Showing results by author "Maureen McHugh" in All Categories

The living dead are more alive than ever! Zombies have become more than an iconic monster for the 21st century: They are now a phenomenon constantly revealing as much about ourselves - and our fascination with death, resurrection, and survival - as our love for the supernatural or post-apocalyptic speculation. Our most imaginative literary minds have been devoured by these incredible creatures and produced exciting, insightful, and unflinching new works of zombie fiction.

An unabridged audio collection of the "best of the best" science fiction stories written in 2011 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster, as narrated by top voice talents. In "Dying Young," by Peter M. Ball, cyborgs, clones, and post-humans collide with a dragon bent on revenge in a post-apocalyptic space western. In "Canterbury Hollow," by Chris Lawson, two lovers on a planet orbiting a killer sun share their few remaining weeks together before they die....

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we'd do to survive the coming zombie plague.

Set on a distant planet, this is a gripping tale about a colony that believes in "appropriate technology adoption". When a heavily armed clan arrives at the colony, while it's being visited by off-world anthropologists, events spiral out of control, and the colony's beliefs are put to the test. The story is told from the viewpoint of a young woman - who soon learns just how high the price of wisdom can be.

Cleveland is now a city of zombies and a penal colony. Cahill, a criminal serving his sentence decides to forgo joining the surviving men in order to live on his own. At first he’s terrified of zombies, but that terror gives way to curiosity and he begins to conduct research in order to understand the creatures better.

An affecting tale of the struggle to retain one’s humanity in the face of societal breakdown. With the population sliding toward unemployment, homelessness and desperation, one woman ekes out a living fashioning “reborns” for clients of a particular taste.