Burning with Optimism's Flames was the second Faction Paradox anthology.
Publisher's summary
I can remember asking him, ‘What are the stars? Where do they come from?’
He would tell me that the stars are burning worlds, caught forever in their unending flames, raging, roaring against the night. They look out beyond their fragile spheres for places of calm and serenity to shine their brightness and bring life.
He would clasp me around the shoulder and say that we were like stars. We had to use the energy within us to defeat the cold spaces, to turn away the dark things that dared to destroy life. We had to find our own calmness and serenity even when it was denied us.
I don’t think I understood him then. I was too small, and my brother never spoke in the concrete terms that my brain could comprehend.
Looking back on it, though, I think that’s when P.J. began to burn.
- Intermediant Izzy Ring, The Heaven Facility
Individual stories
Notes
- Of the several writers in this anthology who were new to Obverse Books, Alan Taylor and Sarah Hadley had previously worked with editor Jay Eales on the charity anthologies Perfect Timing 2 and Walking in Eternity; Dan Ribot and Jim Worrad were members of Eales' local writing group, the Speculators; Eales was introduced to Cate Gardner through the British Fantasy Society; and Aditya Bidikar secured his place through an unsolicited submission,[1] having discovered the Faction Paradox series through Andrew Hickey's blog.[2]
- An ebook-only companion piece to this anthology called Wallowing in Pessimism's Mire was quietly published by Obverse Books in May 2015,[3] but it was retracted from their website in June due to the lack of response from fans.[4]