the very best of caitlin r kiernan

June 1, 2020

Kameron Hurley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Tachyon itself are 2020 Locus Award finalists

Rick Klaw blog alastair reynolds, ann vandermeer, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Charlie Jane Anders, charlies jane, dead astronauts, echoes: the saga anthology of ghost stories, Ellen Datlow, jeff vandermeer, John Joseph Adams, julie dillon, kameron hurley, locus award finalists, meet me in the future, michael swanwick, permafrost, shadow captain, the big book of classic, the city in the middle of the night, the iron dragon's mother, the light brigade, the very best of caitlin r kiernan

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

The finalists for the 2020 Locus Awards were announced. Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE, THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, and Tachyon Publications itself all received notices. Previous Tachyon authors, editors, and artists John Joseph Adams, Charlie Jane Anders, Ellen Datlow, Julie Dillon, John Picacio, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick, Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer, Charles Vess, Michael Whelan, and Sheila Williams were all honored too.

Congratulations to all the finalists.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese; Chatto & Windus)
Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor)
The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
The Future of Another Timeline, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US & UK)
The Rosewater Insurrection/The Rosewater Redemption, Tade Thompson (Orbit US & UK)
Wanderers, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Solaris)

FANTASY NOVEL

Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; Gollancz)
A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (Orbit US & UK)
Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit US & UK)
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; Fourth Estate)

HORROR NOVEL

Imaginary Friend, Stephen Chbosky (Grand Central; Orion)
Prisoner of Midnight, Barbara Hambly (Severn House)
Curious Toys, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (Riverhead; Hamish Hamilton)
The Grand Dark, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager US & UK)
The Institute, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
The Twisted Ones, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, Kim Newman (Titan US & UK)
The Pursuit of William Abbey, Claire North (Orbit US & UK)
The Toll, Cherie Priest (Tor)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo (Imprint; Orion)
The Wicked King, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World; Faber & Faber)
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (TorTeen)
Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)
Destroy All Monsters, Sam J. Miller (Harper Teen)
Angel Mage, Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)
The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Penguin UK & David Fickling)
Shadow Captain, Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US; Gollancz)

FIRST NOVEL

The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey (Tor)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
Infinite Detail, Tim Maughan (MCD x FSG Originals)
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
Finder, Suzanne Palmer (DAW)
A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan (Tor; Head of Zeus)
The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling (Harper Voyager)

NOVELLA

“A Time to Reap“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 12/19)
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
Desdemona and the Deep, C.S.E. Cooney (Tor.com Publishing)
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, Saad Z. Hossain (Tor.com Publishing)
Permafrost, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com Publishing)
The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
The Ascent to Godhood, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

“Erase, Erase, Erase”, Elizabeth Bear (F&SF 9-10/19)
“For He Can Creep“, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
“Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
“A Country Called Winter”, Theodora Goss (Snow White Learns Witchcraft)
“Late Returns”, Joe Hill (Full Throttle)
“Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
“The Justified”, Ann Leckie (The Mythic Dream)
“Phantoms of the Midway”, Seanan McGuire (The Mythic Dream)
“Binti: Sacred Fire”, Nnedi Okorafor (Binti: The Complete Trilogy)
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)

SHORT STORY

“The Bookstore at the End of America”, Charlie Jane Anders (A People’s Future of the United States)
“Lest We Forget“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 5-6/19)
“The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex”, Tobias S. Buckell (New Suns)
“It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning“, Ted Chiang (New York Times 5/27/19)
“Fisher-Bird”, T. Kingfisher (The Mythic Dream)
“I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married“, Fonda Lee (MIT Technology Review 12/27/19)
“The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear“, Kelly Link (Tin House ’19)
“Thoughts and Prayers“, Ken Liu (Future Tense 1/26/19)
“A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”, Rebecca Roanhorse (The Mythic Dream)
“A Catalog of Storms“, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)’

