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...

Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon (PKD Finalist) is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! They thought Earth would always abide. But it hadn't, not at all . . . . Zoya Kundara has lived on the space vessel Star Road for 250 years. As Ship Mother, she is awakened from Deep Sleep in times of crisis, providing counsel to generations of its Romany crew. Now the starship has returned home, only to discover an Earth on the verge of extinction, blanketed in a crystalline substance called Ice. But it's not ice. This pearl-white mantle is a grand and mysterious ecology of information-bearing crystals. And it is relentlessly enclosing the last free lands. To find a home for her crew, Zoya must approach the denizens of this strange new Earth. She will discover the Ice Nuns, who seek sole control of the physics-defying crystals; people huddled like moles in underground techno-warrens; and the snow witches, creatures of Ice, both mad and prophetic . . . and one snow w...