Masque of Dreams
Masque of Dreams collects 6 novelettes, 17 short stories, and 15 poems.
The masques of 17th century Europe presented dramatic entertainments based on mythic themes and enhanced by lavish costumes and sets. The entertainments in Bruce Boston's Masque of Dreams fashion myths of their own and are enhanced by the voice of a poet, often lyric and at times pyrotechnic. Journey to the depths of a mutant rain forest that strikes back against the encroachments of civilization. Join a Victorian stage magician in his search for real magic. Descend to the depths of an omnivorous singularity where everything is everything. Meet a true gentleman farmer and stand with vorpal sword in hand. Explore these masques of illusion and identity that entertain as they mine the limits of reality and dreams.
Bruce Boston
Bruce Boston (born 1943) is an American speculative fiction writer and poet who was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.
Bruce Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record seven times: for Best Long Poem in 1989 and 1999, and for Best Short Poem in 1985, 1988, 1994, 1996, and 2001, and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record six times: 1990, 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005 and 2008. He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, 1976, the Bram Stoker Award for his poetry collections Pitchblende, 2003, Shades Fantastic, 2006, and The Nightmare Collection, 2008, and the first Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999. His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest," received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem.