Blog Tour

Stephen Oram’s Extracting Humanity is on tour!

Reviews so far have been fantastic. Please pay the following a visit for book talk and more:

Bookphace – “Mr. Oram’s creative power is remarkable and this collection of short stories offers a unique peek into a possible future.”

Linda’s Book Bag – “… a poised balance of clinical, factual writing that simultaneously has huge emotional impact …”

Hayley Reviews – “Some will tug at your heart strings where others are strange and thought provoking. This has shown me that I really must delve out of my comfort zone.”

Charles Heathcote (Vlog) – “… a mix of utopian and dystopian uses of technology… They could be used to improve our lives.”

From First Page To Last – “A picture formed in my mind, and I let it take hold and gain the grip that I wanted it to have on my thoughts. Blocking out all sense of reason or consequence, I let it build…”

Eleanor Nicbhatair (Vlog) – “This was a thought-provoking short story collection. It really invites the reader to the near future to consider how advancing technology will change everything. They show a utopia as well as a dystopia.”

The Shelf of Unread Books – Sample Story “The Crunch”.

In other news, I’m thrilled to share that Extracting Humanity has been longlisted for the BSFA award for Best Collection, and Adtatter Love for Best Short Fiction. BSFA members can select their favourites now, so we’d appreciate your support if you’re eligible to vote. Here’s the full list:

BSFA Awards Longlist

If you haven’t picked up a copy of Extracting Humanity yet, you can get one from all the usual places plus our webshop, where there are also a limited number of signed copies available.

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Extracting Humanity Launch Rescheduled

Due to the planned strike action on London Underground, we have decided to reschedule our launch of Stephen Oram’s new collection. The event will now take place on Thursday 3rd August from 6:30pm. All other details remain the same. If you already booked, you will automatically be transferred to the new date unless you let us know you can no longer attend. If you haven’t booked yet, you can do so for free here: Burley Fisher.

And what a great excuse to remind you that the book will be out in just one week! Here’s the synopsis:

In this remarkably perceptive collection, Stephen Oram blends cutting-edge science and tech with everyday emotions and values to create 20 thought experiments with heart.

Extracting Humanity is a skilful exploration of smart currencies, memorials, medical care, treatment of refugees, social networks, data monitoring, and justice systems. Always without prescription or reprimand, these stories are simply the beginning of the conversation.

From an eerie haptic suit that Tommy must call Father, to a protective, nutritious bubble that allows Feng Mian to survive on a colonised Moon; from tattoos that will earn their wearers a mini-break in a sensory chamber, to Harrie anxiously awaiting AI feedback on her unborn child… These startling, diverse narratives map all-too-real possibilities for our future and the things that might ultimately divide or unite us.

And here’s what people are saying:

“Each of the stories in Extracting Humanity takes real possibility, and inserts humanity. This is science fiction doing its day job, and doing it well.”

Ken MacLeod author of Intrusion

“This is science fiction rooted within the bounds of possibilities. These are stories to make you think about the next steps in our automated futures. Oram’s writing places you at the human heart of all things technological.”

Kate Devlin, author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots

“Oram manages to maintain humanity and humour, even when he descends into post-human worlds where the boundaries between human and non-human are queasily blurred – a trick that reminds me of Philip K Dick, though here the science and technology feel more grounded and researched.”

Chris Beckett, author of the Dark Eden Trilogy

If this sounds like you kind of thing, please consider ordering a copy from us direct. We offer free shipping within the UK on all pre-orders, and we have signed copies available if you specify at checkout. Our shop is right here.

You can also pre-order through Waterstones or Amazon.

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Submissions are Open

We are currently open for submissions, both to the press and to our second journal edition, Psychogeography.

We want:

Strong voices / unique perspectives / literary / experimental / heady sci-fi / mundane sci-fi / streams of consciousness / curated journal entries / surreal / imaginative / philosophical / autofiction / creative non-fiction

We love stories about losing minds, finding, changing or reprogramming them. Altered states of consciousness, travelling without moving, morphing realities. Philosophy, occult and critical theory as fiction. Autofiction, streams of consciousness, unreliable narrators. Fantastical journal entries, prose poems, unusual vignettes. Pieces exploring inner and outer, fiction an non-fiction, self and collective. New questions, new curiosities, new hybrids.

Full details here.

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Extracting Humanity Launch Event

We’re having a party!

Join us to celebrate the launch of Extracting Humanity and Other Stories by Stephen Oram at Burley Fisher Books in Haggerston, London on 27th July 3RD AUGUST (rescheduled).

Stephen will be reading from the collection as well as talking with our special guest, Dr Christine Aicardi, about how we can use sci-fi to interrogate research and bring theory to new audiences. There will be plenty of time for questions and a drink or two from the bar.

The evening will be moderated and recorded by Luke Robert Mason for the FUTURES podcast. Entry is free, but you do need to reserve a place using this link: BOOK NOW. Hope to see some of you there!

PS: The book is available for pre-order with free UK shipping from our shop now.

