The Gift of Joy
A collection pf 18 stories, 5 original to this collection plus 13 that have appeared previously in various venues, including both pieces featured in the science journal Nature and the BSFA Award shortlisted title story. 18 tales that take you to distant futures and disturbing tomorrows, to strange new worlds and others that may seem uncomfortably familiar.
“Planetary escapades and vivid battle action rub shoulders with charming yet eerie rural tales and with perilous urban nightmares.” - Ian Watson
“Ian Whates has a way with words and a storyteller's sensibility... Definitely one to watch.” - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
“Darkly funny tales of the unexpected, with a deft science-fictional turn of the knife.” - Ken MacLeod
“It is his characters who live through the story and make the reader need to know just how it’s all going to pan out, human characters who may seem familiar but then there’s that one thing, that shifted alteration that changes the world and changes the reader too.” - Michael Cobley in Interzone
Contents:
- Introduction
- The Gift of Joy
- A Hint of Mystery
- The Key
- Gossamer
- One Night in London
- A Piratical Sabbatical
- Glitch in the System
- Darkchild
- The Final Hour
- Hanging on Her Every Word
- Flesh and Metal
- The Sum of the Past
- Knowing How to Look
- Ghosts in the Machine
- In Fear of Fog
- The Battle for Paradise
- It's About Time!
- The Laughter of Ghosts
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Ian Whates
Ian Whates is a British speculative fiction author and editor. In 2006 he launched the independent publishing house NewCon press. He lives with his partner Helen in Cambridgeshire.
As of 2009 Whates is currently a director of both the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA). He has had short fiction published in Nature, Hub and TQR. In 2007 his short story The Gift of Joy was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award.
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