New Releases by Carol Emshwiller

Women write science fiction. They always have. Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1953-1957) offers, quite simply, some of the best science fiction ever written: 20 amazing pieces, most of which haven''t been reprinted for decades...but should have been. Whether you are a long-time fan or new to the genre, you are in for a treat. Dig in. Enjoy these newly-rediscovered delicacies a few at a time...or binge them all at once!

From "Jurassic Park" to "Godzilla," dinosaurs have a rich history of exploring the idea of the creatures of the past. We love dinosaurs because they are big, we love them when they are terrifying, and we love them because they are dangerous. Think Like A Dinosaur by James Patrick Kelly Dinosaurs by Walter Jon Williams The Measure Of All Things by Richard Chwedyk If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky Ford T-Rex vs Dodge Triceratops by Charles Eugene Anderson The Other Side of the Portal by Jamie Ferguson Outside the Box by Wayne Faust The Serpent of the Loch by Lou J Berger Out of the Ashes by Kent W Johnson Damn Dinosaurs by Denise E. Dora Flawless by Mario Acevedo 13 Ways of Looking at a Dinosaur by Rebecca Hodgkins Dinosaur by Bruce Holland Rogers The Place Where Camels Fear to Go by Lucy Taylor Creature by Carol Emshwiller Just Like Old Times by Robert J. Sawyer Dinosaur by Steve Rasnic Tem Thinking About Dinosaurs by James Patrick Kelly

As is traditional in the world of zines, we apologize for the lateness of the current issue to appear. This, er, tradition goes back to Bob, the first caveman. Damn his late eyes. Also, we introduce a new columnist, Nicole Kimberling, who will write about food. This time, she starts us off with that most delightful of comestibles: brownies.

The fifth volume in the Science Fiction Megapack series collects 25 tales of high adventure through other worlds and times, including 5 Hugo and Nebula Award-winners and nominees. Featured this time are: AGAPE AMONG THE ROBOTS, by Allen Steele THE STARSHIP MECHANIC, by Jay Lake and Ken Scholes PEACEMAKER, by Gardner Dozois OR ALL THE SEAS WITH OYSTERS, by Avram Davidson GRANDMA, by Carol Emshwiller THE GIFT BEARER, by Charles L. Fontenay I, ROBOT, by Cory Doctorow ALL RIGHTS, by Pamela Sargent THE EICHMANN VARIATIONS, by George Zebrowski MAY BE SOME TIME, by Brenda W. Clough CYBERPUNK, by Bruce Bethke MILLENNIUM, by Everett B. Cole JOIN OUR GANG? by Sterling E. Lanier GREYLORN, by Keith Laumer JUMPING THE LINE, by Grania Davis HE’S ONLY HUMAN, by Lawrence Watt-Evans THE WASONICA CORRECTION, by James C. Stewart CIRCUS, by Alan E. Nourse THE HATED, by Frederik Pohl CODE THREE, by Rick Raphael COST OF LIVING, by Robert Sheckley THIS IS KLON CALLING, by Walter J. Sheldon THE BIG BOUNCE, by Walter S. Tevis THE RISK PROFESSION, by Donald E. Westlake THE FIRE EGGS, by Darrell Schweitzer And don''t forget to search this ebook store for "Megapack" to see other volumes in the series, from science fiction to ghost stories to mysteries...and many more!

Crossing the boundaries between fabulist literature, science fiction, and magical realism, the stories in this collection offer a valuable glimpse into the evolution of Carol Emshwiller’s ideas and style during her more than 50-year career. Influenced by J. G. Ballard, Steven Millhauser, Philip K. Dick, and Lydia Davis, Emshwiller has a range of works that is impressive and demonstrates her refusal to be labeled or to stick to one genre. This exhilarating new collection marks the first time many of the early stories have been published in book form and is evidence of the genius of Emshwiller, one of America’s most versatile and imaginative authors.

First Firebirds. Then Firebirds Rising. Now there is Firebirds Soaring, the third anthology of original stories by some of today?s finest writers of fantasy and science fiction. These authors, including Nancy Farmer (The Sea of Trolls), Ellen Klages (The Green Glass Sea), Margo Lanagan (Black Juice), and Jane Yolen (The Devil?s Arithmetic), have brought new worlds and Old Magic to life in nineteen remarkable pieces of short fiction. Mike Dringenberg, co-creator of Sandman with Neil Gaiman, contributes decorative vignettes. Firebirds Soaring?like Firebirds and Firebirds Rising?sets the standard for short fiction for teenagers and adult fans of the genre.

