Bengal Station
Jeff Vaughan, a world-weary telepath employed by the spaceport on Bengal Station, discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god. The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen One uses drugs to commune with the ultimate - and murder to silence those who oppose their beliefs. Together with Indian cop Jimmy Chandra, Vaughan's investigations take him to the colony planet of Verkerk's World and the terrible secret of the extraterrestrial Vaith...
Meanwhile, in Thailand, street-girl Sukara dreams of being reunited with her long-lost sister on Bengal Station. She meets Osborne, a telepath posing as a businessman with his own secrets, who promises to take her away from her life of prostitution in Bangkok. They travel to Bengal Station, and there Sukara learns of her sister's fate, and unwittingly leads Osborne to his target - Jeff Vaughan.
The story follows Vaughan as his mistrust of his fellow humans is overturned by his growing feelings for Thai street-girl Sukara, one of the few good people he's ever encountered in a life of reading cynical, jaded minds.
Eric Brown
Eric Brown began writing when he was fifteen years and sold his first short story to Interzone in 1986. He has won the British Science Fiction Award twice for his short stories, and his novel Helix Wars was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick award. He has published sixty books, and his latest include the crime novel Murder Take Three, and the short story collection Microcosms, with Tony Ballantyne. He has also written a dozen books for children and over a hundred and forty short stories. He writes a regular science fiction review column for the Guardian newspaper and lives in Cockburnspath, Scotland.