| Author: | Douglas Smith | ISBN: | 9781458112996 |
| Publisher: | Spiral Path Books | Publication: | May 1, 2011 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Douglas Smith |
| ISBN: | 9781458112996 |
| Publisher: | Spiral Path Books |
| Publication: | May 1, 2011 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
Aurora Award Finalist story from a multi-award winning author.
Think of human emotion as a geography, with peaks of pleasure and valleys of pain. Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy.
Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide.
They will kill. And they will revel in it.
Welcome to the world of Scream.
Jarrod is a Scream-addicted soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when his unit encounters the Be'nan, aliens who hold the secret to true enlightenment, no one is prepared for the result.
REVIEWS
"...reaches far past the muddled mediocrity of swashbuckling tales forgotten before the page is turned to the next story. I enjoyed the alien anthropology and the details are tremendous." --Tangent Online
"Douglas Smith provides a riff on Ray Bradbury's famous rationale of space travel: for Man to find God in the cosmos. A science fictional depiction of the mistreatment of 'aliens' to subvertly criticize the atrocities of imperialist colonization." --SF Site
"Another strong story, looking at humanity's treatment of indigenous people." --Best SF
"...oppressed inhabitants of distant worlds making the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring mankind back to the realisation of what right and wrong truly mean." -- Whispers of Wickedness reviews
"My favourite of the issue."
"I was just engrossed in the whole thing...and applaud it thoroughly!"
"just blew me away...I was taken away by the lovely prose."
"Mind-blowing."
--InterZone readers forum
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"Doug Smith is, quite simply, the finest short-story writer Canada has ever produced in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and he's also the most prolific. His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think." --Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author
"One of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction." --Library Journal
"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice." --Charles de Lint, award winning author
Douglas Smith is an award-winning Canadian author of speculative fiction, with over a hundred short story publications in thirty countries and twenty-five languages.
His collections include Chimerascope (2010) and Impossibilia (2008), as well as the translated fantasy collection, La Danse des Esprits (France, 2011). His first novel, The Wolf at the End of the World, will be released in 2013.
Doug has twice won Canada's Aurora Award, and has been a finalist for the international John W. Campbell Award, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Bookies Award, Canada's juried Sunburst Award, and France's juried Prix Masterton and Prix Bob Morane.
A multi-award winning film based on Doug's story "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down" will be released on DVD this year, and other films based on his stories are in the works. Doug's website is smithwriter.com and he tweets at twitter.com/smithwritr.
Aurora Award Finalist story from a multi-award winning author.
Think of human emotion as a geography, with peaks of pleasure and valleys of pain. Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy.
Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide.
They will kill. And they will revel in it.
Welcome to the world of Scream.
Jarrod is a Scream-addicted soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when his unit encounters the Be'nan, aliens who hold the secret to true enlightenment, no one is prepared for the result.
REVIEWS
"...reaches far past the muddled mediocrity of swashbuckling tales forgotten before the page is turned to the next story. I enjoyed the alien anthropology and the details are tremendous." --Tangent Online
"Douglas Smith provides a riff on Ray Bradbury's famous rationale of space travel: for Man to find God in the cosmos. A science fictional depiction of the mistreatment of 'aliens' to subvertly criticize the atrocities of imperialist colonization." --SF Site
"Another strong story, looking at humanity's treatment of indigenous people." --Best SF
"...oppressed inhabitants of distant worlds making the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring mankind back to the realisation of what right and wrong truly mean." -- Whispers of Wickedness reviews
"My favourite of the issue."
"I was just engrossed in the whole thing...and applaud it thoroughly!"
"just blew me away...I was taken away by the lovely prose."
"Mind-blowing."
--InterZone readers forum
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"Doug Smith is, quite simply, the finest short-story writer Canada has ever produced in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and he's also the most prolific. His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think." --Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author
"One of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction." --Library Journal
"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice." --Charles de Lint, award winning author
Douglas Smith is an award-winning Canadian author of speculative fiction, with over a hundred short story publications in thirty countries and twenty-five languages.
His collections include Chimerascope (2010) and Impossibilia (2008), as well as the translated fantasy collection, La Danse des Esprits (France, 2011). His first novel, The Wolf at the End of the World, will be released in 2013.
Doug has twice won Canada's Aurora Award, and has been a finalist for the international John W. Campbell Award, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Bookies Award, Canada's juried Sunburst Award, and France's juried Prix Masterton and Prix Bob Morane.
A multi-award winning film based on Doug's story "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down" will be released on DVD this year, and other films based on his stories are in the works. Doug's website is smithwriter.com and he tweets at twitter.com/smithwritr.
