Author Ryan Schneider's Blog

Unique and Diverse! The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle by Lisa Mason Author of Summer of Love and Curator of the Philip K. Dick Storybundle What the authors and books of The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle share is the award itself, whether the book was a Finalist or Winner. Above and beyond the prestige of the award—and the superb quality of the work—you will find a diverse array of protagonists to root for and startling worlds to visit. In Aestival Tide by Elizabeth Hand , come to Araboth—the majestic, domed, multi-tiered city of the Ascendants as the once-in-a-decade Aestival Tide approaches and destruction looms. In Life by Gwyneth Jones , meet Anna Senoz, a scientist who makes a momentous discovery about the X and Y chromosomes. Anna’s discovery provokes shocking reactions and impacts her career, her marriage, and her child. In The Cipher by Kathe Koja, join Koja’s artists of the modern-day demimonde as they experiment with the mys...

Acts Of Conscience by William Barton is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! This is the story of Gaetan du Cheyne, Class 10 Spatial Machinery Mechanic at the great spaceship refit station known as Stardock. Gaetan du Cheyne. No mother, no father, no children, no wife, no friends, no home, no nothing. Just a job. An empty man, a hollow man, paid well enough for his complex skills that, when he's not consuming a steady diet of net porn, he gets to play the stock market. Until, one fine day, he finds himself in possession of a prototype FTL starship, and goes out among the worlds in search of... something. Anything. Maybe only the lost, empty dreams that were all he had as a child, dreams that deserted him as an adult.  What he finds, in the end, if you can understand the man, if you can understand his lost dreams, may change you forever, if you're lucky. Amazon.com Review Science fiction and fantasy have antiheros aplenty. Think Thomas Covenant, Fr...