Alistair Rennie | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Aberdeen University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow |
Known for | Novel, music, short stories |
Notable work | BleakWarrior (novel), Exoplanetary (album), Archeoplanetary (album), Interplanetary (album), Shore Rituals (album), Xenoplanetary (album), Void Rituals (album) |
Website | alistairrennie |
Alistair Rennie is a Scottish author of weird fantasy and horror fiction, known for his weird fantasy novel, BleakWarrior, published by Blood Bound Books in 2016. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has lived for ten years in Bologna, Italy. [1] He is the creator of the dark ambient music project Ruptured World which released its first album, Exoplanetary, on the dark ambient music label Cryo Chamber (Simon Heath) in August 2018. Ruptured World has since released several albums, including Archeoplanetary (August 2019), Interplanetary (June 2020), Shore Rituals (April 2021), Xenoplanetary (January 2023) and Void Rituals (February 2024). Rennie has also released an electronic music album under the name Exosferics, called Demiurgic Velocities of Arcane Signals, which was released in 2024 by the US-based record label Shady Ridge Records.
A former painter and decorator, Rennie has studied at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh and holds a PhD in literature based on the work of Robert Louis Stevenson and Canadian critic Northrop Frye. [2] He also holds an M.Sc. in Sound Design and Audiovisual Practice from the University of Glasgow.
Rennie has published numerous short stories in several acclaimed anthologies and magazines, including the New Weird anthology, Weird Tales magazine, Electric Velocipede, Mythic Delirium and Shadowed Realms.
Author Jeff VanderMeer (who, together with Ann VanderMeer, published some of Rennie's earliest works) has said of him: "Without having any wish to start a new moment or movement, I'd call him kind of 'Next Weird'. His work is transgressive and hard-edged and yet sometimes also experimental, while the influences seem to be everything from, well, authors typified as New Weird to mainstream literary to graphic novels." [3]
Rennie is also a musician and a creator of electronic dark ambient music. Under the name of Ruptured World, he released his first album, "Exoplanetary", with the dark ambient music label Cryo Chamber, run by Simon Heath of Atrium Carceri, in August 2018. [4] Ruptured World released a second album with Cryo Chamber, called Archeoplanetary, in July 2019, [5] and has since released several albums, incluing Interplanetary (June 2020), [6] Shore Rituals (April 2021), Xenoplanetary (January 2023), and Void Rituals (February, 2024). Rennie is also an electronic music producer who goes under the name of Exosferics. Exosferics released its debut album Demiurgic Velocities of Arcane Signals on Shady Ridge Records in September 2024.
Jeff VanderMeer is an American author, editor, and literary critic. Initially associated with the New Weird literary genre, VanderMeer crossed over into mainstream success with his bestselling Southern Reach Trilogy. The trilogy's first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards, and was adapted into a Hollywood film by director Alex Garland. Among VanderMeer's other novels are Shriek: An Afterword and Borne. He has also edited with his wife Ann VanderMeer such influential and award-winning anthologies as The New Weird, The Weird, and The Big Book of Science Fiction.
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Thomas Ligotti is an American horror writer. His writings are rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have been described by critics as works of philosophical horror, often formed into short stories and novellas in the tradition of gothic fiction. The worldview espoused by Ligotti in his fiction and non-fiction has been described as pessimistic and nihilistic. The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction."
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The Ammonite Violin & Others is Caitlin R. Kiernan's sixth short story collection. The twenty stories included first appeared in issues 1-23 of Sirenia Digest, Kiernan's monthly digest of weird and dark fiction. It was published by Subterranean Press in July, 2010. The cover features an illustration by Richard A. Kirk, who has provided artwork for several of Kiernan's other collections. Jeff VanderMeer wrote the introduction. The collection was nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and Shirley Jackson Award, and appeared on the cover of Publishers Weekly.
Eidolon I is a 2006 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan and Jeremy G. Byrne.
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The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is an anthology of weird fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.
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The Strange Bird: A Borne Story is a short story written by Jeff VanderMeer and published in 2018. Its genre has been described as being post-apocalyptic, new weird, and climate change fiction. Its main character is a bird-like creature made of biotechnology with some human consciousness inside of her, and it has been thematically interpreted as an analysis of people's relationship with the environment and with animals.