CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3 for 99 cents Today Only!
Today Weightless Books is offering CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3 for 99 cents.
Includes stories by Catherynne M. Valente, David Sandner, John Grant, Cat Rambo, Leah Bobet, Michael J. DeLuca, Laird Barron, Ekaterina Sedia, Cat Sparks, Tanith Lee, Marie Brennan, Jennifer Crow, Vandana Singh, John C. Wright, C.S. MacCath, Joanna Galbraith, Deborah Biancotti and Erin Hoffman.
Mathematically speaking, 99 cents is 6.1875 cents per author. Two are named ‘Cat’ and one is named ‘Crow’ and one named Grant and one is Tanith Lee, so you have a range of mammalian and avian writers, not to mention Confederate and Yankee general names between the covers. The anthology covers the whole range of beauty and strangeness.
One of my more ambitious novellas ‘Murder in Metachronopolis’ is also here, a time travel mystery and ethical conundrum about a detective finding his own murderer, and then finding he ought to not prevent himself from murdering himself if he wants to save himself. What he does next is a little confusing, since ‘next’ is a null concept where time travel is concerned, so the reader may have to read the story twice, or back-to-front, as you like.
Buy it here:
https://weightlessbooks.com/genre/fiction/clockwork-phoenix-3-new-tales-of-beauty-and-strangeness/
You hold in your hands a cornucopia of modern cutting-edge fantasy. The first volume of this extraordinary new annual anthology series of fantastic literature explodes on the scene with works that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways, that surprise with their settings and startle with the manner in which they cross genre boundaries, that aren’t afraid to experiment with storytelling techniques, and yet seamlessly blend form with meaningful function. The delectable offerings found within these pages come from some of today’s most distinguished contemporary fantasists and brilliant rising newcomers.
Whether it’s a touch of literary erudition, playful whimsy, extravagant style, or mind-blowing philosophical speculation and insight, the reader will be led into unfamiliar territory, there to find shock and delight.
“Author and editor Allen (Mythic) has compiled a neatly packaged set of short stories that flow cleverly and seamlessly from one inspiration to another…. Lush descriptions and exotic imagery startle, engross, chill and electrify the reader, and all 19 stories have a strong and delicious taste of weird.”
— Publishers Weekly
For those of you who mistrust ad copy, here is a review of this anthology from Castalia House:
http://www.castaliahouse.com/review-clockwork-phoenix-3-new-tales-of-beauty-and-strangeness/
You know you have a good anthology of short stories when John C. Wright’s “Murder in Metachronopolis” is one among equals. Even the freaking foreword is good:
The cosmos spins its gears and stretches wings, the ticks of its constant grinding both too slow and too rapid to ever be detected. When it collapses to ash, everything within the dimensional tiers of its clockwork body burns to nothing. Every pinion of this universe is a vane of time rooted in unfathomable past, grown up and out to form a spine that supports uncountable possible futures. And each of these feather-shafts fans out strands of temporal down that are themselves fractal branchings, mathematical quandaries of choices taken and not taken.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
