Happy Embrace Your Geekness Day! If you didn't know, today is the day to celebrate your unique passions and interests, including (hopefully) your love of dark fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. If you're looking for a new story to read to celebrate the wonderful weirdness that is you, we've got a few suggestions!
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For the thrill-seeking wanderer...
A travel guide to hauntings and the haunted, to lands with their own power, and to the communities that spring from these strange realms.
In your hands is a travel guide to the strange and surreal. From arcades along a boardwalk and jetties at the edges of tourist towns, to a rural village in Pakistan and hollows hidden deep within a forest in Pennsylvania, strange things can happen no matter where you are. You can become lost in a city crowded with people, haunted within your own home, and slip from one reality into another in the space of a step.
With twenty-two stories by authors such as Brian Keene, Maurice Broaddus, Ai Jiang, Samit Basu, and KS Walker, editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner take readers on a tour of places where weird things happen. Places where ghosts are real, old gods are hungry, and towns are not as idyllic as they appear to be.
Welcome to The Map of Lost Places. Enter at your own risk.
"Filled with showstoppers and unique gems, The Map of Lost Places is a horror collection that creeps, crawls, and makes you think. A fantastic read!" —Mary G. Thompson, author of One Level Down
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For the action-loving zombie fan...
Not even death is an escape from the... Island of the Dead.
World Horror Grand Master Brian Keene returns to zombies in this relentless sword and sorcery horror epic!
Einar, an enslaved barbarian, plots his escape from a war galley transporting troops and a mysterious weapon to far enemy shores. But when an apocalyptic storm at sea leaves Einar and his fellow captives shipwrecked on a strange, uncharted island, friend and foe alike must band together against a ravenous, steadily growing horde of the undead... And even worse dangers.
"Exceedingly cool." —Stephen King
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For the eco-friendly treehugger...
Would you sacrifice your humanity to save the world?
Kirmen is different from the other inhabitants of the Cloister, whose walls protect them all from the endless storm ravaging Earth. As a result of the Doctor’s cruel experiments, his physical form is gradually evolving into something better fit for survival in the world outside.
Kirmen worries about becoming a pariah, an outcast among the other denizens of the domes. But his desire for affection and acceptance, and his humanity, fade away as the Doctor’s treatments progress. What will happen when the metamorphosis is complete? What will be left of Kirmen and the group of survivors that he knows and loves?
In English for the first time (translated by Sue Burke), ChloroPhilia, an Ignotus Award-nominated novella by Cristina Jurado, is a strange coming–of-age story while addressing life after an environmental disaster, collective madness, and sacrifices made for the greater good.
"Chlorophilia could be viewed as an example of the New Weird genre. Other New Weird books like Annihilation encourage us not to fight the inevitable changeability of the world around us, but rather to embrace it, even if we may not fully understand it. ... While Chlorophilia intentionally leaves many questions open, one point is clear: humanity requires a connection with the natural world to survive." —Ancillary Review of Books
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For the genre-hopping Afrofuturist...
Breath of Life is a collection of the works of author and poet L.H. Moore, whose history- and Afrofuturism-inspired short stories, poetry, and essays move between and blur the lines between horror, science fiction, and fantasy.
In the short story “Roots On Ya,” a roots man in rural Virginia has to undo a crossing… And more. A scientist has a harrowing experience as she discovers more than she bargained for in the depths of underwater cave tunnels in “Rule of Thirds.” As a symbol of a new country is constructed, all is not what it seems in “With These Hands: A Tale of Uncommon Labour.” In the short story “Here, Kitty,” a young woman realizes that what is lost is not always meant to be found. As a young woman and her friends come of age, they discover a family legacy that will change them forever in the short story “A Clink of Crystal Glasses Heard.” All three of the “Bice” poems explore The Divine Comedy author Dante Aligheri’s obsession with Beatrice—from her biting, unamused point of view.
Find these and more in Breath of Life. With themes of family and identity, rooted solidly in history and imagining the unknown—both here on Earth and beyond—Breath of Life is an exploration of the unexpected.
"[Breath of Life] ... Is a gorgeous collection of Black-centered stories and poetry, with a substantial amount of horror and historical fiction, often in the same story!" —Dawn Vogel, author of History That Never Was
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Celebrate everything that makes you, you. Happy Embrace Your Geekness Day!
