Diversifications

James Lovegrove’s second collection of short fiction is a swirling kaleidoscope of ideas, language and wordplay. In this book you will meet robots living in a flesh world, travellers who vie to explore the most exotic alternate dimensions, and viruses that spread by speech. There’s a serial killer who preys on serial killers, a doctor who takes the concept of downsizing to hideous extremes, a hangman coming to terms with his guilt over the executions he performed, and a jogaholic forever trying to atone for the biggest mistake of his life.

From the red plains of Mars to a back-garden party, from modern London as Jules Verne might have imagined it to a futuristic society out of Mary Shelley’s worst nightmares, Lovegrove demonstrates yet again the extraordinary diversity and depth of his talent. Here, from a writer described by the Bookseller as having “become to the 21st century what J.G. Ballard was to the 20th” and by SFX as “one of the UK SF scene’s most interesting, challenging and adventurous authors”, are sixteen unforgettable tales filled with powerful characterisation, vivid storytelling, and dazzling verbal dexterity.