Push of the Sky [Paperback]

Camille Alexa (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 2009

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:" Alexa's impressive debut collection covers a wide variety of subgenres, among which she switches with ease. The highlight is the slightly absurdist "Shades of White and Road," which develops the whimsy of a magic kingdom and talking objects into something touching and beautiful. Other standouts include the melancholy, postapocalyptic "A Taste of Snow," the fun space frontier tale "The Clone Wrangler's Bride" and the clockwork-and-alchemy fantasy "The Butterfly Assassins," which deftly mixes a murder mystery, court intrigue and a stutterer's plight in a world where magic requires verbal incantations. "Paperheart," focusing on the last dragon, and "They Shall Be as They Know," an eschatological zombie story, nicely revisit familiar themes. The poems are not as strong as the fiction but they show decent range. Alexa's voice is a welcome new addition to genre fiction." A girl and her mandroid wander the Twelve Domed Cities of Mars, looking for a place to call home... A young man in the age of practical alchemy eschews incantations he can't utter for fantastic creatures built of cogs and springs... A prehistoric inventor living at the cusp of change finds an ancient winged carcass at the edge of a melting glacier, and has the inspiration of a lifetime... Over two dozen short speculative works from the pages of Fantasy Magazine, ChiZine, Abyss & Apex, Space & Time Magazine and more, including SpaceWesterns.com's most-read story of all time, "The Clone Wrangler's Bride" and its sequel, "Droidtown Blues." PLUS new stories never before published, collected here for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Alexa's impressive debut collection covers a wide variety of subgenres, among which she switches with ease. The highlight is the slightly absurdist Shades of White and Road, which develops the whimsy of a magic kingdom and talking objects into something touching and beautiful. Other standouts include the melancholy, postapocalyptic A Taste of Snow, the fun space frontier tale The Clone Wrangler's Bride and the clockwork-and-alchemy fantasy The Butterfly Assassins, which deftly mixes a murder mystery, court intrigue and a stutterer's plight in a world where magic requires verbal incantations. Paperheart, focusing on the last dragon, and They Shall Be as They Know, an eschatological zombie story, nicely revisit familiar themes. The poems are not as strong as the fiction but they show decent range. Alexa's voice is a welcome new addition to genre fiction. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Hadley Rille Books (June 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981924379
• ISBN-13: 978-0981924373
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,845,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Camille Alexa tends to write about things that didn't happen, probably couldn't happen, or haven't happened yet. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and her short fiction collection, PUSH OF THE SKY, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

She tries to keep an updated bibliography at camillealexa.com and a sporadically updated blog at camillealexa.livejournal.com. She is represented by Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc.

~
http://camillealexa.com
http://camillealexa.livejournal.com
http://twitter.com/camillealexa

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralling stories, gorgeous prose, October 20, 2010

By 

Barbara A. Ray "Bibliophage" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Push of the Sky (Paperback)

I'll be honest. I did not approach this book with high hopes. In fact I dreaded reading it. I have read more sci-fi and speculative fiction collections than I can shake a stick at, and frankly, I am sort of over the genre.

This book took me completely by surprise. I was completely drawn in by many of these stories, frequently left at the end wanting to know more about the characters so vividly brought to life within them. I do not have the book in front of me, but the story about "Aunt Candi" and the story about the alchemist and the butterflies especially stood out as remarkable. That being said, I liked everything in this collection, all of the stories were strong and unique. Truly this is a remarkable and recommended collection.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creativity and Imagination on Display, July 12, 2009

By 

GAL (D.C. Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Push of the Sky (Paperback)

The sheer breadth of imagination and creativity on display here is breathtaking. In addition to being a creator of very cool worlds, Camille Alexa is a story stylist: each word seems deliberately chosen for maximum effect, and nowhere is that better on display than "Shades of White and Road," which is probably my favorite story in the anthology. But she can tell more straightforward stories, too, and "The Pull of the World and the Push of the Sky," the book closer, runs a very close second for favorite. She has a wry sense of humor, check out "Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths," a delightful tale that made me giggle all the way through, but especially at the perfect last line (story ending is an art--don't let anyone tell you different). There's not a weak story in this collection and the poems are vivid and go nicely with the prose. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing collection, May 28, 2010

By 

Aimee Amodio (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Push of the Sky (Paperback)

There are so many standout stories in this collection!

My favorite might be "Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths", which is the first story I ever read from Camille Alexa. It's funny and fanastic! But then it's hard not to love "Shades of White and Road". Or the poem about the hot (but sadly girl-eating) aliens. And the more I think about it, the more stories from the collection pop back into my head to say "HEY! Mention me, too, because I'm awesome!" "A Taste of Snow", which I love for the same reason I loved reading "Alas, Babylon" in high school -- it sucked my brain right into that post-disaster world, the struggle to survive, scraping for every last bit of usefulness. The letters from an agoraphobic on Mars, which I reread over and over, looking for clues.

I love this collection and keep it in my locker at work so I can reread the stories over lunch!