Streaking

What is Luck? If it exists at all, where does it come from, and how does it operate? Is it a supernatural force? A genetic gift? Or a quantum phenomenon, a knack for adjusting probability in just the right way? In Streaking, Brian Stableford, one of Britain's most honoured SF and fantasy authors, tackles these questions with all his customary flair, invention, intense logic, and dark wit. Canny Kilcannon, heir to the earldom of Credesdale in Yorkshire, is an extremely lucky man, the scion of a long dynasty of extremely lucky men. Unlike his dour and cautious ancestors, he believes in taking material advantage of his hereditary good fortune: as a playboy gambler, he cruises the casinos of the world, winning steadily yet cleverly and calculatedly, so as not to draw undue attention. But a particular defiance of the odds in Monte Carlo is noticed, both by a criminal gang and by Lissa Lo, a beautiful woman who may somehow share Canny's luck. As he returns to Credesdale, to the bedside of his dying father, Canny is increasingly aware that powerful forces are closing in on him. But Canny is a resourceful man, and astute at judging the odds in any situation; as he becomes Lord Credesdale, he plays the game of life with the same tactical brilliance he showed in Monte Carlo. Faced with challenges both domestic and acutely menacing - the dilemma of how to continue and strengthen his family line, the need to fight off foreign mafiosi and alluring romantic blandishments all at once - he is well equipped, but events may be moving beyond even his capacity to control. The ways of Chance are approaching an apocalyptic crossroads, and life as Canny knows it could be coming to an end... In Streaking, Brian Stableford has written a characteristically brilliant intellectual thriller, full of rich incident and compelling argument-his finest work since his seminal vampire novel, The Empire of Fear.