book details

Book: Lies We Will Tell Ourselves - Science Fiction Short Stories by Andrew Knighton

categories: Book, Short Stories, Collection, Anthology, Future, Military SciFi, Political SciFi, Science Fiction

Andrew Knighton

about this book: A spin doctor on an alien planet. A plantation owner hiding a terrifying harvest. A stock trader with technology on the brain.

Welcome to the future of lies.

Take a trip to nine possible worlds in this collection of short science fiction stories. From a war zone centuries ahead to an office block ten minutes into the future, these stories explore where we're going, and what lies we might tell to get there. Every character has something to conceal or a truth to hide from, but what will happen when the lies fall apart?

---

The stories in this collection:

• How We Fall – trapped behind enemy lines, faith and duty clash for Sergeant Grund's squad.
• So Cold It Burns – long cut off from home, Gandpa Jo must decide the future of his frozen wife.
• Distant Rain – the submarine Promethean hunts a mutant whale through a polluted Pacific.
• Our Man In Herrje – Julius Atticus lives by lies, but can he defend them to the alien Gatherers?
• Day Labour – a dark secret waits for the farm labourers of a distant world.
• Digits – a robot finds him humanity in a hand.
• The Extra Mile – race driver Geordie proves how far he'll go to win.
• Second Skin – stock trader Eddy's symbiont has all the latest apps, including one no-one told him about.
• The Harvest – as aliens devour the Earth, an anthropologist recognises an unsettling truth.

---

From reader reviews:
• 'A collection of bite-size short stories ranging from heart-wrenching, through thought-provoking, to mildly disturbing.'

• 'The real strength of this collection is not necessarily the stories themselves, although each stands up well on their own, but the sheer breadth of imagination on display'

• 'Some really lovely, quirky takes on human nature.'

---

About the writing process:
I wrote these stories over several years, then sought a theme to bring them all together. It was only as I did so that I realised how often I'd been writing about lies. Whether it was the big deceptions people used for profit, the white lies to protect others, or the internal lies, the things we pretend to believe so that we can feel better about ourselves. People lie every day - why would the future be any different?