Michael Blumlein

"This is why I read science fiction."—Daryl Gregory In Longer, Michael Blumlein explores dauntingly epic topics—love, the expanse of the human lifespan, mortality—with a beautifully sharp story that glows with grace and good humor even as it forces us to confront deep, universal fears. Gunjita and Cav are in orbit. R&D scientists for pharmaceutical giant Gleem Galactic, they are wealthy enough to participate in rejuvenation: rebooting themselves from old age to jump their bodies back to their twenties. You get two chances. There can never be a third. After Gunjita has juved for the second and final time and Cav has not, questions of life, death, morality, and test their relationship. Up among the stars, the research possibilities are infinite and first contact is possible, but their marriage may not survive the challenge. Praise for Longer "Michael Blumlein has written a novella that is full of hard science and strange, beautiful images, and also asks the biggest of questions—about mortality, aging, the persistence and changeability of love, and the search for meaning in our lives. I read it in two sittings, and it brought me to tears. . . . Don't miss this."—Daryl Gregory "No one can evoke both life's beauties and its sorrows with the brilliance of Michael Blumlein. In meticulous and resonant prose, Blumlein examines a marriage with a long, loving history and a questionable future. Wise and beautiful, provocative and deeply, deeply satisfying."—Karen Joy Fowler

Longer

Jeff VanderMeer

Jeffrey Thomas

Jeffrey Ford

Chen Qiufan

Sofia Samatar

Paul Tremblay

Maria Dahvana Headley

John Langan

Karin Tidbeck

Joseph S. Pulver Sr.

A.C Wise

Richard Gavin

John R. Fultz

Anne-Sylvie Salzman

Livia Llewellyn

Anna Taborska

Scott Nicolay

Damien Angelica Walters

Kristie DeMeester

Simon Stranzas

W.H. Pugmire

Welcome to the weird! Acclaimed author and editor Laird Barron, one of weird fiction's brightest exponents, brings his expert eye and editorial sense to the inaugural volume of the Year's Best Weird Fiction. No longer the purview of esoteric readers, weird fiction is enjoying wide popularity. Chiefly derived from early 20th-century pulp fiction, its remit includes ghost stories, the strange and macabre, the supernatural, fantasy, myth, philosophical ontology, ambiguity, and a healthy helping of the outré. At its best, weird fiction is an intersecting of themes and ideas that explore and subvert the Laws of Nature. It is not confined to one genre, but is the most diverse and welcoming of all genres. Hence, in this initial showcase of weird fiction you will discover tales of horror, fantasy, science fiction, the supernatural, and the macabre. Contributing authors include Jeffrey Ford, Sofia Samatar, Joseph S. Pulver Sr, John Langan, Richard Gavin, and W. H. Pugmire.

Year's Best Weird Fiction

The Brains of Rats

Michael McDowell

When Michael Blumlein's debut collection The Brains of Rats (1990) first appeared, it marked the arrival of a major new talent, earning widespread acclaim from mainstream critics as well as genre stalwarts Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison, Pat Cadigan and many others. In the World Fantasy Award-nominated title story, a geneticist conflicted over his own sexuality, and the nature of male and female gender roles in general, proposes a drastic solution. The politically charged "Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report" describes in chilling detail a surgeon's evisceration of President Ronald Reagan. In "Bestseller," a struggling novelist unable to sell his books must sell something else unthinkably horrific in order to provide for his family. In these and the nine other startlingly original stories in this collection, Blumlein blurs the boundaries between horror, science fiction and fantasy, creating a strange and nightmarish world not unlike our own, where nothing is what it seems. This new edition features an introduction by bestselling horror novelist and screenwriter Michael McDowell. "Michael Blumlein is something new, a real original. I think he will have a great impact on the horror field, but I don't think anybody is going to be able to imitate him." - Peter Straub "Blumlein has an exceptional vision, and he conveys it with exceptional talent." - Washington Post "Blumlein's first collection signals the appearance of a major talent on the horror scene. Subtle and chilling." - Publishers Weekly "Blumlein is a powerful and highly original voice. He writes like his soul's on ice. Disturbing stuff. More please " - Joe R. Lansdale "The Brains of Rats is blindingly brilliant. Blumlein is beyond any genre, a genuinely great writer." - Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love "This is not a book for everyone. Only those who delight in splendid, original thinking and rich, pyrotechnical language need apply.... Mr. Blumlein carves enigmas and fabulous dark surprises from the magic mountain of his imagination." - Harlan Ellison "I didn't read these stories, I hallucinated them. I dare anyone to read Blumlein's work and come out the other side unchanged." - Pat Cadigan "Blumlein is an eclectic and daring writer, using experimental techniques and fragmented narrative to achieve spectacular results. The stories here are all disturbing and they all work - no small accomplishment for experimental fiction." - Locus

The Brains of Rats (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

X, Y

The politics and terrors of biotech, human engineering, and brain science are given startling fictional form in a selection of short stories with Michael Blumlein's signature mix of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and wicked humour. The title piece, 'Thoreau's Microscope,' is a stunning mix of hypothesis and history, in which the author inhabits Thoreau's last days to explore the politics of impersonal science and personal liberation - a journey as illuminating as it is disturbing.

