The Jaguar Mask
Tags: saleA surreal fantasy novel from the Crawford Award finalist author of Night Roll.
“Dazzling, intense, and surreal … The Jaguar Mask is an arresting novel.” – Foreword Reviews
“A superbly humane take on being a living myth inside a world whose preferences lean toward violent lies. DeLuca lets a story become what it needs to become, and that’s a welcome rarity.” – Zig Zag Claybourne, author of The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan
“A new novel for the solarpunk revolution! DeLuca’s THE JAGUAR MASK is a page-turner that takes off on page one and doesn’t slow down.” – Justine Norton-Kertson, editor-in-chief of Android Press and Solarpunk Magazine
“Through fast-paced, yet sumptuous prose, steeped in the colours, sounds and scents of Guatemala – weaving a veritable shape-shifting tapestry, The Jaguar Mask calls out for climate justice and in the same breath provides readers with one thrill of a ride!” Shikhandin, Indian author and poet
“Beautifully written and passionately felt, The Jaguar Mask is a chiaroscuro of art, magic, and street-level politics. Its characters’ rich roots in place and family give the novel depth and drive that doesn’t let up from the first page to the last. Guaranteed to be one of my favorite novels of the year.” – Marissa Lingen
About the Book
Felipe K’icab doesn’t know who he is. He only knows he was born different than his human family, and he can’t relax unless he’s blasting reggaeton in his cab weaving through the streets of Guatemala City. The jaguar mask and his other human faces keep him safe–until El Bufo, a corrupt ex-cop, commandeers his cab and drags Felipe into a murder conspiracy investigation, trying to expose the foreign-backed regime’s ecocidal and genocidal past.
Cristina Ramos knows who her mother’s killers are. After witnessing the murder in a vision, she struggles to keep her grieving family from falling apart. When El Bufo’s relentless vendetta throws Felipe into her life amid increasing civil unrest, Felipe and Cristina must overcome generations of institutionalized silence, uncover the secrets of their powers, and forge a path to justice, or else be swept away by another wave of violence.
About the Author
Michael J. DeLuca’s novella Night Roll was a finalist for the Crawford Award in 2020. He is the publisher of Reckoning, a journal of creative writing on environmental justice. He also runs the indie ebook site Weightless Books, and his short fiction has been appearing since 2005 in places such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Mythic Delirium, Fusion Fragment, and Three-Lobed Burning Eye. He lives in suburbified post-industrial woodlands north of Detroit with partner, kid, cats, and microbes.
Cover art and design by Julia Louise Pereira.
Interzone #294 and #295 only 99c til January 14!
Tags: Interzone, saleInterzone Press has announced a huge sale on its two most recent back issues! From now til January 14th, Interzone 294 and 295 are each just 99 cents!
Interzone is a beautiful magazine chock full of art, reviews, and weird and wonderful fiction. This is a wonderful opportunity to check it out if you haven’t:
Green Fuse Burning
Tags: saleAbout the Book
After the death of her estranged father, artist Rita struggles with grief and regret. There was so much she wanted to ask him—about his childhood, their family, and the Mi’kmaq language and culture from which Rita feels disconnected. But when Rita’s girlfriend Molly forges an artist’s residency application on her behalf, winning Rita a week to paint at an isolated cabin, Rita is both furious and intrigued. The residency is located where her father grew up.
On the first night at the cabin, Rita wakes to strange sounds. Was that a body being dragged through the woods? When she questions the locals about the cabin’s history, they are suspicious and unhelpful. Ignoring her unease, Rita gives in to dark visions that emanate from the forest’s lake and the surrounding swamp. She feels its pull, channelling that energy into art like she’s never painted before. But the uncanny visions become more insistent, more intrusive, and Rita discovers that in the swamp’s decay the end of one life is sometimes the beginning of another.
About the Author
Tiffany Morris is a Mi’kmaw/settler writer of speculative fiction and poetry from Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. She is the author of the horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, and Apex Magazine, among others. She has an MA in English with a focus on Indigenous Futurisms. She is a member of the Speculative Fiction Poetry Association and the Horror Writers Association, and her work has been nominated for the Rhysling and Aurora Awards, and recently won the Elgin Award.
