Dead Man’s Hand

by John Joseph Adams

  ORSON SCOTT CARD

  Orson Scott Card is the best-selling author of more than forty novels, including Ender’s Game, which was a winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, also won both awards, making Card the only author to have captured science fiction’s two most coveted prizes in consecutive years. Recent books include The Lost Gates, Ruins, Earth Aware, and Shadows in Flight. He is also the author of the acclaimed historical fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker.

  DAVID FARLAND

  David Farland is the author of the best-selling Runelords series, which began with The Sum of All Men; the latest volume, A Tale of Tales, came out in 2012. Farland, whose real name is Dave Wolverton, has also written several novels using his real name as his byline, such as On My Way to Paradise, and a number of Star Wars novels such as The Courtship of Princess Leia and The Rising Force. His short fiction has appeared in Peter S. Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn, David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Intergalactic Medicine Show, War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, and in John Joseph Adams’s anthologies The Way of the Wizard, Oz Reimagined, and The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination. He is a Writers of the Future winner and a finalist for the Nebula Award and Philip K. Dick Award.

  JEFFREY FORD

  Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels, The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are, The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, and The Drowned Life. Crackpot Palace, a new collection of twenty stories, was recently published by Morrow/HarperCollins. Ford writes somewhere in Ohio.

  ALAN DEAN FOSTER

  Alan Dean Foster is the bestselling author of more than a hundred and twenty novels, and is perhaps most famous for his Commonwealth series, which began in 1971 with the novel The Tar-Aiym Krang. His most recent series is transhumanism trilogy The Tipping Point. Foster’s work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has won awards in Spain and Russia in addition to the U.S. He is also well-known for his film novelizations, the most recent of which is Star Trek Into Darkness. He is currently at work on several new novels and film projects.

  LAURA ANNE GILMAN

  Best known as the author of the popular “Cosa Nostradamus” novels, and the award-nominated “Vineart War” trilogy, Laura Anne recently sold three “Devil’s West” novels (set in the same universe as her story for this anthology) to Saga/Simon & Schuster. The first title, Silver on the Road, is scheduled for 2015. She has also dipped her pen into the mystery field, writing as L.A. Kornetsky (the “Gin and Tonic” series), while continuing to write and sell short fiction in a variety of genres. She is a member of the writers publishing cooperative, Book View Cafe.

  HUGH HOWEY

  Hugh Howey is the author of the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel Wool, which became a sudden success in 2011. Originally self-published as a series of novelettes (including the one you’ll find in this anthology), the Wool omnibus is frequently the #1 bestselling book on Amazon.com and is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller. The book was also optioned for film by Ridley Scott, and is now available in print from major publishers all over the world. The story of Wool’s meteoric success has been reported in major media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, Variety, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Deadline Hollywood, and elsewhere. Howey lives in Jupiter, Florida with his wife Amber and his dog Bella.

  RAJAN KHANNA

  Rajan Khanna is a writer, musician, and sometime bon vivant. A graduate of the 2008 Clarion West Writers Workshop and a member of the NY-based writing group, Altered Fluid, his fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming from Shimmer Magazine, Zombies: Shambling Through the Ages, Diverse Energies, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, and The Way of the Wizard (among others) and has received Honorable Mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror and the Year’s Best Science Fiction. He sometimes writes articles for Tor.com and occasionally narrates podcasts for sites like Podcastle, Lightspeed, and Pseudopod. Rajan also writes about wine, beer, and spirits at FermentedAdventures.com.

  JOE R. LANSDALE

  Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in eighteen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

  KEN LIU

  Ken Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. His fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other places. He has won a Nebula, two Hugos, a World Fantasy Award, and a Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award, and been nominated for the Sturgeon and the Locus Awards. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts. Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, the first in a fantasy series, will be published by Simon & Schuster’s new genre fiction imprint in 2015, along with a collection of short stories.

  JONATHAN MABERRY

  Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and Marvel Comics writer. He’s the author of many novels including Assassin’s Code, Flesh & Bone Dead of Night, Patient Zero and Rot & Ruin; and the editor of V-Wars: A Chronicle of the Vampire Wars. His nonfiction books are on topics ranging from martial arts to zombie pop-culture. Since 1978 he has sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, poetry, and textbooks. Jonathan continues to teach the celebrated Experimental Writing for Teens class, which he created. He founded the Writers Coffeehouse and co-founded The Liars Club; and is a frequent speaker at schools and libraries, as well as a keynote speaker and guest of honor at major writers and genre conferences.

