 |
PUBLICATIONS |
|
|---|
|
In that moment Lemmy suddenly understood. The house had no physical roof. It had no physical ceilings, no physical upstairs floor, nothing to keep out the physical rain that fell from the physical sky. In the physical world there was no TV here, no fire, no lights, no fluffy rug, no comfy chairs, no Mouser or Dorothy or Lemmy or John, just an empty shell of brick, open to the sky, a ruin among many others, in the midst of an abandoned city. These fourteen stories, among other things, contain robots, alien planets, genetic manipulation and virtual reality, but their centre focuses on individuals rather than technology, and they deal with love and loneliness, authenticity and illusion, and what it really means to be human. With an introduction from Alastair Reynolds, author of the Revelation Space series. Praise for Chris Beckett’s fiction: On “The Gates of Troy”: Simply put, this is the best time travel story I've ever read – Lynda Moorhouse, Tangent Online On “ Snapshots of Apirania”: A clever story, this is the gem of the issue – Jay Lake, Tangent Online On “Karel’s Prayer”: The clever layering and deep themes are a hallmark of Beckett at his best - mixed in with the clash of science and religion are questions of identity, of knowing who and what one is…this is a brilliant story... Beckett may run the risk of becoming (thematically, at least) Britain’s Philip K. Dick – Velcro City Tourist Board. On “The Holy Machine”: One of the very finest SF novels I have read in a long time – Gary Gibson If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
|
After word got out, every disaffected nut or neurotic within walking distance wanted to throw his or her self into the Reef, hoping to be transfigured, hoping to become something better than what they were. Some emergents reported visions of former times and places, of great insight and enlightenment. Others came out as drooling idiots, their brains wiped of knowledge and experience. Some came out fused together; others were splintered into clouds of tiny animals. No two incidents were exactly alike. Gareth L Powell’s first collection of short stories is stuffed with mind-bending ideas and unforgettable characters. Ranging from the day after tomorrow to the far-flung future, these fifteen stories are perfect for anyone with a craving for intelligent and thought-provoking adventure. From noir-ish cops to disaffected space pilots, blind photographers and low-life hackers, everyone here is struggling to find a little peace amid the tumult of the future. With an introduction from Interzone co-editor, Jetse De Vries. Praise for Gareth L Powell’s fiction: “Profound and unforgettable... I wholeheartedly give my highest recommendation” – sfreader.com “A powerful torrent of invention... a fabulous read indeed.” – Horrorscope “Intensely rewarding” – SF Diplomat “Just the way SF should work” – Warren Ellis If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
|
When he came closer still, she saw the fine, radial scars around his eyes. A Void Dancer. A shudder passed through her. A Void Dancer. She’d never met one, but everyone knew what they did. Take a one-person jumpship and dive into the Wyrm at a velocity and angle of incidence nobody had ever tried before. Mapping the Universe by throwing darts, blindfolded, in an empty room. In these nineteen stories Marcus maps out possible futures and theoretical pasts, crisscrossing reality with fantasy, and weaving intricate storylines in the process. His characters are frightened and fragile, facing brave new worlds whilst retaining their humanity. If you want to know what the future really looks like, then look here. Love stories, every one. Dan Marcus knows the shape and sound of tomorrow. I ndeed , like Stross and Doctorow, he is one of its most literate creators. S eeing his edgy stories together, we discover that he's been working ancient ground with modern tools. This remarkable first collection from a veteran author is a treasure for readers. This is Science Fiction of the highest level. The stores ring with authenticity. The language is sharp and funny and unflinching. The science crackles. The characters are you and me: bold, lost, loving, haunted. Marcus writes with an apocalyptic vision and a humanist's heart. Michael Blumlein, World Fantasy Award finalist and author of “The Healer” and “X,Y” With an introduction by Carter Scholz If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
|
He was faced with undeniable reality, the way one is faced with the street outside a movie theater, when it is evening, the lights are on, and you thought it was still afternoon, after a particularly long and engrossing show… It was as though he could see her with increasing clarity while he spoke. The pale form kept changing, taking on color and texture, substance, weight, presence, until a real girl sat in front of him. This is a book about magic. It is also about love…and other emotions. But mainly it concerns those moments when suddenly we become aware of the magical aspects of the world, when we catch a glimpse of reality’s other side, peering through ordinary barriers, past a split in the sky, into somewhere else, where we might find something wondrous. “Santana Morning” was originally published in 1970, but a quirk of fate has given it a forgotten history. The author, Mike Dolan, once lauded by the likes of Ray Bradbury slipped back into obscurity, resurfacing over thirty-five years later to put a new spin on these tales. Elastic Press is delighted to present “Another Santana Morning”, a revamped and updated version of the original book. Read it and rediscover that old magic. With an introduction by Chaz Brenchley, the award-winning author of “The Books of Outremer”. If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
