In the far future, four posthumans take a trip back to the place where the human race was born … and discover that Earth isn’t quite what they expected. My contribution to Peter Crowther’s anthology Forbidden Planets, published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the classic film of the same name, takes the position that our own planet might eventually turn out to be quite forbidden itself.
The title of this tale (and the story as well) tips a hat to one of my favorite Raymond Carver stories, “What We Walk About When We Talk About Love.” But I think it’s still a good title even for those who don’t catch the allusion.
Forbidden Planets published in November 2006, also includes stories by Matthew Hughes, Jay Lake, Paul McAuley, Alistair Reynolds, Paul Di Filippo, Stephen Baxter, Chris Roberson, Ian McDonald, Michael Moorcock, Alex Irvine, and Adam Roberts, plus an introduction by Ray Bradbury and an afterword by Baxter.
“What We Still Talk About” was reprinted in my SF collection titled … What We Still Talk About.