Harsh Oases

"Di Filippo is the spin doctor of SF-and it's a powerful medicine he brews." -Brian Aldiss You can try to escape from the mundane, or with the help of Paul Di Filippo, you can take a brief, meaningful break from it. In the vein of George Saunders or Michael Chabon, Di Filippo uses the tools of science fiction and the surreal to take a deep, richly felt look at humanity. His brand of funny, quirky, thoughtful, fast-moving, heart-warming, brain-bending stories exist across the entire spectrum of the fantastic from hard science fiction to satire to fantasy and on to horror, delivering a riotously entertaining string of modern fables and stories from tomorrow, now and anytime. After you read Paul Di Filippo, you'll no longer see everyday life quite the same. Among the 17 stories in this collection are two stories original to this volume, some favorites of the author and older work not previously collected. As always, the themes and stories are odd yet disturbingly familiar and hauntingly relevant: "Femaville 29" explores love and salvation among the ruins of a devastated U.S. East Coast; "The Singularity Needs Women" has human and posthuman fighting for a woman's love and "Harsh Oases" itself is the first addition to the Ribofunk universe since the release of that collection some years ago. With an Introduction by Cory Doctorow Originally published: 2009