Short Story Collections
Ten funny, off-the-wall tales--examples of what the author calls his "trailer park science fiction"--reveal the real reason for the dinosaurs' disappearance and explain the appearance of a talking moosehead in Providence, Rhode Island. IP.
A collection of nine stories transplants famous writers to strange new worlds, as "Frank" Kafka becomes another Superman, Henry Miller becomes a messenger, and Anne Frank a stand-in for Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Original. IP.
"STRANGE TRADES is a splendid collection...witty, thoughtful, accessible...the book's finest story...has a humanity worthy of Dickens or Hardy." -Publishers Weekly You can try to escape from the mundane, or with the help of Paul Di Filippo, you can take a brief, meaningful break from it. In the vein of George Saunders or Michael Chabon, Di Filippo uses the tools of science fiction and the surreal to take a deep, richly felt look at humanity. His brand of funny, quirky, thoughtful, fast-moving, heart-warming, brain-bending stories exist across the entire spectrum of the fantastic from hard science fiction to satire to fantasy and on to horror, delivering a riotously entertaining string of modern fables and stories from tomorrow, now and anytime. After you read Paul Di Filippo, you'll no longer see everyday life quite the same. In these 11 stories, Paul Di Filippo applies his armamentarium of vastly varied literary skills to an examination and definition of the outer limits of an almost unbearably mundane-sounding subject: daily toil or, in a word, jobs. In "Spondulix" Rory Honeyman, in desperation to preserve the meager cash flow in his sandwich shop, starts offering store coupons which somehow take on a life of their own. "The Mill" is the only place in the universe where Luxcloth, treasured and worn by many, can be manufactured and only at the direction of one man. "The Boredom Factory" gives meaning to the phrase "living to work." Keep reading, it will be the easiest job you've ever had. With an Introduction by Bruce Sterling.
Paul Di Filippo is one of Science Fiction's finest short story writers, wild, witty, exuberantly imaginative; Babylon Sisters and Other Posthumans is a generous showcase of his strange, transformative, and powerful Hard SF visions. The fourteen stories collected here are glimpses into the most fantastic possibilities of human evolution-biological, social, and cultural. From a New York split into warring walled enclaves, to the destiny of our species as a strain of virus, to an Africa made over by nanotech messiahs, to a future Earth protected by half-alien angels, to wars of liberation from what we have always so tragically been: these are only some of the awe-inspiring transitions to be found in Babylon Sisters. Read here of rebellion by books against their librarian, of cosmic destiny remade by stellar lunatics, of disorienting ventures beyond the boundaries of the human; discover here the perverse and terrible dangers of the age of posthumanity.
This story collection “showcases that lighter side of Paul Di Filippo . . . with some memorable moments of brilliant wit and storytelling” (Infinity Plus). With twenty tales, a bold lack of restraint, and amazing stylistic diversity, Di Filippo makes strange bedfellows of a range of characters—from Jayne Mansfield to Pythagoras to Disney “imagineers” to the Virgin Mary—fit together inside a bountiful collection of surprises, humor, and the very, very strange. William Gibson has identified his writing as “spooky, haunting, and hilarious,” and after you absorb all the shocks, you will inevitably agree.
Paul Di Filippo's fiction spans genresfrom cyberpunk to alternative history to extravagantly funny tales involving talking beavers. As whimsical as they are intelligent, the eighteen stories gathered here, each introduced by the author, find strange characters in even stranger circumstances. An all-access pass to Di Filippo's whirlwind imagination, The Emperor of Gondwanaland makes clear why its author is one of the most respected science fiction writers around. The man who coined the word ribofunk (to describe science fiction with a biogenetic twist), Di Filippo sees into the heart of our times with a vision and creativity that simply won't quit. The Emperor of Gondwanaland is more like a fluid Dalí dreamscape, painted with the deft brushstrokes; a wildly fantastic escape to alternate universes from one of the most imaginative writers around.
