The Spider Tapestries

"Mike Allen will infect your subconscious with hallucinatory and alarming delight. This book is a must-read for fans of weird fiction and dark fantasy." - Helen Marshall, World Fantasy Award-winning author of GIFTS FOR THE ONE WHO COMES AFTER

"Surrender yourself to THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES and let these tales rewire your mind." - Scott Nicolay, World Fantasy Award-winning author of DO YOU LIKE TO LOOK AT MONSTERS?

THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, Mike Allen's sophomore short story collection, takes a wrecking ball to genre boundaries, showcasing seven stories that mix transhuman noir, Lovecraftian horror, and surrealistic sorcery in an exploration of the further reaches of the Weird. Readers who savored the disorienting strangeness in Allen's debut collection UNSEAMING, a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and Amazon.com horror fiction bestseller, will find THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES begins where UNSEAMING left off. As Nicole Kornher-Stace, author of ARCHIVIST WASP, explains in her introduction, "Allen outdoes himself even further, borrowing and synthesizing across genres with gleeful abandon... This results in stories like 'Twa Sisters,' with an atmosphere and setting as if Hieronymous Bosch had been brought in as a consultant on Blade Runner. Or 'Sleepless, Burning Life,' which, with simultaneous nods to steampunk and metaphysics, explores and upends the familiar trope of Mortal Chosen by the Gods."

More praise for THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES:

"The aptly named SPIDER TAPESTRIES forms a stunning picture that is equal parts darkness and light... a whirlwind tour through worlds of decadent fantasy, noir-touched future-weird, and elegant horror." - A.C. Wise, author of THE ULTRA FABULOUS GLITTER SQUADRON SAVES THE WORLD AGAIN

"Mike Allen, among the most dynamic of contemporary fantasists, habitually upends Lovecraftian tropes with his own brand of cosmic horror." - Laird Barron, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of X'S FOR EYES

Contents:

Introduction by Nicole Kornher-Stace
“The Spider Tapestries” (Lackington’s 8, 2015)
“Sleepless, Burning Life” (Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, ed. JoSelle Vanderhooft, Torquere Books, 2011)
“Twa Sisters” (Not One of Us 47, 2012)
“Silent in Her Nest” (original to the collection)
“She Who Runs” (Sky Whales and Other Wonders, ed. Vera Nazarian, Norilana Books, 2009)
“Stolen Souls” (Altair 3, 1999)
“Still Life With Skull” (Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, ed. Ian Whates, Solaris, 2013