
|
|
|
Still availableread the rave reviews ofCLOCKWORK PHOENIX Tales of Beauty and Strangeness | On sale nowNew From Norilana: CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 2Table of Contentsread the Publishers Weeklystarred review | Coming next yearFrom Norilana Books: CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3reading period and
|
|
Buy the book
Retail Price: $11.95 USD - £8.00 GBP ISBN-13: 978-1-60762-027-3 ISBN-10: 1-60762-027-8 296 pages Order Now Amazon - Barnes & Noble Amazon UK - Amazon CA Amazon FR - Amazon DE Amazon JP ...or ask for it at your favorite bookstore. To purchase signed copies directly from the editor, query here. |
Praise for CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 2 . . . .Allen finds his groove for this second annual anthology of weird stories, selecting 16 wonderfully evocative, well-written tales. Marie Brennan's thought-provoking "Once a Goddess" considers the fate of a goddess abruptly returned to mortality. Tanith Lee puts a stunning twist in the story of a morose prince in "The Pain of Glass." Mary Robinette Kowal's "At the Edge of Dying" describes a world where magic comes only to those at death's door. In "Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela," Saladin Ahmed tells of a small village on the edge of a desert, a hermit and a woman who may be a witch. Each story fits neatly alongside the next, and the diversity of topics, perspectives and authors makes this cosmopolitan anthology a winner.
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review, May 25, 2009 |
|
|
|
|
Buy the book
Retail Price: $10.95 USD - £7.60 GBP ISBN-13: 978-1-934169-98-8 ISBN-10: 1-934169-98-6 288 pages Order Now Amazon - Barnes & Noble Amazon UK - Amazon CA Amazon FR - Amazon DE Amazon JP ...or ask for it at your favorite bookstore. To purchase signed copies directly from the editor, query here. Check out these links
Read Deborah Biancotti's Aurealis Award-nominated story "The Tailor of Time" from CLOCKWORK PHOENIX free at Steampunk Workshop: Part One; Part Two. See photos from the official CLOCKWORK PHOENIX launch, held July 18, 2008 at ReaderCon in Burlington, Massachusetts. Read interviews with CLOCKWORK PHOENIX editor Mike Allen at SF Scope and at Enter the Octopus |
Praise for CLOCKWORK PHOENIX . . . .Selected for the Locus Magazine 2008 Recommended Reading List
Author and editor Allen (Mythic) has compiled a neatly packaged set of short stories that flow cleverly and seamlessly from one inspiration to another. In "The City of Blind Delight" by Catherynne M. Valente, a man inadvertently ends up on a train that takes him to an inescapable city of extraordinary wonders. In "All the Little Gods We Are," Hugo winner John Grant takes a mind trip to possible parallel universes. Modern topics make an appearance among the whimsy and strangeness: Ekaterina Sedia delves into the misunderstandings that occur between cultures and languages in "There Is a Monster Under Helen's Bed," while Tanith Lee gleefully skewers gender politics with "The Woman," giving the reader a glimpse of what might happen if there was only one fertile woman left in a world of men. Lush descriptions and exotic imagery startle, engross, chill and electrify the reader, and all 19 stories have a strong and delicious taste of weird.
A very strong first volume ... Established writers and new names all are in good form here ... A series of great promise. Prospects on the anthology front look ever better.
I would have bought this book for its mysteriously gorgeous cover art alone, but the stellar lineup of contributing writers sold me completely ... CLOCKWORK PHOENIX editor Mike Allen describes the anthology as "a home for stories that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways, that surprise with their settings and startle with the ways they cross genre boundaries, that aren't afraid to experiment with storytelling techniques." His choices here don't disappoint.
Even if you're not into the genre, this is a welcome read that'll hopefully strike an emotional chord in you.
