A prolific and dexterous author of both novels and shorter narratives, T. C. Boyle has won awards for literary excellence, nature writing, and, with the title piece of his ninth collection, been included among The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy writers. These twelve stories give us a future rich with revolutionary technologies and rife with environmental challenges, but one also featuring conflicted characters who face many of the existential pitfalls familiar to us today. Thanks to The Relive Box (Ecco, $25.99), a father and daughter can re-watch a happy past while ignoring their crumbling, isolated present. In another piece an epic California drought brings an affluent neighborhood a deluge of greed and desperation, while for a couple considering a genetically designed child, their ambitions lead to the dilemma of keeping up with the Jones’s DNA. The stories, whether dark or light, reveal how we continually look to the marvels of new science to soothe the constant human ache.