Acknowledgements
“Bartholomew Burns and the Brain Invaders” first appeared in Aethernet #5, #6, #7, #8.
“Guardians of the Phoenix” first appeared in Apocalyptic SF.
“Sunworld” first appeared in The Solaris Book of New SF 2.
“Beneath the Ancient Sun” is original to this collection.
I’d like to thank the following editors of the online magazine and anthologies where these stories first appeared: Tony and Barbara Ballantyne, Mike Ashley, and George Mann.
By the same author
Murder at the Chase
Salvage
Satan’s Reach
The Serene Invasion
Murder by the Book
Starship Seasons
Helix Wars
The Devil’s Nebula
The Kings of Eternity
Guardians of the Phoenix
Cosmopath
Xenopath
Necropath
Kéthani
Helix
New York Dreams
New York Blues
New York Nights
Penumbra
Engineman
Meridian Days
Famadihana on Fomalhaut IV
Starship Spring
Starship Winter
Gilbert and Edgar on Mars
Starship Fall
Revenge
Starship Summer
The Extraordinary Voyage of Jules Verne
Approaching Omega
A Writer’s Life
Strange Visitors
The Angels of Life and Death
Ghostwriting
Threshold Shift
The Fall of Tartarus
Deep Future
Parallax View (with Keith Brooke)
Blue Shifting
The Time-Lapsed Man
More from infinity plus
The Angels of Life and Death collects ten science fiction stories from two times winner of the BSFA short story award.
From cyberpunk visions of post-human futures to traditional tales of alien encounter and time travel, what connects these tales are Brown’s storytelling ability and his concern for the human element. Whether he’s writing about telepaths fleeing alien assassins on a vast spaceport city in the Bay of Bengal, or a woman reporter finding true love in the far, far future, Brown imbues his fictions with a concern for character and headlong narrative pace.
“SF infused with a cosmopolitan and literary sensibility.”
“He is a masterful storyteller.”
When Salvageman Ed saves Ella Rodriguez from spider-drones on the pleasure planet of Sinclair’s Landfall, he has no idea what he’s letting himself in for. Ella is not at all what she seems, as he’s soon about to find out.
What follows, as the spider-drones and the Hayakawa Organisation chase Ed, Ella and engineer Karrie light-years across space, is a fast-paced adventure with Ed learning more about Ella — and about himself — than he ever expected.
The Salvageman Ed series of linked stories — four of which appear here for the first time — combine action, humour and pathos, from the master of character-based adventure science fiction.
“These stories demonstrate everything that Eric Brown excels at: intelligent high adventure in space featuring fully-rounded characters that the reader can instantly relate to, revelling in their evolving relationship as Ed and his crew are forced to contend with all that the author’s vivid imagination throws at them. Wonderful stuff!”
Searching for his missing sister, Flint encounters a world where illness is to be feared, where genes mutate and migrate between species through plague and fever. This is the story of the struggles between those who want to defend their heritage and those who choose to embrace the new.
“A minor masterpiece that should usher Brooke at last into the recognized front ranks of SF writers”
“I am so here! Genetopia is a meditation on identity — what it means to be human and what it means to be you — and the necessity of change. It’s also one heck of an adventure story. Snatch it up!”
“Keith Brooke’s Genetopia is a biotech fever dream. In mood it recalls Brian Aldis’s Hothouse, but is a projection of twenty-first century fears and longings into an exotic far future where the meaning of humanity is overwhelmed by change. Masterfully written, this is a parable of difference that demands to be read, and read again.”
A set of beautifully crafted tales of the imagination by a writer who was smitten by the magic of the speculative short story at the age of twelve and has remained under its spell ever since.
These few stories cover three closely related sub-genres: science fiction, fantasy and horror. In the White Garden murders are taking place nightly, but who is leaving the deep foot-prints in the flower beds? Twelve men are locked in the jury room, but thirteen emerge after their deliberations are over. In a call centre serving several worlds, the staff are less than helpful when things go wrong with a body-change holiday.
Three of the stories form a set piece under the sub-sub-genre title of ‘Anglo-Saxon Tales’. This trilogy takes the reader back to a time when strange gods ruled the lives of men and elves were invisible creatures who caused mayhem among mortals.
Garry Kilworth has created a set of stories that lift readers out of their ordinary lives and place them in situations of nightmare and wonder, or out among far distant suns. Come inside and meet vampires, dragons, ghosts, aliens, weremen, people who walk on water, clones, ghouls and marvellous wolves with the secret of life written beneath their eyelids.