PRESS / CRITICAL ACCLAIM : COSMOCOPIA

"A curious package, indeed."
- Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times

"As bizarre as the setting may be, DiFilippo manages in barely more than novella length to give [Cosmocopia] a convincing texture and background, and more importantly to construct a set of character arcs that end up making the story feel longer than it is. ... There's no doubt that DiFilippo has given us a trip, and that trip is beautifully envisioned..."
- Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

"Cosmocopia, like the best speculative fiction, offers a vision of another world while making strange-looking characters seem utterly familiar, especially in their personal struggles. And DiFilippo he has done a beautiful job creating a world in so few pages that is foreign yet familiar, and managed to place a love story - and a message of hope - at the center of it."
- Craig Clarke, Green Man Review

"Payseur & Schmidt publishes more than just books; they publish high-quality multi-media art events. Cosmocopia is a fine example. ... When the first chapter ended, I thought "Oh, this is a short story collection? I was led to believe it was a novel. Oh well, that story was kind of interesting, but I don't quite get it." Then the second story begins, and it evolves into the second chapter of the novel in a moment of literary genius. It was like watching a flower opening up, or a baby being born -- it was almost that amazing."
- Neil Walsh, SF Site

"The high-end presentation of Cosmocopia is itself a commentary on the story, and Di Filippo and Woodring's (and Payseur & Schmidt's) multiform production is more than just so many bells and whistles. ... Cosmocopia fluctuates between a jeu d'esprit and a portrait of the artist as an old man. Di Filippo has implanted a bizarre, funny and melodramatically inclined fantasy world within the "real" world of his story. This is the author's way of showing both the nightmarish multiplicity of worlds and the hazy line demarcating genre art from a supposedly higher form."
- Ed Park, LA Times

"Cosmocopia is as much a puzzle as the jigsaw that accompanies it, but one where the pieces are interchangeable, constructed so that there are different permutations and solutions. Plot and themes are so smoothly patterned and layered, that at the conclusion, one feels like one has read the literary equivalent of Escher. As a novella, Cosmocopia is an unqualified success."
- Peter Loftus, Interzone

One of the "Best Looking Books of 2008"
- Book Patrol blog

"If ever there was a thing made for me, this is it. Cosmocopia is a novel by Paul Di Filippo and a 513-piece jigsaw puzzle and color art print by Jim Woodring, beautifully packaged in a cardboard box radiating with eldritch vibrations."
- Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

"If you really loved your loved ones, you'd get them Cosmocopia by Paul Di Filippo, with illustrations by Jim Woodring. It's that rare thing: an art book that makes your brain burst. It reminds me of some of McSweeney's weirder experiments, but in the service of a trippy, crazy science fiction novel."
- Charlie Jane Anders, io9

"Paul is simply brilliant, and Cosmocopia sounds like a lot of fun."
- Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan