At the time I had received this I wasn't really into science fiction. I didn't finish the book entirely but revisited it a few years later and tried again when my love of scifi and cyberpunk genres grew. The ones I liked included Suicidal Tendencies, The Cookie Jar, Fearless, and Evaporation. Although there is a fair bit of dreary in a lot of these takes on the future, Smeds still manages to add nuggets of hope. ( )

I find it difficult to review collections of short stories in great detail, short of going through the contents one story at a time. For me, the basic measure of a collection is how much I enjoy reading it (simplistic, I know). By that standard, _Futures Far and Near_ fares quite well. Most of Smeds's stories are entertaining, easily digestible, and thought-provoking, and he doesn't really stray into any objectionable content. I might come back to this one again. ( )

This books is a really enjoyable collection of Science Fiction stories. The author writes an introduction to each story to place it in context with his other work and that adds an additional point of interest. The situations in the stories are creative and interesting.

A book that has, as its first sentence, "My daughter killed me Tuesday morning." simply has to be read. ( )

These short stories are more human than I expect of pure science fiction. I found myself caring about the characters in most of the stories, and enjoying the detailed descriptions of settings. The science was comprehensible to me, with my high school science education and outside reading in current media and discussions with friends about the current issues including ecology, world health, and global warming. I would read what this author writes in other genres. ( )

I enjoyed this collection, and a fair number of these stories stuck with me for some time after reading. While there was a fair bit of variation on themes and approaches, I felt like they worked well together in one book. The prose was strong and descriptive overall, and I didn't feel as though I was getting pseudo-scientific jargon thrown at me, which sometimes feels like the case with futuristic sci-fi.
I must confess I skipped a few of the introductions, because I felt like they ruined the flow of things for me, and gave entirely too much away. I'd have been happier hearing the author's thoughts after reading the story in question, rather than going in having such insider knowledge. Entirely a personal preference, I think. Another personal preference would have been a little less pessimism; technology has the potential to help us, and does help us, and I think it's important that the line sometimes be clearer that the problems arise from the characters, and not so much the futuristic technology with which they are imbued.
Overall, I enjoyed these, and will probably revisit a few of the stories.