Reviews
“Green Fuse Burning is an impressively vigorous fiction debut from a truly dynamic storyteller. Tiffany Morris has laid out a concise and creepy tale that mesmerizes as it weaves through several realms, from the tangible to the spiritual. I was captivated by the looming mystery and the striking imagery that carried me like a current to the story’s monumental resolution. This book is a must-read in new speculative fiction!” — Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Turning Leaves
“Morris quietly dazzles and disquiets in this weird horror novella … Poetic and grotesque imagery drives the novella’s horror, with fluid narration fostering a sense of disconnect and dread … This is a subtle and refreshing twist on the cabin in the woods trope.” — Publishers Weekly starred review
“A verdant alienation seeps through every page as Morris reimagines the possibilities of decay, a desperate isolation scouring the mind to reveal a torrid, seething strangeness beneath, the inevitable reckoning gathering its strength below the calm surface of the pond.” — Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold and The Handyman Method
“In this Indigenous swampcore novella, Tiffany Morris … masterfully reclaims cosmic horror from its white tradition, and that’s so important because the genre has big problems™ with its philosophy, not just its heritage. I’m in such awe of her execution and the quietness and humbleness of the story, how she spins it all into something meaningful and new. Green Fuse Burning is an astonishing work that processes personal and planetary grief, and leads the reader through a viscerally healing experience.” — Joe Koch, author of The Wingspan of Severed Hands
“This book is strongly recommended for anyone looking for a layered narrative of dark fantasy, ecological awareness, queer and indigenous politics, in an inventive hybrid form.” — Joshua Gage, for Cemetery Dance Magazine
“An unbridled examination of place and the puzzle of finding one’s purpose, Green Fuse Burning simmers until it explodes. An introspective look at how nature can connect and inspire that’s filled to the brim with feeling.” — Steve Stred, 2X Splatterpunk-Nominated author of Mastodon, Churn the Soil, and The Color of Melancholy.
You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories
Tags: saleAbout the Book
Sometimes change can hurt. This collection of short stories traces the growing pains of a new world, beginning with the death throes of our current way of life and ending with a world transformed by science and technology, and by grief, hope, love, and humanity’s will to transform. This is a collection that will both tear you apart and tend to your wounds. Cade’s beautifully-wrought stories are informed by science, tracing the biological and emotional threads that bind us, human and non-human alike. You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories is a promise of what worlds are possible if we allow ourselves to change.
About the Author
Octavia Cade is a New Zealand writer with a PhD in science communication. She attended Clarion West 2016, has won three Sir Julius Vogel awards for speculative fiction, including for The Impossible Resurrection of Grief from Stelliform Press. She is a Bram Stoker Award nominee and was the 2020 writer in residence at Massey University.
Reviews
“Elegant, incisive, memorable.” — Foreword Reviews
“Punches will not be pulled.” — Locus Magazine
“The 15 masterful stories in Cade’s sophomore collection (after The Mythology of Salt) offer a hauntingly beautiful melding of hard science and raw emotion against the backdrop of the climate crisis. … Cade skillfully interweaves her characters’ existential despair in the face of a dying planet with more personal grief, all while maintaining a through line of hope and resilience. In its union of deeply human and environmental narratives, Cade’s collection will put readers in mind of Richard Powers’s The Overstory.” — Publishers Weekly starred review
Sordidez
Tags: saleAbout the Book
Vero has always felt at odds with his community. As a trans man in near-future Puerto Rico, he struggles to gain acceptance for his identity and his vision of an inclusive society. After a hurricane decimates the island and Puerto Rico is abandoned by the United States, Vero leaves his home to petition the centralized government for aid and seek the truth about new colonists arriving on the island. But in the Yucatan, Vero finds a landscape ravaged by an ecological disaster of humanity’s own making—the Hydrophage, a climate technology warped into a weapon of war and released onto the land by the dictator Caudillo. Amidst the destruction, Vero finds both desperation and hope for regrowth as he documents the lives of the survivors. Details about the colonists’ intentions emerge when Vero meets the Loba Roja, an anti-Caudillo revolutionary who imagines the renewed power of the Maya. Intrigued by her vision of the future and her unapologetic violence, Vero is faced with life-changing questions: can an Indigenous resurgence protect his beloved island? And what must he sacrifice to support it?
