For more than a decade, Jeremy Robert Johnson has been bubbling under the surface of both literary and genre fiction. His short stories present a brilliantly dark and audaciously weird realm where cosmic nightmares collide with all-too-human characters and apocalypses of all shapes and sizes loom ominously. In "Persistence Hunting," a lonely distance runner is seduced into a brutal life of crime with an ever-narrowing path for escape. In "When Susurrus Stirs," an unlucky pacifist must stop a horrifying parasite from turning his body into a sentient hive. Running through all of Johnson's work is a hallucinatory vision and deeply-felt empathy, earning the author a reputation as one of today's most daring and thrilling writers.
Featuring the best of his independently-published short fiction, as well as an exclusive, never-before-published novella "The Sleep of Judges"―where a father's fight against the denizens of a drug den becomes a mind-bending suburban nightmare―Entropy in Bloom is a perfect compendium for avid fans and an ideal entry point for adventurous readers seeking the humor, heartbreak, and terror of JRJ's strange new worlds.
Table of Contents:
An Introduction by Brian Evenson
The League of Zeroes
Persistence Hunting
The Oarsman
The Gravity of Benham Falls
Dissociative Skills
Snowfall
When Susurrus Stirs
Luminary
Trigger Variation
Cathedral Mother
Swimming in the House of the Sea
Saturn's Game
The Sharp-Dressed Man at the End of the Line
A Flood of Harriers
States of Glass
The Sleep of Judges
**
Review
"A perfect place to get acquainted with one of the darkest stars in the genre...Johnson captures humanity's absurdity, our grotesqueries, sometimes our triumphs, all the while pushing past the limits of reality, transforming it into something dark, and surreal, and unforgettable." ―B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
"ENTROPY IN BLOOM is an instant classic, a carefully curated manifesto whose main goal is to tell the world one of the brightest stars in indie lit is now too brilliant to remain hidden...This collection should turn him into the writer everyone is talking about. These fifteen stories and one novella show a powerful imagination, a great talent for storytelling, writing chops that allow him to tackle any genre, and a flowing, dynamic voice that, if Johnson were a singer, would extend to an impressive eight octaves." ―Electric Literature
"Surreal, visceral, and frequently unsettling...One more descriptor, while we're at it: highly entertaining. Johnson brings a pulpy urgency to the page, which blends neatly with the frequently heady concepts that he utilizes in his fiction. [ENTROPY IN BLOOM]'s a fine primer to his work, which encompasses everything from stories of pernicious terrors working their way into the world to taut crime fiction to insightful character studies." ―Tor.com
"Exciting, unpredictable, and feels slightly dangerous...free of the boundaries of conventional literature in ways you can't quite imagine. ENTROPY IN BLOOM is emotionally challenging, unpredictable and thoroughly original. I cannot say it enough: I had a great time with this book." ―Dead End Follies
"Showcases the best of the worst of Jeremy Robert Johnson. And by worst, I mean most gut-churning and nightmare inducing...Perfectly paced and extremely creepy...will leave you pondering the deeper meaning of random acts of violence for days to come. Enjoy?" ―LitReactor
"With ENTROPY IN BLOOM, Jeremy Robert Johnson continues to deliver the very best in short fiction...original ideas, compellingly realistic characters, wonderfully vivid language." ―This is Horror
“The beauty in all that horror is the point here, and not a side effect. As a result, this is a many-tentacled beast of its own family, genre, and species. You should be reading ENTROPY IN BLOOM. You have great things to look forward to.” —The Coachella Review
“5 Stars.” —Booked
“Johnson can be compared to John Shirley, Chuck Palahniuk, or even Harlan Ellison. ENTROPY IN BLOOM shows Johnson is capable of blurring genre boundaries with regard only for mining and expressing their mythic power. A sense of futility and constant surveillance colors every scene, and Johnson’s ability to sustain this level of tension is astonishing.” —The Horror Review
“Has a varied yet well-curated mixtape feel. Each story that follows the last one is a complete tonal shift with a different genre and sometimes different style but what remains is a singular voice. ‘The Sleep of Judges’ reads like David Lynch’s take on Straw Dogs.” —Dark Moon Digest
“ENTROPY IN BLOOM is an excellent primer to Johnson’s work…a veritable carnival of horrors awaits you…the kind of entertaining thrill the Romans got from watching colosseum matches—the arterial-spraying excitement of witnessing pure horror.” —Horror Talk
"These stories can be uncomfortable, difficult, unflinching, but they're also always entertaining. Johnson writes with an energy that propels you through some very dark spaces indeed and into something profoundly unsettling but nonetheless human." ―Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses
"ENTROPY IN BLOOM crackles with weirdness, style, wit, a befittingly oddball sense of humanity, and a misshapen dark heart. I loved every damn story." ―Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock
"Reading Johnson, you feel you are in the grip of an immensely powerful, possibly malevolent, but fiercely intelligent mind. Beware! (But enjoy--and trust me, you will.)" ―Nick Cutter, author of The Troop
"I've seen the future and it's bizarre, it's beautifully berserk, it's Jeremy Robert Johnson." ―Stephen Graham Jones, author of Mongrels
"A dazzling writer." ―Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club
About the Author
Jeremy Robert Johnson is the author of the critically-acclaimed cult novel Skullcrack City. His fiction has been praised by the Washington Post and authors such as David Wong and Jack Ketchum, and has appeared internationally in numerous anthologies and magazines. Johnson lives in Portland, Oregon.
Description:
For more than a decade, Jeremy Robert Johnson has been bubbling under the surface of both literary and genre fiction. His short stories present a brilliantly dark and audaciously weird realm where cosmic nightmares collide with all-too-human characters and apocalypses of all shapes and sizes loom ominously. In "Persistence Hunting," a lonely distance runner is seduced into a brutal life of crime with an ever-narrowing path for escape. In "When Susurrus Stirs," an unlucky pacifist must stop a horrifying parasite from turning his body into a sentient hive. Running through all of Johnson's work is a hallucinatory vision and deeply-felt empathy, earning the author a reputation as one of today's most daring and thrilling writers.
Featuring the best of his independently-published short fiction, as well as an exclusive, never-before-published novella "The Sleep of Judges"―where a father's fight against the denizens of a drug den becomes a mind-bending suburban nightmare―Entropy in Bloom is a perfect compendium for avid fans and an ideal entry point for adventurous readers seeking the humor, heartbreak, and terror of JRJ's strange new worlds.
Table of Contents:
An Introduction by Brian Evenson
The League of Zeroes
Persistence Hunting
The Oarsman
The Gravity of Benham Falls
Dissociative Skills
Snowfall
When Susurrus Stirs
Luminary
Trigger Variation
Cathedral Mother
Swimming in the House of the Sea
Saturn's Game
The Sharp-Dressed Man at the End of the Line
A Flood of Harriers
States of Glass
The Sleep of Judges
**
Review
"A perfect place to get acquainted with one of the darkest stars in the genre...Johnson captures humanity's absurdity, our grotesqueries, sometimes our triumphs, all the while pushing past the limits of reality, transforming it into something dark, and surreal, and unforgettable."
―B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
"ENTROPY IN BLOOM is an instant classic, a carefully curated manifesto whose main goal is to tell the world one of the brightest stars in indie lit is now too brilliant to remain hidden...This collection should turn him into the writer everyone is talking about. These fifteen stories and one novella show a powerful imagination, a great talent for storytelling, writing chops that allow him to tackle any genre, and a flowing, dynamic voice that, if Johnson were a singer, would extend to an impressive eight octaves."
―Electric Literature
"Surreal, visceral, and frequently unsettling...One more descriptor, while we're at it: highly entertaining. Johnson brings a pulpy urgency to the page, which blends neatly with the frequently heady concepts that he utilizes in his fiction. [ENTROPY IN BLOOM]'s a fine primer to his work, which encompasses everything from stories of pernicious terrors working their way into the world to taut crime fiction to insightful character studies."
―Tor.com
"Exciting, unpredictable, and feels slightly dangerous...free of the boundaries of conventional literature in ways you can't quite imagine. ENTROPY IN BLOOM is emotionally challenging, unpredictable and thoroughly original. I cannot say it enough: I had a great time with this book."
―Dead End Follies
"Showcases the best of the worst of Jeremy Robert Johnson. And by worst, I mean most gut-churning and nightmare inducing...Perfectly paced and extremely creepy...will leave you pondering the deeper meaning of random acts of violence for days to come. Enjoy?"
―LitReactor
"With ENTROPY IN BLOOM, Jeremy Robert Johnson continues to deliver the very best in short fiction...original ideas, compellingly realistic characters, wonderfully vivid language."
―This is Horror
“The beauty in all that horror is the point here, and not a side effect. As a result, this is a many-tentacled beast of its own family, genre, and species. You should be reading ENTROPY IN BLOOM. You have great things to look forward to.”
—The Coachella Review
“5 Stars.”
—Booked
“Johnson can be compared to John Shirley, Chuck Palahniuk, or even Harlan Ellison. ENTROPY IN BLOOM shows Johnson is capable of blurring genre boundaries with regard only for mining and expressing their mythic power. A sense of futility and constant surveillance colors every scene, and Johnson’s ability to sustain this level of tension is astonishing.”
—The Horror Review
“Has a varied yet well-curated mixtape feel. Each story that follows the last one is a complete tonal shift with a different genre and sometimes different style but what remains is a singular voice. ‘The Sleep of Judges’ reads like David Lynch’s take on Straw Dogs.”
—Dark Moon Digest
“ENTROPY IN BLOOM is an excellent primer to Johnson’s work…a veritable carnival of horrors awaits you…the kind of entertaining thrill the Romans got from watching colosseum matches—the arterial-spraying excitement of witnessing pure horror.”
—Horror Talk
"These stories can be uncomfortable, difficult, unflinching, but they're also always entertaining. Johnson writes with an energy that propels you through some very dark spaces indeed and into something profoundly unsettling but nonetheless human."
―Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses
"ENTROPY IN BLOOM crackles with weirdness, style, wit, a befittingly oddball sense of humanity, and a misshapen dark heart. I loved every damn story."
―Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock
"Reading Johnson, you feel you are in the grip of an immensely powerful, possibly malevolent, but fiercely intelligent mind. Beware! (But enjoy--and trust me, you will.)"
―Nick Cutter, author of The Troop
"I've seen the future and it's bizarre, it's beautifully berserk, it's Jeremy Robert Johnson."
―Stephen Graham Jones, author of Mongrels
"A dazzling writer."
―Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club
About the Author
Jeremy Robert Johnson is the author of the critically-acclaimed cult novel Skullcrack City. His fiction has been praised by the Washington Post and authors such as David Wong and Jack Ketchum, and has appeared internationally in numerous anthologies and magazines. Johnson lives in Portland, Oregon.