  SEANAN MCGUIRE

  Seanan McGuire is the author of two ongoing urban fantasy series (the October Daye books, starting with Rosemary and Rue, and InCryptid, starting with Discount Armageddon), both published by DAW Books, as well as many works of short fiction. Under the name “Mira Grant” she writes science fiction thrillers full of viruses and zombies. Between her two identities, she is a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award, and was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She has released five CDs of original music, and is a founding member of the Hugo Award-winning SF Squeecast. She currently resides on the West Coast, where she shares her home with three enormous blue cats, a great many books, and the occasional wayward rattlesnake. Seanan regularly claims to be the advance scout of a race of alien plant people. We have no good reason to doubt her.

  MIKE RESNICK

  Mike Resnick is, according to Locus Magazine, the all-time award winner, living or dead, for short fiction. He has won five Hugos (from a record thirty-six nominations), a Nebula, and other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Croatia, Poland, and Spain. He is the author of seventy-one novels, more than two hundred and fifty stories, three screenplays, and the editor of more than forty anthologies. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages, and he was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention.

  BETH REVIS

  Beth Revis is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult science fiction series, Across the Universe. The third and final book, Shades of Earth, came out in 2013, and she’s currently working on a new SF series. Beth live
s in North Carolina with her husband and dog.

  ALASTAIR REYNOLDS

  Alastair Reynolds is the author of the Revelation Space series, which includes the novels Revelation Space, Chasm City, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, and The Prefect. Other novels include Century Rain, Terminal World, Pushing Ice, and House of Suns. His latest novels are Blue Remembered Earth, the first in the Poseidon’s Children trilogy, and Dr. Who: Harvest of Time.

  FRED VAN LENTE

  Fred Van Lente is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Marvel Zombies, Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak), Odd Is On Our Side (with Dean R. Koontz), as well as the American Library Association award-winning Action Philosophers. His original graphic novel Cowboys & Aliens (co-written with Andrew Foley) is the basis for the major motion picture starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. Van Lente’s other comics include The Comic Book History of Comics, Taskmaster, Archer & Armstrong, Amazing Spider-Man and Hulk: Season One.

  TAD WILLIAMS

  Former singer, shoe-seller, radio show host, and inventor of interactive sci-fi television, Tad Williams established himself as an international bestselling author with his The Dragonbone Chair epic fantasy series. The books that followed, the Otherland series, are now a multi-million-dollar MMO from dtp/realU/Gamigo. Tad is also the author of the Shadowmarch books; the stand-alone Faerie epic, The War of the Flowers; two collections of short stories (Rite and A Stark and Wormy Knight), the Shakespearian fantasy Caliban’s Hour, and, with his partner and collaborator Deborah Beale, the childrens’/all-ages fantasy series, the Ordinary Farm novels. Recently, with The Dirty Streets of Heaven, Tad has begun publishing the Bobby Dollar novels, noir fantasy thrillers set against the backdrop of the monstrously ancient cold war between Heaven and Hell and following the adventures of a certain maverick angel. Tad is also the author of Tailchaser’s Song, which is in production as an animated film.

  WALTER JON WILLIAMS

  Walter Jon Williams is an award-winning, best-selling science fiction author. His first novel to attract serious public attention was Hardwired, described by Roger Zelazny as “a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe-light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars.” In 2001 he won a Nebula Award for his novelette, “Daddy’s World,” and in 2005 another Nebula for “The Green Leopard Plague.” The fantasy Metropolitan, which was nominated for a Nebula Award, begins a sequence continued in a Nebula- and Hugo-nominated second novel, City on Fire. His latest work is The Fourth Wall, the third book in his series of near-future thrillers featuring game designer Dagmar Shaw.

