Resources running low, the population exploding, the planet is in danger: are we masters of our own destruction, or have we been invaded by aliens bent on mass extinction? Is this a pattern across the entire universe, or just our small sector of cosmic life?
This new title in our successful Gothic Fantasy Short Stories series explores the theme of a dying planet, written by a fabulous mix of classic, ancient and brand new writing, with contemporary authors from all over the world. For the first time we’ve made a conscious effort to reach beyond our usual submissions seeking broader voices. This book offers a glorious mix of American, British, Canadian, Italian, Indian, Spanish and Chinese writers with contributions from Barton Aikman, V.K. Blackwell, Steve Carr, Brandon Crilly, AnaMaria Curtis, Kate Dollarhyde, Megan Dorei, Stephanie Ellis, Anita Ensal, E.E. King, Michael Kortes, Raymond Little, Ken Liu, Thana Niveau, John B. Rosenman, Sydney Rossman-Reich, Elizabeth Rubio, Zach Shephard, Shikhandin, Alex Shvartsman, Kristal Stittle, Rebecca E. Treasure, Francesco Verso, and Marian Womack.
These sit alongside classic stories by authors such as Clark Ashton Smith, Stanley G. Weinbaum, H.G. Wells and more, as well as stretching back much further, to the Norse Eddas and Sagas, and an Ancient Egyptian Myth on the death of humankind.
Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry. Her novels include The Five Turns of the Wheel, Reborn, The Woodcutter, and The Barricade. She is a Rhysling and Elgin Award nominated poet and wrote Foundlings (with Cindy O’Quinn), Lilith Rising (with Shane Douglas Keene) and Metallurgy, as well as appearing in the HWA Poetry Showcase.
Zach Shephard lives in Washington state, where he dreams up fantasy, science fiction and horror stories. His fiction has appeared in places like Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series, and several of Flame Tree Publishing's Gothic Fantasy books. For a full list of Zach's stories, check out zachshephard.com.
Alex Shvartsman is the author of over 120 short stories, published in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction in 2014 and was a two-time finalist (2015 & 2017) for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction. His translations have appeared in F&SF, Apex, and Samovar. Alex has edited over a dozen anthologies, including the Unidentified Funny Objects series, and is the editor-in-chief of Future Science Fiction Digest.
Dave Golder is a former editor of SFX magazine (which he helped to launch), SFX.co.uk and Comic Heroes magazine, but he first began writing professionally about science fiction with a regular feature in Your Sinclair called The Killer Kolumn From Outer Space. He has also written for various gaming magazines despite only ever having finished two games completely. And one of those was Kung Fu Panda. He now works freelance and is pretending to write a novel.
