Nearly one year ago, on July 12th, 2012, Neil Clarke, the young editor of Clarkesworld magazine, nearly died. I chose the word young because the manner of his near-demise was a heart attack, which is a killer one often associates with an older generation and/or people with very obvious weight/health problems. This was not Neil Clarke. Or at least it didn’t appear to be.

Thankfully Neil Clarke has survived, and not only survived, but thrived. Neil took this event as the wake-up call it was and used it to inspire him to put more time and energy into his passions. Over the past year Clarkesworld has seen a growth in readership and the addition of more original fiction as well as reprint fiction. One of Neil Clarkes’ other dream projects has taken the shape of a very special anthology that you can be a part of. Yes, you!

Upgraded is a Kickstarter-funded project that Neil describes thus:

Hi. My name is Neil Clarke and I’m the editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and a current Hugo Nominee for Best Editor Short Form. Last July, I suffered a “widow-maker” heart attack that nearly killed me. The damage to my heart was very significant and that led to my doctors installing a defibrillator in my chest. That day, I became a cyborg.

I’ve been working on Clarkesworld for almost seven years, but I’ve never edited an anthology that wasn’t Clarkesworld-related. I just didn’t come across anything that inspired me. Trust almost dying to provide you with inspiration.

As I began looking into the possibility of a cyborg anthology, I quickly noticed that the cyborgs most people think of are villains (Cybermen, Darth Vader, the Borg, etc.). My people make excellent villains, but that only represents the tip of the iceberg. The more I thought about it, the more certain I became that this was the anthology project I had been looking for… a cyborg-edited cyborg anthology. I don’t think that’s been done before. Besides, cyborgs are cool.

It seems only appropriate that this campaign will end on the first anniversary of my heart attack.

Upgraded has already reached and passed its target goal and is now a fully-funded project. However, there are additional funding goals that can be reached in the next two days. I funded at the $25 level, and for that I get:

–The Trade Paperback

–The Ebook

–Acknowledgement as a Cyborg in the book.

There are many levels you can fund at and fun things you can get for each level.

The Upgraded Kickstarter project hit its first funding goal which added four more stories to the anthology

Its next target goals include more pay for the authors and an audio version of the book.

I share all this not simply so that you can give to get me more cool stuff, no sir/maam. Instead I share this because the author line-up is incredible and this is sure to be an anthology that you will want to own:

• Elizabeth Bear
• Helena Bell
• Tobias S. Buckell
• Pat Cadigan
• Greg Egan
• Xia Jia
• Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Yoon Ha Lee
• Ken Liu
• Chen Qiufan
• Robert Reed
• E. Catherine Tobler
• Genevieve Valentine
• Peter Watts
• E. Lily Yu

Artist Julie Dillon, who created the illustration at the start of this post, will be creating an original cover illustration for Upgraded as well. Very cool.
The clock’s a ticking, I hope you will check it out.