Another "new weird" collection, perhaps? A slipstream opus? Whatever — set somewhere between fantasy, SF, and something else, the stories selected by editor Mike Allen have an unique property: they are never tedious ... I highly recommend the book to anyone looking for top-notch fiction irrespective of genre labels.
|
|
"A powerful, tragic, magic tale in which a man named John makes a fateful phone call one day, and reaches himself. The bizarre call stirs up memories of John's past, bringing back a time when he and his best friend Justine were inseparable. But what happened to tear them apart? How close was their relationship, and how did it end... or did it? Whatever you think the truth is, it's weirder. One of the most emotionally-powerful stories in the collection, it really needs multiple readings to understand its depths." (SF Site) "This is a clever, entertaining story that reminds me of classic Charles de Lint." (SF Site) "A brutally absorbing depiction of the anthropomorphic personifications of the title instruments. What would you imagine their lives to be like, if these key instruments of excommunication were flesh and blood? I'm terribly fond of stories that humanize archetypes well, and this story succeeds painfully and delightfully." (Green Man Review) "Never stops, never slows down as it tells the story of Molly, a bike-riding traveler who stumbles across a bizarre ceremony involving an angel and a sort-of prophet. Kinetic and fluid, this story addresses issues of faith, belief, and one's inner nature." (SF Site)
"Barron's contribution is all about mood: the wild energy of late nights when time seems suspended and everything seems possible and that horrible, creeping dread when you can't quite figure what's wrong. He ratchets both of these sentiments up for full effect." (The Fix) "The atmosphere in this story of a couple creeping themselves out over the nothing in the dark that might actually just be something in the dark is so skillfully handled that it actually resulted in me being creeped out. In a nicely lit room." (Green Man Review) |
Selected for the Locus Magazine 2008 Recommended Reading List "A moving, tragic hymn to a dying world. Allusions to homosexuality, and unwanted sons, and a curiously ugly paragon of femininity build to a dark revelation against which there is no appeal; grim storytelling this, Lee at her barbaric best." (Locus) "A tight, fascinating, and gloriously straightforward revenge tale." (Green Man Review) "Just incredibly amazing ... Old myths inform new lives in this crazy and compelling narrative, and Singh's visual storytelling means I can easily imagine this story as a breathtaking graphic novel." (Green Man Review) "Cleverly reworking an aspect of Norse myth, this story hints at a much larger world, and events playing out both before and after the scene in question. It's a simple concept, but stunning nonetheless in the execution." (SF Site) "Mixing themes of religion, faith, redemption, revenge and sacrifice, this is a thought-provoking tale that tackles some complex subjects to admirable results." (SF Site)
"Avery, whose daughter is dying, seeks more time for her from the Tailor. When he grants this desire, the Tailor affects the world all the way down to a dying girl and all the way up to the Engineer of all ... Deborah Biancotti spins out her conceit with a light and fluid intelligence." (The Fix) "Deborah Biancotti explores the true nature of the universe in 'The Tailor of Time,' where that selfsame individual, responsible for sewing together bits and pieces of time to create the ever-changing days and nights, is visited by a man who asks for a small, simple favor. Sadly, this favor, for all that it's proposed in the best of intentions, is near-impossible to grant, but the Tailor, just this once, will try. What happens then is a mystery, one not even the great Engineer who designed the progress of time itself, can explain. Beautifully told, it's filled with rich imagery and interesting concepts." (SF Site) "A story about which I can say almost nothing without my hands waving about in awe and delight. This fable of a dryad and her heart is perfect, beautiful, and glorious." (Green Man Review)
|
|
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3 is the next volume in the annual anthology series edited by Mike Allen, scheduled to be published by Norilana Books in July 2010. The anthology's literary focus is on the high end, and it is open to the full range of the speculative and fantastic genres.
Editor Mike Allen says CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3, like its predecessors, "is a home for stories that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways, that surprise with their settings and startle with the ways they cross genre boundaries, that aren't afraid to experiment with storytelling techniques. But experimentation is not a requirement: the stories in the anthology must be more than gimmicks, and should appeal to genuine emotions, suspense, fear, sorrow, delight, wonder. I will value a story that makes me laugh in its quirky way more than a story that tries to dazzle me with a hollow exercise in wordplay. "The stories should contain elements of the fantastic, be it science fiction, fantasy, horror or some combination thereof. A straight psychological horror story is unlikely to make the cut unless it's truly scary and truly bizarre. The same applies to a straight adventure fantasy or unremarkable space opera — bring something new and genuine to the equation, whether it's a touch of literary erudition, playful whimsy, extravagant style, or mind-blowing philosophical speculation and insight. Though stories can be set in this world, settings at least a hair or more askew are preferred. I hope to see prose that is poetic but not opaque. I hope to see stories that will lead the reader into unfamiliar territory, there to find shock and delight. "Over the course of reading for the first volume, I developed some criteria for stories that aren't likely to interest me (though exceptions are always possible). These include straightfoward retellings of well-known fairy tales; stories in which a Machine Discovers Its Humanity; stories that aim to prove Christianity/Religion Is Bad; stories about a Privileged Schmuck who comes to understand Oppression Is Bad; stories whose entire plot can be described as X Commits a Murder; stories of wish-fulfillment with little complication — i.e.: character longs for something; character is granted that something; end of story. "My aim with the CLOCKWORK PHOENIX books is, somewhat selfishishly, to create books that satisfy my own tastes as a reader. And as a reader, I enjoy stories that experiment, that push the envelope, that dazzle with their daring, but I'm often personally frustrated when an experimental story ends without feeling complete, without leaving an emotional crater for me to remember it by. At the same time, I find myself increasingly bored with the traditional, conventionally-plotted and plainly-written Good Story Competently Told. For better or for worse, I envision the CLOCKWORK PHOENIX books as places where these two schools of story telling can mingle and achieve Happy Medium; where there is significance to both the tale that's told and the style of the telling." UPDATE FOR THE THIRD VOLUME: "For the second book, I received a glut of sorcery stories, of which I only really used one, and a dearth of stories with the rococo sf elements I enjoy seeing. I hope that trend will reverse somewhat this year. Also, please see what I have to say below regarding multiple and simultaneous submissions." RIGHTS PURCHASED: First English Language Rights and non-exclusive electronic rights. The anthology will be published by Norilana Books in a trade paperback edition in July 2010, to be followed by an electronic edition to be produced later. PAYMENT: $0.02 a word on acceptance as an advance against royalties, then a pro rata share of royalties after earnout, plus a contributor copy. WORD LENGTH: Stories should be no longer than 10,000 words, preferably shorter. This is a firm limit for unsolicited stories. READING PERIOD begins Oct. 1, 2009; ends Nov. 15, 2009. Any unsolicited stories sent before Oct. 1 will be deleted unread. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Submissions are electronic only. Please submit your story via e-mail, as an RTF file attachment. Your e-mail subject line should say "Submission: Story Title". Include a brief cover letter in the body of your email. It should have your name, address, e-mail address, title of story, number of words, and brief biographical information in case we don't know you, with most recent publishing credits, if applicable. We are open to new writers and seasoned veterans alike. We do not accept reprints. WILL MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS BE ALLOWED? Yes. WILL SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS BE ALLOWED? The editor says, "Yes, but please notify me when you've done that. When a writer suddenly withdraws a story that I haven't even gotten a chance to look at yet, or worse, that I just read and liked, but can't make a final decision about yet, it tends to make me cranky. (Don't worry, I do acknowledge and accept that there are some circumstances that justify such actions.) However, no one is going to get a formal acceptance from me until after the reading period ends. If you can't wait that long to find out what I think, then please don't waste my time or Inbox space." EDITORIAL ADDRESS: clockworkphoenix@gmail.com For further updates, check Mike Allen's LiveJournal, THE PLASTEEL SPIDER FACTORY. |