  BEN H. WINTERS

  Ben H. Winters is the winner of the Edgar Award for his novel The Last Policeman, which was also an Amazon.com Best Book of 2012. Other works of fiction include the middle-grade novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, an Edgar Award nominee; its sequel, The Mystery of the Missing Everything; the psychological thriller Bedbugs; and two parody novels, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (a New York Times best-seller), and Android Karenina. Ben has also written extensively for the stage and is a past fellow of the Dramatists Guild. His journalism has appeared in Slate, The Nation, The Chicago Reader, and many other publications. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, and at BenHWinters.com.

  CHRISTIE YANT

  Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer, and Assistant Editor for Lightspeed Magazine. Her fiction has been featured on Wired.com and io9, in the magazines Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Fireside, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, and Daily Science Fiction, and in the anthologies The Way of the Wizard, Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, Other Worlds Than These, and Armored. She lives on the central coast of California with two writers, an editor, and assorted four-legged nuisances. Follow her on Twitter @christieyant.

  CHARLES YU

  Charles Yu is the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which was a New York Times Notable Book and named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine. He received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award for his story collection Third Class Superhero, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award. His work has been published in the New York Times, Playboy, and Slate, among other periodicals. His latest book, Sorry Please Thank You, was named one of the best science fiction/fantasy books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. Yu lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife, Michelle, and their two children.

  ABOUT THE EDITOR

  JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Armored, Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, The Living Dead, HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! & Other Improbable Crowdfunding Projects, and The Apocalypse Triptych consisting of The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and The End Has Come. He has been nominated for six Hugo Awards and five World Fantasy Awards, and he has been called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare, and is a producer for Wired.com’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Find him on Twitter @johnjosephadams. Visit the official website for Dead Man’s Hand at johnjosephadams.com/dead-mans-hand.

  COMING SOON FROM TITAN BOOKS

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  STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE

  EDITED BY JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS

  An anthology of the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King. Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon.

  “A well-chosen selection of well-crafted stories, offering something to please nearly every postapocalyptic palate.” Booklist

  “A first-rate anthology that quite convincingly represents the more recent SFnal view of the apocalypse.” Locus

  “Arguably my favorite anthology of all time—just packed with speculative masterworks.” Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble.com

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  MORE STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE

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  Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. Harbingers of the biblical apocalypse—Armageddon, The End of the World. John Joseph Adams returns with a second anthology of post-apocalyptic short stories from masters of their craft.

  George R.R. Martin • Orson Scott Card • Paolo Bacigalupi • Hugh Howey • Jack McDevitt • Cory Doctorow • Lauren Beukes • Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling • Ann Aguirre • Christopher Barzak • Nancy Kress • Genevieve Valentine • D. Thomas Minton • Jack McDevitt • Ramsey Shehadeh • Robert Silverberg • Mira Grant • Joe R. Lansdale • Maria Dahvana Headley • Junot Diaz • Jake Kerr • Maureen F. McHugh • Toiya Kristen Finley • Milo James Fowler • Tananarive Due • Megan Arkenberg • James Van Pelt • Christie Yant • Seanan McGuire

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  Under the unblinking eye of World Fantasy Award-winning editor Stephen Jones, sixteen of the finest modern authors, including Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley contribute stories to the canon of Cthulhu. Also featuring the story that started it all, by the master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft.

  “Lovecraftians will rejoice.” Booklist

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  “Good, slimy fun… There are a number of genuinely frightening pieces here.” San Francisco Chronicle

  “This is an intelligent, witty anthology.” The Good Book Guide

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  WEIRD SHADOWS OVER INNSMOUTH

  EDITED BY STEPHEN JONES

  Including the unpublished early draft of ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth,’ by H. P. Lovecraft, this extraordinary volume features twelve stories by some of the world’s most prominent Lovecraftian authors, including Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Michael Marshall Smith, John Glasby, Paul McAuley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Brian Lumley, Basil Copper, Hugh B. Cave, and Richard Lupoff.

  “Not just H. P. Lovecraft fans will revel in this fine follow-up to Jones’s Shadows Over Innsmouth.” Publishers Weekly

  “Fascinating and recommended.” All Hallows

  “Jones has brought together some of the industry’s top-notch authors… This collection is strongly recommended for Mythos fans. Due to the overall quality of the writing, though, it is strongly recommended for everyone else, too.” Hellnotes

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