Ian Watson combines science fiction and fantasy into an eclectic mix that includes stories about fallen angels in Hell rebelling and mounting a breakout, about the inconvenience of keeping aging parents in your brain instead of a nursing home, about Jesus’ immortal brother as solo passenger on the first starship, about alien coffins bombarding the solar system, about right-wing U.S. militias stealing a quantum computer to commit nuclear blackmail, about a computer-games designer haunted by the cyber-ghost of his murdered wife, about frozen heads and strange mind-changes, and how a cake decorator defeats a vampire with a sweet tooth. De-evolution, treasure-hunting via hang-glider, dark animal fantasies, humanity as a hive-entity, Hercules Poirot on a starship—Watson takes the strange, the eerie, the weird, mixes in his seasoned writing skills, and produces a potpourri of the fantastic. These nineteen stories are sure to amuse, bemuse, and entertain.

Contents:

• The Great Escape
• A Day Without Dad
• Three-Legged Dog
• Caucus Winter
• The Amber Room
• Nanunculus
• When Thought-Mail Failed
• Early, in the Evening
• Ahead!
• Such Dedication
• The Shape of Murder
• What Actually Happened in Docklands
• The Boy Who Lost an Hour, the Girl Who Lost Her Life
• The Last Beast Out of the Box
• The China Cottage
• Tulips from Amsterdam
• The Descent
• Ferryman
• My Vampire Cake