by Dale Bailey
Praise for The End of the End of Everything
“Here are nine gorgeously-written and closely-observed tales of ordinary people trying to hold it together when everything is falling apart. I’ve been a story aficionado for several decades now and I can’t think of a more accomplished master of the fantastic short form. Prepare to hunt feral Girl Scouts! Pack your bags for a dinosaur safari! Invite friends to your end of the world party! Dale Bailey is the poet of the apocalypse; his stories are guaranteed to haunt you.”
—James Patrick Kelly,
winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards for short fiction
“Bailey is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary short science fiction, merging the best tools of literary writing with a savvy genre eye, and creating stories that, in their strangeness, are personally, emotionally revelatory.”
—Rachel Swirsky,
winner of the Nebula Award
“Dale Bailey has been one of the best kept secrets of the fantasy genre for too many years. A true child of Bradbury, using language as pristine and as robust as his imagination, he writes beautiful, heartbreaking stories for our dark age. It’s time everyone knew: Bailey is one of the best writers we’ve got.”
—Nathan Ballingrud,
winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and finalist for the World Fantasy Award
“No stories being written today move me like Dale Bailey’s. He always roams farther than most of us dare, and returns bearing something true.”
—Andy Duncan,
winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Nebula Award
“The End of the World as We Know It,” The Bluehole,” “Eating at the End-of-the-World Café,” and “Lightning Jack’s Last Ride” originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2004, 2013, 2010, and 2015, respectively. “The Creature Recants” originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine in 2013. “Mating Habits of the Late Cretaceous” and “Troop 9” originally appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction in 2012 and 2014, respectively. “A Rumor of Angels” and “The End of the End of Everything” both originally appeared at Tor.com in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
The End of the End of Everything is a collection of fictional works. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used in an absolutely fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Dale Bailey
Original publication information is at the back of the book.
All rights reserved, which means that no portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is A002, and it has an ISBN of 978-1-63023-007-4.
This book was printed in the United States of America, and it is published by Arche Press, an imprint of Resurrection House (Puyallup, WA).
One by one, the Christmas lights along the coastline blinked out.
Cover Art by Galen Dara
Cover Design by Darin Bradley
Book Design by Aaron Leis
Ebook conversion by Hydra House
First Arche Press edition: March 2015.
www.resurrectionhouse.com
