A collection of science fiction shorts linked by the fact that they occur in the same dystopian future. I only read the first 60 pages or so and then retired the book. I simply thought the writing and ideas quite amateurish. There was a real lack of any intellectual heft (okay, fine, all food is made out of meat. But why? And what are the consequences of this?). I feel bad whenever I drop a book without finishing it but with Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days sitting on the shelf, promising a return to future India, I couldn't be doing with such second rate writing as Super Flat Times. ( )

http://12frogs.com/reading/reviews/2003/08/super-flat-times/ ( )