About the Author
E.G. Condé is an anthropologist of technology and an emerging speculative fiction writer of the Puerto Rican diaspora. His short fiction appears in If There’s Anyone Left, Reckoning, EASST Review, Tree and Stone, Sword & Sorcery, and Solarpunk Magazine. Stay connected to his writing at www.egconde.com or follow him on social media via @CloudAnthro.
Reviews
An Indigenous futurist science fiction novella set in Puerto Rico and the Yucatán by emerging author E.G. Condé. A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book for Fall 2023 Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
“Condé’s brutal, mystical, and deeply felt speculative debut lifts up a vision of Indigenous resistance and renewal in the face of climate change and colonizers. … The author’s depiction of Taíno culture is profound, his evocative images of a land in ruin are visceral, and the grief and sheer determination expressed through his characters is often so vivid as to be overwhelming. The result is a beautiful blend of futurism and magical realism that delivers a hopeful message of human resilience.”
— ★ Publishers Weekly starred review
“Indigenous culture is at war with imperialism in E. G. Condé’s haunting novel Sordidez… Evocative and descriptive, the language captures the lushness of Puerto Rico and the devastation of the desiccated Yucatán peninsula. It is dreamy and vengeful, a character unto itself. It is also multilingual, highlighting words and phrases from Arawak and Mayan languages… At its heart, Sordidez is a clarion call to recognize that the political and biological ecosystems of the world are intertwined.”
— Foreword Reviews
“Condé gives us a clear-eyed, optimistic vision of how storytelling can transcend borders and create solidarity among resistance movements. … With great respect for history and heritage, identity and environment, Sordidez depicts the future hurtling toward us, as well as the courage we’ll need to meet that future head-on.”
— Lisa M. Bradley, author of The Haunted Girl and Exile
“SORDIDEZ by E.G. Condé is a rich and lush tale of finding hope amidst bleakness, of sacrifice, community, survival, and both connection and isolation with a desolate climate crisis backdrop. Condé weaves an elegant and intricate narrative of healing and courage that is sure to touch and inspire.”
—Ai Jiang, Nebula finalist and author of LINGHUN
“Sordidez is an instant classic that deals with issues many occupied and colonized people deal with: intolerance, trauma, loss of history, necessity to reclaim indigenous culture, the poisoning of land and climate disaster. Sordidez offers a future vision that, though broken like the present, has hope. Ultimately, Sordidez blends narrative, visions, healing and resolutions, in several figures, all willing to transform for their people and offer mutual aid in a found familia.”
— Scott Russell Duncan, for Somos En Escrito
“E.G. Condé picks up a kaleidoscope in Sordidez and peers into the future, in the direction of Puerto Rico and the Yucatan peninsula, forming a vibrant Latinx vision of our future, and fulfilling the promise of speculative fiction to inspire us in the process of decolonization. Amidst the strange new horrors created by both humans and AIs in this future world, the trans protagonist Vero Diaz endeavors to heal the people and the land through the revolutionary spirit of the Taíno. This is Condé’s first book, and I can’t wait for the next one.”
— Matthew David Goodwin, editor of Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology and Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies, University of New Mexico
Another Life
Tags: saleFinding out who you were in a previous life sounds like fun until you’re forced to grapple with the darkness of the past. Galacia Aguirre is Mediator of Otra Vida, a quasi-utopian city on the shores of a human-made lake in Death Valley. She resolves conflicts within their sustainable money-free society, and keeps the outside world from meddling in their affairs. When a scientific method of uncovering past lives emerges, Galacia learns she’s the reincarnation of Thomas Ramsey, leader of the Planet B movement, who eschewed fixing climate change in favor of colonizing another planet. Learning her reincarnation result shakes the foundations of Galacia’s identity and her position as Mediator, threatening to undermine the good she’s done in this lifetime. Fearing a backlash, she keeps the results secret while dealing with her political rival for Mediator, and outsiders who blame Otra Vida for bombings that Galacia is sure they had nothing to do with. But under the unforgiving sun of Death Valley, secrets have a way of coming to light.
About the Author
Sarena Ulibarri edited two anthologies of optimistic climate fiction, Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers (2018) and Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters (2020), and co-edited Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures (2021). Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, GigaNotoSaurus, and DreamForge, as well as numerous anthologies.
Reviews
“The sparse but evocative worldbuilding of Ulibarri’s brilliant solarpunk debut underpins a guarded optimism about the human condition. … With an incisive exploration of postcapitalist, back to basics living and characters readers will root for, this perfectly balances big ideas and big emotions.” — ★ Publishers Weekly starred review
“It’s a fast and entertaining novella-length read with a touch of mystery and a big ethical conundrum. It explores what a sustainable future might look like, the consequences of scientific breakthroughs, the weight of leadership, and the fleeting nature of progress. It’s also a good introduction to solarpunk if you’re not familiar with the subgenre and are curious.” — Rebecca Roanhoarse, author of Black Sun and Tread of Angels
“Sarena Ulibarri’s sun-drenched story of reincarnation, resilience, and renewal truly shines, granting us a convincing solarpunk future full of hope that another life could one day be ours.” — Lauren C. Teffeau, author of Implanted
Interzone sale through April 9th!
Tags: Interzone, saleThe new publishers of Interzone, MYY Press, have announced a big 50% off sale on the subscription and the new issue #294, now through (update!) April 9th.
Full disclosure, I helped format the ebook version of this latest issue, so I feel particularly informed in saying that new editor Gareth Jelley has a talent for eye-catching visual design with meticulous attention to detail, and I think he’s doing an incredible job keeping with the edgy, sophisticated spirit of this storied publication.
Take advantage of this great deal and find out what I mean.
#TransRightsReadathon
Tags: #TransRightsReadathon, Coupon, saleSim Kern’s #TransRightsReadathon, taking place from March 20th through 27th, is a distributed fundraising event meant to increase awareness of trans authors and their work and contribute to the work of defending trans rights.
Here at Weightless we think the appalling series of legislative reprisals against trans folks’ right to exist taking place right now in the US is something that really desperately needs stood up against. So here’s what we’re going to do:
Buy ebooks by or including trans authors from Weightless any time during the readathon, enter the coupon code “#TRANSRIGHTSREADATHON” at checkout, and we’ll give you 10% off your order AND donate our entire cut of the proceeds (meaning we’ll still be paying our indie publishers what they deserve) to the Trans Health Legal Fund, run by the Transgender Law Center.
Read more about the #TransRightsReadathon and sign up to participate here.
This is in no way exhaustive, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
Seeds for the Swarm
Tags: saleRylla McCracken dreams of escaping her family’s trailer in the Dust States to go to college, but on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, her mother demands she drop out of school to work for Lockburn chemical refinery instead. When Rylla learns Lockburn is planning to dam the Guadalupe River—the last flowing water in Texas—she defies her mother to protest in the state capital. The protest ends in disaster, but her ensuing viral infamy gains Rylla an acceptance to the mysterious Wingates University.
At Wingates, Rylla befriends a diverse group of students, all working on new technologies to save the planet. Besides mountains of homework, Rylla struggles with guilt for leaving her brother behind in the Dust, where tensions with the Lush States are escalating towards civil war. Succeeding at Wingates seems like Rylla’s best chance to help her family, until she uncovers a terrible secret about the school’s billionaire backers. Now, Rylla and her friends are in a race against the rich to reclaim the world-altering technology they’ve developed—before it’s too late.