Thoreau's Microscope

Christopher Priest

Gerald Kersh

Florence Marryat

Hugh Walpole

Richard Marsh

Stephen Gregory

Bernard Taylor

John Blackburn

Francis King

Mary Cholmondeley

Charles Birkin

John Trevena

M. G. Lewis

Forrest Reid

Hugh Fleetwood

In this volume, you will encounter tales of ghosts, haunted houses, witchcraft, vampirism, lycanthropy, and sea monsters. Stories of cruelty and vengeance, of a body that refuses to be cremated, a deranged performer with one last shocking show, a frozen corpse that may not be dead. With stories ranging from frightening to horrific to weird to darkly funny, by a lineup of authors that includes both masters of horror fiction and award-winning literary greats, this is a horror anthology like no other. Spanning two hundred years of horror, this new collection features seventeen macabre gems, including two original tales and many others that have never or seldom been reprinted, by: Charles Birkin • John Blackburn • Michael Blumlein • Mary Cholmondeley • Hugh Fleetwood • Stephen Gregory • Gerald Kersh • Francis King • M. G. Lewis • Florence Marryat • Richard Marsh • Michael McDowell • Christopher Priest • Forrest Reid • Bernard Taylor • Hugh Walpole 'The things were there and they were hiding in the slime; waiting ... waiting to clutch and claw and savage’ - AUNTY GREEN by John Blackburn ‘The sound that came from her throat, a small, pleading cry of terror, was cut off before she’d hardly had a chance to utter it’ - OUT OF SORTS by Bernard Taylor ‘The words filled her with an indescribable fear, and she turned to run; but her way was blocked by a figure, gigantic in stature​ – and its monstrous shape moved towards her, and she knew it was the incarnation of evil itself ’ - THE TERROR ON TOBIT by Charles Birkin

The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume One

"This is why I read science fiction."—Daryl Gregory In Longer, Michael Blumlein explores dauntingly epic topics—love, the expanse of the human lifespan, mortality—with a beautifully sharp story that glows with grace and good humor even as it forces us to confront deep, universal fears. Gunjita and Cav are in orbit. R&D scientists for pharmaceutical giant Gleem Galactic, they are wealthy enough to participate in rejuvenation: rebooting themselves from old age to jump their bodies back to their twenties. You get two chances. There can never be a third. After Gunjita has juved for the second and final time and Cav has not, questions of life, death, morality, and test their relationship. Up among the stars, the research possibilities are infinite and first contact is possible, but their marriage may not survive the challenge. Praise for Longer "Michael Blumlein has written a novella that is full of hard science and strange, beautiful images, and also asks the biggest of questions—about mortality, aging, the persistence and changeability of love, and the search for meaning in our lives. I read it in two sittings, and it brought me to tears. . . . Don't miss this."—Daryl Gregory "No one can evoke both life's beauties and its sorrows with the brilliance of Michael Blumlein. In meticulous and resonant prose, Blumlein examines a marriage with a long, loving history and a questionable future. Wise and beautiful, provocative and deeply, deeply satisfying."—Karen Joy Fowler At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Stephen Baxter

Nancy Kress

Robert Reed

Martin L. Shoemaker

Alexander Jablokov

Vylar Kaftan

Short novels are movie length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This unabridged collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2013 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of story-telling. In “Earth I,” by Stephen Baxter, asearch among the stars to ferret out the origins of mankind amidst the Xaian normalization digs up many surprises. In “Success,” by Michael Blumlein, a brilliant but erratic biologist studying epigenetics struggles to hang on to his grip on everyday life as he writes his ground-breaking tome. In “Feral Moon,” by Alexander Jablokov, the Alliance military is invading Phobos to retrieve dead bodies for later repatriation, but the stiff resistance is putting the operation in serious doubt. In “The Weight of the Sunrise,” by Vylar Kaftan, winner of both the Nebula Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, the Incan empire is offered a vaccine, to contain a smallpox out-break, by a Virginian raising funds for the American war against the British. In “One,” by Nancy Kress, a boxer down on his luck gains the ability to read minds and grapples round-after-round with the consequences. In the Great Shipstory “Precious Mental,” by Robert Reed, an immortal captain who has been living incognito for hundreds of years is kidnaped to help salvage an ancient derelict spaceship. Finally, in the Poirot-like mystery “Murder on the AldrinExpress,” by Martin L. Shoemaker, murder is suspected in the death of the leader of a Mars expedition when evidence of sabotage is uncovered.

The Year's Top Short SF Novels 4

Michael Blumlein

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