Shuteye for the Timebroker gathers a wide, wild assortment of stories that collectively represent critically acclaimed author Paul Di Filippo's extensive concerns, themes and styles. Pure science fiction in the "Galaxy" mode can be found in the title piece, while modern-day publishing practices get a raking-over in the satirical "The Secret Sutras of Sally Strumpet" (included in The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-Second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois). Humorous fantasies such as "Captain Jill" and "Billy Budd" segue into a Dunsanyian tale such as "Walking the Great Road." There's a touch of horror to be found in "Underground," "Eel Pie Stall," and "We're All In This Alone" (the latter co-written with award-winner Michael Bishop). A politically-charged story of a fantastic assassin occurs in "Shadowboxer." Finally, the nearly three dozen vignettes under the title "The Farthest Schorr" form a mini-collection in themselves, as they take flight from the surreal paintings of Todd Schorr.
What happens when the tools and themes of science fiction are applied to the genre of science fiction itself-and to publishing in general? Surprisingly, the result is not a black hole of dreary self-referentiality but a supernova of literary comedy, in the manner of classicists such as S. J. Perelman, Stephen Leacock and Robert Benchley, and postmodernists such as Mark Leyner, Will Self and Steve Aylett. In this collection of short, sharp, satirical gems, Paul Di Filippo-noted for his own fiction and criticism, which gives him an insider's perspective-turns a keen eye on the foibles, fallacies, fads and failures of science fiction the industry, mining comedic gold from the gaffes, pomposities and pretensions of authors, publicists, reviewers, publishers, editors, fans, librarians and bookstore owners. Using their own words as springboards in many cases, he extrapolates wildly, in the classic manner of the best GALAXY magazine stories, to give us such improbable but inevitable scenarios as literary hit men, self-blinded authors, agents as personal servants and a Victorian internet. Although these japes abound with in-jokes, nothing more is required to enjoy them than a basic familiarity with science fiction, an empathy for the human condition, and a willingness to laugh heartily.
"Di Filippo is the spin doctor of SF-and it's a powerful medicine he brews." -Brian Aldiss You can try to escape from the mundane, or with the help of Paul Di Filippo, you can take a brief, meaningful break from it. In the vein of George Saunders or Michael Chabon, Di Filippo uses the tools of science fiction and the surreal to take a deep, richly felt look at humanity. His brand of funny, quirky, thoughtful, fast-moving, heart-warming, brain-bending stories exist across the entire spectrum of the fantastic from hard science fiction to satire to fantasy and on to horror, delivering a riotously entertaining string of modern fables and stories from tomorrow, now and anytime. After you read Paul Di Filippo, you'll no longer see everyday life quite the same. Among the 17 stories in this collection are two stories original to this volume, some favorites of the author and older work not previously collected. As always, the themes and stories are odd yet disturbingly familiar and hauntingly relevant: "Femaville 29" explores love and salvation among the ruins of a devastated U.S. East Coast; "The Singularity Needs Women" has human and posthuman fighting for a woman's love and "Harsh Oases" itself is the first addition to the Ribofunk universe since the release of that collection some years ago. With an Introduction by Cory Doctorow Originally published: 2009
From the swarming, last-redoubt towers of the polar regions, where humanity huddles from the savage heat of Greenhouse Earth, to the dusty refugee camps of a shattered America; from the virtual reality landscape where teenagers seek to repair a wounded planet, to the post-human globe populated by wily transgenic heirs to mankind; and, lastly, across the ideology-splintered ruins of the U.S.A…a cast of dedicated survivors tries to make the best of what’s left behind, picking up the pieces of their lives and arranging them in new patterns of hope and dreaming. Here are six riveting tales of life during the hard-luck times of a post-holocaust planet.
This volume contains twelve stories which, for one reason or another, have lain uncollected after their initial publication, an era spanning the years 1986 to 1999. Additionally, four never-sold stories of roughly the same vintage-pulled from Di Filippo's files, with the oldest dating from 1984-see print here for the first time.
"A Palazzo in the Stars" collects 17 great science fiction stories by a modern master! From the author's Introduction: "This collection represents the output of about two-and-a-half years, and, while I might have filled such a book in one year’s writing time circa 1990, there’s nonetheless another collection’s worth of newer stuff awaiting curation, beyond this volume. I guess by now I should realize that, for me at least, the process is inevitable, rather like another process I am all too familiar with: acquiring extra pounds. Pleasurable, stealthy and yet eventually noticeable to all. I hope you enjoy these stories of recent vintage." PRAISE FOR PAUL DI FILIPPO: “Di Filippo is one of the most talented humorists in contemporary fantasy and science fiction.” —Publishers Weekly "[An] often genuinely funny mixture of Raymond Carver, Harry Harrison, and Douglas Adams." -- Booklist "Few SF writers are as imaginative, energetic, or idea rich as Paul Di Filippo, and fewer still have as broad a knowledge of science and culture. And there's no contemporary SF writer who's more fun to read. --Cynthia Ward
In this astonishing, variegated assortment of tales, award-winning author Paul Di Filippo covers all the themes and modes he is best-known for, and ventures into new territory as well.—Visit a hermetic city where beauty is the only currency.—Experience a steampunk fable in which nothing is what it first seems, and a young man’s future rests on finding his true father.—Hang out with the techno-savvy, social-media gypsies who form the new elite in the not-too-distant future.—Ride a wild ribofunk express train into the badlands where a man’s skin is not his own.—Experience a counterfactual World War II where victory is achieved by amazing rays.—Visit a haunted Italian city where the Neolithic and the present live side-by-side, and a hero who falls in love with a goddess must battle her ancient foe.—Visit an Orwellian future redeemed only by the imagination and love of a tortured dissenter.These are just some of the uncanny tales contained in this collection, incorporating comedy and tragedy, laughter and tears!
This eclectic, wide-ranging collection of some of Di Filippo's newest stories—plus one newly excavated gem from nearly thirty years past—illustrates the enormous territory encompassed by modern fantastical fiction in general, and this writer's realm in particular. From the sheer Lovecraftian weirdness found in "The Horror at Gancio Rosso" to the biopunk future of "The Herple is a Happy Beast"; from the old-school pulp of "Airboy and Vooda Visit the Jungles of the Moon" to the hardcore cyberpunk of "A Faster, Deeper Now", these tales chart the unexpected, the comical, the tragic and the likely-to-happen. Whether our heroes are trying to kill God ("The Trail of the Creator, the Trial of Creation") or time-travel to a happier era ("I'll Follow the Sun"), they exhibit all the intelligence, derring-do, resilience and manic assaults on the multiverse found in the best classic imaginative literature.
“Di Filippo is a joyful writer…insightful…skillful.” —Washington Post This collection presents PAUL DI FILIPPO at his best and most creative—an astonishing, multiverse-spanning selection of 19 of his very best tales, from humorous to serious, from otherworldly to in-your-backyard (and in-your-face)! Here are: Providence Argus Blinked Life in the Anthropocene Bombs Away! Cockroach Love Waves and Smart Magma To See Infinity Bare The End of the Great Continuity Fjaerland The HPL Commonplace Book Professor Fluvius’s Palace of Many Waters Yes We Have No Bananas A Partial and Conjectural History of Dr. Mueller’s Panoptical Cartoon Engine The New Cyberiad iCity Return to the 20th Century Murder in Geektopia The Omniplus Ultra! Wikiworld Introduction by Rudy Rucker
From acclaimed science fiction author Paul Di Filippo comes this new collection of mind- and genre-bending short stories. From cyberbunk to the murder of Cthulhu to a tale set in the universe of John W. Campbell’s “The Thing, ” this volume showcases Di Filippo’s range as an author—and his mastery of all elements of the fantastic. Included are: IN THE LOST CITY OF LENG THE LIFEHACK MONARCH OF THE FEAST FROM THE CASEBOOK OF MASTER WIGGINS, ESQ. LOST IN THE REWILDING THE WAY YOU CAME IN MAY NOT BE THE BEST WAY OUT THE YOG-SOTHOTH POLICEMEN’S UNION “NOTHING CAN STOP THE INSECT GIRL CORPS!” THINGMAKER AEOTA