ANTHOLOGY

Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Saga)
The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
A People’s Future of the United States, Victor LaValle & John Joseph Adams, eds. (One World)
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu, ed. (Tor)
The Mythic Dream, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)
New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Thirteen, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
Mission Critical, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
The Best of Uncanny, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, eds. (Subterranean)
The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)

COLLECTION

Exhalation, Ted Chiang (Knopf; Picador)
Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
The Best of Greg Egan, Greg Egan (Subterranean)
Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium)
Full Throttle, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)
MEET ME IN THE FUTURE, Kameron Hurley (Tachyon)
THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tachyon)
The Best of R.A. Lafferty, R.A. Lafferty (Gollancz)
Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US & UK)
Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer)

Cover by Carl Sutton
Design by Elizabeth Story

May 26, 2020

Happy birthday to the exceptional Caitlín R. Kiernan

Rick Klaw birthday, blog Asmodochelys parhami, birthday, black helicopters, Caitlín R. Kiernan, houses under the seas, La Belle Fleur Sauvage: Plague of the Womb, the very best of caitlin r kiernan 0

Born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in the southeastern U.S., writer, vertebrate paleontologist, and musician Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of thirteen acclaimed novels including Silk (1998; winner of International Horror Guild Award), Threshold (2001; International Horror Guild), Murder of Angels (2004), The Red Tree (2009), The Drowning Girl (2012; Tiptree and Stoker), the Siobhan Quinn series (all as by Kathleen Tierney; Blood Oranges [2013], Red Delicious [2014], and Cherry Bomb [2015]), Agents of Dreamland (2017), Black Helicopters (2018), and La Belle Fleur Sauvage: Plague of the Womb (2019).

Her more than two hundred and fifty short stories have been collected in Candles for Elizabeth (1998), Tales of Pain and Wonder (1999), Wrong Things (2001 with Poppy Z. Brite), To Charles Fort, with Love (2005), A Is for Alien (2009), Two Worlds and In Between (2011), Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (2012), The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories (2013; winner of the World Fantasy Award), Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea (2015), Dear Sweet Filthy World (2017), The Dinosaur Tourist (2018), Houses Under the Sea (2019), and THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN (2019).

Kiernan has written graphic novels for both DC/Vertigo and Dark Horse Comics including The Dreaming (1996-2001 with various artists), a spin off series from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and the Stoker Award winning Alabaster: Wolves (2013; with artist Steve Lieber). She fronted Death’s Little Sister, a short-lived goth-rock band.

A vertebrate paleontologist, Kiernan co-founded the Birmingham Paleontological Society (1984). She co-authored papers describing a new genus and species of an ancient marine lizard the mosasaur Selmasaurus russelli (1988) and in 2020, a new large fossil sea turtle, Asmodochelys parhami. In 2019, Kiernan became a research associate and fossil preparator at McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama.

In November 2005, she began publishing the Sirenia Digest, “a monthly subscription-only e-zine continuing Caitlín’s exploration of the fusion of erotic literature with elements of dark fantasy and science fiction, usually creating brief, dreamlike vignettes, and sometimes much longer short stories.” There are currently sixty-six issues and more than eighty vignettes.

***Asmodochelys parhami***
Courtesy of The Royal Society

Kiernan lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her partner, Kathryn Pollnac, and two very large cats, Selwyn and Lydia.

All of us at Tachyon wish the lyrical and memorable Caitlín a happy birthday full of dark fantasy and dinosaurs.

May 13, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, Kameron Hurley, Lavie Tidhar, and Lauren Beukes

Rick Klaw blog a man lies dreaming, afterland, apocalypse nyx, Caitlín R. Kiernan, central station, eleni sakellis, kameron hurley, lauren beukes, lavie tidhar, meet me in the future, Nick Mamatas, podcast, Publishers Weekly, r/weirdlit, reading envy, reddit, review, seiun award, the national herald, the people's republic of everything, the very best of caitlin r kiernan, xingyun award 0

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Caitlín R. Kiernan
Photo by Kyle Cassidy

Over at REDDIT in r/WeirdLit there is a hub for THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

This is our hub thread for collecting the short story discussion threads surrounding THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN. As long as Reddit allows me, I’ll be linking each discussion in order so that we can follow along.

Eleni Sakellis for THE NATIONAL HERALD includes Nick Mamatas’ THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING among Tips and Recommendations for Your Lockdown Reading List.

For those interested in reading Greek-American authors, Nick Mamatas is a gifted writer with an impressive range of works to enjoy, including Sabbath, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING, and Mixed Up, a collection of cocktail recipes and flash fiction edited by Mamatas and Molly Tanzer.

READING ENVY 186 discusses several works by Kameron Hurley including MEET ME IN THE FUTURE and APOCALYPSE NYX.

Cover by Wadim Kashin
Design by Elizabeth Story

February 12, 2020

THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN provides a strong starting point for exploring Kiernan’s one-of-a-kind fiction

Rick Klaw blog Caitlín R. Kiernan, carolyn cox, gary k wolfe, joe hill, kameron hurley, meet me in the future, orrin grey, the line up, the portalist, the very best of caitlin r kiernan 0

For THE LINE UP, Orrin Grey includes THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN in What Are the Best Weird Fiction Books? Here Are 13 Tales of Cosmic Horror to Get You Started.

Over the years, Caitlin R. Kiernan has established herself as a savant of all kinds of strange, beautiful, haunting, and tragic stories—she does have more than one “best of” volume to her name, after all—and among those forms in which she has demonstrated a confident mastery is the weird tale. THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN provides a strong starting point for exploring Kiernan’s one-of-a-kind fiction.

Carolyn Cox, at THE PORTALIST, expresses similar feelings about the collection in What to Read Next If You Love Joe Hill Books.

Speculative fiction author Caitlin R. Kiernan also has a reputation for writing horror stories that are truly haunting.

This anthology features the best of the best from Kiernan’s extensive lexicon of horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. The World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and James Tiptree Jr. Award-winning author is on full display in this anthology, which makes a perfect companion read to Twentieth Century Ghosts.

In his year-in-review piece for LOCUS Gary K. Wolfe mentions THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN as well as an allusion to Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE.

The year also saw impressive first story collections from Kameron Hurley and Sarah Pinsker (who had a terrific year with a first novel and a first collection), solid collections from the always underappreciated Gwyneth Jones and Susan Palwick, and important retrospective collections including the massive The Best of Greg Egan, which reminded us just how profound Egan’s influence has been over the past three decades, and the inimitable Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan.

February 3, 2020

2019 Locus Recommended Reading List includes titles from Lisa Goldstein, Kameron Hurley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, and Peter Watts

Rick Klaw blog Caitlín R. Kiernan, hannu rajaniemi, ivory apples, jacob weisman, kameron hurley, lisa goldstein, Locus, meet me in the future, Peter Watts, peter watts is an angry sentient tumor, the new voices of science fiction, the very best of caitlin r kiernan 0

LOCUS released their annual recommended reading list. Tachyon is proud to have several selections including Lisa Goldstein’s IVORY APPLES, Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE, THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman‘s THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION, and PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR.

Other Tachyon authors, artists, and editors receiving notice include John Joseph Adams, Charlie Jane Anders, Rick Berry, Michael Blumlein, Ellen Datlow, Julie Dillon, Cory Doctorow, Ellen Klages, Susan Palwick, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick, Lavie Tidhar, Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer, and Jo Walton.

Congrats to all.

Cover art by Matt Dixon
Cover design by Elizabeth Story

January 13, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Caitlín R. Kiernan, Peter Watts, Jane Yolen, Peter S. Beagle, and Brian Aldiss

Rick Klaw blog brian aldiss, Caitlín R. Kiernan, hooked on bookz, how to fracture a fairy tale, Jane Yolen, jee wan, jennifer oleinik, micha castle, novel notions, oxford mail, peter s beagle, Peter Watts, peter watts is an angry sentient tumor, rebecca whittaker, review, shelf awareness, the overneath, the very best of caitlin r kiernan, wendy aldiss 0

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Micah Castle, on his eponymous site, praises THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

Kerinan’s prose is provocative, mysterious, soothing, decadent, flowery without being flowery. It’s seeing a master at her best. It’s inspiring, mystifying, indescribable. I could try to describe how much I enjoy her prose, but it would only come out wrong. It would be like a child trying to describe the vastness and mystery of the cosmos.

