Contemporary visions of the future have been shaped by hopes and fears about the effects of human technology and global capitalism on the natural world. In an era of climate change, mass extinction, and oil shortage, such visions have become increasingly catastrophic, even apocalyptic. Exploring the close relationship between science fiction, ecology, and environmentalism, the essays in Green Planets consider how science fiction writers have been working through this crisis. Beginning with H. G. Wells and passing through major twentieth-century writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Stanislaw Lem, and Thomas Disch to contemporary authors like Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and Paolo Bacigalupi-as well as recent blockbuster films like Avatar and District 9-the essays in Green Planets consider the important place for science fiction in a culture that now seems to have a very uncertain future. The book includes an extended interview with Kim Stanley Robinson and an annotated list for further exploration of "ecological SF" and related works of fiction, nonfiction, films, television, comics, children's cartoons, anime, video games, music, and more. Contributors include Christina Alt, Brent Bellamy, Sabine Höhler, Adeline Johns-Putra, Melody Jue, Rob Latham, Andrew Milner, Timothy Morton, Eric C. Otto, Michael Page, Christopher Palmer, Gib Prettyman, Elzette Steenkamp, Imre Szeman.

One of the great arguments of World War II took place among Allied military leaders over when and where to launch a second front against Germany in Europe. Stalin, holding on by his teeth in Russia, urged a major invasion from the west as soon as possible. The Americans, led by Marshall and Wedemeyer, argued likewise. It was Churchill who got his way, however, with his Mediterranean strategy, including a campaign on the Italian peninsula, which he mistakenly called the “soft underbelly of Europe.”This realistic, fact-based work posits what would have happened had Churchill been overruled, and that rather than invading North Africa in the fall of 1942, thence Sicily and Italy, the Allies had hit the coast of southern France instead. The key element that enables the alternative scenario is the co-operation of Vichy, which was negotiated at the time but refused. If the Allies had promised sufficient force to support the French, however, the entire southern coastline of France would have been undefended against a surprise invasion.In this book, once the Allied armies are ashore, German stream toward the front, albeit through a gauntlet of Maquis, Allied paratroopers and airpower. Meantime the Allied forces push up the Rhône Valley and titanic armoured clashes take place near Lyons. Already in desperate straits at Stalingrad, where they had committed their air and armoured reserves, the Germans had also yet to switch to a full total-war economy, with tanks like the Panther and Tiger not yet deployed.This fascinating alternative history comes close to informing us exactly what might have happened had D-Day in Europe come as early as some had wished.About the AuthorAlexander M. Grace is the author of a number of well-received novels including Holy War, Hegemon, Coup and Sky Blue. When not writing he is a professor and former Foreign Service officer.

The Organised Criminal by Jarlath Gregory is about blood, family and organized crime. Jay O’Reilly, reluctantly returning for home for his cousin’s funeral, is offered a job by his father. His family's criminal activity had made Jay determined never to return. His father is a well-known smuggler with a far-reaching nefarious empire. Though Jay likes to think he’s turned his back on his community, his lost-past still fascinate him. The job is deceptively simple, worryingly so, but lucrative. Despite himself, Jay is tempted, tempted by the money, tempted by the possibility of escape and a chance to make things right. Gregory’s wry wit questions the ethics, conscience and loyalty of Jay, his family and his friends. Spiked with black humor throughout, Jay’s feelings of loneliness, displacement, dissatisfaction and even hatred elevate this thrilling celtic noir novel and show that a job is never just a job. It becomes a story of fear, family-ties, male friendship and power. As Jay contemplates the job, he reacquaints himself with the place and the family he left, only to find that it is exactly as hard, cold and unwelcoming as he remembered. When the truth behind his father’s offer is finally revealed, Jay faces a primal struggle between familial bonds and moral obligations.

