Press Start to Play Stories

IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS.
 
You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your eye. It is a groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide.

From text-based adventures to first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers to horror games, these twenty-six stories play with our notion of what video games can be—and what they can become—in smart and singular ways. With a foreword from Ernest Cline, bestselling author of Ready Player One, Press Start to Play includes work from: Daniel H. Wilson, Charles Yu, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, S.R. Mastrantone, Charlie Jane Anders, Holly Black, Seanan McGuire, Django Wexler, Nicole Feldringer, Chris Avellone, David Barr Kirtley,T.C. Boyle, Marc Laidlaw, Robin Wasserman, Micky Neilson, Cory Doctorow, Jessica Barber, Chris Kluwe, Marguerite K. Bennett, Rhianna Pratchett, Austin Grossman,  Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Catherynne M. Valente, Andy Weir, and Hugh Howey.

Your inventory includes keys, a cell phone, and a wallet. What would you like to do?

Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson is a New York Times bestselling author and coeditor of the Press Start to Play anthology. He earned a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he also received master’s degrees in robotics and in machine learning. He has published more than a dozen scientific papers, holds four patents, and has written eight books. Wilson has written for Popular Science, Wired, and Discover, as well as online venues such as MSNBC.com, Gizmodo, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. In 2008, Wilson hosted The Works, a television series on the History Channel that uncovered the science behind everyday stuff. His books include How to Survive a Robot Uprising, A Boy and His Bot, Amped, and Robopocalypse (the film adaptation of which is slated to be directed by Steven Spielberg). He lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. Find him on Twitter @danielwilsonPDX.

John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He is also the editor of many other bestselling anthologies, such as The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Armored, Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, and The Living Dead. Recent and forthcoming projects include: Loosed Upon the World, Robot Uprisings, Dead Man’s Hand, Operation Arcana, Wastelands 2, and The Apocalypse Triptych, which consists of The End Is Nigh, The End Is Now, and The End Has Come. Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, Adams is a winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated eight times) and is a six-time World Fantasy Award finalist. Adams is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare and is a producer for Wired.com’s “The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy” podcast. Find him on Twitter @johnjosephadams.

God Mode
Daniel H. Wilson
 
NPC
Charles Yu
 
Respawn
Hiroshi Sakurazaka 
 
Desert Walk
S.R. Mastrantone
 
Rat Catcher’s Yellows
Charlie Jane Anders
 
1UP
Holly Black
 
Survival Horror
Seanan McGuire
 
Real
Django Wexler
 
Outliers
Nicole Feldringer
 
< end game >
Chris Avellone
 
Save Me Plz
David Barr Kirtley
 
The Relive Box
T.C. Boyle
 
Roguelike
Marc Laidlaw
 
All of the People in Your Party Have Died
Robin Wasserman
 
Recoil!
Micky Neilson

Anda’s Game
Cory Doctorow
 
Coma Kings
Jessica Barber
 
Stats
Marguerite K. Bennett
 
Please Continue
Chris Kluwe
 
Creation Screen
Rhianna Pratchett
 
The Fresh Prince of Gamma World
Austin Grossman
 
Gamer’s End
Yoon Ha Lee
 
The Clockwork Soldier
Ken Liu
 
Killswitch
Catherynne M. Valente
 
Twarrior
Andy Weir
 
Select Character
Hugh Howey