“There’s no point giving a shit, you know. About anything. Ever.” “You keep believing that.” “I will.” Andrew Humphrey follows up his acclaimed first collection, “Open The Box”, with another twelve stories of loss and abandonment, fear and greed. Moving through the genres of urban horror, science fiction, crime and slipstream, Humphrey examines the effects of the fantastic upon the personal, whether through future dystopias, a missing child, climatic change, or repeated infidelity. His characters live in edgy realities and shifting fantasies, their existence tied to the inevitability of fate: something they struggle against as much as they embrace. The book features an introduction by Eric Brown. Praise for “Open The Box”: Everyone's trying to escape their fate in some way - maybe through an affair or a drug deal or just another pint of lager. This is an often gripping debut collection – The Third Alternative An impressive first collection – Ellen Datlow, Co-Editor of Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Unclassifiable, and often quite brilliant – Eric Brown, Infinity Plus An astonishingly good writer – Mystery Scene If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
||||
|
He stands at the threshold, feeling on the cusp of something and yet half empty and dizzy with visions and aromas. He feels solid and yet capable of flight. Hard and flimsy. There’s something here, there’s something he needs to know, to see. He steps forward. Jai Clare’s stories are filled with the disaffected, those who kick against their everyday lives, who crave the mystic when seeking their spirituality, and who are desperate to be alone as much as they are desperate to be with someone. Whether in North Africa, Greece, or Britain her characters’ concerns remain the same. To find meaning in the universal and the personal, through transient sex or emotional depth. All told with a fluid intensity of prose that cuts to the heart of them, lays them bare to misfortune and fortune, and stands them waiting on the brink of discovery. "Jai Clare is a courageously inventive writer whose short pieces are clever, ambitious, delightful and always surprising." – Jim Crace, author of The Pesthouse. “Jai Clare has understood the secret of the short story: lyricism, brevity, consequentiality. She brings to her writing an easy and deep-reaching grasp of character and a lovely open eroticism. She is a serious writer whom we are lucky to have." Sebastian Barker, editor of London Magazine. If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
|
“Superman was always a bastard.” In these fourteen short stories entertainment is explored in all its forms, subtly twisted into alternate realities where music, boxing, film, and television distort history to sometimes comic, sometimes tragic effect. In Neilson’s science fiction, fantasy lives just around the corner from reality. What if John Lennon had been kicked out of the Beatles? What if Elvis’ twin brother had survived? What if we could go back in time to give reality TV a historical perspective? What if the Pope was Irish, a gambler, and needed to bet on a dead cert? Open this book and find out. “Here you'll find some very gritty and atmospheric stories, grainy with detail, ranging from bittersweet ironies of missed chances in the past to a harrowing account of exploitative near-future pugilism. John Lennon: now who on Earth was he? Bob Neilson is a great story-teller.” Ian Watson “A great new talent in storytelling” Anne McCaffrey If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
|
After it happened, my marriage only lasted two more months. Janine? She would tell me that it wasn’t really my fault. But she never looked in my eyes once, each time she said it. And by mid-February, she was gone. Time is of the essence, and in these fourteen stories from acclaimed horror writer Tony Richards the essence of time is the link that pulls his characters together. Richards explores the nature of reality and perception filtered through the conduit of time; examines how our decisions can lead us down unsettling paths, and however carefully we make our choices they can still contain strange consequences, often tragic ones. A man becomes trapped within a never-ending day, another tries to prevent a child’s death by returning to the past. Nine rocks predict the end of the world, and a beautiful stranger continues to exist physically even though her time is at an end. Meanwhile non-existent cats play havoc with a bewildered couple’s life, as mortality nudges at our shoulders, drawing ever closer. If only time wasn’t linear. Which way would you turn the clock, forward or back? “A terrific story-teller” – Graham Joyce “An amazing voice” – James A. Moore Man, can this guy write. (He) has the power to introduce you all over again to the pleasures of reading good prose” – Ed Gorman If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
Cover art by Mike Fyles |
My cat gets inside the TV and kills people. I know it does, I’ve seen it. But you just cannot argue with nature. Killer cats. Just one of the extraordinary ideas spun into story by Mat Coward, a writer whose fiction is underpinned by an oblique sense of humour and infused with his wry take on life. Time travel, flying saucers, and little green men are often SF’s starting points, but rarely have they been given the affectionate twists that Coward bestows on them. If you believe science fiction is the fiction of ideas then this unique collection is for you. Journey through these sixteen stories and unravel the mystery of dead ghosts, discover why fresh air is so clean, and understand why the Joke Squad is one of the busiest in the police force, whilst Coward’s characters deal with infestations of horses, witches running call centres, and ponder the eternal question: if time travel is possible then where are all the time travellers? So Far, So Near. Worlds that are but a side step away from our reality. I was thrilled to find 'We All Saw It' in this collection. It had stuck in my mind ever since I first read it. All the stories here have that distinctive tang, of the intrusion of the alien or fantastic on the ordinary, that we remember from some classic SF and are delighted to find again. Better yet, we find it fresh, and with a sharp philosophical and political mind behind observant eyes. Humanist SF with Martian cool! - Ken MacLeod Even with extremely humorous booby-traps lurking for anyone with the ability to laugh, Mat Coward cannot disguise his basic humanity – nor can he hide his consummate skills at writing, damn fine story-telling, and dialogue to kill for. Read this book – Jon George, author of Zootsuit Black (Tor UK) If you live in the UK:
