Paul DiFilippo

In the first category is 'Femaville 29,' a much-lauded fantastical tale of love and salvation among the ruins of America's Eastern Seaboard. 'The Singularity Needs Women!' pits human against posthuman over a woman's love. In 'Shipbreaker,' a common laborer in an interstellar salvage yard finds his destiny altered forever by a strange pet. And in 'Escape from New Austin,' a young girl leaves her liberal home seeking the conservative dream. 'Aurorae' and 'A Game of Go' are both set in the cyberpunk future of the author's seminal 'Kid Charlemagne.' Two short, sharp satires, 'Bad Beliefs' and 'Leakage,' resurface from their initial publication in the alternative press. The title story, 'Harsh Oases,' is the first addition to the Ribofunk canon since the publication of that pivotal collection in 1996. Nearly a compressed novel, it spans many strange milieus in the bio-engineered future of that series. On two radically different notes, 'Pinocchia' chronicles the erotic adventures of a sexy android, while 'Personal Jesus' and 'Lignum Vitae' address, with varying degrees of solemnity, the topic of religion. A collaboration with gonzo creator Rudy Rucker explores levels of quantum weirdness that underlie our familiar world. Finally, some flash fiction packs a few startling SF conceits into bite-sized stories. Running the wide gamut of Di Filippo's myriad concerns and styles, this collection extends and solidifies his reputation as one of the finest short-story writers working today.

Harsh Oases

Following the shock wave of cyberpunk writing in the late 1980s, Paul Di Filippo's first book, The Steampunk Trilogy, burst on the scene in 1995, leading SF veteran William Gibson to declare the young writer's work 'spooky, haunting, hilarious'. Cyberpunk concentrated on cold hardware. Di Filippo coined 'ribofunk' by fusing 'ribosome' (as in cellular biology) with 'funk' (as in rock and roll). In the world of Ribofunk, biology is a cutting-edge science, where the Protein Police patrol for renegade gene splicers and part-human sea creatures live in Lake Superior, dealing with toxic spills. Ribofunk depicts a sentient river; a sultry bodyguard who happens to be part wolverine; a reluctant thrill seeker who climbs a skyscraper-and finds himself stuck; and a chain-smoking Peter Rabbit who leads his fellows in a bloody rebellion against-whom else? - Mr. McGregor. This collection includes: One Night in Television City Little Worker Cockfight Big Eater The Boot Blankie The Bad Splice McGregor Brain Wars Streetlife Afterschool Special Up the Lazy River Distributed Mind

Ribofunk

For most people, as they say, money makes the world go 'round. For Rory Honeyman, it's a different story. Having inadvertently and, almost without noticing, invented a new form of cash cow, money makes Rory's world go strangely pear-shaped and out-of-control. He has an endless supply of blank checks that never bounce but he's being guided by an albino, hustled by a saline-snorting sandwich-obsessed gourmet, manipulated by a devious banker and befuddled and bemused by a never-ending assortment of attractive and baffling women. And, for reasons unknown and unknowable, after racing from the Great Plains to Mexico City to Canada to Europe, he's stuck in Hoboken and there appears to be no way out.

Paul DiFilippo

Books

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