Hugh Howey: Machine Learning

Each of these editors did more than correct mistakes in my writing; they attempted to correct mistakes in my self-esteem. I’ve never been a fan of my writing. Crippling self-doubt prevented me from completing a novel despite two decades of trying. And so the editors in my life were as much about curation and motivation as polishing prose. There is a history of this in the genre of science fiction. Editors like John W. Campbell and Hugo Gernsback were talent scouts first and foremost. Their skill lay in spotting raw ability, refining it, and then publishing that talent in magazines and anthologies that would sell and launch careers. A handful of such editors have wielded outsize power in shaping science fiction. Today no editor is doing this as well as John Joseph Adams.

John and I met at Worldcon five years ago. Over lunch, we brainstormed a series of three apocalyptic anthologies that became the Apocalypse Triptych: The End Is Nigh, The End Is Now, and The End Has Come. The insanity of this project was that I would not only contribute a story to each book but assist in the editing. I soon found myself published alongside many of my heroes—some of the most talented writers working in the field today—and I was also expected to edit their works!

My appreciation for what the editors in my life have done for me grew enormously through this process. Editing is a special skill, harder in many ways than writing, and I was fortunate that John was there to clean up my mess. He also motivated me to write three difficult and emotional stories for the series, then proceeded to wrest more short stories from me for his various anthologies and his award-winning Lightspeed Magazine.

The stories he inspired me to write are included here, as well as pretty much every other short piece I’ve ever written. Before this collection came into being, these stories were scattered, some lost, some unpublished, some brand-new. I thank John for not only making it possible to publish this book, but for thinking it needed to exist in the first place.

Along with my brilliant agent, Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Agency, each of these incredible editors has shaped my writing and my life. They convinced me to share some of my ideas with you. And you, dear reader, have done the rest. I am eternally grateful to you all. Without you, none of this would exist.

Visit www.hmhco.comto find more science fiction and fantasy titles from John Joseph Adams Books.

HUGH HOWEY is the author of the New York Times and USA Today best-selling Silo trilogy ( Wool , Shift , and Dust ). The first volume, Wool , has been translated in forty countries. He is also the author of Beacon 23 , Sand , the Molly Fyde saga, and many other books, and is the editor, with John Joseph Adams, of the Apocalypse Triptych series of anthologies.

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Copyright © 2017 by Hugh Howey

Foreword copyright © 2017 by Jamie Ford

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.comor to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-328-76753-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-328-76752-3 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-328-76433-1 (ebook)

Cover design by M. S. Corley

Cover images © Shutterstock

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The following stories previously appeared elsewhere, in slightly different form: “The Walk up Nameless Ridge” on Amazon.com as part of the Kindle Singles program, September 2012; “Second Suicide” on Amazon.com as part of the Kindle Singles program, July 2014; “Nothing Goes to Waste” on hughhowey.com, 2009; “Deep Blood Kettle” in Lightspeed Magazine, April 2013; “Executable” in The End: Visions of Apocalypse, compiled and edited by N. E. White, 2012; “The Box” on Amazon.com as part of the Kindle Singles program, May 2015; “Glitch” on Amazon.com as part of the Kindle Singles program, June 2014; “In the Air” in The End Is Nigh, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, March 2014; “In the Mountain” in The End Is Now, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, September 2014; “In the Woods” in The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, May 2015; “Hell from the East” in Dead Man’s Hand, edited by John Joseph Adams, Titan Books, May 2014; “The Black Beast” on hughhowey.com, 2011; “The Automated Ones” on hughhowey.com, 2009; “Mouth Breathers” on hughhowey.com, 2009; “WHILE (u > i) i- -;” on hughhowey.com, 2009; “The Plagiarist” on Amazon.com as part of the Kindle Singles program, May 2011; “Select Character” first published in Press Start to Play, edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams, Vintage Books, Copyright © 2015 by Hugh Howey; “Promises of London” on Amazon.com as part of the Kindle Singles program, May 2014.

“Peace in Amber” first published in The World of Kurt Vonnegut: Peace in Amber (Kindle Worlds Short Story) by Hugh Howey, reprinted under a license arrangement originating with Amazon Publishing, www.apub.com. Copyright © 2014 by Hugh Howey.