Given that it’s the dark, cold winter I’ve been driven down into the basement to exercise, either on the treadmill or doing some light free-weights. I picked on Metatropolis to prevent this from being a boring effort.

Metatropolis is a collection of stories edited by John Scalzi based on a future where cities and countries are in decline, with new social/economic structures taking their place. This is more than an anthology loosely based around a theme – the stories share this same world.

I’m currently half-way though the second story. This is the first audio book I’ve listened to. It takes a surprising amount of concentration to follow along. Fortunately, there’s not a lot of distraction as I plod along on my treadmill. So far the stories are very thought-provoking.

The themes seem particularly relevant to my field of software development, as the structures and business models are changing rapidly, leaving to me to wonder about my place in it. Old business models are dying, new ones are struggling. Countries don’t really matter. Physical locations don’t matter. The old business of making money be re-implementing the wheel over and over is gone. Solved problems are staying solved.

Both readers have been good. It’s kind of fun to have Col. Tigh read you a story (Michael Hogan). Metatropolis is also available for pre-order in print form if you want to do it the old-fashioned way.