Archives: Books

Title: Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II
Published by: Random Static Ltd
Release Date: June 17, 2013
Pages: 302
ISBN13: 978-0473241889

Some things are gone forever; but that is not the end. There are new lives to be lived, new discoveries to be made, changes to be fought for, enjoyed, or feared. Experience worlds where existence continues beyond death and much-wanted babies become something else entirely. Where humanity endures in hostile environments, societies adapt to new challenges and inventions, and strange creatures live secretly among us. Travel from a curiously altered Second World War to other universes at the end of time, taking in diverse visions of New Zealand and worlds beyond along the way. Regeneration, the second volume of New Zealand Speculative Fiction from Random Static, presents 22 original works of science fiction and fantasy by Kiwi authors. Stories of loss and renewal, of fantastic technology and mysterious transformations, of supernatural predators and survivors building new futures. Life always goes on, but seldom the way you'd expect... Featuring stories by Matt Cowens, Tim Jones, Mary Brock Jones, O.J. Cade, Grace Bridges, I.K. Paterson-Harkness, Kylie Thorne, Debbie Cowens, J.C. Hart, Jennifer Compton, Simon Petrie, Anna Smith, Rebecca Harris, Elizabeth Gatens, Jonathan James Todd, A.J. Fitzwater, Fran Atkinson, Anna Caro, Dan Rabarts, Lee Murray, Grant Stone, and Toni Wi.

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: Use Only As Directed: a collection of 14 speculative short stories
Published by: Peggy Bright Books
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Pages: 198
ASIN: B00L1H2SWY

A collection of 14 speculative short stories by Australian and New Zealand authors / editors: Simon Petrie, Edwina Harvey ; authors: Stephen Dedman, Dirk Flinthart, Dave Freer, Michelle Goldsmith, Alex Isle, Lyn McConchie, Claire McKenna, Charlotte Nash, Ian Nichols, Leife Shallcross, Grant Stone, Douglas A Van Belle, Janeen Webb, M Darusha Wehm. Cover artist, Lewis P. Morley

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: A Ruby in Rain (Tale from the Archives)
Published by: Imagine That! Studios
Release Date: September 2, 2011
Pages: 14
ASIN: B005L3KIKI

From the farthest edge of the Empire, New Zealand agents Lachlan King and Barry Ferguson are called to interview a recent arrival to Auckland’s prisons. An infamous gambler, according to the constable’s account, has turned himself into their custody, not for the safety of society but for his own. The Ministry steps in to uncover a man’s story of impressive luck, and more incredible vision.

Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences (Phoenix Rising / Das Zeichen des Phönix, and the Janus Affair / Die Janus-Affäre) by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come.

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: Tales from the Archives: Volume 1
Published by: ImagineThat! Studios
Release Date: September 20, 2011
Pages: 74
ASIN: B005OL1OEQ

Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come. This volume includes:

The Evil that Befell Sampson by Philippa Ballantine

Eliza D Braun is a young field agent in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences (South Pacific Branch) when she is asked by New Zealand's preeminent suffragist to investigate some strange goings within the organisation. She cannot possibly imagination that this little case will alter her entire life and thrust her into a world barely prepared for her.

Dust on the Davenport by O.M. Grey

Agent Simon R. Boswell, still considered the green agent of the Ministry, takes on his own a supposed haunting in Islington. Hauntings tend to be nothing too serious for agents specializing in the unexplained; but for Simon, this case supplies surprises of all kinds, around every corner…

The Astonishing Amulet of Amenartas by Nathan Lowell

Agent Heathcliff Durham finds himself crisscrossing Africa, looking for an Amulet that could spell disaster for any who come near it. Battling blistering heat, starvation, wild animals, and despair, he is not comforted by the company of a rough and ready sort named Morrison. Soon Durham begins to suspect he may never return home—and to top it all off the tea has almost run out.

A Ruby in Rain by Grant Stone

From the farthest edge of the Empire, New Zealand agents Lachlan King and Barry Ferguson are called to interview a recent arrival to Auckland’s prisons. An infamous gambler, according to the constable’s account, has turned himself into their custody, not for the safety of society but for his own. The Ministry steps in to uncover a man’s story of impressive luck, and more incredible vision.

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: Te Kōrero Ahi Kā: to speak of the home fires burning
Published by: SpecFicNZ
Release Date: February 8, 2018
Pages: 270
ISBN13: 978-0473428341

Here, between the realms of the Sky Father and Earth Mother, hellhounds race, ghosts drift aimless, and the taniwha stalks. Home fires drive them back, at the same time sparking stories and poems that traverse seconds, eons, and parsecs. Tales of gatekeepers, cloak wearers, and secret keepers. Of pigs with AK-47s or ruby-hued eyes, of love-struck moa, and unruly reflections. Stark truths, and beautiful possibilities...

Te Korero Ahi Ka, a term which means to speak of the home fires burning, is an anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, showcasing work from both established and emerging members of the SpecFicNZ organisation of writers, poets, artists, and creatives. It is a statement about how New Zealand creators of speculative fiction and art shine their light on our literary landscape.

