Congratulations to Dr. Tony Pi on the publication of his co-edited anthology GAME ON! published by Zombies Need Brains LLC. Assembled with fellow award-winning speculative fiction author Stephen Kotowych, the collection features seventeen fantasy and science fiction authors exploring games as narrative device and mode of philosophical inquiry, including Join Aliette de Bodard, Jennifer R Povey, Ed Greenwood, Cory Swanson, David Hankins, Cat Rambo, Wulf Moon, Jo Miles, James Alan Gardner, Karen Aria Lin, Mike Rimar, Eric Choi, Tris Lawrence, Mark Silcox, Melissa Yi, Michael Picco, and Sean Williams.
While members of the Cinema Studies community know Tony as the Graduate Program Assistant, he is also an award-winning author of well over 50 short stories and poems covering fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction. In 2015 his piece “A Hex, With Bees,” published in Wrestling with Gods (Tesseracts 18) won the Prix Aurora Award.
When asked about the inspiration for GAME ON!, Tony shared that beside the fact that both editors are avid gamers, we are living in a golden age of games and gaming, from board games, to table-top role playing games, to massive video and computer games and the meteoric rise of e-sports. In speculative and science fiction, games are more than mere idle pastimes or simple plot points, they are a way of world building, world exploration, and often have far-reaching implications and even cosmic stakes. Games are serious business, but also lots of fun.
Although it was only recently published, the anthology has received a warm response, including a glowing review from the venerable science fiction magazine Amazing Stories’ clubhouse section, which celebrated GAME ON! as “A feast for the imagination” and ranked it “Highly recommended.”
Please join coeditors Tony Pi and Stephen Kotowych as well as several authors for a book launch at 3pm on Saturday, November 25th at Bakka-Phoenix Books.