Exploring the porous boundary between mainstream literary fiction and the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, this collection of short stories juxtaposes the conventional and the fabulist--with dazzling results. In Rikki Ducornet's "Lettuce," a petitioner in a futuristic totalitarian state pays with his life when he requests permission to grow lettuce; "Birthday of the World," by Ursula K. Le Guin, is narrated by a woman whose brother destroys their culture when he decides he wants to be God; and the disillusioned wife in Carol Schwalberg's "The Midnight Lover" finds the perfect marriage partner in her dreams, only to be divorced by the dream lover. Containing 50 works by genre writers Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Moorcock and noted literary authors Laird Hunt and Brian Evenson, this compilation expands the fiction subgenre that has been called "speculative" and "slipstream."
Exploring the porous boundary between mainstream literary fiction and the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, this collection of short stories juxtaposes the conventional and the fabulist--with dazzling results. In Rikki Ducornet's "Lettuce," a petitioner in a futuristic totalitarian state pays with his life when he requests permission to grow lettuce; "Birthday of the World," by Ursula K. Le Guin, is narrated by a woman whose brother destroys their culture when he decides he wants to be God; and the disillusioned wife in Carol Schwalberg's "The Midnight Lover" finds the perfect marriage partner in her dreams, only to be divorced by the dream lover. Containing 50 works by genre writers Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Moorcock and noted literary authors Laird Hunt and Brian Evenson, this compilation expands the fiction subgenre that has been called "speculative" and "slipstream."
RIKKI DUCORNET Introduction IRA SHER Lionflower Hedge LEENA KROHN The Son of Chimera ANGELA CARTER The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe KATE KASTEN Ever and Anon WILLIAM LUVAAS Lithia Park MICHAEL MOORCOCK The Third Jungle Book: A Mowgli Story MAUREEN N. MCLANE White Girl KIM STANLEY ROBINSON The Lucky Strike MARY MACKEY Third Initiation: A Gift from the Land of Dreams JANICE LAW Side Effects CAROLE ROSENTHAL The Concert Pianist's Flight STEPHEN SHUGART Making Faces JUSTIN COURTER The Town News CAROL SCHWALBERG The Midnight Lover TOM LA FARGE Night Reconnaissance SHELLEY JACKSON Short-Term Memorial Park PAUL PEKIN The Magnificent Carp of Hichi Street L. TIMMEL DUCHAMP The Tears of Niobe RIKKI DUCORNET Lettuce RANDALL SILVIS The Night of Love's Last Dance ALASDAIR GRAY Five Letters From an Eastern Empire ANNA TAMBOUR The Beginnings, Endings, and Middles Ball RUDY RUCKER The Jack Kerouac Disembodied School of Poetics IRA SHER Nobody's Home LEENA KROHN The Ice Cream Vendor KAREN HEULER Jubilee Dreams BRIAN EVENSON An Accounting K. BANNERMAN Armegedn, or The End of the Word BRADFORD MORROW Gardener of Heart LAURA MORIARTY Maryolatry KEVIN W. REARDON The Cloud Room NOELLE SICKELS The Tree TERRY GATES-GRIMWOOD Nobody Walks in London GLADYS SWAN The Tiger's Eye JUSTIN COURTER Skunk MICHAEL ANDRE-DRIUSSI Old Flames in New Bottles CHARLIE ANDERS Power Couple, or Love Never Sleeps RIKKI DUCORNET Who's There? JEFF VANDERMEER The Secret Paths of Rajan Khanna MERCEDES SANCHEZ Dream Catcher ROBIN CATON B, Longing LAIRD HUNT Three Tales LEENA KROHN About the Henbane City STEPAN CHAPMAN Losing the War MARK WALLACE The Flowers JEFFREY FORD The White Man MICHAEL CONSTANCE Finding the Words LAURA MULLEN English / History URSULA K. LE GUIN The Birthday of the World MICHAEL MOORCOCK Cake
"The editors have cast an impressively wide net. . . . As a
collection of stories, andan introduction to a number of new
writers, "ParaSpheres" is fine, and well worth your attention."
--Stephen Jeffery, "Interzone"
""ParaSpheres" has succeeded in . . . presenting an excellent
selection of unique writing and providing an alternative framework
through which it may be understood." --Miranda Siemienowicz,
"HorrorScope"
"A feast of fine writing and striking applications of the fantastic
to the everyday . . . "ParaSpheres" performs an inestimable
service." --Nick Gevers, "Locus" magazine
"Full of superb stories . . . often breathtaking . . .
"ParaSpheres" doesn't point toward other worlds as much as point
toward ours, and how we have let our public and private spheres
become, alternately, reverie and nightmare." --Alan DeNiro, Rain
Taxi Online
"[A] marvelously generous collection of stories that dart back and
forth over the boundary supposedly separating the genre of the
fantastic from mainstream literature." --Peter Straub, bestselling
author
"A marvelous anthology full of marvelous tales. The sum of an
anthology can sometimes be greater than its parts, and these
parts--these stories--are bold, haunting, and remarkable." --Kelly
Link, author, "Stranger Things Happen"
"This anthology begins with a fascinating discussion of fiction and
its subdivisions. . . . They are tales of weirdness and wonder,
largely set in odd analogues of our own world. Not quite like
ordinary literature, nor yet like typical fantasy, they hold a
unique and intriguing flavor." --S. Ardrian, "Fearless Reviews"
"ÝA¨ marvelously generous collection of stories that dart back and
forth over the boundary supposedly separating the genre of the
fantastic from mainstream literature." --Peter Straub, bestselling
author
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