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand
Published by: Canterbury University Press
Release Date: August 2018
Contributors: Edited by Michelle Elvy, Frankie McMillan and James Norcliffe
Pages: 294

‘Slippery, and exciting … The stories come at you directly, and then turn askance, and then slap you in the face’ Allan Drew

Bonsai brings together a pioneering collection of flash fiction and associated forms (prose poetry and haibun) from 165 writers in Aotearoa New Zealand, along with intriguing essays on this increasingly popular genre. In 200 small stories of no more than 300 words, where the translucent boundaries between prose and poetry are often transgressed, we discover a vast array of human experience.

Here, children race snails, shoot tin cans, learn to fly, and look for Antarctica in a drain pipe, while Schrödinger’s cat dreams of life and death, a dog licks away a woman’s tears, and a peacock guards its human family. Family tensions spill over during trips to the beach, couples get together and fall apart, babies are born – or not born – and parents die. You might find yourself dancing like the cool kids, listening to a neighbour sing in the dark, or watching a tractor catch fire. There are perfect moments in miniature as dew falls on a spider’s web and strangers make eye contact.

Composed with precision in a form where every word counts, these carefully chiselled works are provocative, tender and endlessly surprising.

Michelle Elvy  is a writer and editor of flash fiction whose recent work appears in New  Micro Fiction (WW Norton, 2018). Among her many editing roles she is editor at Flash Frontier.

Frankie McMillan  has been called ‘our maestro of flash fiction’. Her book My Mother and the Hungarians, and other small fictions (CUP, 2016) was long-listed for the Ockham Book Awards.

James Norcliffe  is a poet, editor and writer for children. He is editor at Flash Frontier and has published nine collections of poetry, including Dark Days at the Oxygen Café (VUP, 2016).

Title: Everything is Fine
Published by: Racket House
Release Date: January 1, 2016
Contributors: Grant Stone, Matthew Sanborn Smith
Pages: 262
ISBN13: 047333321X
ASIN: B01A1VE9EK

A house at the edge of a prehistoric valley.
A suitcase that can take you to 1980.
A payphone that lets you call the dead.

Twenty tales from award-winning author Grant Stone, including six all-new stories.

From a trip to the supermarket to the edge of everything. From Auckland to London to places far beyond any map. The sun may set before we reach our destination. But don’t worry.

Everything is going to be fine.

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: SHORTCUTS: Track 1
Published by: Paper Road Press
Release Date: November 15, 2015
Contributors: Lee Murray, Piper Mejia, A.C. Buchanan, Grant Stone, I.K. Paterson-Harkness, Tim Jones, Octavia Cade , Marie Hodgkinson
Pages: 273
ISBN13: 0473336480
ASIN: B014ZW47U2

This volume collects together the six novellas that make up the first SHORTCUTS series.

Writing on the theme of strange tales of Aotearoa New Zealand, seven Kiwi authors weave stories of people and creatures displaced in time and space, risky odysseys, and even more dangerous discoveries. Featuring:

Lee Murray and Piper Mejia‘s odyssey through a dystopic future: Mika
A.C. Buchanan‘s story of creatures and people displaced in time and space: Bree’s Dinosaur
Grant Stone‘s tale of jealous muses and musical prodigy: The Last
A husband with a secret in I.K. Paterson-Harkness‘ Pocket Wife
Tim Jones‘ exploration of desperation and betrayal on New Zealand’s shores: Landfall
Grief, ghosts, and atoms in Octavia Cade‘s The Ghost of Matter

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: The Last
Published by: Paper Road Press
Release Date: May 1, 2015
Contributors: Grant Stone
Pages: 41
ASIN: B00WR9VTCK

Forty years ago, Katherine St. John disappeared – briefly. Thirty years ago, she enacted a disappearance of another sort, stepping not just away from her music career but across the ocean to the other side of the world.

Yesterday, Rachel Mackenzie’s flight touched down in Auckland. She’s travelled to New Zealand to interview the reclusive musician Katherine St. John about her first album in nearly thirty years. But strange things are happening at St. John’s farm and soon Rachel finds herself caught up in something far larger than the world of music.

Grant Stone's "The Last" is the second novella in the first SHORTCUTS series, strange fiction of Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more at http://paperroadpress.co.nz/shortcuts/shortcuts-track-1/ .

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon

Title: The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2010
Published by: Ticonderoga Publications
Release Date: September 1, 2011
Contributors: Liz D. Grzyb (Editor), Talie Helene (Editor)
Pages: 484
ISBN13: 978-0980781397

2010 was a great year for Australian fantasy and horror, with the World Science Fiction convention held in Melbourne serving as an impetus for many publishers, both large and small, to showcase the breadth and depth of Australian and New Zealand speculative fiction. Several hundred fantasy and horror stories by Antipodeans were published in 2010, contained in Australasian and international magazines, webzines, anthologies and collections. From this plethora of work, editors Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene have selected 33 tales of fantasy, dark fantasy, horror and paranormal romance for this volume. The editors also present an overview of the genre in Australia in 2010, including noting significant works, events, and the results of the major awards. Together with a recommended reading list this is both a book to be read and a valuable reference work. Published by a leading Australian independent publisher, this is first volume of an ambitious annual series that will document the state of health of the fantasy and horror genre throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Add on Goodreads
Buy the Book: Amazon