Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In these tales you will meet a Utopian assassin, an aging UFO contactee, a haunted Mohawk steelworker, a time-traveling prizefighter, a yam-eating Zombie, and a child who loves a frizzled chicken - not to mention Harry Houdini, Zora Neale Hurston, Sir Thomas More and all their fellow travelers riding the steamer-trunk imagination of a unique 21st-century fabulist.
Synopsis
"Andy Duncan is one of the very best short story writers in Science Fiction, Fantasy, or anywhere else. It's a sure bet that you're holding in your hand the best story collection of the year." --Jeffrey Ford, author of A Natural History of Hell
"Duncan's unique voice shines through in his third collection. You've not read him yet? Shame on you Go out now and buy An Agent of Utopia. You'll thank me." --Ellen Datlow, award- winning editor
"Andy Duncan is one of the most hilarious and poignant writers of short stories that we have. He effortlessly forges dreamlike and nightmarish tales with wit and wisdom that rivals Mark Twain." --Christopher Barzak, author of Wonders of the Invisible World
In these tales you will meet a Utopian assassin, an aging UFO contactee, a haunted Mohawk steelworker, a time- traveling prizefighter, a yam- eating Zombie, and a child who loves a frizzled chicken--not to mention Harry Houdini, Zora Neale Hurston, Sir Thomas More, and all their fellow travelers riding the steamer- trunk imagination of a unique twenty-first- century fabulist.
Andy Duncan's short fiction has been honored with the Nebula, Sturgeon, and multiple World Fantasy awards. A native of Batesburg, SC, Duncan has been a newspaper reporter, a trucking- magazine editor, a bookseller, a student-media adviser, and, since 2008, a member of the writing faculty at Frostburg State University in the mountains of western Maryland, where he lives with his wife, Sydney.
Synopsis
In the tales gathered in An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories you will meet a Utopian assassin, an aging UFO contactee, a haunted Mohawk steelworker, a time-traveling prizefighter, a yam-eating Zombie, and a child who loves a frizzled chicken--not to mention Harry Houdini, Zora Neale Hurston, Sir Thomas More, and all their fellow travelers riding the steamer-trunk imagination of a unique twenty-first-century fabulist.
From the Florida folktales of the perennial prison escapee Daddy Mention and the dangerous gator-man Uncle Monday that inspired "Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull" (first published in Mojo: Conjure Stories, edited by Nalo Hopkinson) to the imagined story of boxer and historical bit player Jess Willard in World Fantasy Award winner "The Pottawatomie Giant" (first published on SciFiction), or the Ozark UFO contactees in Nebula Award winner "Close Encounters" to Flannery O'Connor's childhood celebrity in Shirley Jackson Award finalist "Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse" (first published in Eclipse) Duncan's historical juxtapositions come alive on the page as if this Southern storyteller was sitting on a rocking chair stretching the truth out beside you.
Duncan rounds out his explorations of the nooks and crannies of history in two irresistible new stories, "Joe Diabo's Farewell" -- in which a gang of Native American ironworkers in 1920s New York City go to a show -- and the title story, "An Agent of Utopia" -- where he reveals what really (might have) happened to Thomas More's head.
Synopsis
Andy Duncan has shamelessly told flat-out made-up stories for twenty years, and this book right here is the evidence