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New Release: The Gift Garden by Kenny Mooney

This apartment is his world.

Something grows within the walls and within his being.

Her world lies beyond these walls. Beyond him.

A man is slowly poisoned by his own self-doubt within the hallucinatory shell of his decaying apartment. As he struggles to free himself, he descends into the surreal world that has grown around him. Into the gift garden…

Praise and reviews for The Gift Garden:

“A dense, claustrophobic vision, oozing dread, infection, spilled viscera. This is literature without compromise.”

“A truly original sense of imagery, dream, and lush language.”

“An expertly controlled meltdown told in a beautiful style. The Gift Garden left me satisfied as a reader and excited as a writer for the possibilities of innovation in the short novel form.”

“This intense novella is a feverish and poignant exploration of romantic jealousy. … A dark and breathless read.”

Kenny Mooney is writing the stuff I only wish I could. I admire his insight, sincerity, boldness and style no end, and I’m honoured to share this new edition with the world.

Available now in paperback and ebook from:

Orchid’s Lantern Store

Amazon

Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Waterstones

Kobo

And more.

To request a review copy, or for any wholesale enquiries, please email us.

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The Gift Garden

I’m excited to share with you the cover of Kenny Mooney’s The Gift Garden (designed by the author):

This is a dark, claustrophobic novella that invites the reader to experience the same surreal atmosphere as its narrator. The border between his apartment and psyche blur, poison saturates, and human contact begins to fade.

The language here – word choice, repetition, rhythm – is stunning. A prose poetry fever dream with a growing sense of dread…

This title was originally published in 2017 by Flat Field Press, but Orchid’s Lantern are lucky enough to have acquired the rights for re-issue and to bring this to ebook for the first time. It will be released on 23rd May 2023.

You can pre-order the paperback from our store (with free P&P within the UK) here.

You can pre-order the Kindle edition from Amazon here.

You can add The Gift Garden to your Goodreads list here.

If you have a book blog/vlog and would like a review copy of this or any of our other titles, please send us an email to make your request.

And you can read an interview with the author here.

Do tell us what you think in the comments! Do you like the cover? Are you intrigued by this title?

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Extracting Humanity

We’re pleased to be able to reveal the cover for Stephen Oram’s Extracting Humanity and Other Stories, designed by the fabulous Matthew Revert!

In this remarkably perceptive collection, Stephen Oram blends cutting-edge science and tech with everyday emotions and values to create 20 thought experiments with heart.

Extracting Humanity is a skilful exploration of smart currencies, memorials, medical care, treatment of refugees, social networks, data monitoring, and justice systems. Always without prescription or reprimand, these stories are simply the beginning of the conversation.

From an eerie haptic suit that Tommy must call Father, to a protective, nutritious bubble that allows Feng Mian to survive on a colonised Moon; from tattoos that will earn their wearers a mini-break in a sensory chamber, to Harrie anxiously awaiting AI feedback on her unborn child… These startling, diverse narratives map all-too-real possibilities for our future and the things that might ultimately divide or unite us.

Extracting Humanity will be published by Orchid’s Lantern on 27th July 2023. The paperback is now available for pre-order from our shop, with free UK shipping.

You can read a sample story here.

Add to your Goodreads list here.

And find out more about the author here.

Do let us know what you think in the comments! If you have a book blog/vlog and would like a review copy of this or any of our other titles, please send us an email to make your request.

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Press News

I am thrilled to announce that we will be publishing brand new editions of Kenny Mooney’s first three books this year!

The Gift Garden is a breathless, claustrophobic novella about jealousy, mental deterioration, and the spaces we inhabit.

Desk Clerk is a novel-length fragmentary prose-poem exploring reality and boundaries. It is ‘a nihilistic attack upon all the organs of social control’.

In the Vast and Boundless Deep, memories blur… This is a novel of two parts, both feverish and experimental, set in a post apocalyptic world not quite our own.

Orchid’s Lantern readers are going to love them.

The releases will be throughout the year, so please check back for more details.

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Orchid’s Lantern Vol 1: Dreams

Our first issue is here!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

B. Rae Grosz

Clair de Lune

Crystal Sidell

light & beaks & bleak things

Moonlight Sonata: Or, How I Swim Through Dreams With You

the undreaming

Elle Boyd

DreamTime

Quinn Crook

Liminal

Oliver Smith

Swanmaiden Electric

Winter at Tile Well

Eternal Engines of Dreadful Will

Qualia Reed

The Vanishing Lightning

C.R. Dudley

Night-time Language #1

Images from Dream Journal

Uloma Ofole

Grains of Paradise

The Passage

Unfortunately

Micah S. Vernon

Sleep Dealer

Vanessa Guy

Hypnagogic Hallucinator

Untitled Artwork

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January Sale

Until the end of January, we are offering a massive 40% off Orchid’s Lantern press books on our webstore! That’s Fragments of Perception, Mind in the Gap, Vast, and Abyss. Simply enter JANUARY at checkout.

Go to store.

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