THE WHOLE MESS AND OTHER STORIES
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JACK SKILLINGSTEAD
What does it mean to be human in a universe of shifting, sometimes terrifying realities? Eighteen stories from Jack Skillingstead’s second decade of publishing feature intense and surprising explorations of who we are, who we wish to be, and who we can’t be.
In “The Whole Mess” a genius math professor solves a multiverse equation only to find himself pursued by ancient Masters across the many iterations of his could-have-been lives. “Straconia” gives us a Kafkaesque world where all the lost things go, including people who must first find themselves before they can find a way back home. “Tribute” looks at a post-NASA space race that goes nowhere—until an unlikely pair of marooned astronauts find each other and the future.
Also included in this collection is “The Writing Life,” a self-reflection on memory, ambition, and imagination in the formation of one writer’s journey.
Also available from Jack Skillingstead:
Harbinger
Are You There
- November 2023 978-1-958880-12-8
- Cover art by Vincent Chong
- trade paperback and ebook
- Order copies below, or buy print or ebooks of this title from these dealers.
What does it mean to be human in a universe of shifting, sometimes terrifying realities? Eighteen stories from Jack Skillingstead’s second decade of publishing feature intense and surprising explorations of who we are, who we wish to be, and who we can’t be.
In “The Whole Mess” a genius math professor solves a multiverse equation only to find himself pursued by ancient Masters across the many iterations of his could-have-been lives. “Straconia” gives us a Kafkaesque world where all the lost things go, including people who must first find themselves before they can find a way back home. “Tribute” looks at a post-NASA space race that goes nowhere—until an unlikely pair of marooned astronauts find each other and the future.
Also included in this collection is “The Writing Life,” a self-reflection on memory, ambition, and imagination in the formation of one writer’s journey.
Also available from Jack Skillingstead:
Harbinger
Are You There
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
• An Introduction to Daryl Gregory (featuring Jack Skillingstead) • The Whole Mess • Mine, Yours, Ours • Assassins • The Sum of Her Expectations • Destination • Dream Interpretation • Einstein’s Theory • The Last Garden • Arlington • Steel Lake • The Flow And Dream • Last Call At The Moonlight Lounge • Salvage • Opportunity • The Savior Virus • The Despoilers • The President’s Drone • Straconia • Tribute • The Writing Life
• An Introduction to Daryl Gregory (featuring Jack Skillingstead) • The Whole Mess • Mine, Yours, Ours • Assassins • The Sum of Her Expectations • Destination • Dream Interpretation • Einstein’s Theory • The Last Garden • Arlington • Steel Lake • The Flow And Dream • Last Call At The Moonlight Lounge • Salvage • Opportunity • The Savior Virus • The Despoilers • The President’s Drone • Straconia • Tribute • The Writing Life
"Every offering here is stamped with ambition, skill, and a desire to connect at the body-mind-heart-soul levels. The reader will leave the final pages of this volume feeling that their senses and mind and conception of what the genre can be have all been expanded. I might almost suggest reading the last item in this book first. It’s an essay called “The Writing Life”, and recounts the author’s “early years of bitter struggle,” to employ the classic phrase used by Bruce Sterling. It will reveal the decades of hard work and persistence that brought Skillingstead to the high plateau he now occupies, reaffirming the lesson that talent without dedication leads nowhere. . . Throughout all these tales, Skillingstead’s meticulous prose delivers just the right mix of poetry, tactility, speculation, and description. He never strains for his effects, but always finds just the right syntax and vocabulary and objective correlatives to convey what the reader needs to know. . . . [Plunge] into this wise book and becoming further enlightened about the human condition, as seen through Skillingstead’s unique lens."
— Paul Di Filippo, Locus Magazine
"Full of stories that expand and challenge the mind, this collection cements Jack Skillingstead as a master of the short form."
— John Joseph Adams, editor of Lightspeed Magazine and series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy
"Equally at home depicting adventures in the multiverse and outer space, these stories are pre-eminently about real people making their hardest choices. A master of the many worlds of science fiction, Jack Skillingstead is also one of our most humane writers."
— James Patrick Kelly, winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards
"Another fine collection of short stories by one of the more underrated writers currently active. A recurring theme is alternate realities this time, although there are many other premises and plot devices. The stories are drawn from professional magazines, anthologies, and several from online publication, the latter of which were all new to me. I particularly liked the title story, 'Straconia,' and 'The Flow and the Dream.' There were none I disliked — the author's lesser stories are still always entertaining. There is a fairly lengthy essay original to the collection that I found interesting as well. Skillingstead has a clear, smooth prose style that I find particularly pleasing given that some newer authors in the genre tend to prefer more intrusive styles that only draw attention to the fact that the story is not real."
— Critical Mass
"Jack Skillingstead's stories are challenging and intriguing, often touching, always fascinating. He's a writer who proves that science fiction can have heart. I can't recommend this collection highly enough."
