Bright Segments: The Complete Short Fiction - by James Sallis (Hardcover)

About the Book

"For the first time ever, the complete short fiction of literary legend James Sallis is collected in one gorgeous volume-a must-have holiday gift for the crime, mystery, or speculative fiction fan in your life. Published over the six decades of Sallis's storied career, the complete collection contains 154 stories, 12 of which are exclusive to this volume. By all accounts, James Sallis is a multi-hyphenate, once-in-a-generation thinker-an innovator of multiple genres, styles, and forms. Lit Hub has compared Sallis to contemporaries Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon. While he is revered as a literary godfather of the crime and noir genres-his contributions including such works Drive, now a cult-classic film, and his Lew Griffin series-he is equally respected among speculative fiction practitioners for the work he began publishing in science fiction magazines in the 1960s. He is recognized for his uncompromising craft, and for the poetry, philosophy, and empathy he imbues in each glittering moment. Now, for the first time ever, Sallis's complete short fiction is collected in one gorgeous volume-a must-have library addition for readers of speculative fiction and noir, and for writers of all genres"--

Book Synopsis

For the first time ever, the complete short fiction of literary legend James Sallis is collected in one gorgeous volume--a must-have holiday gift for the crime, mystery, or speculative fiction fan in your life.

Published over the six decades of Sallis's storied career, the complete collection contains 154 stories, 11 of which are exclusive to this volume.

James Sallis moves with ease among genres and modes: novels, stories, poetry, criticism, musicology, biography, translation. Best known perhaps as a crime writer--author of Drive and the six Lew Griffin novels along with others--his first acclaim came in the 1960s from groundbreaking short stories in science fiction publications like Michael Moorcock's New Worlds, for which he served for a time as editor, and Damon Knight's Orbit anthologies.

In years since, he's published eighteen novels, numerous collections of essays, six volumes of poetry, a landmark biography of Chester Himes, and a translation of Raymond Queneau's novel Saint Glinglin, while writing widely about books for The New York Times, LA Times, The Washington Post, and for The Boston Globe, where he served as books columnist. He's received a lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon, the Hammett Award for literary excellence in crime writing, and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

Through it all, his interest in the short story has remained strong, with work appearing regularly in venues ranging from The Georgia Review to the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Herein you'll find science fiction, comedy low and high, fantasy, crime stories, stories of everyday life: the realist, arealist, and surreal all together in a jumble, enjambed. Literature, Jim insists, is not a cabinet with labeled drawers, it's a banquet table. Stroll around, pick what you want from it all. What you need. Enjoy.

Review Quotes

Praise for Bright Segments

"For those readers familiar with Sallis primarily as the author of Drive (later adapted into an ultra-violent, neon-infused film with Ryan Gosling) and the Lew Griffin mystery novels, Bright Segments contains one big surprise: many of the stories are science fiction, a genre that Sallis has explored deeply throughout his life, bending it to his whims in all kinds of ways. There's something in here for everyone, from the bleakly comedic 'The Invasion of Dallas' (aliens find relationships just as confusing as humans) to the disquieting 'New Teeth' (which comes off as a more ghostly 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?')."
--Nick Kolakowski, CrimeReads

"Like a hive bereft of its queen, Sallis' world buzzes endlessly with worker bees and drones."
--Kirkus Reviews

Praise for James Sallis

"The power of simplicity and the musical ring of truth as only Sallis can deliver it--as he has done bravely, consistently, for the last few decades."
--Los Angeles Times

"Then there's James Sallis - he's right up there, one of the best. It is quite possible that speaking of Jim Sallis in the same tone as Poe and Dostoevsky is not overblowing on my part."
--Harlan Ellison

"James Sallis is one of our greatest living crime writers . . . Try to get his words, his stories, his people out of your head. Just try."
--Laura Lippman, author of Lady in the Lake

"Sallis is a sure hand--characters and prose, of course, dialogue, too, but he is also a subtle weaver of plot, with the perfect level of push. His descriptions evoke a place more real than mere realism could render, and his people speak and sweat and live and die and it's all a great pleasure."
--Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone

"One of the most enjoyable and most important writers working today, James Sallis has quietly revolutionized an entire genre of literature."
--Sara Gran, author of Come Closer

About the Author

James Sallis has published eighteen novels, including Drive, which was made into a now-iconic film, and the six-volume Lew Griffin series. He is a recipient of the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, the Deutsche Krimipreis, and the Brigada 21 in Spain, as well as Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award. His biography of Chester Himes was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and he has been shortlisted for the Anthony, Nebula, Edgar, Shamus, and Gold Dagger Awards.