Mechanical Animals: Tales at the Crux of Creatures and Tech
A speculative fiction safari that riffs on the traditional ideals of automata to explore our strange and competitive relationship with the natural world. Biomimicry is no stranger to literature, with canonical authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hans Christian Anderson, and Jules Verne setting the tone for a trope that has expounded and expanded upon what exactly separates humans from the animal kingdom as well as the boundary between machines and living beings. Featuring 15 original stories by today’s top science fiction and fantasy authors and contextual mecha-fauna essays by artist and Insect Lab Studio maker, Mike Libby, and SF encyclopedist and author Jess Nevins, Mechanical Animals presents a biomimicry menagerie of animalistic machines that will blur the lines between what is and isn’t nature’s design.
Colorado Book Award Finalist.
Table of Contents [+]
INTRODUCTION: MAKING TOTEMIC SENSE
Mike Libby
MECHANICAL ANIMALS
Jess Nevins
TWO BEES DANCING
Tessa Kum
BRASS MONKEY
Delia Sherman
THE REBEL
Maurice Broaddus and Sarah Hans
EXHIBITIONIST
Lauren Beukes
STRAY FROG
Jesse Bullington
THE HARD SPOT IN THE GLACIER
An Owomoyela
EVERY SINGLE WONDERFUL DETAIL
Stephen Graham Jones
THE NIGHTINGALE
Hans Christian Andersen
LE CYGNE BAISEUR
Molly Tanzer
AMONG THE WATER BUFFALOES, A TIGER’S STEPS
Aliette de Bodard
THE TWIN DRAGONS OF SENTIMENTALITY AND DIDACTICISM
Nick Mamatas
THE ARTIST OF THE BEAUTIFUL
Nathaniel Hawthorne
GLASS WINGS
Kat Howard
BET THE FARM
Michael Cisco
LONG PIG
Adrian Van Young
Excerpt from ELECTRIC BOB’S BIG BLACK OSTRICH; OR, LOST ON THE DESERT
Robert T. Toombs
LOOKIN’ OUT MY BACKDOOR
Joseph S. Pulver, Jr.
THE ISLAND BRUSHED BY GHOSTS
Alistair Rennie
Excerpt from THE STEAM HOUSE: CHAPTER V: THE IRON GIANT
Jules Verne
THE CLOCKWORK PENGUIN DREAMED OF STARS
Caroline Yoachim
CLOSER TO THE SKY
Carrie Vaughn
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“Mind-stretching tales of synthetic fauna..." —Kirkus Reviews
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Edited by Selena Chambers and Jason Heller
Cover illustrations by Aaron Lovett
418 Pages
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-9997736-0-4
Ebook ISBN-13: 978-0-9997736-5-9