If you live outside the UK:
|
|||
Cover art by Allison Best Internal cartoons by rm |
Photocopies of Heaven by Maurice Suckling In Maurice Suckling’s debut collection slices of life react and interact against a consumerist background where expectations of what we are and where we should be going are frequently in conflict with reality. Combining traditional storytelling, vignettes, emails, text messages, and a cartoon, Suckling reinvents the short form for a society that has replaced its gods with technology, yet still prefers the permanency of love over a quick cyber fix. If you're in the UK: If you're outside the UK:
|
|||
Cover art by Dean Harkness |
Extended Play - The Elastic Book of Music In these stories writers use music as a springboard for their fiction, their characters lives entwined with the metaphorical music of the spheres as well as that played upon the stage.. Like the mid-length EP, Extended Play showcases work of longer length than the average story, allowing greater characterisation, depth of theme, and complexity of plot, whilst still benefiting from the conciseness of the short. This anthology brings new meaning to the phrase one hit wonders. Accompanying the fiction some contemporary songwriters comment on how fiction has affected their music, looking at the influence from the other side of the coin. Writers: Marion Arnott, Becky Done, Andrew Humphrey, Emma Lee, Tim Nickels, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Philip Raines, Tony Richards, Nels Stanley, Harvey Welles. Songwriters: JJ Burnel (The Stranglers), Rebekah Delgado (Ciccone), Catherine and Susan Hay (The Tall Poppies), Lene Lovich, Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak (Mercury Rev), Jof Owen (The Boy Least Likely To), Iain Ross (Bearsuit), Chris Stein (Blondie), Chris T-T. If you're in the UK:
If you're outside the UK: |
|||
Cover art by Mike Bohatch |
Unbecoming by Mike O'Driscoll In these – appropriately – thirteen stories, Mike O’Driscoll plays with our imagination and expectations, subverting the horror genre whilst embracing its conventions. What results is a strangely brewed cocktail of terror: dark, dangerous, and sometimes downright dirty, O’Driscoll’s stories get under your skin and into your head, where the freedom to prowl the peripheries of your consciousness becomes addictive. Uncompromising and unflinching, this is modern horror at its very best. A man becomes obsessed by noise, another finds himself reduced to shadow, children are coveted by the perverse antithesis of loving parents, and artists stretch the limits of their capabilities. Acknowledging sensations that all is not right with the world, the characters twist and turn with each cut from life’s rusty knife: seeking redemption, finding none. O’Driscoll writes horror from the inside out. Identities in crisis, lives falling apart. Wherever Mike O’Driscoll’s stories are set – downtown LA, Soho medialand or the Gower Peninsula – the light is fading to a dusky noir but his characters are still recognisable as people you know. Compassion as real as the horror: O’Driscoll doesn’t do inauthentic. The monster within is pissed off . – Nicholas Royle, author of Antwerp (Serpent’s Tail) Mike O’Driscoll writes mysterious, sometimes convoluted, utterly chilling stories. I’ve been reading - and sometimes publishing - his work for many years and am delighted that it’s finally available in this fine collection. – Ellen Datlow, Co-Editor of Year's Best Fantasy & Horror Unbecoming is 260pp with a full colour cover and is available for £6.00 plus £1.50 p&p. Click here to purchase If you're in the UK:
If you're outside the UK:
|
|||
|
Ephemera by Neil Williamson Neil Williamson's collection of bittersweet tales features fourteen stories of impermanence: from the ends of love affairs and the brief sanity of wartime convalescence, to the fading away of old languages and the dying of humanity itself. An artist communicates solely through a bizarre mosaic, a father and his dying daughter seek hope in plague-ridden Scotland, a London pensioner’s existence is inextricably bound to that of his pet canary, and in the jungles of Borneo a criminal searches for his missing son hoping for reconciliation before the end of the world. SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover art by Rachel Dorling |
The Last Days of Johnny North
by David Swann
Dave Swann is, without doubt, one of the most vivid
short story writers in the SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover Art by Dean Harkness |
The English Soil Society by Tim Nickels The stories of Tim Nickels defy easy categorisation. They might be folktales from an alternate world, modern-day myths or eccentric fables written by creatures under the earth or from the stars. Yet, despite their elusive, amorphic qualities and dextrous, lullaby prose, they are also rooted with an intensity of emotion that aptly characterises the human condition, expressing both the personal and collective anxieties which affect us all. If you're in the UK: If you're outside the UK:
|
|||
Cover art by Ian Simmons |
Trailer Park
Fairy Tales by Matt Dinniman
An ex-Siamese-twin Spam sculptor, a mathematical genius dinner lady, and a teenage exorcist are but three of the characters in these entertaining, multi-genre stories. Urban fairytales will never be read quite the same way again.
SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover art by Richard Marchand |
The Life
To Come by Tim Lees
Are you ready for the life to come? A life in which the gods are caged, a strange creature is born from starlight, aliens invade the living room and interplanetary detritus fills the earth, while mankind endures its own small, personal dilemmas, painful and comical by turns. "Every day I thank God for Tim Lees" - Andy Cox, The Third Alternative. SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover art by Dean Harkness
|
The Elastic
Book of Numbers edited by Allen Ashley
In this unique collection of 21 stories, some of the world's finest fictioneers examine the effect of numbers on humankind's past, present and future. From the rewriting of history through the thrill of the roulette wheel to the codes controlling the starships, each of these tales engages with numbers in innovative, entertaining and meaningful ways.
SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover image by Mark Mothersbaugh
|
Visits To
The Flea Circus by Nick Jackson
Quiet magical realism and poignant character studies go hand in hand in Nick Jackson's first collection of stories. His understated style and meticulous prose lead us into situations from which reality is the only escape. (an) impressive collection - The Guardian SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover Artwork by Robert Sammelin |
Angel Road by Steven Savile From the beginning of time the subject of angels has inspired mankind. In this stunning new collection of stories Steven Savile surrenders to their inspiration and invites them - and us - into the most haunting reaches of the imagination. Please note: In addition to an amazing colour cover, this 10th Elastic Press publication will contain three pages of internal colour artwork! SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover art by Dean Harkness |
Somnambulists by Allen
Ashley
Journey through the nebulous half-world somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, populated with uncertainties and shadows. Poignant and poetic, edgy and urban, Ashley's great craft and conviction subverts our expectations to devastating effect. Serious. Quirky. Damn good - DF Lewis SOLD OUT |
|||
|
The Sound of White Ants by Brian Howell Taking the iconographic images of the schoolgirl and the salaryman, mingled with the bittersweet experiences of the sexually repressed, these stories embed themselves beneath the plastic veneer of contemporary Japanese society, revealing a world caught precariously between its future and its past. If you're in the UK: If you're outside the UK: |
|||
Cover art by Dee Rimbaud |
Jung's People by Kay Green Kay Green’s first collection of short fiction examines with depth and insight the paths by which we choose to exist. A thoughtful and reflective anthology, Jung’s People serves to deconstruct the modernist, and reinvent the pagan SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover Art by K. J. Bishop
|
The Alsiso Project - Edited by Andrew Hook Spurred by a typographical error twenty-three authors unravel the enigma of Alsiso. Containing an eclectic mix of styles, ideas, genres and meaning, The Alsiso Project is a unique anthology of expression interweaving coincidence with commentary, mystery with knowledge, and illusion with fate. This is what you get when you give creative minds rules and obstacles to overcome. Freshness, originality, wit, cruelty and a certain amount of outrageous slyness. From the introduction by Christopher Fowler. SOLD OUT |
|||
Cover art by Zero |
Milo & I - Antony Mann Welcome to a world where an assassination is broadcast on live TV, where a detective’s sidekick is thirteen-months old, where chess has been solved, and where gambling for a pound of flesh takes on new meaning. Welcome to Mann’s world. SOLD OUT |
|||
| Also available from Elastic Press: click on image to see further details. |
||||
The Virtual Menagerie SOLD OUT |
Open The Box SOLD OUT |
Second Contact SOLD OUT |
Sleepwalkers SOLD OUT |
|
Home | Authors | Extracts | Publications | Novels | Links | Contact | News | Submissions
Purchase | Discussion Boards | Mailing List