The World of Dew and Other Stories Julian Mortimer Smith 9780253056801

Imagine a world populated by hideous trolls, time-traveling scientists, and intergalactic freighter captains-with smartphones and social media.

The World of Dew and Other Stories, chosen by Michelle Pretorius as the 2020 Blue Light Books Prize winner, invites readers into 18 different universes that have unexpected resonances with our own modern life. While these tales are unabashedly sci-fi and fantasy, Julian Mortimer Smith approaches each at a curious angle. Ghosts are cataloged using a Pokemon Go-like app, a soldier has to get enough upvotes on social media before he is allowed to take a shot, and a golden age of cooperation begins as societies around the world prepare for a looming pandemic of blindness. In addition to featuring stories that have appeared in some of the world's top speculative fiction outlets, The World of Dew and Other Stories also includes five new stories published here for the first time.

These tales are sometimes terrifying, sometimes touching, sometimes provocative, and occasionally very silly. They function both as windows through which readers can glimpse vast universes waiting to be explored and as mirrors reflecting our own reality back at us in a strange and unfamiliar light.

Julian Mortimer Smith is a writer of speculative fiction. His short stories have appeared in many of the world's top science fiction and fantasy venues, including Asimov's, Lightspeed, Terraform, and Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. He lives in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The uniquely visualized tales of The World of Dew and Other Stories place traditional human struggles with mortality, love, and belonging into a panoply of new worlds.

Smith's enjoyable debut collection brings together 18 science fiction and fantasy stories, though the fantasy far outshines the sci-fi. . . . Fantasy lovers should seek this out.