For SHELF AWARENESS, Jennifer Oleinik reviews the unflinchingly honest PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR.

Those seeking peace of mind and a sunny outlook on life will not find much of them here, but Watts still manages to appreciate moments of good mixed in with the bad. As he says, “Even my most bitter diatribes might not be totally fatalistic.” Watts’s unflinching honesty, both brave and harsh, is what drives the collection, and whether readers agree with him or not, he certainly knows how to start a conversation.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale — Cover design by Elizabeth Story

December 4, 2019

Tachyon tidbits featuring Caitlín R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Patricia A. McKillip, and Jeff VanderMeer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized book riot, borne, boxy robot, broadswords and blasters, Caitlín R. Kiernan, cameron mount, dead astronauts, deadline, denise petski, elizabeth story, hannes hummel, jeff vandermeer, jessica avery, Joe R. Lansdale, patricia a mckillip, review, stephen king, the big book of hap and leonard, the forgotten beasts of eld, the very best of caitlin r kiernan, Thomas Canty, tim lepczyk

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Caitlín R. Kiernan (photo: Kyle Cassidy, Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), Patricia A. McKillip (Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons), and Jeff VanderMeer (Kyle Cassidy)

Jessica Avery of BOOK RIOT names Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of

15 Authors Like Stephen King You Need to Add to Your TBR.

Am I ever going to stop talking about Caitlín R. Kiernan’s collection? Probably not. THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN
came along just as I was making the slide from dark fantasy in to
outright horror, and I could not have wished for a better guide. Like
King, Kiernan’s short fiction covers a broad range of subjects and
genres, from science fiction to fantasy to the cosmic horror that she’s
become so well known for with her novella Agents of Dreamland.
Her stories are strange, beautiful, and full of emotion. They have the
sort of staying power that makes them linger with you for months.

For BROADSWORDS AND BLASTERS, Cameron Mount praises Joe R. Lansdale’s THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD.

There are a few slice of life shorts like
“Death by Chili” and “Not Our Kind” and a vignette titled “The Oak and
the Pond,” which are glimpses into the characters’ lives outside of
their big adventures, These are fun to read and provide some more
character development than you might expect, but the stand-out for me
among these shorter stories is “The Boy Who Became Invisible.” It’s
about Hap’s childhood and Hap’s failure when his friend is bullied into
invisibility before the friend briefly flashes back into existence in a
terrible way. It resonates in general, but perhaps because I was the
subject of such childhood bullying it hit home a lot more for me.

Tim Lepczyk at BOXY ROBOT offers an analytical review of Patricia A. McKillip’s THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD.

Patricia McKillip creates a world of magic and beauty. The action
doesn’t hum along, but there’s a dreamlike quality to her writing that
envelopes the reader and floats them along on this journey. It’s hard to
describe, but everything comes together from tone and mood to
description and imagination. McKillip created a wonderful book that is
both quiet and powerful.

DEADLINE’s Denise Petski reports Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne Universe Novels In The Works For Television By AMC Studios.

AMC Studios has acquired the television rights to Jeff VanderMeer’s popular Borne
universe novels to develop as a potential series. The books all take
place within the same mysterious, mind-bending universe VanderMeer
launched in 2017 with Borne, followed by The Strange Bird, and the latest, Dead Astronauts, set to publish today. VanderMeer will serve as an executive producer and creative consultant on the project.

