Brian Stableford

Here are eleven stories of science fiction and fantasy by a master writer of the fantastic, including four pieces published for the first time. Contents: "Beyond the Colors of Darkness," "An Offer of Oblivion," "Enlightenment," "The Dragons Yetzirah and Alziluth," "A Saint's Progress," "Mens Sana in Corpore Sano," "Black Nectar," "Nephthys," "Plastic Man," "Aphrodite and the Ring," and "Danse Macabre." Brian Stableford has written and edited over 100 volumes of science fiction, horror, fantasy, ... more info>>

In the far future Earth is dying. Society has reverted to a more primitive life, much like the Middle Ages. Two men, Matthew and his brother John, who calls himself "Firefly," set out to find the time traveller, the one person who can give purpose to their existence, the one individual who can still access past technology. The Firefly, he who lights his own way, seeks the age of Man's greatness, the time when the human race once owned the stars, when great cities stood in places that have now be... more info>>

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-Utopian worlds like New Alexandria to vermin-infested slums like Old Earth, starship pilots have become the great romantic heroes of the day. When Star-Pilot Grainger is rescued from a shipwreck, he finds himself pressed into reluctant service to fly the Hooded Swan, the prototype of a new kind of interstellar ship. He's also picked up an alien parasite that's determined to share his brain. Under these dire circumstances, can Grainger possibly stay o... more info>>

This new collection of critical essays on science fiction and fantasy literature and media features the following pieces: "The Last Chocolate Bar and the Majesty of Truth: Reflections on the Concept of 'Hardness' in Science Fiction," "How Should a Science Fiction Story End?", "The Third Generation of Genre Science Fiction," "Deus ex Machina; or, How to Achieve a Perfect Science-Fictional Climax," "Biotechnology and Utopia," "Far Futures," "How Should a Science Fiction Story Begin?", and "The Dis... more info>>

Harker Lee is a survivor. His mind withstands the threat of insanity and the pressure of imprisonment. His lifelong struggle to keep mind and body together in the face of the hostile environment of the maximum-security block is struggle against the society of his fellow men. But that society can still find a need for him a need for the ability to survive which it is testing to the full. He was taken from his cell once to be used in experiments in reading minds. Now he is brought forth again, to ... more info>>

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-Utopian worlds like new Rome to vermin-infested slums like Old Earth, the Star-Pilots are the great heroes of the day, and Grainger has become a legend in his own time, flying the revolutionary ship, Hooded Swan. The rain forest of Chao Phrya seems a more hospitable place than the Halcyon Drift or the underground world of Rhapsody, scenes of Grainger's previous adventures. But the colonists of the jungle planet are crazed and the indigenous populatio... more info>>

This new collection of critical essays on science fiction and fantasy literature and media features the following pieces: "Slaves of the Death Spiders: Colin Wilson and Existential Science Fiction," "Is There No Balm in Gilead? The Woeful Prophecies of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale," "A Few More Crocodile Tears" "The Adventures of Lord Horror Across the Media Landscape," "Filling in the Middle: Robert Silverberg's The Queen of Springtime," "Rice's Relapse: Memnoch the Devil," "Field of B... more info>>

"Dying is easy," a great actor is reported to have said; "comedy is hard." The ten stories in this collection demonstrate that Brian Stableford has mastered the art of creating comedy in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Contents: "The Cosmic Perspective," "The Haunted Nursery," "The Phantom of Teirbrun" (an original fantasy novella), "Custer's Last Stand," "The Requiem Masque," "Meat on the Bone," "Murphy's Grail," "Brief Encounter in the Smoking Area," "Fans from Hell," and "The Annual Con... more info>>

The Dragon Man is the story of Sara, a teenager growing up in a post-Crash household, struggling with the burden of having eight parents and conducting the remainder of her personal life in virtual space. In a world in which everyone lives for hundreds of years, children are very scarce--but not as scarce as people who were born during the Crash, who grew old before biotechnology reached the pitch of sophistication required to keep them young. Sara's first tentative attempt to assert her individ... more info>>

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-Utopian worlds like New Alexandria to vermin-infested slums like Old Earth, the Star-Pilots that link the cosmos are the great heroes of the day, and Grainger has become a legend in his own lifetime. The atmosphere of Mormyr is so dense that the surface is unreachable, which made it the ideal place for the alien Gallacellans to hide an ancient spaceship. Now they want it back. Grainger refuses, but when the Hooded Swan answers a mayday call, Grainger... more info>>

The stories contained herein deal, directly or indirectly, with manifest delusions. By representing the delusions they feature as delusions, they promote the delusion that delusion can eventually be undermined by the strong-minded, who will thus be enabled to avoid the "bad faith" of which some existentialist philosophers seem to have lived in mortal terror. Included are historical mysteries, fantasies, and science fiction. The tales in this collection include: "The Gardens of Tantalus," "The Lo... more info>>

Here are seven tales of the near future, part of the author's long-running and cutting-edge "Biotech Revolution" series, including one story published for the first time. Contents: "Following the Pharmers," "The Unkindness of Ravens," "The Great Chain of Being," "Sleepwalkers," "The Beauty Contest," "Burned Out," and "Inherit the Earth." Brian Stableford has written and edited over 100 volumes of science fiction, horror, fantasy, literary criticism, and reference, among others, many of them bein... more info>>

The Comte de Saint-Germain has come into possession of a copy of The Mad Trist, the book from which Edgar Allan Poe and Roderick Usher read aloud before the collapse recorded in "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Comte wants to make a present of it to detective Auguste Dupin, but Dupin's faithful companion is en route for England, and cannot deliver the volume immediately. In any case, he is certain that his friend, Richard Carstairs, will be just as interested in reading the supposedly accu... more info>>

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-utopian worlds like New Alexandria to the vermin-infested slums of Old Earth, the Star-Pilots are the great heroes of the day, and Grainger has become a legend in his own time. Pharos is paradise--or so it appears. But the champions of commerce want to package and sell the planet, and the conservationists want to stop them. Grainger's employer, Titus Charlot, is enlisted to negotiate a settlement, but the game is rigged. Charlot needs the Star-Pilot'... more info>>

In the world of the future, the newest rage among the rich and aged is to purchase computer-generated biotech simulations of their personalities before they die--and thus to become, after their passing, "Undead," immobile personalities trapped within the tombstones erected in their honor, only able to communicate with the outside world by voice and through texting. But religious fanatics, and the relatives who thought they would inherit the Undeads' wealth, are outraged, regarding the sims as a... more info>>

Following the sad demise of Ernest Valdemar, as related in the story by Edgar Allan Poe, his mortal remains are dispatched to his daughter in Paris--but they do not arrive on schedule, and the Chevalier Auguste Dupin is forced to play detective yet again in tracking them down. The mesmerists of the Philosophical Harmonic Society of Paris seem to be implicated in the mystery, most especially the society's enigmatic President, the Comte de Saint-Germain. In the meantime, Honoré de Balzac lies at ... more info>>

A vampire who calls himself Maldureve comes out of the shadowy borderlands of existence in response to the unvoiced desires of philosophy student Anne Charet. By choosing to see him she gives him substance; after feeding him, she too begins to hunger for blood. Maldureve becomes Anne's lover and mentor but he cannot protect her against his own enemies, mysterious creatures of light who call themselves owls because they believe that theirs is the highest wisdom of all. Anne's boyfriend, psycholog... more info>>