The Secret City is a proud enclave carved in stone. Hidden high in a mountain range, it is a worn citadel protecting a lost culture. It harbors a handful of aliens stranded on Earth, waiting for rescue and running out of time. Over years of increasing poverty, an exodus to the human world has become their only chance for survival. The aliens are gradually assimilating not as a discrete culture but as a source of cheap labor. But the sudden arrival of ill-prepared rescuers will touch off divided loyalties, violent displacement, and star-crossed love. As unlikely human allies are pitted against xenophobic aliens, the stage is set for a final standoff at the Secret City.

Bobby Lassiter has some important secrets—but it’s not as if anyone’s paying attention. It’s the middle of the Depression, and while Bobby’s mother and older sister knit all day to make money, Bobby explores the California desert around their home. That’s how Bobby finds Boots. He’s under their one half-dead tree, halfdead himself. Right away he’s a secret, too—a secret to be fed and clothed and taken care of, and even more of a secret because of what he can do. Sometimes Boots is a man. Sometimes he’s (really, truly) a horse. He and Bobby both know something about magic—and those who read this book will, too. “A wonderful story about a man who is a horse, and a boy who is a girl—about fake magic and real love—about deaths that are part of living and the pain that pays for joy. I love it.”—Ursula K. Le Guin

I Live With You is a sophisticated collection of fierce, compassionate fiction marked by an absurdist sense of humor. A contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Fay Weldon, Carol Emshwiller has been lauded for her originality and lyricism. These striking short stories skillfully explore themes of war, seduction, and censorship: An Eden emerges from the wreckage of burning books in “The Library,” “Boys” sets a weary general and his sons against a village of determined mothers, and “I Live With You (and You Don’t Know It)” brings a necessary chaos from an uninvited guest.

"This trenchant feminist fantasy-satire mixes elements of "Animal Farm, Rhinoceros," and "The Handmaid''s Tale" . . . Imagination and absurdist humor mark ["Carmen Dog"] throughout, and Emshwiller is engaging even when most savage about male-female relationships."--"Booklist."

An award-winning novel; a fable of freedom and slavery.

