White and Other Tales of Ruin

WHITE AND OTHER TALES OF RUIN collects together six of Tim Lebbon's novellas, two of them brand new to this collection. From the all-powerful natural horrors of The First Law, to the man-made terrors of The Origin of Truth, this collection explores existence at the very edge of survival ... for humankind itself. The British Fantasy Award-winning White gives an ambiguous vision of a frozen hell-on-earth, while the new novella Hell locates it even nearer to our hearts. From Bad Flesh tells of diseased flesh, while the brand new Mannequin Man and the Plastic Bitch contains many maladies of the mind, most of them considered normal in the sick world it inhabits ...Contents:* White* From Bad Flesh* Hell (original)* The First Law* The Origin of Truth* Mannequin Man and the Plastic Bitch (original)Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

From Publishers Weekly

Futures blighted by technology run amok, ecological despoliation and evolutionary grotesquerie run through the six novellas that make up this new collection from British horror maestro Lebbon (As the Sun Goes Down). Their science fictional backdrops notwithstanding, these Frankensteinian glimpses of dystopias just around the corner are riddled with the visceral imagery of hardcore horror. In "From Bad Flesh," a man's quest to find a shaman who will cure the tumors overrunning his flesh becomes a travelogue through lands of the diseased and maimed, all victims of a virulent global "Sickness." "White" tells of a dwindling band of humans trapped in a terminal blizzard, picked off in hideous fashion by half-glimpsed snow phantoms. In the book's best entry, "The Origin of Truth," a family anxiously awaits the onslaught of an uncontrolled nanotech virus that's voraciously consuming and reshaping the basic matter of the world. Lebbon knows how to render atrocities of the flesh and spirit, but he's on less sure ground when trying to find reassurance for humanity in the midst of the bloody mayhem. One character, observing the surreal contradictions of the landscape, notes, "The deep blue of the sky, decorated with an occasional cloud cheerful in its fluffiness; and the bloody red mess of open meat, steaming insides, pulsing wounds." This contrast is endemic to the grim worldview these apocalyptic fictions share, and readers will be hard put to see the hope amid the carnage.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Tim Lebbon is the "New York Times" bestselling author of the movie novelizations of "30 Days of Night "and" The Cabin in the Woods". He has also written many critically acclaimed dark fantasy and crime novels. Tim has won three British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, a Tombstone and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards.

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