From Publishers Weekly
Taking a post-Internet, post-computerized world as its unifying theme, Anders's (The Making of Star Trek: First Contact) uneven anthology showcases 18 mostly male British authors (not all of whom will be familiar to U.S. readers), whose contributions range from disconnected, inconclusive pieces to delightful shaggy-dog stories. Most focus on sophisticated biological technologies, such as Charles Stross's provocative "Rogue Farm," about "multi-human beings" and Stephen Baxter's sad little tale about slave-drones and successive revolutions, "Conurbation 2473." Other established names include Michael Swanwick, David Brin, Rudy Rucker and S.M. Stirling. But the longest entry belongs to relatively obscure Brit John Meaney. In Meaney's entertaining novella, "The Swastika Bomb," bioform animals serve as tanks, airplanes, bombs and deadly viruses, against an alternative history of the Battle of Britain in which the Axis and the Allies race to develop a nucleic instead of a nuclear bomb. All the stories are competently written, but few leave a lasting impression.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
What would happen if the vastness of cyberspace was replaced by things surprising and strange?

Includes masters of speculative fiction:

Stephen Baxter, David Brin, Pat Cadigan, Paul Di Filippo, John Grant, David Hutchinson, Alex C. Irvine, Terry McGarry, John Meaney, Paul Melko, Mike Resnick & Kay Kenyon, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, Rudy Rucker, S.M. Stirling, Del Stone, Jr., Charles Stross, Matthew Sturges, and Michael Swanwick

Download Description
"Imagine a future without cyberspace...without virtual reality...without AIs and simulations...and without the Web. What would you do? What would you fear? What wouldn't you know?

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This anthology of stories from today's top masters of speculative fiction offers visions of futures near and far, glimpses of alternative histories, and dark journeys down roads not taken. What does await us at the end of a different tunnel? What would we find in dimensions where the seemingly inevitable vastness of cyberspace has been replaced by things both surprising and strange? The answers are in the startling and ingenious imaginations of the SF masters who dared to go there, to dream, to warn, and to fathom the alternatives. Welcome to science fiction unplugged and set free to be... Live Without A Net.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Taking a post-Internet, post-computerized world as its unifying theme, Anders's (The Making of Star Trek: First Contact) uneven anthology showcases 18 mostly male British authors (not all of whom will be familiar to U.S. readers), whose contributions range from disconnected, inconclusive pieces to delightful shaggy-dog stories. Most focus on sophisticated biological technologies, such as Charles Stross's provocative "Rogue Farm," about "multi-human beings" and Stephen Baxter's sad little tale about slave-drones and successive revolutions, "Conurbation 2473." Other established names include Michael Swanwick, David Brin, Rudy Rucker and S.M. Stirling. But the longest entry belongs to relatively obscure Brit John Meaney. In Meaney's entertaining novella, "The Swastika Bomb," bioform animals serve as tanks, airplanes, bombs and deadly viruses, against an alternative history of the Battle of Britain in which the Axis and the Allies race to develop a nucleic instead of a nuclear bomb. All the stories are competently written, but few leave a lasting impression. (July 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal