Collected Stories eBook

Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler

Dust jacket by Lewis Shiner

"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.”

Table of 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

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“These 41 powerful stories cover Shiner’s career across three decades and multiple genres, showcasing hard-edged, often political genre genre fiction at its finest…Shiner never fails to astound, and this collection highlights everything that makes him one of today’s best storytellers.”

From SF Site:

"I can recommend this collection as a terrific introduction to Shiner’s literary styling and the broad sweep of his imagination.”

From Strange Horizons:

“With Collected Stories, Lewis Shiner cements himself as one of the SF field’s most accomplished practitioners. His humanism and his compassion are evident in even the more pessimistic explorations of power struggles, and reveal a thoughtful and erudite exploration of how and why human beings treat one another the way they do. Shiner’s prose sparkles with humanity, with empathy, and with clarity. Taken as a whole, the collection is a gift of narrative, a multifaceted examination into what it means to be a human being in any universe.”

From Someone's Read it Already:

"Overall, this is an amazing collection; I would definitely recommend it for fans of his other works, and fans of short fiction such as John Crowley, Jai Claire, and even Charles de Lint, although his tone is not nearly as gentle. There’s something for nearly everyone, and while there are often violent and unpleasant events and even quite a few unlikable characters (or at least hypothetically unlikable ones), overall there’s enough to balance the collection.”