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

October 1, 2019

Tachyon tidbits featuring Caitlín R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Jacob Weisman, and David Sandner

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized andrew wheeler, apb-sal, Caitlín R. Kiernan, cold in july, David Sandner, elizabeth story, hannes hummel, jacob weisman, Joe R. Lansdale, kathryn adams, mingus fingers, pixelated geek, review, the antick musings of g.b.h. hornswoggler, the very best of caitlin r kiernan, trent walters

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Caitlín R. Kiernan (photo: Kyle Cassidy, Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), and David Sandner & Jacob Weisman (James Patrick Kelly)

Kathryn Adams at PIXELATED GEEK is amazed by THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

There’s literally nothing out there quite like Kiernan’s stories, and
they’re dazzling. I came up from most of these blinking and disoriented
and not at all sure what I’d just read.

On APB-SAL, Trent Walters discusses both the book and movie versions of Joe R. Lansdale’s COLD IN JULY.

The movie has a more visceral motive to launch the boys into
a vigilante story. The protagonist and I had to turn our heads. Still, for the
most part, the narrative and themes are intact. Both are worth checking out.

Andrew Wheeler on his THE ANTICK MUSINGS OF G. B. H. HORNSWOGGLER, GENT is looking forward to David Sandner and Jacob Weisman’s Mingus Fingers.

I’ll lead with the quirkiest thing, since that’s how I roll: Mingus Fingers by
David Sandner and Jacob Weisman, coming from Fairwood Press in
November. It’s a short, small-format book – probably a novellette –
and the speculative element seems to be,um, unique.

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

For more about COLD IN JULY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

June 29, 2019

Happy birthday to Tachyon’s sensational managing editor Jill Roberts

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alexander nanitchkov, birthday, brandon sanderson, central station, daryl gregory, elizabeth story, hannes hummel, her smoke rose up forever, james tiptree jr, jill roberts, John Picacio, lavie tidhar, Peter Watts, sarah anne langton, the emperor's soul, the freeze frame revolution, the very best of caitlin r kiernan, we are all completely fine

Since joining Tachyon in 2002 as the managing editor, Jill Roberts has overseen the remaking of the press from one that originally published 2-3 titles a year and only sold to specialty bookstores into its present incarnation of 8-10 books a year and mainstream distribution. Tachyon tiles under her watch have won Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, Campbell, Neukom, Sturgeon, and Locus awards and routinely make “best of the year” lists. Among the numerous acclaimed titles Roberts oversaw include HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOREVER by James Tiptree Jr., THE EMPEROR’S SOUL by Brandon Sanderson, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE by Daryl Gregory, STEAMPUNK edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, CENTRAL STATION by Lavie Tidhar, THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND by Kage Baker, THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION by Peter Watts, and THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

Prior to Tachyon, Roberts worked within the gaming, fashion, and health industries. She has been a columnist for Books to Watch Out For and the Thirteenth Moon, as well as a consulting editor at the nonprofit writing program Streetside Stories.

Everyone at Tachyon wishes the amazing Jill a happy birthday. And not just because we’re scared of her.

For more about THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Alexander Nanitchkov
Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOREVER, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Picacio

For info about WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

May 31, 2019

The magnificent nightmares of THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN will f**king haunt you

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized annette lapointe, Caitlín R. Kiernan, duncan lawie, elizabeth story, gary k wolfe, hannes hummel, Locus, new york journal of books, paul stjohn mackintosh, review, shon richards, strange horizons, the very best of caitlin r kiernan

A quintet of praise for THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN.

Photo: Kyle Cassidy

Shon Richards on their eponymous site loves the collection.

I would argue that anything Caitlin Kiernan writes is the very best but I am biased that way. This edition collects some really fabulous stories and I enjoyed every one of them. These stories are not just horror and weird fiction. These stories will fucking haunt you.

For STRANGE HORIZONS, Duncan Lawie both enjoys and is exhausted by the unforgettable stories.

The result is that this can be an exhausting collection to read. Almost every story asks for close attention, for serious and thoughtful engagement with the text. They start and end in strange places; they are confusing; they strive for mood over plot, feeling over revelation. But they reward that necessary close attention. Perhaps they don’t explain themselves, but there is often a purpose that can be sensed, a satisfaction found in puzzling something out of the material presented. There are lovely turns of phrase, powerful images, and beautiful sentences. There are exacting descriptions which indicate that, when something is vague, it is because Kiernan wishes it to remain so. Sometimes there is even a sense of relief in the ending—even if this is simply that the grimmest thing hasn’t happened.

