Story in The Scarlet Traces Anthology

Thanks to Ian Edginton for inviting me to contribute a short story to his Scarlet Traces anthology, which is out today from Rebellion Publishing.

The Scarlet Traces universe is based upon the series of comic book stories that Ian and D’Israeli conjured up inspired by the War of the Worlds novel by HG Wells. As well as writing a terrific adaptation of the original story, they then spun out a series of ‘What If?’ ideas based on what would happen if late Victorian Britain had won the war against the invading Martians, and confiscated the alien technology.

Contributors to this anthology were given free reign to write in any era of the stories. I chose 1937 and wrote a story called ‘The Mechanical Marionette Mob’, which just edges into novelette length.

It features a number of literary and film influences, and is a story about new uses of the Martian technology, robots, along with a dollop of English mythology.

You can purchase the anthology as an ebook, but I will note that the hardback edition is a beauty – here is an image of my comp copies.

Here’s the entire ToC:

• Introduction ~ Ian Edginton
• Going Up the Blue ~ Stephen Baxter
• Something Sweet in the Superstition ~ I.N.J. Culbard
• The Martian Waste Land ~ Adam Roberts
• The Menagerie ~ Emma Beeby
• The Adventure of the Wheezing Man ~ James Lovegrove
• Voice for a Generation ~ Nathan Duck
• Spitting Blood ~ Mark Morris
• The Alarmist ~ Dan Whitehead
• Last Shot ~ Christ Roberson
• The Mechanical Marionette Mob ~ Maura McHugh
• Wonderful Things ~ Jonathan Green
• Red Frame, White Head ~ Andrew Lane