Absolute Zero Cool is a post-modern take on the crime thriller genre. Adrift in the half-life limbo of an unpublished novel, hospital porter Billy needs to up the stakes. Euthanasia simply isn’t shocking anymore; would blowing up his hospital be enough to see Billy published, or be damned? What follows is a gripping tale that subverts the crime genre’s grand tradition of liberal sadism, a novel that both excites and disturbs in equal measure. Absolute Zero Cool is not only an example of Irish crime writing at its best; it is an innovative, self-reflexive piece that turns every convention of crime fiction on its head. Declan Burke’s latest book is "an imaginative story that explores the human mind’s ability to both create and destroy, with equally devastating effects."

One good track could change everything. Just one good track and Rob Lynch can finally quit his suburban teaching job and get his band, the Terrors, once Dublin’s next big thing, the fame and recognition they dream of. But it’s not happening - they need a new sound. When Rob discovers the unique gifts of one of his students, John ‘Kembo’ Pereira, a troubled African teenager with a particular talent for creating beats, he sees an opportunity that might just keep his musical ambitions alive. As Rob and John’s relationship develops, however, a series of disturbing events unfold that will rock both their lives to the core. And when the Terrors start to crumble, Rob finds out just how far he is willing to go, and what he is willing to lose, in order to keep his dream alive. Powerfully capturing the energy, wit and pathos of a changed Dublin society, Beatsploitation gives voice to a cynical, disillusioned generation, caught between the tired values of the old and the uncertainty of the new. An assured, arresting debut by a commanding new talent. It is an innovative and original work of debut fiction and deals with international themes such as racism, economic failure, love, loss, and regret, while highlighting a different side of modern Ireland.

Seán Galvin isn’t like the other children. While they play and laugh and keep on growing up, Seán doesn’t. Instead he does stuff to things. Things like cats and dogs. Bad stuff. Seán has only one friend, the nameless narrator who tells their story. Their young lives revolve around sport and school. That is until Seán finally does something appalling and the boys have no choice but to tell someone. Someone older. Someone they should be able to trust. What they uncover is a secret far more awful than anything Seán is capable of: they witness a murder. Or do they? Because of their previous behavior, no-one believes them. They begin to unravel a rather sinister series of links between people whom they thought they could trust and the person who they saw committing the crime. Their little rural town becomes a place of cold skepticism and barely-hidden conspiracy. But is there really a conspiracy? Accused of being 'freaks', they become more and more isolated, and even Seán starts doubting. But the novel’s increasingly unhinged narrator embarks on a mission to prove that they saw what they saw and his obsession will see their friendship tested to its limits and their lives changed forever.

June, 1940. France is teetering on the brink of collapse. British troops are desperately fleeing Dunkirk. Germany is winning the war. Its next target is Britain... and Ireland. In neutral Dublin opinions are divided. Some want Germany to win, others favor Britain, most want to stay out of the war altogether. In this atmosphere of edgy uncertainty, young lieutenant Paul Duggan is drafted into G2, the army’s intelligence division, and put on the German desk. He’s given a suspected German spy to investigate, one who doesn’t appear to do much, other than write ambiguous letters to a German intelligence post box in Copenhagen. Before Duggan can probe further, however, he is diverted by a request from his politician uncle to try and find his daughter, who’s gone missing, possibly kidnapped. Enlisting the help of witty Special Branch detective Peter Gifford, the two lines of inquiry take Duggan into the double-dealing worlds of spies and politics, and lead him back to a shocking secret that will challenge everything he has grown up believing. An addictive thriller that will keep you glued to the page, right through to its heart-pounding finale.

Harry Rigby likes a smoke, the easy life, and Robert Ryan playing the bad guy in late night black-and-whites. Sweet. But when the wife of a prominent politician is murdered in her best nightie, Rigby finds himself caught in a crossfire between rogue paramilitaries, an internal police inquiry and the heaviest blizzard of coke ever to hit the northwest. If all this wasn’t bad enough, his relationship with girlfriend Denise is on the rocks and he’s hitting the bottle. Then there's Rigby's psychotic brother Gonzo, back on the streets and meaner than a jilted shark. Television rights have been acquired by a UK production company in 2013 for a potential series to be commissioned.

