Tachyon Publications: The Fate of Mice, Susan Palwick


	>

			Susan Palwick

			Visit the Susan Palwick website.

	Susan Palwick holds a doctoral degree from Yale and currently teaches as an associate professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. A Rhysling and Crawford Award recipient, she is the author of the acclaimed novels Flying in Place and The Necessary Beggar. Her novella GI Jesus, included in this volume, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Her latest novel, Shelter, will be our from Tor in June. Susan describes herself thus: SF/fantasy writer. English professor. Episcopalian. Licensed lay preacher. Volunteer ER chaplain (but not clergy). And a few other things, less easily labeled.

The Fate of Mice

by Susan Palwick

Cover design by Ann Monn
Trade Paperback / 236 pp.

A potent brew of mystery and heartache...gracefully knotted, densely lyrical.
-Sci Fi Weekly/SciFi.com

Gathering together the most outstanding short stories of Susan Palwick's twenty-year literary career, The Fate of Mice is a powerful collection from an extraordinary fantasist. These unflinching tales, including three original pieces, consider a woman born with her heart exposed and the heartless killer who protects her; a wolf who is willingly ensnared by a devious academic; a businessman resurrected to play at politics; and an ingenious mouse dreaming beyond the laboratory.

With the perceptiveness of Joyce Carol Oates, the inventiveness of Ray Bradbury, and the emotional resonance of Alice Sebold, The Fate of Mice is a meditation on the very art of storytelling: mythic, beautiful, and often brutal, filled with authentic compassion.

Palwick offers the kind of variety that we find in our best, our most powerful and versatile authors.
-The Agony Column

*STAR* Spanning the past 20 years of Palwick's career, the eight previously published and three new stories in this outstanding collection (after her 2005 novel The Necessary Beggar)display the author's versatility. The fine title story about an IQ-enhanced mouse named Rodney recalls "Flowers for Algernon." "Gestella" centers on a woman werewolf whose accelerated aging complicates her doomed marriage to a self-obsessed professor. In "Jo's Hair," Palwick imagines remarkable alternate fates for Louisa May Alcott's little woman, Jo March, and her chopped and sold chestnut braid. The quintessential fairy tale "Stormdusk" depicts a child worried about her mother, a trapped snow maiden; the wise, whimsical concluding gem, "GI Jesus," addresses friendship and sacred smalltown "miracles." Palwick's genre-bending short fiction defies categorization and blends humor with pathos.
-Publishers Weekly

Palwick’s literary output until now has been limited to two critically acclaimed novels, the most recent of them the complex and moving ghost story The Necessary Beggar (2005). Thus her first story collection is a welcome addition to her oeuvre and a fitting introduction to her wide-ranging talent and vision. In the title story, a touching homage to Daniel Keyes’ classic "Flowers for Algernon," an IQ-enhanced lab mouse awakens to the knowledge of his own impending demise. "Gestella" recounts the unsettling fate of a female werewolf who ages more rapidly than her increasingly less interested human lover. In one of the volume’s standouts, "GI Jesus," a small town woman finds hope in the face of Jesus imprinted on an X-ray of her abdomen. All 11 pieces explore the most challenging conundrums of human existence, from the perennial pursuit of utopia to the many faces of mortality. Embracing elements of both horror and speculative fiction, Palwick’s unique and commanding fiction never fails to trigger an emotional response as it captures the imagination.
-Booklist

A potent brew of mystery and heartache...gracefully knotted, densely lyrical.
-Sci Fi Weekly/SciFi.com

Palwick combines sharp political commentary with pleasing flights of fancy with deep psychological insight - and all in prose clear as water. Delicately balanced between hope and heartbreak, these are stories you'll remember.
-Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

Palwick uses both fantasy and science in her fictions, flinching from neither the rational nor the ineffable in her quest to write stories exploring the fate of all living things.
-Seattle Times

Elegantly crafted short fiction.
-Locus

This is a collection of magnificent, heart-breaking stories. Susan Palwick sees the world with a fearless clarity and tells a truth so sharp it makes you weep. Be warned: Long after you close the book, these stories will haunt you. They'll stay with you, changing who you are and how you see the world around you.
-Pat Murphy, author of The City, Not Long After

The Fate of Mice shines light on our dark secrets with compassion, wit, and very fine writing.
-Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

Palwick provides dramatic commentary with innovative structure.... Masterful writing, magical realism, slipstream, and literary fiction are all descriptors that come to mind.
-Tangent

These stories are brilliant and thought-provoking, as well as packing an unexpectedly intense emotional punch.
-Jo Walton, author of Tooth and Claw and Farthing

These are strong stories full of dry humor and a powerful sense of what it means to collide with the hard, sharp edges of unforgiving reality and immutable truths. Palwick's style is spare, direct, and a pleasure to read.
-Suzy McKee Charnas, author of Stagestruck Vampires

...a powerful and complex utopian streak...displays a keen intelligence and a fierce imagination.
-Montreal Gazette