Black Brane

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Pub Date Jul 22 2025 | Archive Date Feb 24 2025

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Description

Weird fiction icon and award-winning author Michael Cisco's Black Brane, begins with the physical pain of a bad foot and later voyages into absurdity, mad science, occultism, and existential dread.

A man lying in a bed of pain flees from physical torment into his own memories, and into speculations about life and reality. He was, once, employed by the Temporary Institute for the Study of Holes, a think tank pursuing research that ranges from occult studies to advanced physics, including black holes—or, as they are known in string theory, black branes.

He meets and interacts with the various other members of the institute. Its founder, Dr. Marilyn Shitansky, a formerly homeless woman who claims to have a thinking hole in her brain; its resident occultist, the chain-smoking Daladara with his magic abacus; Ernie Allegre the engineer, who designed and built a decoherence reactor to power the institute; Dr. Liu, the string theorist; the linguist Dr. Corngholm, who can't sit still; and Dr. Shitansky's secretary, Renbrui, who seems to carry a mystery with her wherever she goes.

In memory, the speaker finds them again, in a story of physical and emotional pain, of social and quantum entanglement, that turns comic, speculative, and nightmarish. Echoing the work of Blake Crouch and Thomas Ligotti, Michael Cisco shows in Black Brane why he’s beloved by weird fiction and horror readers.

Weird fiction icon and award-winning author Michael Cisco's Black Brane, begins with the physical pain of a bad foot and later voyages into absurdity, mad science, occultism, and existential dread.

A...


Advance Praise

Previous Praise

"Fans of stylish and thematically sophisticated weird fiction should seek out... Cisco's visionary genius.” —Publishers Weekly

"The alchemy of words ceasing to be words, words seamlessly melting before our eyes into grandiose imagery, into soaring hallucination, into fever dreams that tap directly into our subconscious and perfectly describe emotions that cannot be described is something no author achieves with more effect than Michael Cisco." —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World

"A rivetingly strange novel in which Cisco mixes game theory, serious philosophy, SF, and dark fantasy into something at once unreal and really entrancing. Kind of like what might happen if Wyndham Lewis decided to write like M. John Harrison and had Martin Heidegger as his editor. Member is a complex, compelling work." —Brian Evenson, author of Last Days

Previous Praise

"Fans of stylish and thematically sophisticated weird fiction should seek out... Cisco's visionary genius.” —Publishers Weekly

"The alchemy of words ceasing to be words, words...


Marketing Plan

  • Readings planned with big horror names Paul Tremblay, John Langan, and Brian Keene
  • Promotions at Stoker Con, Killer Con, and Camp Necon
  • Readings planned with big horror names Paul Tremblay, John Langan, and Brian Keene
  • Promotions at Stoker Con, Killer Con, and Camp Necon

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781960988614
PRICE $17.95 (USD)
PAGES 206

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