<snip>

With 250 stories to Kiernan’s name, it is impossible for this reader to tell how representative these are of her fiction career of nearly thirty years. Indeed, even within this collection I have named fewer than half the available stories, but I hold each of them close—except the ones I want to forget, and those seem to hold on to me.

Annette Lapointe at NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS likes the book.

Within this darkness, a new infection emerges. An alien thing, it occupies bodies and shifts them into new, horrifying modes: “this incomplete, demonic biology. [The infected] were each no more than appendages now, human beings become coalesced obligate parasites or symbiotes, their glinting, chitinous bodies all but lost in a labyrinth of mucosal membranes, buried by the array of connective tissues and tubes that sprouted from them like cancerous umbilical cords.” The layers of sex and motherhood linked to the disease only expand the nightmare. Most crucially, this state is something the women seek out. They ask for the infection; they transform themselves.

These magnificent nightmares rise out of Kiernan’s work and infect the brain of the reader. If her work is infectious, so far only the restrictions of genre publishing have prevented an epidemic. Yet, like the Fenrir virus of “Bradbury Weather,” that infection is something we can choose; it might even be desirable. The alienness is seductive. In a terrible world (the world is terrible; that chandelier used to be a medical student: she chose this, too), we inevitably desire terrible things. New terrors are what Kiernan offers, for worse, but for transformative worse.

On LOCUS, Gary K. Wolfe reviews the volume.

THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, a title apparently meant to avoid confusion with the two volumes of The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan published by Subterranean in 2011 and 2015, is probably as good a one-volume introduction to the variety of Kiernan’s work as we’re likely to get, though it draws almost entirely on the last 15 years of her career (with only one earlier story, from 2003). While there are certainly some worthwhile earlier stories, there’s an argument to be made that Kiernan, who has been consistently maturing as an author since the ’90s, really found her voice and her strongest themes in the early years of this century. The lyricism and striking imagery are still there, but what at times seemed an infatuation with style has given way to an approach that is somehow more disciplined and more experimental at the same time, as though a brilliant improvisational dancer had learned choreography. Kiernan has often made use of dreamlike imagery, but it takes a good deal of narrative confidence to get away with a story like “In View of Nothing”, the most purely dreamlike tale here, which preserves the odd narrative shifts of an actual dream while maintaining its emotional focus on the two women, one a failed assassin and the other an amputee who seems to represent some sort of authority, who are basically talking in a room for most of the story.

Paul StJohn Mackintosh on his eponymous site lauds the publication and author.

What this compilation does demonstrate is that Caitlín R. Kiernan is producing the very best of contemporary dark and weird fiction, regardless of whether or not that typifies her whole range. She not only has written more than nine-tenths of her contemporaries, she has also written substantially better than nine-tenths of them. She casually throws off metaphor and imagery in passing that would make any other writer’s career. Kiernan has a word horde as rich as Smaug’s, and a voice as mesmeric.

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In their introduction to The Weird, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer write that Kiernan has “become perhaps the best weird writer of her generation.” There’s only two parts to that statement I’d question: Only weird? And perhaps? Weird fiction as a genre, if it is a genre, should be grateful to be able to lay even partial or intermittent claim to her. Caitlín R. Kiernan is the fulfilment of every weird fiction pundit’s dream of a transgressive, inclusive, brutally contemporary author who brings all the territory’s sub-genres bang up to date while ditching their historical baggage – yet she effortlessly transcends such categories and limitations, just as she effortlessly transcends every genre she’s cared to touch down in. Even after successive World Fantasy Awards and Bram Stoker Awards, she’s still a writer who can’t be honoured and recognized enough. Words fail me. But they rarely if ever fail her.

For more info about THE VERY BEST OF CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Hannes Hummel
Design by Elizabeth Story

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