Nothing Is Inflammable is the second collection of industrial fiction, following up on I-O and released alongside Rohypnol Brides by Prime Books.

It collects the majority of the second generation (post I-O) industrial stories including Pretty (which received an Honourable Mention in YBF&H) and other tales of paranoid pseudo-scientists, guerilla journalists, ghosts that roam the static and punk riots. The collection is headed up by the 45K novella Notes Towards The Design And Production Of The Protohuman.

Contents:

• Notes Towards The Design And Production Of The Protohuman
• Devastation
• Pretty
• Fuck Punktown
• Her Love For Me is Oxyacetylene
• Elisabeth Afterlife is Dead
• Rage Against The Machines
• Emotion Sickness

Notes Towards The Design And Production Of The Protohuman

The lead (45,000 word) novella that kicks of the collection is the story of a scientist, Dziga, locked away in a run-down laboratory in the midst of world that both threatens and terrifies him as he continues to work on the development of a creature which he believes will mark the next stage in human evolution.

Working in the utter isolation of his lab his only real company is the festering ape Judas; Jakobsen, the mysterious benefactor who funds Dziga's work for unknown reasons; and Dziga's brother Dmitri who suffers from a condition that forces him to remain within a protective steel and plastic bubble.

As Dziga works his paranoia spirals out of control until he can longer tell what is real, who his real friends are ... and just what he is creating in the Protohuman.

Devastation

The story of a female construction worker who is haunted by a static ghost high up amongst the unfinished carcass of a building.  The site medic tries to help her but his motives become questionable as she comes closer to finding out the truth about what has happened to her and who the ghost is.

Pretty

The first story I wrote featuring renegade documentarist Elisabeth Afterlife (who also features in Elisabeth Afterlife is Dead and Pretty Little Things To Fill Up The Void), this story is centred around her being hired to film a woman who is entered into backstreet beauty contests by her lover and the relationship that develops between the two.

Fuck Punktown

A story that I originally wrote as a thank-you to Jeffrey Thomas (author of Punktown, Monstrocity, Deadstock and more) who had been very supportive of my work from an early stage, this ended up inspiring Jeff to create a collection of fiction based in his created city/planet of Punktown written by other authors (eventually published as Punktown: Third Eye by Prime Books) of which Fuck Punktown was a part.

This is the story of verio, a modified human created as a work-slave, who is rescued by a freedom fighter come terrorist who wishes to make him into a real human.  What she doesn't bank on is whether he really wants this or not and the story cycles machine-link through multiple repetitions of her attempts to free him and his struggle to cope and revertion back to the machine-self.

In part this story was written in response to my own annoyance with people's view that to be human is the best thing to be and that everything else must aspire to this whereas in fact humanity is just one possibility.

Her Love For Me Is Oxyacytelene

A shorter piece about two destroyed and destructive souls who find one another amidst an industrial wasteland - one a factory worker with scars across her face and the other a man she discovers with the words CHILD MOLESTOR carved into his head as he is almost beaten to death by her colleagues.  She rescues him but when then ensues is a struggle in which both of them try to figure out whether they will save each other - or destroy each other.

Elisabeth Afterlife Is Dead

The second story of the collection to feature the renegade documentarist and this time Afterlife films a girl named Emma who sleeps rough and offers herself up as a human punchbag to anyone who willing to pay.

Rage Against The Machines

Set amongst a city engulfed in riots, Katja auditions for and joins a punk band.  Together they tour the city as it threatens to implode and the lines between reality and fantasy begin to blur as the drummer, afflicted by hallucinations and fugues, is convinced that great machine-monsters lurk in the bay, ready to destroy everything in their path.

Emotion Sickness

Vanya gets her kicks by seducing men whilst secretly poisoning them - Wiktor gets his by convincing his lovers to commit suicide.  Seperately they are deadly but together they are even worse ...

Purchasing Information

• Barnes & Noble - Hardback
• Barnes & Noble - Paperback

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