Barhopping for Astronauts: Cosmic Horror, Late Stage Capitalism, and Other Light Reading
by Leo X Robertson
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- An influencer lets the internet puppet his brand-new cyber-limbs.
- Door-to-door sales-things arrive with a television that watches you.
- Two YouTubers livestream a dinosaur attack — for the clout, of course.
The future is weird. Bring a drink.
Welcome to a dive bar at the edge of the multiverse, where every cocktail is spiked with existential dread. In these darkly satirical shorts, Leo X. Robertson skewers the absurdity of modern life through warped futures that feel unsettlingly familiar. Identity, surveillance, grief, pleasure — even the apocalypse — collapse into each other, often in the same paragraph.
These are the dreams of the doomed and the coping mechanisms of the barely functional — but also the love stories and inside jokes that bubble up as the world glitches around us. So if you’ve ever wanted to simulate the rest of your life as someone else, or found comfort in a soothing blue screen of death, pull up a barstool … the last round of reality is on the house.
ISBN: 978-1-988865-77-5 (print); $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-988865-78-2 (eBook) $7.99
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Leo X Robertson is a Scottish writer, filmmaker, and process engineer currently living in Stavanger, Norway. His work has been featured in Best of British Science Fiction, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, and Flame Tree Publishing’sUrban Crime anthology, among others. His films have been featured in festivals such as Dead Northern, Horrific Hope and ReelHeART and won awards like Best Feature Film and Best LGBTQ Film.
Praise for Leo X Robertson
“Brutal, bloody and haunting. Leo’s writing slithers beneath your skin, weaves through your veins, and settles into the shadowy corners of your brain where it’s not easily forgotten.” — Renee Miller
“I believe Leo X Robertson is one of the most flavourful and exciting ingredients of the transgressive fiction new wave. To be uttered in the same breath as Stokoe and held in the same reverence as Thomas Moore or Chris Zeischegg.” — Chris Kelso, author of the DREGS trilogy
“As carefully crafted as it is imaginatively conceived, Leo X Robertson’s aptly titled fiction collection Unfortunates is engaging, nicely written, and often as thought-provoking and challenging as it is entertaining. One of the better up-and-coming talents I’ve had the pleasure of discovering in recent years, Robertson’s work is not to be missed.” — Greg F Gifune, author of The Bleeding Season.
“Much like seeing the aftermath of a car accident, Leo X Robertson writes the kind of horrifying, all-too-human stories that keep your eyes clearly affixed to the beautifully written prose no matter how grotesque or emotionally scarring they are. And I always want more.” — Sam Richard (Sabbath of the Fox-Devils, To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows)