Little Doors

by Paul Di Filippo

Here are 17 new stories from a writer whose work has been praised by William Gibson as “spooky, haunting, hilarious.” In the title story of Little Doors, a professor of children’s literature discovers a bizarre synchronicity between a lost text and his illicit relationship with a student. In another story, a boy is born without a brain and his skull is invaded by a group of wild animals. Another chronicles an all-night drive through a Manhattan distinctly different from — but strangely similar to — our own. All of these stories are replete with chaos, human oddities, and the unruly energy of a Tom Waits song, forming an exhilarating collection from a truly creative force in contemporary fiction. The master of "trailer park science fiction", Di Filippo is a two-time finalist for the Nebula Award and finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. “[Di Filippo] channelsurfs postmodern apocalypse, brilliantly.” — Jonathan Lethem

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Collections, Fantasy

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Paul Di Filippo is the author of hundreds of short stories, some of which have been collected in these widely-praised collections: The Steampunk Trilogy, Ribofunk, Fractal Paisleys, Lost Pages, Little Doors, Strange Trades, Babylon Sisters, and his multiple-award-nominated novella, A Year in the Linear City. Another earlier collection, Destroy All Brains, was published by Pirate Writings, but is quite rare because of the extremely short print run (if you see one, buy it!).

The popularity of Di Filippo’s short stories sometimes distracts from the impact of his mindbending, utterly unclassifiable novels: Ciphers, Joe’s Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, and Spondulix. Paul’s offbeat sensibility, soulful characterizations, exquisite-yet-compact prose, and laugh-out-loud dialogue give his work a charmingly unique voice that is both compelling and addictive. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards.

Despite his dilatory ways, Paul affirms that the sequel to A Year in the Linear City, to be titled A Princess of the Linear Jungle, will get written in 2008. He has two books forthcoming from PS Publications: the collection entitled Harsh Oases and the novel titled Roadside Bodhisattva. His 2008 novel Cosmocopia is graced by Jim Woodring illustrations.

Paul lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Adam Meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Paul Di Filippo was a scifi writer, but there's no science fiction in this collection--just sixteen intriguing horror and dark fantasy tales and one written in gibberish that you have to be familiar with a series of paintings by Chris Mars, who I had never heard of, to get anything out of.

Standouts: Moloch, Billy, Singing Each to Each
incomprehensible gibberish: Jack Neck and the Worrybird

[Jeremiah Genest · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are stories of dreams and obsessions, and proof of why I like the author so much.