— Louisa Morgan, author of A Secret History of Witches
“The Whole Mess is a beautifully crafted exploration of the human heart told through the broad palette of science fiction.”
— Brenda Cooper, author of Edge of Dark and The Silver Ship and the Sea.
"This is a wonderful collection of stories about people caught in challenging situations who desperately need to both figure what’s going on and how to extricate themselves from their dire and disorienting circumstances. Jack Skillingstead has an amazing ability to bring us right into the thoughts of his characters and make us feel they are our own. While these include the doubts and insecurities, they also include those dawning moments of realization and triumphs. I find myself convinced that it’s me who is lost in a dream or a game or some other terrifying or perplexing adventure. My own survival seems to depend on the character’s. It’s me who breathes a sigh of tense relief when the characters find their way home."
— Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction
"Skillingstead has honed science fiction to its sharpest cutting edge . . . Beautiful, daring, imaginative — this collection secures Jack's legacy as one of the masters of modern science fiction."
— Ted Kosmatka, author of The Flicker Men and The Games
"Jack Skillingstead explores how we experience reality, parallel realities, artificial intelligence, and the slippery nature of the heart in this important and thought-provoking addition to the SF library. Along the way he tells banging good stories, one after another, like a string of narrative firecrackers."
— James Van Pelt, author of Summer of the Apocalypse
“[Skillingstead's] a craftsman. His sentences are spare and clean, the paragraphs balanced, yet there are so many moments that rise toward poetry. He has a gift for finding new, graceful ways to describe things we’ve all experienced and seen in print a thousand times."
— Daryl Gregory, author of Spoonbenders and Revelator
"The tradeoff of our coming transparent world [is in] Jack Skillingstead's 'Yours, Mine, Ours.' The many gains and poignant losses. The stark choices, whether to live as grownups, awash in the kind of light that would have seared every god of Olympus."
— David Brin, author of Startide Rising and Existence
— Paul Di Filippo, Locus Magazine
"Full of stories that expand and challenge the mind, this collection cements Jack Skillingstead as a master of the short form."
— John Joseph Adams, editor of Lightspeed Magazine and series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy
"Equally at home depicting adventures in the multiverse and outer space, these stories are pre-eminently about real people making their hardest choices. A master of the many worlds of science fiction, Jack Skillingstead is also one of our most humane writers."
— James Patrick Kelly, winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards
"Another fine collection of short stories by one of the more underrated writers currently active. A recurring theme is alternate realities this time, although there are many other premises and plot devices. The stories are drawn from professional magazines, anthologies, and several from online publication, the latter of which were all new to me. I particularly liked the title story, 'Straconia,' and 'The Flow and the Dream.' There were none I disliked — the author's lesser stories are still always entertaining. There is a fairly lengthy essay original to the collection that I found interesting as well. Skillingstead has a clear, smooth prose style that I find particularly pleasing given that some newer authors in the genre tend to prefer more intrusive styles that only draw attention to the fact that the story is not real."
— Critical Mass
"Jack Skillingstead's stories are challenging and intriguing, often touching, always fascinating. He's a writer who proves that science fiction can have heart. I can't recommend this collection highly enough."
— Louisa Morgan, author of A Secret History of Witches
“The Whole Mess is a beautifully crafted exploration of the human heart told through the broad palette of science fiction.”
— Brenda Cooper, author of Edge of Dark and The Silver Ship and the Sea.
"This is a wonderful collection of stories about people caught in challenging situations who desperately need to both figure what’s going on and how to extricate themselves from their dire and disorienting circumstances. Jack Skillingstead has an amazing ability to bring us right into the thoughts of his characters and make us feel they are our own. While these include the doubts and insecurities, they also include those dawning moments of realization and triumphs. I find myself convinced that it’s me who is lost in a dream or a game or some other terrifying or perplexing adventure. My own survival seems to depend on the character’s. It’s me who breathes a sigh of tense relief when the characters find their way home."
— Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction
"Skillingstead has honed science fiction to its sharpest cutting edge . . . Beautiful, daring, imaginative — this collection secures Jack's legacy as one of the masters of modern science fiction."
— Ted Kosmatka, author of The Flicker Men and The Games
"Jack Skillingstead explores how we experience reality, parallel realities, artificial intelligence, and the slippery nature of the heart in this important and thought-provoking addition to the SF library. Along the way he tells banging good stories, one after another, like a string of narrative firecrackers."
— James Van Pelt, author of Summer of the Apocalypse
“[Skillingstead's] a craftsman. His sentences are spare and clean, the paragraphs balanced, yet there are so many moments that rise toward poetry. He has a gift for finding new, graceful ways to describe things we’ve all experienced and seen in print a thousand times."
— Daryl Gregory, author of Spoonbenders and Revelator
"The tradeoff of our coming transparent world [is in] Jack Skillingstead's 'Yours, Mine, Ours.' The many gains and poignant losses. The stark choices, whether to live as grownups, awash in the kind of light that would have seared every god of Olympus."
— David Brin, author of Startide Rising and Existence
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR