A bit of holiday gift-giving spruiking! Know someone who loves strange, brilliant, fantastical fiction and wants a selection of said books all bundled in a great deal? Well, search no further.
The VanderMeer Winter Mix Tape Bundle, curated by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, is an often exclusive selection of ten wonderful novels and fiction collections by writers from all over the world. It’s a tremendous collection of fiction that’s the perfect way to load up on your favorite ebook device for the holidays.
What do we mean by exclusive? Titles like the original anthology Bestiary, with new fiction from China Miéville, Catherynne M. Valente, and many others can’t be bought in e-book form anywhere else. Anna Tambour’s World Fantasy Award-finalist novel Crandolin isn’t available in e-book form elsewhere, either. Nor can you read German writer Eugen Egner’s screwball fantasy The Eisenberg Constant anywhere but through this Storybundle. Not to mention the just-released career-defining two-part behemoth that is Leena Krohn: Collected Fiction, Spanish Steampunk, feminist space adventure, and much more.
A very exciting inclusion in this story bundle is the e-version of Ann VanderMeer’s The Bestiary, which is otherwise only available in a limited edition hardcover — and in which I have an entry!
The table of contents, listed alphabetically, is:
Here’s the table of contents:
- Introduction by Jeff VanderMeer
- &: Ampersand by Karin Lowachee
- A: The Auricle by Gio Clairval
- B: Bartleby’s Typewriter by Corey Redekop
- C: The Counsellor Crow by Karen Lord
- D: Daydreamer by Proxy by Dexter Palmer
- E: Enkantong-bato by Dean Francis Alfar
- F: The Figmon by Michael Cisco
- G: The Guest by Brian Conn
- H: Hadrian’s Sparrikan by Stephen Graham Jones
- I: Ible by Brian Evenson
- J: Jason Bug by Joseph Nigg
- K: The Karmantid by Karen Heuler
- L: The Liwat’ang Yawa and the Litok-litok by Rochita Loenin-Ruiz
- M: Mosquito Boy by Felix Gilman
- N: Nothus Barathruma by Reza Negarestani
- O: Orsinus Liborum by Catherynne M. Valente
- P: Pyret by Karin Tidbeck
- Q: Quintus by Michal Ajvaz
- R: Rapacis X. Loco Signa by Lisa L. Hannett
- S: Snafu by Micaela Morrissette
- T: Tongues of Moon Toad by Cat Rambo
- U: The Ugly-Nest Rat by Eric Schaller
- V: The Vanga by Rikki Ducornet
- W: Weialalaleia by Amal El-Mohtar
- X: The Xaratan by Rhys Hughes
- Y: Yakshantariksh by Vandana Singh
- Z: Zee by Richard Howard
- : China Miéville
AND, for an added bit of excellent fun, just the other day Tor.com ran all of the authors’ beastly bios — in which we all imagine ourselves as weird animals, or reveal our true selves… Here’s mine:
The L. L. Hannett or El-El is a pygmy possum with rose petal skin who wilts from pale yellow birth to wrinkled brown death over the course of one week. Her life is short but exuberant: she is the eucalypts’ most accomplished acrobat. For seven hot days and seven hot nights she swings from the trees’ peeling bark, loop-de-looping to keep herself cool on gusts of spicy air. At sunrise on the eighth morning, she lies down, closes her gumnut eyes, and sighs happily as her body disintegrates. El-El’s remains tickle Kookaburra’s throat as he swallows the last crumbs of her, his wild laughter suitably joyful for her funeral dirge.
Head on over here to snap up your own Winter Mix Tape Bundle — it’s only available for 14 more days!
Lisa L. Hannett 