What if the world ended on your birthday--and no one came? What if your grandmother was a superhero? Recommended to readers of Judy Budnitz, Geoff Ryman, Aimee Bender, and Grace Paley this fourth collection by the wonderful Carol Emshwiller includes the Nebula winning story "Creature." "These short stories have a mysterious glow."--JANE "Carol Emshwiller''''s stories are wonder-filled, necessary, and beautifully crafted." --Samuel R. Delany "I read one of the stories in Carol Emshwiller''''s new collection,Report to the Men''''s Club, in progress several years ago and have thought about it ever since. I could even quote you lines! And now, having read the rest of the elegant, complex, insightful stories, I know she''''s done the same thing to me again eighteen times over! Emshwiller knows more about men and mortality and love and loss and writing and life than anybody on the planet! Dazzling, dangerous, devastating writer! Unforgettable (and I mean that literally!) collection! Wow! Wow! Wow!" --Connie Willis "Carol Emshwiller (Carmen Dog, etc.) lends her elegant wit to Report to the Men''''s Club, a collection of 19 fantastic short fictions treating the war between the sexes. Such tales as "Grandma," "Foster Mother" and "Prejudice and Pride" are brim-full of wry insights into male-female relationships. Testimonials from Samuel R. Delaney, Maureen McHugh, Terry Bisson and Connie Willis, among other big names, should send this one into extra printings." --Publishers Weekly "A daring, eccentric, and welcome observer of darkly human ways emerges from these 19 motley tales. Often writing in an ironical first-person voice, storywriter and novelist Emshwiller (Leaping Man Hill, 1999, etc.) assumes the persona of the outsider or renegade who flees the community as if to test boundaries and possibilities. In "After All," the narrator is a grandmother who decides to set out on a "makeshift journey" in her bathrobe and slippers simply because it is time. The setting is vague: she flaps through the town and then into the hills, pursued, she is sure, by her children, and, in the end, she is merely happy not "to miss all the funny things that might have happened later had the world lasted beyond me." Both in "Foster Mother" and "Creature," the mature, quirky narrators take on the care of an abandoned, otherworldly foundling and attempt to test their survival together in the wilds. In other stories, a character''''s affection for a scarred pariah forces her out of her home and through a stormy transformation-as in the sensationally creepy "Mrs. Jones." Of the two middle-aged spinster sisters, Cora and Janice, Janice is the fattish conspicuous one who decides to tame and civilize at her own peril the large batlike creature she finds wounded in the sisters'''' apple orchard. Janice does get her husband, and through skillful details and use of irony, the story becomes a chilling, tender portrait of the sisters'''' dependence and fragility. At her best, Emshwiller writes with a kind of sneaky precision by drawing in the reader with her sympathetic first person, then pulling out all recognizable indicators; elsewhere, as the long-winded "Venus Rising" (based on work by Elaine Morgan),the pieces read like way-far-out allegories. A startling, strong fourth collection by this author--look for her upcomingThe Mount." --Kirkus Reviews "This strange collection of stories is populated by creatures of all sorts, human and alien. The collection-closing title piece takes the form of a speech given to a men''''s club by someone who has just been initiated into membership, despite the accident of birth that made her biologically female. The other stories range topically from the faith of a scribe in "Modillion" to love at first sight in "Nose." What makes them satisfying is the personalities of their characters. Even the shortest pieces present characters who possess all the force of real persons who might be standing beside us. For the most part, Emshwiller keeps the stories simple, engaging us with their characterization rather than fast, copious action. We stay engaged because they render enough emotion to sustain our creaturely interest." --Booklist "A real joy to read. This is a collection to delight and intrigue readers and writers of all persuasions. Go out and buy it now." --New York Review of Science Fiction "Elliptical, funny and stylish, they are for the most part profoundly unsettling. In "Mrs. Jones," a spinster tries to one-up her sister in an ongoing codependent battle by trapping and seducing the angel (demon? alien?) that is living in their orchard. In "Creature," a man cohabitates with a massive female monster--one of a race that has been engineered to kill him. In "One Part of the Self Is Always Tall and Dark," a woman, happily convinced that she is going crazy, dreams of long sentences composed of nothing but three-letter words: "She was far out and tip top too."" --Time Out New York "This is a wonderful collection of short fiction, marked by tremendous variety, a wonderful, funny, knowing, and sympathetic voice, and a truly off-center imagination.... Carol Emshwiller is a real treasure. She seems underappreciated to me, but this late burst of productivity may help remedy that situation. BothThe Mount andReport to the Men''''s Club are first rate books." --SF Site "Emshwiller sentences are are transparent and elegant at the same time. Her vocabulary, though rich and flexible, is never arcane." --The Women''''s Review of Books Carol Emshwiller''''s stories have appeared inThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Century, Scifiction, Lady Churchill''''s Rosebud Wristlet, TriQuarterly, Transatlantic Review, New Directions, Orbit, Epoch, The Voice Literary Supplement, Omni, Crank!, Confrontation, Trampoline, McSweeney''''s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, and many other anthologies and magazines. Carol is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and has been awarded an NEA grant, a New York State Creative Artists Public Service grant, a New York State Foundation for the Arts grant, the ACCENT/ASCENT fiction prize, and the World Fantasy, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Gallun, and Icon awards. Carol Emshwiller is the author of many collections of short fiction includingReport to the Men''''s Club, I Live with You,The Start of the End of it All (World Fantasy Award winner),Verging on the Pertinent, andJoy in Our Cause, and the novelsCarmen Dog, Ledoyt, Mister Boots, The Secret City,andLeaping Man Hill. She lives in New York City in winter and spends the summers in a shack in the Sierras in California.

Tells the story of Abel, an impish, mute child; of Mary Catherine, whose eccentricities trigger new spirit in him; and of Henny, a World War 1 veteran. These and other characters come to life amid Emshwiller''s rich country landscape. With Leaping Man Hill Carol Emshwiller continues to breathe life into the American Western, turning the genre on its head, filling it with surprises, and giving it unparalleled authenticity, power, and poignancy.

"A sweet and true and heartbreaking (story), echoing with the actualities of our old horseback life in the American West".--William Kittredge.

Eighteen stories deal with alien worlds, extraterrestrial invaders, crossbreeds, animals, and lonely city-dwellers.

Stories ranging from surreal adventure to hilarious satire. "A bitter, funny reply to that national magazine that declares that feminism itself is ''dated.''"--Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times

Emshwiller''s fiction cuts a straight path through the landscape of American literary genres: mystery, speculative fiction, magic realism, western, slipstream, fantasy and, of course, science fiction. Arranged chronologically the dazzling stories in these landmark volumes allow the reader to see Emshwiller''s development as a writer and recognize her as a major voice in the literary landscape.