books, short stories

Conservation of Shadows [short story collection]


In this debut collection of short fiction from one of science fiction and fantasy’s most notable new writers, Yoon Ha Lee integrates tropes of science fiction with elements of myth to create tales that are wonderfully fresh and deeply ancient. No matter what the theme, her wide variety of stories are strikingly original and always indelible.

This book is currently out of print, sorry!

One of Publisher Weekly‘s best books of 2013, with an introduction by Aliette de Bodard.

Table of contents

  1. Ghostweight
  2. The Shadow Postulates
  3. The Bones of Giants
  4. Between Two Dragons
  5. Swanwatch
  6. Effigy Nights
  7. Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain
  8. Iseul’s Lexicon*
  9. Counting the Shapes
  10. Blue Ink
  11. The Battle of Candle Arc
  12. A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel
  13. The Unstrung Zither
  14. The Black Abacus
  15. The Book of Locked Doors
  16. Conservation of Shadows

* an original work; also reprinted in Prime Books’ The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: 2014, ed. Paula Guran.

Related interviews

Jeremy L. C. Jones spoke to me about “assassinating the reader” inĀ Clarkesworld.

Karen Burnham of SF Signal interviewed me about writing and my attraction to space opera.

Upcoming4.me posted the story behindĀ Conservation of Shadows.

Also, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, a weekly sf/f fan podcast, invited me to discuss this collection (and more) on Episode 152.