Love Hurts: A Speculative Fiction Anthology

by Hugh Howey, Charlie Jane Anders, Jeff VanderMeer, Tricia Reeks (Editor)

Overview

Twenty-six brilliant speculative fiction stories about love, and the pain that so often accompanies it. Enjoy a cornucopia of imaginative tales, wondrous settings, and unforgettable characters—such as the disillusioned time traveler who visits ancient Japan to experience a "Moment of Zen" the young woman from planet Kiruna who can only communicate in song when the moonlet Saarakka is up, and the sorcerer who loses their happiness in a bet with a demon.

Rich and wonderfully diverse, this collection spans many speculative fiction genres: from SciFi to Dystopian, from Fantasy to Magical Realism, from Steampunk to Superhero, from Horror to Weird. Sometimes funny, occasionally happy, frequently gut-wrenching—these stories will take your heart on a wild emotional ride.

Stories by Jeff VanderMeer, Hugh Howey, Karin Tidbeck, Charlie Jane Anders, Holly Phillips, Aliette de Bodard, A. Merc Rustad, Steve Simpson, Mel Paisley, J. D. Brink, Matt Leivers, Michael Milne, Michal Wojcik, Carla Dash, Terry Durbin, Michelle Ann King, Kyle Richardson, Leah Brown, G. Scott Huggins, Dan Micklethwaite, Victoria Zelvin, Shannon Phillips, Keith Frady, Jody Sollazzo, David Stevens, and Morgen Knight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780996626224
Publisher:	Meerkat Press, LLC
Publication date:	12/01/2015
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Hugh Howey is the author of the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel Wool, which became a sudden success in 2011. Originally self-published as a series of novelettes, the Wool omnibus has been a #1 bestselling book on Amazon.com and is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. The book was also optioned for film by Ridley Scott, and is now available in print from major publishers all over the world. Hugh’s other books include Shift, Dust, Sand, The Shell Collector, the Molly Fyde series, The Hurricane, Half Way Home, The Plagiarist, and I, Zombie. Hugh lives on a boat that he hopes to sail around the world. Website:www.HughHowey.com

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All the Birds in the Sky, a novel published in 2016 by Tor Books. She is the editor in chief of io9.com and the organizer of the Writers with Drinks reading series. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies. Her novelette “Six Months, Three Days” won a Hugo award. Website: CharlieJane.com

Jeff VanderMeer’s most recent fiction is the NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), all released in 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The series has been acquired by publishers in 23 other countries. Paramount Pictures/Scott Rudin Productions have acquired the movie rights. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Atlantic.com, and the Los Angeles Times. A three-time World Fantasy Award winner and 14-time nominee, VanderMeer has edited or coedited many iconic fiction anthologies, taught at the Yale Writers’ Conference, the Miami International Book Fair, lectured at MIT and the Library of Congress, and serves as the co-director of Shared Worlds, a unique teen SF/fantasy writing camp located at Wofford College. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, the noted editor Ann VanderMeer. Website: www.JeffVanderMeer.com

Tricia Reeks lives in the bear-infested mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with her mountaineer husband and her two ferocious French Bulldogs. She is the founder of Meerkat Press and the editor of Love Hurts: A Speculative Fiction Anthology.

Editorial Reviews

(4.5 Stars) "For fans of weird and beautifully written genre fiction, LOVE HURTS is a work that delivers 26 distinct emotional roller coaster rides, each as different from one another as they are from any other story you’ve probably ever read. As full of creativity as it is of heartbreak, it’s a book that truly is full of surprises."

IndieReader

"'I've always had a taste for dark,' says Reeks in her introduction, and she goes on to prove it with a top-shelf selection of tales, 20 of which are original to this book. . . A well-organized, wide-ranging collection of consistently strong genre stories." -- Kirkus Reviews

"For fans of weird and beautifully written genre fiction, LOVE HURTS is a work that delivers 26 distinct emotional roller coaster rides, each as different from one another as they are from any other story you've probably ever read. As full of creativity as it is of heartbreak, it's a book that truly is full of surprises." -- IndieReader (4.5 Stars)

From the Publisher

2016-02-11
In this anthology of short speculative fiction, debut editor Reeks gathers 26 stories about love—and the jealousy, sacrifice, and pain that can haunt even the most devoted hearts. "I've always had a taste for dark," says Reeks in her introduction, and she goes on to prove it with a top-shelf selection of tales, 20 of which are original to this book. They run the gamut of sci-fi and fantasy subgenres: there's the gory horror of Matt Leivers' "The Ghûl" and David Stevens' "The Boulevardier"; the quickly sketched dystopias of Steve Simpson's "Jacinta's Lovers" and Michal Wojcik's "Iron Roses"; and the time-travel troubles of Michael Milne's "Traveler" and G. Scott Huggins' "Past Perfect." Although most of the stories focus on heterosexual romance, Reeks also features LGBT authors, such as io9 editor Charlie Jane Anders, whose snarky urban-fantasy tale, "Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie," is as laugh-out-loud funny as the title implies, and A. Merc Rustad, whose beautiful story, "The Sorcerer's Unattainable Gardens," gets the anthology off to a strong start. She also includes tales about different types of love, such as Jeff Vandermeer's "A Heart for Lucretia," about a brother who's willing to give up anything for his sister, even himself, and Mel Paisley's short but heartbreaking "A Concise Protocol for Efficient Deicide," in which a captive alien soothes a mutilated human child with dreams of escaping the scientists who hold them both, so they can go someplace "Where they could understand something without breaking it." Other standouts include "Virgin of the Sands" by Holly Phillips, set in a World War II-era North Africa, where an army-intelligence group employs a necromancer; "Back to Where I Know You," by Victoria Zelvin, in which two women struggle to prevent their memories of each other from being erased; and "While (U>I)I- -;" by Hugh Howey, a tear-jerker about an android who meticulously ages himself for the sake of his robot-hating wife. A well-organized, wide-ranging collection of consistently strong genre stories.

Kirkus Reviews