Against Nature

The first in a new series of Faction Paradox novels from Obverse Books 'What's that? Did I hear you ask what romance has to do with anything, little Cousin? You do surprise me. Why Romance is Story itself, nothing less than that. Romance is the tale with which a cunning man winkles out a widow's secrets and an honest one breaks his beloved's heart. Romance locks us away and sets us free, brings us great pleasure and also great pain, is the thread which binds all other stories together. Dear me, little Cousin, I expected better of you...' Godfather Valentine, Dresden, 1928 * Dave Hoskin (Short Trips: Transmissions) * Philip Purser-Hallard (Of the City of the Saved, Peculiar Lives, Iris Wildthyme & the Celestial Omnibus) * Stuart Douglas (Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate, The Obverse Book of Ghosts) * Matt Kimpton (Chief Skald of Suffolk) * Jon Dennis (The Book of the War, Bernice Summerfield: Secret Histories) * Jay Eales (Factor Fiction) * Ian Potter (No Tomatoes, Short Trips, Rise and Rise of the Independents) * Daniel OMahony (Falls the Shadow, Newtons Sleep, Cabinet of Light) * David N Smith (Bernice Summerfield: Collected Works) and Violet Addison (Short Trips How The Doctor Changed My Life) * Scott Harrison (Voices From The Past, Dark Fiction's Twelve Days) * James Milton (Short Trips: Transmissions) * Blair Bidmead (The Panda Book of Horror) "Mum wouldnt believe me when I told her Dad had been taken away by the Ninnies. She thought hed left us of his own accord. She thought hed taken his bucket, ladder and chamois leather on his window round that Monday and simply never came back because hed gone off us. Or that hed imagined a better life somewhere else. He could never stand any pressure, she sighed, eating another handful of Flying Saucers. He was never any good with stress.But I knew. I knew hed never just up and leave us. Not with Squoosh, my little sister on the way. I knew what had really happened.He had been taken away by the Ninnies.Though Mum would not listen to a word of it. Youre too fanciful, she told me, cramming another load of Flying Saucers into her mouth as she sat there at the kitchen table. You get it from him. He was always dreaming. Making daft things up. All about the things he saw through peoples windows! I could tell that Mum herself was making stuff up as she ranted. She was making herself believe that we would be better off without him. We both knew that wasnt true." A new YA novel from Paul Magrs, creator of Iris Wildthyme, Brenda and Effie and author of the best-selling AudioGo! Fourth Doctor adventures. I can remember asking him, What are the stars? Where do they come from? He would tell me that the stars are burning worlds, caught forever in their unending flames, raging, roaring against the night. They look out beyond their fragile spheres for places of calm and serenity to shine their brightness and bring life. He would clasp me around the shoulder and say that we were like stars. We had to use the energy within us to defeat the cold spaces, to turn away the dark things that dared to destroy life. We had to find our own calmness and serenity even when it was denied us. I dont think I understood him then. I was too small, and my brother never spoke in the concrete terms that my brain could comprehend. Looking back on it, though, I think thats when P.J. began to burn. - Intermediant Izzy Ring, The Heaven Facility "Dear Everyone, How do you feel about writing a short story for me? I'm about to edit a story anthology for Obverse Books and I'm going to invite a select number of gay men to write stories based in a genre -- any genre they like -- and maybe more than one at a time. I love the idea of writers working in different genres and using the rules for each one... but I do have this theory that when gay men write detectives, space opera, paranormal romance or whatever... there's a bit of subversion and bending of the rules going on. I'm after mash-ups and literary crossovers... a bit of Camp Cosy Crime and some satirical thrillers; sexy confessional tales and some time travel; magical realism and outrageous mythic fantasy. What do you think...? love, Paul x" Beyond the end of the universe exists a city the size of a galaxy, packed with every human being that ever lived, from the first Australopithecus to the last posthuman, resurrected in a city in which nobody can dieor rather, that used to be the case. The first ever City of the Saved short story collection, edited by the man who created it for the Faction Paradox 'Book of the War', Philip Purser-Hallard. "The great thing about this volume is thats theres plenty more left to explore. I hope that there are more collections set in the City of the Saved to look forward to." - Daniel Tessier, Immaterial blog "probably the best collection of SF stories youll read this year." - Andrew Hickey, Justice Leak! blog The Big Crunch by Jim Mortimore Frank Reade Jrs Electric Time Canoe by Steve Mollmann Dance of the Voodoo Valkyries by David McIntee Iris in Dead Man's Gulch by Paul Ebbs Her and Allan by Simon Bucher-Jones Running With Caesars by Geoffrey Hammell Amser Gwyllt by Steffan Alun The Bronze Door by Dale Smith Flash Rogers Conquers the Universe! by Richard Salter The Web of Terror by Iain McLaughlin The Many Lives of Zorro by Richard Wright Fantomville by Nick Campbell The Devil Wears Panda by Cody Quijano-Schell