The Extinction Event

by Jared Shurin (Editor), Anne C. Perry (Contributor), S.L. Grey (Contributor)

The final book from Jurassic London, The Extinction Event combines selections from the previous five years' volumes, plus entirely new material.

The Extinction Event includes:

Chrysanthy Balis - "Valentine's Day"
Rose Biggin - "The Arousing Adventures of Gelato Parlour"
Archie Black – "Uncle Smoke" (Stories of the Smoke)
Jesse Bullington – "Escape from the Mummy’s Tomb" (The Book of the Dead)
David Bryher - "Lost in Music"
Becky Chambers – "Chrysalis" (Pornokitsch)
Amy Coombe – "The Life of Her Mother" (Pornokitsch)
Kim Curran - "Genius in the Walls"
Charles Dickens - "Mary Anning"
Anna Katharine Green - "The Golden Slipper"
S.L. Grey – "We’ll Always Be Here" (The Lowest Heaven)
Will Hill – "Three Memories of Death" (The Book of the Dead)
Charlie Human - "The Doctrine of the Whisper"
Matt Jones – "The Comet’s Tale" (The Lowest Heaven)
Rebecca Levene – “The Knowledge” (Stories of the Smoke)
Kirsty Logan - "Four Feet"
Sophia McDougall – "Not the End of the World" (Stories of the Apocalypse)
Simon Morden – "Never, never, three times never" (Thy Kingdom Come)
Den Patrick - "People, Places, and Things"
Adam Roberts – "Martin Citywit" (Stories of the Smoke)
Henrietta Rose-Innes - "The Bronze Age"
R.M. - "A Chronicle of Crows"
Robert Sharp - "(0,0)" (Crossroads)
James Smythe – "The Last Escapement" (Irregularity)
E.J. Swift – "The Spiders of Stockholm" (Irregularity)
Sam Sykes – "Wish for a Gun" (A Town Called Pandemonium)
Molly Tanzer - "Genius Without Education"
Lavie Tidhar - "Fealty to Apollo"
Osgood Vance – "Closer" (Stories of the Apocalypse)
Joe Vaz - "Front Row, Centre"
J.Y. Yang - "Ya-Ya Papaya"

It also contains art by Jennie Gyllblad, Jonathan Edwards, Howard Hardiman, Joey Hi-Fi, Jade Klara, Sarah Anne Langton, Jeffrey Alan Love, Gary Northfield and Vincent Sammy.

Story introductions are provided by Niall Alexander, Kim Curran, Richard Dunn, Ana Grilo, Will Hill, Thea James, John J Johnston, Marek Kukula, Justin Landon, Mahvesh Murad, Claire North and Sam Wilson. Foreword by Anne C Perry, afterword by Jared Shurin.

The book also contains the Complete and Indisputable Checklist of Jurassic London Publications (including all the projects that didn't happen).

Published as a slipcased hardcover, limited to 150 numbered copies.

Genres: Anthologies

589 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2016

About the author

Jared Shurin has edited over two dozen anthologies, including The Elements of Dark Academia, The Djinn Falls in Love, The Lowest Heaven, The Outcast Hours, the Best of British Fantasy series, and The Big Book of Cyberpunk.

He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Shirley Jackson, Hugo, and British Fantasy Awards, amongst others.

He currently writes about strategy, books and pop culture at Raptor Velocity, publishes the flammable newspaper Kindling, and edits Shelfies with Lavie Tidhar.

Reviews

[David H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Extinction Event is the final anthology from non-for-profit small press Jurassic London (founded by Jared Shurin and Anne C. Perry). The press ran for five years before closing down, but before they did, they produced this beautiful anthology which collects 33 short stories, 18 of which they've previously published before in their earlier books, 11 original to this anthology, and an additional 4 pieces that were reprinted here but not in earlier Jurassic London works. Most were on the speculative fiction spectrum, but several stories had no genre elements and the Dickens piece is actually an essay about Mary Anning.

I didn't read every single story because I happened to have read most of the Jurassic London catalog in the past year, so I only read those new to me (17 stories). I did read every single story introduction, as I enjoyed reading different people's assessment of the story--from Johnston's in-depth look at the history behind Will Hill's "Three Memories of Death" or Shurin's tongue-in-cheek claim that he doesn't really like science fiction before Joe Vaz's "Front Row, Centre." I also loved the behind-the-scenes looks, such as intended anthologies that were never made (RIP The Streets of Pandemonium, but thank goodness for Molly Tanzer's "Genius Without Education" anyway).

Some of my favorite stories in The Extinction Event are Hill's "Three Memories of Death" (beautiful look at death and grief in ancient Egypt), Coombe's "The Life of Her Mother" (following a young girl and her cancer-recovering mother during one year), Chambers's "Chrysalis" (a mother and her daughter who wants to change her body for her future), Roberts's whirlwind of a story "Martin Citywit" (an amusing Dickensian tale of city-AIs), Jones's "The Comet's Tale" (bittersweet coming of age tale in the wake of a comet flyby), Vance's "Closer" (my all-time favorite apocalyptic baseball story), Vaz's "Front Row, Centre" (just really got to me about preserving life), Sharp's "(0, 0)" (short and manic and mathematical), McDougall's creepy and wonderful "Not the End of the World" (following Germans stuck in a boardinghouse during WWII), Swift's "The Spiders of Stockholm" (a lovely story of spiders and names), and Den Patrick's "People, Places, and Things" which hit a lot closer to home than I was expecting. The rest of the stories were great, too (I only listed my favorites above), and even if I didn't love them, they really brought something to the book (like Green's "The Golden Slipper" or Chambers's "Marooned").

Perry's introduction and Shurin's afterword show two people very much in love with stories and sharing them, and I love that Jurassic London even existed, despite all their mishaps (the wrong paper! invisible covers! late night craft projects! two pubs with similar names!). I only wish I could've been around London circa 2011-16, as their various museum partnerships and exhibits/events seemed to have been a lot of fun (assuming you can find the right pub).