The Battle Royale Slam Book by Nick Mamatas

That was my first genuine childhood glimpse.

Then we were under the overpass, me whipping backward in my seat to watch the bus plummet downward, then disappear from view. Others pressed against the glass as yet remaining. Blood on some, poking through the broken windows. I couldn't see the shattering glass, but I could see the screaming faces. There was a bus, hurtling sideways and over the brink, like a train derailed. All I can say for sure is that I had the window seat in the back, on the driver's side-and that we were less than ten minutes down the Richerri Motorway-when I saw the cloud of dirt and rock from the edge of the overpass ahead. I have jumbled memories of landing and negotiating customs, lugging our baggage as we followed the guy with the driver's cap and the sign marked skipp to the sleek sedan taking us to our new home. My dad's mysterious new government job had brought the family from Milwaukee to Arlington, VA, for six months of prep, before launching us deep into the other America. We'd just taken a Boeing 707-the largest craft in the fleet of Aerolineas Argentinas-from Washington, D.C., care of the US State Department. Speaking personally: I saw my first dying people within half an hour of landing at Ministro Pistarini International Airport, just outside Buenos Aires.

And death shows up whenever, and for whomever, the fuck it wants. That said, life is what happens when we're making other plans. And not just their lives, but their innocence. It's only natural to want to protect them, of course. This collection of essays by some of the best science fiction, horror, and thriller writers working today explore the depth, details, and controversies surrounding Battle Royale in an intelligent, accessible fashion. The cult phenomenon Battle Royale has been lauded as a masterpiece and decried as exploitative gore, but it's always remained in the public consciousness.

A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction.200 Significant SF Books by Women, 1984-2001.

The Battle Royale Slam Book by Nick Mamatas