Robbie is a simple man who leads a simple life: he is a husband, a father, and a journalist, living and working in Dublin. However, his carefully crafted life has been interrupted by a phone call from his youngest sister, calling, after years of silence, to say his father is ill, and he should come 'home'. And so Robbie returns to Dromore, Northern Ireland, and to Larkscroft Farm, the place where he grew up and the man he grew up with. In taking care of his father - an often angry, and complex man - Robbie allows the reader into his past, revealing himself as a child, teenager, and young adult, lost in the often tumultuous world of a dysfunctional family. Such insight is rare and privileged as you begin to see that no-one in Robbie’s ‘new’ life knows anything about his past, not even his wife. My Father's House is a real and often raw account of family relationships. In Robbie and in his family there is a myriad of messy, mixed up people, tentatively sewing up the rips and tears on their way to reconciliation. This is a novel about birthplace, family, regret, and new beginnings.

Poets Are Eaten as a Delicacy in Japan opens as 30-year-old Tommie Shaw is shown a newspaper report by her panicked sister Georgie revealing that their mother, Gloria, is set to release a new memoir. What follows is an engaging and rewarding black comedy, as Tommie and Georgie's panic spirals and they clamor to control Gloria while also dealing with the painful legacy of their fatherless childhood. A series of flashbacks to Tommie’s teenage years help to explain her now destructive and out-of-control lifestyle as an adult. Poets Are Eaten as a Delicacy in Japan also tackles heavy subjects, including suicide and self-harm, with a light touch that feels honest rather than glib. Poets Are Eaten as a Delicacy in Japan is the story of a dysfunctional family, but more importantly, about facing fears and moving on.

Harry Rigby is right there, an eye-witness when Finn Hamilton walks out into the big nothing nine stories up, but no one wants to believe Finn is just the latest statistic in Ireland's silent epidemic. Not Finn's mother, Saoirse Hamilton, whose property empire is crumbling around her; and not Finn's pregnant fiance, Maria, or his sister Grainne; and especially not Detective Tohill, the cop who believes Rigby is a stone-cold killer. Welcome to Harry Rigby's Sligo where death comes dropping slow. Studded with shards of black humor and mordant wit, Slaughter's Hound is a gripping noir from one of the most innovative voices in Irish crime fiction. In the twisted moral landscape of his surroundings, Harry must find a way free of his own heartache and pain to discover the truth about Finn’s death and what is really going on…

A gritty black comedy from a talented writer, this is an unconventional love story and an insight into the bleak landscape of post-boom Ireland. Author Christine Dwyer Hickey agrees: 'Dark, often disturbing and utterly absorbing. In The Ballad of Mo & G, Billy Keane has entered a tough world and handled it with great skill and humanity. It is also a love story for our time.' ' Even though I wished it was me she was married to, I was still hoping Mo would be happy ever after with Dermo Olsen. That was until the violence started. I loved her that much. Can you believe that?' Welcome to an unnamed town in the southwest of Ireland, where Mo and G have what could loosely be described as a dysfunctional relationship. Between the sex, beatings, and pining after Mo, there’s barely time for G to worry about his arch-enemies, the Olsens - or their Dobermans. G is plagued by nightmares, and sometimes tries to do the right thing. Very occasionally, he succeeds. In The Ballad of Mo& G, Billy Keane tackles lives lived on the edge with a sharp yet compassionate eye, and a biting black humor. An assured report from Ireland’s dark, post-boom underbelly by a supremely talented storyteller.

