It’s release day!
Today, ZNB PRESENTS: YEAR TWO is officially out in the world! This short story anthology contains 24 stories, which made up the second year of indie publisher Zombies Need Brains‘ online magazine ZNB Presents. My sci-fi story “Preserving Phylais” is in the book, among some incredible company. It’s an exciting day, and I’m thrilled to finally be sharing this anthology with you!
A little about the anthology:
For the past few years, ZNB Presents published two stories a month on the Zombies Need Brains Patreon. As the name implies, ZNB PRESENTS: YEAR TWO collects all of them which comprised the magazine’s second year, along with their accompanying artworks. This is an eclectic mix of stories; ZNB often does anthologies where all the stories adhere to a specific theme, such as The Modern Deity’s Guide to Surviving Humanity, which was all urban fantasy takes on deities living in the modern day. (That one includes my Aztec story “The Teotl of Gaming”.) But for the magazine, there were no rules beyond make it interesting, engaging, and original. As such, it’s much more of a mixed bag, where you never know what sort of story is going to surprise you on the next page. Which is pretty fun, in my not at all biased opinion!
A little about my story in ZNB PRESENTS: YEAR TWO:
Typically when it comes to writing, I’m a fantasy nut through and through…but I decided to stretch myself and try something different with “Preserving Phylais.” This is one of the only science fiction stories I’ve written, and it was a total blast. The premise is that, in the distant future, a human colony struggles to establish itself on a planet where sentient plants (nicknamed Preservers) call the shots. The Preservers are intrinsically linked to the ecosystem, and compromise is not something that fits into their worldview. Things either benefit the ecosystem, or endanger it…and the Preservers react accordingly.
The story is told from two points of view: Elona, an acolyte who has tirelessly trained her mind to better interpret the Preservers’ unique method of communication; and Miko, an engineer and foreman whose life’s work is to improve the infrastructure of the colony. I won’t give too much away — the book is out now so you can read it yourself! — but suffice to say the Preservers draw issues with some of the colony’s choices, and humans often don’t take kindly to being told what they can and can’t do.
I’ll be talking a bit more about “Preserving Phylais” in the days to come, because the road to writing that story was a bit of a weird one with more than a few detours along the way. For now, let’s just bask in the excitement of a new book being out in the world!
Here’s a plethora of links to where you can grab a copy today:
Ebook: ZNB store| Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Daniel Roman 