Stories from the Northern Road
Cover art by Fangorn.
The first ever collection from one of the UK’s finest SF authors: Tony Ballantyne.
The book is divided into two sections. The first, “Stories from the Northern Road” features a quartet of tales set on the world of Penrose, as introduced in Tony’s Tor novels Twisted Metal and Blood and Iron. This section has a distinct flavour of the old West about it... if the old West had been populated by a race of sentient robots – think Asimov meets Firefly. The stories are all stand alones but they are thematically linked, combining to provide what amounts to a mythology for the people of Penrose. This first section is entirely original to the collection.
The second half of the book, “Recursive Tales”, contains five stories. All are set in a future timeline which traces the development of the human race as overseen by benevolent AIs. Three of these stories previously featured in Interzone, a fourth in the DAW anthology We Think Therefore We Are, and the fifth is original to the collection. Tony developed the ideas and the milieu of these stories for his first novel, Recursion, which was shortlisted for the Philip K Dick Award, and subsequently for it’s sequels, Capacity and Divergence.
Tony Ballantyne is, of course, renowned for his short fiction, with several stories selected for Years Best anthologies. Tales from the Northern Road showcases Tony at his very best.
Contents:
- Introduction
- Stories from the Northern Road
- A Note from the Author
- Four Blind Horses
- Janet Verdigris
- Isabel and the Outlandish Robots
- The Robot Behind Me
- Recursive Tales
- LDA ADD STA JMP JIZ END
- Restoring the Balance 1
- Restoring the Balance 2
- Seeds
- The Sixth VNM
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Tony Ballantyne
Tony Ballantyne is the author of Twisted Metal, Blood and Iron and the Recursion series. He has also written many short stories. Tony grew up in County Durham in the North East of England. He studied Maths at Manchester University before moving to London where he taught Maths and IT. His first SF sale was 'The Sixth VNM' which appeared in Interzone 138. Since then he has had short stories appear in magazines and anthologies worldwide. He has also written romantic fiction and satirical pieces for various magazines such as Private Eye. Recursion, his first novel, was published by Tor UK in 2004. He has been nominated for the BSFA and Philip K. Dick awards. He now lives in Oldham with his wife and two children. His hobbies are playing the piano, accordion and cornet. He also enjoys walking and cycling.
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