The Chains That You Refuse

“What Bear has done…is create a world that is all too plausible, one wracked by environmental devastation and political chaos…she conducts a tour of this society’s darker corners, offering an unnerving peek into a future humankind would be wise to avoid.” —Science Fiction Weekly

From Elizabeth Bear, 2005 John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award winner and author of the critically acclaimed and wildly popular Jenny Casey Trilogy: Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired, comes The Chains That You Refuse, a collection of dazzling short fiction featuring twenty-one genre-bending stories and one poem, including the exhilarating and previously uncollected Jenny Casey origin story “Gone to Flowers.”

These scintillating and surprising tales, many never before collected or published, are drawn from inspirations as varied as Norse legends, Lovecraftian horrors, and the American murder ballad “Stagger Lee,” and showcase Elizabeth Bear’s remarkable and imaginative storytelling talents. Whether set in a distant mythic kingdom, in modern-day Las Vegas, or in the far-future sunken city of New Orleans, Bear’s enthusiastic narratives blur the lines between traditional speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, and fable with unflinching grace and wide-eyed wonder.

Whether you are already a fan of Elizabeth Bear or not, The Chains That You Refuse demonstrates, beyond a doubt, why David Brin called Elizabeth Bear “a talent to watch.”