, imaginative, and action-packed STEM based #middlegrade #scifi with amazing concept and setting 4.5 ⭐ thanks to @PRHGlobal for free ARC. #Bookreview #bookTwitter

Futureland: Battle for the Park is adventurous, imaginative, and action-packed STEM based middle grade sci-fi with amazing concept and setting. Futureland: Battle for the Park by H.D. Hunter, Khadijah Khatib (Illustrator) Publication Date : November 8, 2022 Publisher : Random House Books for Young ReadersRead Date : December 10, 2022 Genre : Middle Grade / Sci-fi Pages : 320 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating:…

[captain-gillian]

how is it already wednesday thursday? happy wip wednesday from down in futureland and thanks for the tags @lemonlyman-dotcom @paperstorm @nisbanisba @eclectic-sassycoweyes & @carlos-in-glasses here’s more of my newest marjan focused wip

“So you’re leaving us, Cap?” This certainly wasn’t what she expected when she’d been called in. It was pretty obvious Judd would replace him, so why was he calling her in to tell her? Was she being promoted to full time lieutenant perhaps? Her mind runs through all the possibilities. Was he calling everyone in one by one? Is she hearing first because it’s her old house or because he wants her to come down to Miami with him?

Captain Strand lets out a small laugh. “Oh, no. I turned them down. Austin is my home now. TK is so happy here, and I have so much lost time to make up for with him.”

“Oh.”

“But, I did tell them I knew just the person for the job.” There’s a look in his eye that she can’t quite interpret.

“Who?” she asks, hoping he wouldn’t be sending Billy Tyson to rebuild her old house.

“You.” Captain Strand says simply, sitting back and watching her eyes widen with shock. Her mind is spinning; she’s always dreamed of being a captain, but not like this. She’d always pictured it being something she did in 10, maybe 15 years from now, married, with kids. But she’d also been picturing her future back then with Salim. So clearly, things have changed. Did she even hear right? Maybe this is a dream, she wonders. She takes another sip of the smoothie, and the sourness of the goji berries confirms that she’s very much awake.

“Me?” Marjan says, “But I’m not a captain, cap.”

open tag & zero pressure tagging

@nancys-braids @pelorsdyke @carlos-tk @rmd-writes @welcometololaland

@sugdenlovesdingle @literateowl @alrightbuckaroo @bonheur-cafe @reyesstrand

[laboitediabolique]

Promotional poster for Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos featuring Leina Stol, Futureland records, 1987

[am2fan]

Virtua Fighter 2 Dancing Shadows FUTURELAND - Toshiba EMI Ltd. (1995)

[pudding-parade]

OK, kids, I'm outta here.

In a little bit, we'll be heading off to Colorado Springs for a week. I'm bringing a laptop with me, so I may peek into Tumblr here and there when I have a bit of time, but I'll be mostly gone.

I have filled up my queue with Random Legacy posts, enough to last for the week with four posts per day, and there will be a world overview that will post on Wednesday (or Thursday, for the FutureLand folks.), but there won't be posts other than that from me this week.

When I get back, I'm going to yeet Origin from my life, so depending on how that goes, I might be away from Sims-posting for longer than that, but hopefully it will go well and I'll be back in action.

Have a great week, everyone! Don't do anything that I wouldn't do!

[iseetheworldinmetaphor]

Just read Whispers In the Dark by Walter Mosley.

A novella exploring power welling up inside underestimated people, following a 4 year old Mississippi boy named Popo, an uncannily brilliant child who connects up radios and fine-tunes them to discover something beyond anyone’s imagination in this cyberpunk, dystopian world. But this story is just as much about the people who love him and will do anything to protect him from the parasitic systems at large.

[amongussexgif]

for the shove sounds in my askbox thingy

BEEP BOOP BOO!!!

eurobeat, slut