New Year, New You - by Chris Campbell (Paperback)

About the Book

From award-winning authors Elizabeth Bear, Daryl Gregory, and twenty-two other groundbreaking speculative fiction writers, comes an anthology of diverse fiction exploring reinvention, re-imagining, and revolution.

Book Synopsis

**2025 INDIE AUTHOR PROJECT WINNER: RUNNER-UP, SCIENCE FICTION CATEGORY**

STORIES FEATURED IN: The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Vol. 1 - ECO24: Year's Best Speculative EcoFiction - Podcastle: The Fantasy Fiction Podcast

From award-winning authors Elizabeth Bear, Daryl Gregory, and twenty-two other groundbreaking writers in science fiction and fantasy, comes an anthology packed with riveting stories of time-travel, simulations, transformation, magic, alternate realities, and personal reinvention.

New Year's resolutions and self-help gurus ask us to reinvent ourselves-be better, prettier, perfect. But the writers in this anthology know that reinvention contains both potential and pitfalls.

One woman's doppelgänger offers her a chance to fix her flaws - for a small price. Against the wishes of her family, an eel-person yearns to reveal her true nature. A showgirl in a backwater lunar cabaret seeks cosmic fame-and will do anything to get it.

From cutting-edge voices in science fiction and fantasy, comes a mind-bending collection of twenty-four tales that span the vast reaches of magic and space and delve into the intimate spaces between people.

The authors featured in this anthology have had short fiction published in Clarkesworld, Locus, Asimov's, Raleigh Review, Lightspeed, and more. They are joined by two of the industry's most celebrated authors: Hugo and Sturgeon Award-winner Elizabeth Bear and World Fantasy winner Daryl Gregory. Editor Chris Campbell's work has received recognition and support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for his contributions to Afrofutrist literature.

Stories by: Charlotte Ahlin⬩Elizabeth Bear⬩Chris Campbell⬩Catherine Castellani⬩F.E. Choe⬩Rowan Copley⬩Julie Danvers⬩Nick DePasquale⬩Anastasia K. Elliott⬩Neil Flinchbaugh⬩Daryl Gregory⬩Trae Hawkins⬩Ash Howell⬩Adianu Etinose⬩C.R. Kellogg⬩Alec J. Marsh⬩Victor Pope⬩Allison Pottern⬩Taylor Lykiardopoulos⬩Melinda Smith⬩Shannon Spieler⬩Shen Tao⬩Avani Vaghela⬩Brigitte Winter

Review Quotes

This anthology features twenty-four tales both intense and beguiling, from names I believe are fast on their way to the stars.

-Sherwood Smith, author of Crown Duel

Now hear this: New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention is a great way to start your [new year] reading. It offers two dozen science fiction and fantasy short stories united by the idea of personal change. Themes include time travel, Greek myth, fairy tales, foreseen death, odd dystopias, programmed memory loss, and manufactured life. Many are quite short, and the tone varies from playful to horrific. I enjoyed them all, like eating a box of chocolates or bento box, and was sometimes left a little breathless.

-Sue Burke, author of Semiosis and Dual Memory

I read the whole thing twice! From the unsettling tension of the first story to the bittersweet triumph of the final piece, each of these stories is meticulously crafted. Readers will find wonder, fury, and excitement... but most welcome to me is the underlying theme of hope.

-Myna Chang, MicroVerse

The stories-individually and as a whole-are nuanced, looking at a range of motivations for wanting to change or be changed, and ways of achieving that goal. Depending on your mindset, it may be a good book to read in December or January...

-Alexandra Pierce, Locus Magazine

What exactly does "reinvention" mean? The authors in New Year, New You share twenty-four unique takes, whether by dimension portals in the desert or death and rebirth or time traveling therapy or technologies allowing us to be our best-and worst-selves. A delightful, thought-provoking, and multi-faceted examination of the intentional, unintentional, drastic, and subtle changes we make for ourselves and others.

-Naseem Jamnia, Locus-nominated author of The Bruising of Qilwa

The theme is a broad one: "various facets of this revolutionary idea of reinvention." That is definitely to the anthology's benefit. You never feel that you are getting trapped by the theme. One might even ignore the theme if they felt like it. But you can't ignore the stories. Or the splash these authors are likely to make in the future. A whopping 7 stories made my All-Time Great List.

-Austin Berman, Science Fiction Short Story Reviews

It does not take many pages to realize that this is no simple anthology of tales, but complex and experimental that fans of short fiction in fanzines will love.... would appeal most to a reader who likes to challenge their mind and imagination with innovative ideas hitting them every few pages.

-Sam Tyler, SF Book Reviews