About this ebook
Darkness can be divided. —It can be split like an atom, and in it can be found a destructive fire—or light. Light, too, can be folded into darkness. The stories brought to light in John Shirley's stunning DARKNESS DIVIDED -- most of them never before collected, some written especially for this book--are presented in two sections: one featuring stories set in the present, or the past, the other set in myriad futures. These dark tales of new noir, science fiction, fantasy, and crime, demonstrate humankind's evolution from where we were and where we are, to where we have yet to be. Shadows are a current—a continuity—streaming from "Til Now" into "And Soon." John Shirley incisively explores human nature and the pitch-black streak within the soul that each of us fears. The twenty-two excursions collected here divide the darkness with scalpel-like precision, daring you to peek inside. In these divided shadows, in the shift of diffuse light and occlusion, things move--things that aren't there. There you will find your own id, the dark side of your own imagination. Read these words, and be forever changed by what you find.
About the author
John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and the urban fantasy novel BLEAK HISTORY. He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books. His most recent novels are DOYLE AFTER DEATH, a dark fantasy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the afterlife, and WYATT IN WICHITA, a historical novel about the young Wyatt Earp. He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings. John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher. Other John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, and LIVING SHADOWS.
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