About the Author
Sim Kern is an environmental journalist and speculative fiction writer, exploring intersections of climate change, queerness, and social justice. You can find links to all their stories at simkern.com and follow them on Twitter @sim_kern, on Instagram @Sim_bookstagrams_
Reviews
“Kern doesn’t pull any punches on the environmental consequences of consumer capitalism, nor do they avoid the social and emotional impacts of living through an age of mass extinctions. The subject lends itself to nihilism, but Rylla’s commitment to family, friends, and justice provides a glimpse of hope that is badly needed in the coming fights, real and fictional. Perfect for teen readers struggling with their own feelings of despair in our own unstable world, it is also a welcome and provocative read for all fans of YA.” — Amy Nagopaleen for Strange Horizons
“Seeds for the Swarm is as clever as it is creative, and full of characters so rich and morally complex I wanted to know every inch of their minds. Seeds channels my favourite 2010s dystopias with all the awareness of today. I can’t wait to see what Sim Kern has in store next.” — Elle Grenier, bookseller
“A satisfying ecological take on the dystopian science-fiction novel.” — Kirkus Reviews
At Wingates, Rylla befriends a diverse group of students, all working on new technologies to save the planet. Besides mountains of homework, Rylla struggles with guilt for leaving her brother behind in the Dust, where tensions with the Lush States are escalating towards civil war. Succeeding at Wingates seems like Rylla’s best chance to help her family, until she uncovers a terrible secret about the school’s billionaire backers. Now, Rylla and her friends are in a race against the rich to reclaim the world-altering technology they’ve developed—before it’s too late.
Arboreality
Tags: saleA Novella-Length Expansion of the 2020 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Winner.
A professor in pandemic isolation rescues books from the flooded and collapsing McPherson Library. A man plants fireweed on the hillside of his depopulated Vancouver Island suburb. An aspiring luthier poaches the last ancient Sitka spruce to make a violin for a child prodigy. Campbell’s astonishing vision pulls the echoing effects of small acts and intimate moments through this multi-generational and interconnected story of how a West coast community survives the ravages of climate change.
About the Author
Rebecca Campbell is a Canadian writer of weird stories and climate change fiction. She won the Sunburst award for short fiction in 2020 for “The Fourth Trimester is the Strangest” and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award in 2021 for “An Important Failure.” NeWest Press published her first novel, The Paradise Engine, in 2013.
Reviews
“Campbell doesn’t shy away from the worst possibilities of apocalyptic ecological collapse … but offers a surprisingly hopeful and joyful vision of the future … This compassionate cli-fi mosaic is sure to please genre fans.” — Publishers Weekly
“I have yearned for a story like this one — ordinary people finding slow, small ways to repair not the whole damaged world, but their own small corner of it … I couldn’t love it more.” — Molly Gloss, author of Wild Life and The Hearts of Horses
“You’ll see the world differently after reading this slender book—I dare you to come away unchanged.” — Amanda Leduc, author of The Centaur’s Wife
Weird Fishes
Tags: saleAbout the Book
AN UNDERWATER TALE OF FRIENDSHIP AGAINST MONSTROUS ODDS
When Ceph, a squid-like scientist, discovers proof of the ocean’s slowing currents, she makes the dangerous ascent from her deep-sea civilization to the uncharted surface above. Out of her depths and helpless in her symbiotic mech suit, Ceph relies on Iliokai, a seal-folk storyteller, who sings the state of the sea and has seen evidence of clogged currents as she surfs the time gyres throughout the lonely blue. Navigating the perils of their damaged ocean environment, and seemingly insurmountable cultural differences, Ceph and Iliokai realize that the activities of terrestrial beings are slowing the spiralling currents of time. On a journey that connects future and past, the surface and the deep, the unlikely friends struggle to solve a problem so big it needs a leviathan solution.
About the Author
Rae Mariz is a speculative fiction storyteller and cultural critic. Her writing inhabits the ecotone between science fiction and fantasy, and features characters finding family with others who live in the gaps between. She’s the author of The Unidentified and co-founder of Toxoplasma Press. Find her work at raemariz.com and on Twitter @raemariz.
Reviews
“Mariz combines dense, realistic science with lush, fantastic description … The relationships at the heart of this tale manage to be both completely human and utterly unbeholden to the above-water dynamics readers might take for granted. The resulting novella feels entirely fresh and inventive. Fans of Caitlin Starling and Maggie Tokuda-Hall will be especially wowed.” — Publishers Weekly starred review
“Weird Fishes is a lyrical and heartfelt adventure that celebrates how the ocean connects us all and reminds us that we need to take good care of Her.” — Nina Munteanu, author of author of Water Is… and A Diary in the Age of Water
“Weird Fishes is a vibrant, beautiful exploration of oceans teeming with lives and cultures unknown to humans. This book is a must for anyone who loves the sea! ” — Julia Rios, creator of Mermaids Monthly magazine
The House of Drought
Tags: saleAbout the Book
A HAUNTED HOUSE FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE ERA. On the island of Sri Lanka, at a colonial mansion between the forest and the paddy fields, a caretaker arrives with four children in tow after pledging to keep them safe. When violent thugs storm the house demanding that Ushu repay his debt, young Jasmit and the other children hide in an upstairs bathroom where a running tap opens a gateway to escape. But the Dry House is not the only force at work in the place where the forest and the estate meet—something else stirs in the trees, something ancient, something that demands retribution.
The Sap Mother bides her time, watching and learning from the house’s inhabitants. She burrows beneath the foundations of the Dry House, hungry for atonement. Pulled between these warring powers, Jasmit must choose between saving those trapped in the mansion’s bulging stomachs and preparing the house for when the Mother emerges again.
About the Author
Dennis Mombauer lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he works as a consultant on climate change and as a writer of weird fiction and textual experiments. He is co-publisher of a German magazine for experimental fiction, “Die Novelle – Magazine for Experimentalism.” His first English novel, “The Fertile Clay,” is scheduled to be published by Nightscape Press in 2022. He has also published a collection of short stories under the title The House of the Dark Whale. Find Dennis on Twitter @DMombauerWriter.
Reviews
“Mombauer’s eerie, disorienting debut novella explores the haunting consequences of climate change and colonial greed. … At once climate fiction and gothic horror, Mombauer’s mosaic tale manages to convey a powerful message without ever feeling preachy, painting a picture of a house that is more than just haunted. Readers will be captivated.”
— Publishers Weekly
“An eerie blend of myth and ghost story; the kind of haunting read that will linger with you long after the last page.”
— A.C. Wise, Bram Stoker Award Finalist
Weird Dream Society
Tags: salePlayful, whimsical, or dark, but always thoughtful and tinged with the inexplicably weird,
the Weird Dream Society brings together twenty-three stories from the most innovative
creators in speculative fiction.
Nathan Ballingrud, Carina Bissett, Gregory Norman Bossert, Karen Bovenmyer,
Christopher Brown, Emily Cataneo, Julie C. Day, Michael J Deluca, Gemma Files,
A.T. Greenblatt, Nin Harris, Chip Houser, James Patrick Kelly, Marianne Kirby, Kathrin Köhler
Matthew Kressel, Jordan Kurella, Premee Mohamed, Sarah Read, Sofia Samatar,
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Steve Toase, A.C. Wise
All proceeds from the Weird Dream Society anthology will go to RAICES. RAICES envisions a
compassionate society where all people have the right to migrate, and human rights are guaranteed.
Some dreams can change the world.
After the Dragons
Tags: saleDragons were fire and terror to the Western world, but in the East they brought life-giving rain. Now, no longer hailed as gods and struggling in the overheated pollution of Beijing, only the Eastern dragons survive. As drought plagues the aquatic creatures, a mysterious disease—shaolong, or “burnt lung”—afflicts the city’s human inhabitants.
Jaded college student Xiang Kaifei scours Beijing streets for abandoned dragons, distracting himself from his diagnosis. Elijah Ahmed, a biracial American medical researcher, is drawn to Beijing by the memory of his grandmother and her death by shaolong. Interest in Beijing’s dragons leads Kai and Eli into an unlikely partnership. With the resources of Kai’s dragon rescue and Eli’s immunology research, can the pair find a cure for shaolong and safety for the dragons? Eli and Kai must confront old ghosts and hard truths if there is any hope for themselves or the dragons they love.
After the Dragons is a tender story, for readers interested in the effects of climate change on environments and people, but who don’t want a grim, hopeless read. Beautiful and challenging, focused on hope and care, this novel navigates the nuances of changing culture in a changing world.
Night Roll
Tags: saleNew mother and climate refugee Aileen Dupree has been abandoned by her partner in post-industrial Detroit. Her neighbor, Virgil, comes to her rescue, bringing useful cast-offs and much needed friendship. Virgil is Aileen’s only connection to the outside world, a refuge for an insomniac newcomer who is overwhelmed by the turn her life has taken. But then Virgil borrows Aileen’s prized possession — a chrome and leather, royal blue fourteen-speed bike — and disappears. Aileen doesn’t know if Virgil’s disappearance is an accident or another abandonment.
