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"Shiner doesn't work through dazzle, diversion, or sleight of hand. His prose is a model of clarity. When you come to the end of a story, you know what happened; you know how Shiner feels about it. The power seldom arises in trick and technique, but is located instead in voice and conviction. He is not the sort of writer who keeps an ironic distance. His work is more the heartfelt sort... The emotional world of these stories feels very like the real world to me." - from the introduction by Karen Joy Fowler

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Containing 41 stories and extensive author's notes, Collected Stories is the definitive compilation of Shiner's short work. His best known stories are all here, including "The War at Home," "Twilight Time," "The Circle," "Perfidia," and "Mozart in Mirrorshades," as well as a brand new story, "The Death of Che Guevara."

The limited edition will be accompanied by Widows and Orphans, a chapbook of stories not in the main volume, including: "Deserted Cities of the Heart," (short story version), "How I Won the War on Drugs," (with Bruce Sterling) "The Shoemaker's Tale," "Like the Gentle Rain," and "You Never Know."

Contents:

Perfidia
Stuff of Dreams
The War at Home
Straws
Nine Hard Questions about the Nature of the Universe
White City
Primes
The Long Ride Out
Sitcom
The Death of Che Guevara
His Girlfriend's Dog
Deep Without Pity
The Circle
Twilight Time
Jeff Beck
Wild for You
Till Human Voices Wake Us
Flagstaff
Tommy and the Talking Dog
Oz
Love in Vain
Steam Engine Time
Kings of the Afternoon
Sticks
The Tale of Mark the Bunny
The Killing Season
Scales
Snowbirds
Match
Relay
Castles Made of Sand
Prodigal Son
Mozart in Mirrorshades (with Bruce Sterling)
Kidding Around
Mystery Train
Secrets
Golfing Vietnam
Stompin' at the Savoy
Gold
Dirty Work
Lizard Men of Los Angeles
Author's Notes

Glimpses

Lewis Shiner

Ray Shackleford lives in the ruins of the idealistic 1960s. Veteran of failed garage bands, he works as a repairman of stereo equipment, tending the dying embers of his marriage, and dreaming of bygone days and the music that almost was.

When he finds the music he dreams of has been mysteriously recorded by his tape deck, Ray is drawn into the past, to revisit the histories of Hendrix, Morrison, and the Beatles... along with the history of Ray Shackleford.

Vividly re-creating a lost era that might have been, Glimpses fuses the hopes and dreams in the music with a powerful vision of reality.

Heroes and Villains

Lewis Shiner

Tales of adventure and suspense:

Five stage magicians set out to topple Hitler in 1934
A middle-aged lawyer finds himself battling new, predatory species
A hate-filled demagogue threatens the peaceful existence of the cats and dogs at the city dump
A secret agent in 1963 Egypt must stop a madman bent on world domination

The four long pieces in this volume show Lewis Shiner writing "hard edged, often political genre fiction at its finest," as Publishers Weekly said about his Collected Stories. These are some of the most accessible stories Shiner has ever written, featuring, as he says in his introduction, "car chases, ticking clocks, and things blowing up in slow motion." At the same time, all four stories deal with the abuse of power in a way that has never been more timely.

For those new to Shiner's work, Heroes and Villains is an ideal starting point, offering the complex characters and moral issues of his acclaimed novels in condensed and action-packed form. For Shiner's many fans, who include George R. R. Martin, Jonathan Lethem, and Karen Joy Fowler, no further incentive is required.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
The Black Sun
The Next
Doglandia
Doctor Helios
Story Notes

Jeff Beck

Lewis Shiner

This short story originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1986. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (1987), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections Love in Vain (2001) and Collected Stories (2010).

Love in Vain

Lewis Shiner

Love in Vain is a major collection by one of the finest writers to emerge in the '80s and perfect his craft in the '90s. Suspense. Mystery. Science Fiction. Horror. All are represented in full in this exclusive Subterranean Press release.

Table of Contents:

Love in Vain
His Girlfriend's Dog
White City
Language
Mystery Train
The War at Home
Kidding Around
Steam Engine Time
Scales
Wild For You
Sticks
Match
Oz
Gold
Secrets
Jeff Beck
The Best Part of Making Up
Dirty Work
Flagstaff
The Tale of Mark the Bunny
Castles Made of Sand

Love in Vain

Lewis Shiner

This short story originally appeared in Ripper! (1988) edited by Gardner Dozois and Susan Casper. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection (1989), and The Year's Best Fantasy: Second Annual Collection (1989). The story is included in the collection Love in Vain (2001) and Collected Stories (2010).

Read the full story for free here.

The War at Home

Lewis Shiner

This short story originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, May 1985. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986), edited by Gardner Dozois, In the Field of Fire (1987), edited by Jack Dann and Jeanne Van Buren Dann, and The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (1993), edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery. The story is included in the collections Love in Vain (2001) and Collected Stories (2010).

Twilight Time

Lewis Shiner

This novelette originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 1984. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection Collected Stories (2010). A chapbook edition appeared in 1991.

Read the full story for free here.

When the Music's Over

Lewis Shiner

This is a book about possibilities: a collection of eighteen stories that challenge our most basic assumptions, set forth promising new realities, and after hope for the future. Each story deals with desperate people embroiled in conflict, who choose to turn away from violence or war, who realize that humans --- and other races --- can learn to live in peace.

When the Music's Over is a grand tour of the hopeful side of the speculative imagination, conducted by eighteen of science fiction's brightest talents.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - essay by Lewis Shiner
Peace of Mind - shortstory by Nancy Kress
Prayers on the Wind - novella by Walter Jon Williams
Burning Up - shortstory by Mark L. Van Name
The Prince - novelette by John Shirley
The Mirror Planet - shortstory by Yuri Glazkov (trans. 1986)
Bugs - novelette by James P. Blaylock
The Invisible Country - novelette by Paul J. McAuley
Von Neumann's Second Catastrophe - shortstory by Robert Anton Wilson
Final Weapon - shortstory by Wayne Wightman
Smile - interior artwork by Marian Henley
Jim and Irene - novelette by Bruce Sterling
Empty Flames - shortstory by Richard Butner
Date with Destiny - novelette by Jack McDevitt
War in the Ponrappe Islands - shortstory by Yoshio Aramaki
Caruso - shortstory by Sherry Coldsmith
In the Dark - shortstory by Pat Cadigan
One Man's Meat - shortstory by Walton Simons
You Have the Tools - shortstory by Don Webb
Afterword: Peacework - essay by Richard Kadrey

White City

Lewis Shiner

This short story originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1990. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection (1991), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collections Love in Vain (2001) and Collected Stories (2010).