The great escape

By Ian Watson

Subjects: English Science fiction, Science fiction, English., English Fantasy fiction, Science fiction, English, Fiction, Hell, Fantasy fiction, English, Angels

Description: Predictably unpredictable, normally abnormal Watson combines science fiction and fantasy into an eclectic mix that includes stories about fallen angels in Hell rebelling and mounting a breakout, about the inconvenience of keeping aging parents in your brain instead of a nursing home, about Jesus' immortal brother as solo passenger on the first starship, about alien coffins bombarding the solar system, about right-wing U.S. militias stealing a quantum computer to commit nuclear blackmail, about a computer games designer haunted by the cyber-ghost of his murdered wife, about frozen heads and strange mind-changes, and how a cake decorator defeats a vampire with a sweet tooth. De-evolution, treasure-hunting via hang-glider, dark animal fantasies, humanity as a hive-entity, Hercules Poirot on a starship—Watson takes the strange, the eerie, the weird, mixes in his seasoned writing skills, and produces a potpourri of the fantastic. These nineteen stories are sure to amuse, bemuse and entertain. "There is a keen intelligence at work (and at play)... along with the vigorous prose of a writer whose love for words is fully requited... Tragedy, farce, metaphysical/ scientific revelations, pageantry and grand reconciliations, all join in a series of splendid climaxes, madly mixing pathos, bathos, wisdom, and wild absurdity... Watson offers a lucky harvest indeed." - Faren Miller, Locus Magazine