When she ventures out to look for answers, Aileen hears strange stories of the Elf, a timeless being that has always fought the colonizers and capitalists of Detroit, and now leads the Night Roll on a frantic race through the city’s disintegrating streets. It is up to Aileen to bring Virgil back to his friends and family. But what can the Elf teach her about her new life? And what must she pay for that knowledge?
Click to read an excerpt of Night Roll.
Reviews
“DeLuca debuts with a surreal ride through the supernatural history of the city of Detroit and the strange territory of new parenthood. Aileen is a recent transplant to Detroit and a single mother of a newborn. Her neighbor Virgil is the only person she’s grown close to since the move, so when he asks to borrow her bicycle so he can participate in a semimythical monthly bike ride called the Night Roll, a riff on the folkloric Wild Hunt, she feels obligated to say yes. When Virgil doesn’t return, Aileen becomes desperate enough to venture out to find him, bringing baby Christian with her—and stumbles into a small but generous community of Detroit locals. In the process of earning their trust, Aileen gets many lessons on local history, learning about the Rebellion (also known as the ’67 riots) and the Elf, the ageless trickster who leads the Night Roll. The odd, lyrical story meanders, propelled only by the force of Aileen’s determination to take control of her life—a determination that culminates in the reality-bending Halloween Night Roll. The result is a hypnotic near-future novella that will captivate literary and genre readers alike. “
— Publishers Weekly Review (link)
“DeLuca’s deft, poetic eye keeps hope right where it needs to be, not as magic, but as imperative, creative power.”
— ZZ Claybourne, author of THE BROTHERS JETSTREAM: LEVIATHAN
“Michael DeLuca’s NIGHT ROLL is one of the most vivid and captivating works of near future fiction I have read in a long time. The story of a woman left alone with her newborn in a collapsing Detroit, it follows her journey of discovery into the new communities that emerge from our slow-burn apocalypse, germinating the seeds of a more hopeful tomorrow firmly rooted in a sober assessment of the now and the deeper colonial and ecological history of North America. DeLuca’s gifts for drawing out the pockets of wild nature resurgent within the concrete canyons of the city are enough to hold my attention throughout, but the fresh authenticity of voice and vulnerable but committed charisma of his characters are what keep you turning the pages of this compelling novella.”
— Christopher Brown, Campbell and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of TROPIC OF KANSAS and RULE OF CAPTURE (link)
“It is a poetic look into the searing, tumultuous heart of Detroit. Fans of urban fantasy and cli-fi, as well as literary fiction will appreciate reading this novella. It is a work that can be read aloud, for the poetry of its prose, or enjoyed with an organic smoothie while you rock in a chair on your front porch on a summer evening.”
— Sonia Sulaiman, The Future Fire Reviews (link)
“Quite an engrossing story of a new single mother trying to form a life in future Detroit. A magical story with appealing characters, Night Roll also brings in references to Detriot’s history … [and] made me want to learn more about the city.”
— Christi Nogle, author of “Resilience” and ““The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future” among others
Michael J. DeLuca’s short fiction has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Mythic Delirium, and lots of other places. He is the publisher of Reckoning, a journal of creative writing on environmental justice. You can find DeLuca on Twitter @MichaelJDeLuca. and at The Mossy Skull.
Depart, Depart!
Tags: saleA Cli-Fi Ghost Story Debut
A flood. A ghost. A question of loyalty.
When an unprecedented hurricane devastates the city of Houston, Noah Mishner finds shelter in the Dallas Mavericks’ basketball arena. Though he finds community among other queer refugees, Noah fears his trans and Jewish identities put him at risk with certain “capital-T” Texans. His fears take form when he starts seeing visions of his great-grandfather Abe, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy. As the climate crisis intensifies and conditions in the shelter deteriorate, Abe’s ghost grows more powerful. Ultimately, Noah must decide whether he can trust his ancestor — and whether he’s willing to sacrifice his identity and community in order to survive.
Sim Kern is a speculative fiction writer living in Houston, Texas. They have stories in Metaphorosis, The Colored Lens, and Wizards in Space Magazine.