A small, touristy, Greek island. Sun. Sea. Sand. The perfect ingredients for a two-week package holiday - getting away from it all, taking a break from the madness. For Rob and Georgie, a young couple in their late twenties, it's a chance to reconnect, spend some much-needed time together during their busy, urban lives. For Michael, a shy, introverted man, stranded alone at the same hotel, after the friend with whom he was supposed to be holidaying returns home unexpectedly, the holiday is a revelation. Georgie feels sorry for Michael and befriends him, chatting to him each morning by the pool, sharing her thoughts and feelings. Rob is somewhat irritated by Georgie's relationship with Michael, even though he seems to be no threat and doesn't bother the two of them particularly. But Michael is increasingly drawn to Georgie. Having had no real experience himself of life or love, he takes Georgie at face value, giving huge weight to her confessions, unaware of some of their nuances and complexities. Unable to understand or deal with his conflicting emotions, and at the mercy of his powerful fantasy life, Michael sets in motion a plan that will have devastating consequences for all concerned. A taut psychological thriller, Travelling Companion is a study of how ordinary people commit appalling acts, and how horrific actions can grow from trivial misunderstandings and from the simple misreading of the signals we unwittingly give to one another.

Gerald Vizenor weaves an engrossing historical portrayal of Native American soldiers in World War I. Blue Ravens is set at the start of the twentieth century in the days leading up to the Great War in France, and continues in combat scenes at Château-Thierry, Montbréhain, and Bois de Fays. The novel contains many of Vizenor's recurrent cultural themes-the power and irony of trickster stories, the privilege of survivance over victimry, natural reason and resistance. After serving in the American Expeditionary Forces, two brothers from the Anishinaabe culture return to the White Earth Reservation where they grew up. They eventually leave for a second time to live in Paris where they lead successful and creative lives. With a spirited sense of "chance, totemic connections, and the tricky stories of our natural transience in the world," Vizenor creates an expression of presence commonly denied Native Americans. Blue Ravens is a story of courage in poverty and war, a human story of art and literature from a recognized master of the postwar American novel and one of the most original and outspoken Native voices writing today. Check for the online reader's companion at blueravens.site.wesleyan.edu.

WINNER OF THE 2008 DRUE HEINZ LITERATURE PRIZESelected by Scott TurowFeeling distanced from her friends and family, middle-aged divorcee Caitlin Drury is encouraged by her daughter to express her feelings in a diary, but she is hesitant: I feel lonely she wrote, then crossed it out. She didn't like the idea of someone coming along later to read her journal, finding out she felt lonely. "Like That," and other stories from Anthony Varallo's new collection Out Loud give voice to the disconnections of family and relationships, and the silent emotions that often speak louder than words. In "The Walkers," we follow a couple on their daily trek through a bedroom community, where they partially glimpse their neighbors' lives, longing for inclusion. Yet their insular lifestyle ensures that they deal with people only on the surface--without learning the truth of their problems.Out Loud tells of longings for meaningful expression and the complexities and escapism of human interactions that keep us from these truths. Varallo uses the trials of youth and remembrances of the past, the rituals and routines of the everyday, the interactions of family, friends, teachers, and neighbors to peel away the layers of language and actions we use to shield ourselves.

The Old Priest is a book of transformations. From the cigar-smoke-and-mirrors world of casino life, to the collection's title character morphing into a goat-man before the narrator's eyes, to a family drama upended by a miniature dinosaur in the backyard, Anthony Wallace writes about life-changing events. The characters seek to escape their earthly boundaries through artifice and fantasy, and those boundaries can be as elegant and fragile as a martini glass or as hardscrabble as an Indian reservation. In these eight vividly detailed short stories we encounter cheating husbands, neurotic housewives, out-of-control teenagers, desperate gamblers, deluded alcoholics, and a host of others who would like a chance at something more. Some face the consequences of their actions, while others simply begin to see what they've been missing all along. Through wry, ironic prose—and what feels like firsthand experience—Wallace describes a comic and often misguided search for self-knowledge in the most unlikely locations—like the Emerald City, a low-rent gambling den where a cocktail waitress dressed as an X-rated Dorothy offers gamblers more than a Scotch on the rocks; or the Bastille Hotel-Casino, where a dealer dressed as an eighteenth century footman deals five-dollar blackjack to a reminiscing Holocaust survivor. Occasionally a real demon appears, but the collection is mostly about personal demons and the possibility of exorcising them. The stories in The Old Priest have to do with time and memory, and they convincingly open out beyond ordinary daily time to reveal something else—the present moment, perhaps, but a larger, more mysterious conception of it.