“Livia Llewellyn’s stories generate an almost visceral sense of unease.”
Horror fiction has long celebrated and explored the twin engines driving human existence. Call them what you like: Sex and Death, Love and Destruction, Temptation and Terror. While many may strive to reach the extremes, few authors manage to find the beauty that rests in the liminal space between these polar forces, the shuddering ecstasy encased within the shock. And then there’s Livia Llewellyn, an author praised for her dark, stirring, evocative prose and disturbing, personal narratives.
Lush, layered, multifaceted, and elegant, the thirteen tales comprising Furnace showcase why Livia Llewellyn has been lauded by scholars and fans of weird fiction alike, and why she has been nominated multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award and included in year’s best anthologies. These are exquisite stories, of beauty and cruelty, of pleasure and pain, of hunger, and of sharp teeth sinking into tender flesh.
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Livia Llewellyn is one of the best short story writers to make her mark in the last few years, with a rapidly growing body of work that is both subtle and disturbing. This Is Horror readers may be familiar with the Shirley Jackson Award nominated story ‘Furnace’, which also appeared in The Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume 1. Her first collection, Engines Of Desire, was published in 2011 by Lethe Press; her second, Furnaces, is coming soon from Word Horde.
Eschewing the typical tropes of horror, her stories nonetheless generate an almost visceral sense of unease due to her combination of a very personal sense of the uncanny and her assured and astute characterisation. Tensions between her characters– whether erotic, familial or more ambiguous–are reflected in the outer landscape, which is frequently less stable than it first appears.
With a fantastic cover that perfectly captures the strange and idiosyncratic atmosphere of the stories within, Furnaces is highly recommended.
Furnace is out on 15 February 2016 from Word Horde Press; signed copies can be pre-ordered now.
“Obsidian celebrates the best horror fiction by women published by the NewCon Press.”
In 2016, NewCon Press celebrates its 10th anniversary. To commemorate this, a number of very special publications are planned, including Obsidian, an eBook only retrospective anthology gathering together the best horror stories written by women authors that NewCon have published during our first 10 years. Our early titles were never issued as eBooks, so many of these stories appear here in digital format for the first time. The book also includes an original story by Laura Mauro, bringing the collection right up to date.
Why We’re Excited About This Book
NewCon Press reaches its first decade this year, and along with the party-bags and cake they are also releasing Obsidian, an anthology celebrating some of the best horror fiction by women published by the press during the last ten years. There’s no theme, just good stories. Featuring tales from Sarah Pinborough, Alison Littlewood, Lisa Tuttle, Marie O’Regan, Tanith Lee and a whole host of others, the stories here are linked by nothing but quality.
And to bring things bang up to date there’s a brand new story from Laura Mauro called–what else–‘Obsidian’.
There is also a companion release, Digital Dreams, containing a selection of NewCon published science fiction stories by women, which includes tales from Pat Cadigan, Nina Allan and Ruth Booth, amongst others.
Obsidian was released on 28 January 2016 from NewCon Press.
Digital Dreams is out now from NewCon Press.
JAMES EVERINGTON