Through their discussion, I explored the mechanics of funding such an event, the harmfulness of the technology and the little things that operators can do to give the clients the experience they want. What follows is the operator’s changing stance on which simulations are allowed and the client’s pushback on the ridiculous things that can be simulated and yet their request to see their dead parent cannot. The protagonist in this story wants to see their mother and the operator’s probing questions reveal that she is dead. Before they can go into the simulation, however, they have to meet with the operator. The very first story in the collection, this one got me hooked! It alludes to a technology where a person can experience a simulation like it’s reality. Let’s take a look at what each of them was about and what I took away from them. Their range is quite versatile, covering a wide array of scenarios. Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is an evocative collection of twelve scifi short stories. Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century – Review of the stories Mesmerizing, electric, and wholly original, Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century blurs the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature.Ĭontent notes include domestic abuse, toxic relationship, death, suicidal thoughts, suicide, violence, child death, death of parent, body horror, sexual content. These visions of modern life wrestle with themes of death and technological consequence, guilt and sexuality, and unmask the contradictions that exist within all of us. Each story builds a new world all its own: a group of children steal a haunted doll a runaway bride encounters a sea monster a vendor sells toy boxes that seemingly control the passage of time an insomniac is seduced by the Sandman. In the twelve unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare.

Monsters of the 21st century