The futuristic biotech world of Stableford's acclaimed SF novella Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), expanded upon in last year's novel Inherit the Earth, provides the foundation for this sequel. After an ecological collapse brought on by biological warfare and a runaway greenhouse effect, nanotechnology is regrowing lost forests as well as offering near-immortality to those who can afford it. Although the United Nations calls itself a World Government, the true power rests with the MegaMall, a company produced by generations of multinational mergers and buyouts. On this cusp of a new world, someone is murdering the pioneering scientists of the New Human Race, and it's up to Detective Sgt. Charlotte Holmes and Inspector Hal Watson, of the U.N. Police, to stop the killing. Charlotte and Hal are assisted by Michael Lowenthal, a "special investigator" from the MegaMall, and Oscar Wilde, a legendary bioengineer of specialty flowers. Evidence indicates that the murderer, a mysterious young woman, is somehow related to a genetic engineer who calls himself Rappaccini (after a character in a Hawthorne story). As the team investigates the murders, they realize that Rappaccini's taut game of hide-and-seek is leading them to the truth behind a much darker secret. Stableford's skill at creating technologically overwhelmed future worlds is evident here. His narrative teems with vivid, believable descriptions of man-eating flowers, hundred-year-old artists and rampant genetic engineering. His talent for mystery is less sure, featuring characters whose roles blur unconvincingly as the plot picks up speed. Although the novel's ending is weakened by premature revelations of Rappaccini's motives, the scale and audacity of Stableford's vision is a wonder.

Acclaimed author and scholar Brian Stableford turns his penetrating mind to matters of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in this collection of essays. He covers such diverse topics as:SLAVES OF THE DEATH SPIDERS: Colin Wilson and Existentialist Science FictionIS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD?: The Woeful Prophecies of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's TaleA FEW MORE CROCODILE TEARS?: Gwyneth JonesTHE ADVENTURES OF LORD HORROR: Across the Media LandscapeFILLING IN THE MIDDLE: Robert Silverberg's The Queen of SpringtimeRICE'S RELAPSE: Memnoch the DevilFIELD OF BROKEN DREAMS: Michael Bishop's Brittle InningsTHE MAGIC OF THE MOVIESH. G. WELLS AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE FUTURETHE MANY RETURNS OF DRACULATARZAN'S DIVIDED SELFSYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: Jacques Cazotte's The Devil in LoveTHE TWO THOUSAND YEAR QUEST: George Viereck's Erotic OdysseyTHE PROFESSION OF SCIENCE FICTION

Although Gaston Danville was one of the earliest contributors to the French magazine, Mercure de France, considered a voice for the symbolist movement, he regarded himself as one of a new generation of Naturalists, interested in applying the relatively new insights of contemporary psychology to the analysis of human behavior. Danville's short fiction was unique, obsessed with the supposed psychologies of psychology and murder, and the analogies between them. He called his stories "Tales of Beyond," but the beyond to which he referred was that of the Unconscious, to which he believe that all phenomena considered supernatural should now be attributed. The result was some of the most peculiar weird fiction ever produced, which still warrants the interest of connoisseurs of the bizarre. Here are his best eighteen stories (plus an essay), edited, translated, and with notes by Brian Stableford.

This is a new collection of 13 proto-science fiction tales and other scientific romances, penned between 1796 and 1921, translated and annotated by renowned science fiction writer and scholar Brian Stableford. From cosmic journeys exploring Mars and Jupiter, examining the nature, languages and reproductive methods of various alien species, to the tale of a man who awakens 10,000 years in the future when the Moon has broken apart and rained debris upon the Earth and suspension bridges link the planets of the Solar System; from future war stories, the discovery of automata and telepathy, to speculations about the extraterrestrial origins of Life on Earth, the tales gathered here exemplify the manifest intention of writers from the 18th and 19th centuries to create a new genre of imaginative fiction. The title piece, written in 1913, was the first-ever published item in a series of propagandistic works of fiction by rocket enthusiasts. It is remarkable for its description of space travel, and its attempt to design a hypothetical biosphere for another planet.

In the culture of the galaxy, the Star-Pilots of the starships that link the cosmos together have become the great heroes of the day. Grainger, who has become a legend in his own lifetime, is drafted to fly the prototype (the Hooded Swan) of a new ship that could revolutionize space travel. The members of the ultra-ascetic Church of the Exclusive Reward have colonized a number of marginal worlds to exclude themselves from galactic society. On Rhapsody, church members lead a completely subterranean existence. Even closed societies have their rebels, however, so when a major scientific discovery emerges from the caves of the dark planet, everything there falls apart. If Grainger can secure a share in the coming bonanza, he could buy back his freedom from Titus Charlot. Before he can do that, however, he has to find some way of just staying alive.... Hooded Swan, Book Two.

"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 Conference of the Prophets of Atlantis."About the AuthorBrian Stableford has written and edited over 100 volumes of science fiction, horror, fantasy, literary criticism, and reference, among others, many of them being published by the Borgo Press Imprint of Wildside Press. He lives and works in Reading, England. ContentsThe Cosmic PerspectiveThe Haunted NurseryThe Phantom of TeirbrunCuster’s Last StandThe Requiem MasqueMeat on the BoneMurphy’s GrailBrief Encounter in the Smoking AreaFans from HellThe Annual Conference of the Prophets of Atlantis

Peter Bell the Third, accidentally named from the title of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is called upon to renew his old friendship with Rowland Usher, who was deliberately named after the protagonist of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. In the new House of Usher that Rowland is growing in the Orinoco Delta, Usher explains the scientific work in genetics that he's doing there to Peter, while they both mourn Rowland's dead twin sister, Magdalen, who has apparently committed suicide for reasons that no one quite understands. As a scientist, Peter is inevitably convinced, when he discovers Magdalen's "ghost" haunting the house, that the haunting can only be figurative and symbolic—but that does not make it any less meaningful, or problematic. A marvelous new novel in this long-running series by a master of biological extrapolation.

They call them the "rat-catchers." They're the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost colonies in space. Alex Alexander, the ship's biologist, together with his staff, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he encounters light-years from home.Dendra is a stable world, covered by a huge, unchanging forest—except that nothing living can really be free of change. The planet has no seasons, but its animal life still undergoes life-cycles involving birth, maturation, metamorphosis, and death. The Earth colony sent to tame the world has failed, at least in the terms expected of it, and seems beyond redemption; but the crew of the Daedalus still has to find out exactly why and how the program has gone wrong. Provided, of course, that they can survive the investigation itself!

They call them the "rat-catchers." They're the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which a declining Earth has sent to re-establish contact with its long-lost colonies. Biologist Alex Alexander, together with his staff, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that they encounter far from home. On the world called Wildeblood, named for the ecologist/Emperor who founded it, the settlers' descendants harbor a terrible secret—a secret that Alex must uncover, if the colony is to survive. But he must also make contact with the world OTHER intelligent species, something that will take time—time that the colonists are determined not to give him. And even if can solve the biological problem, what about the diplomatic one? The Daedalus Mission, Book Three.

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 and his crew are trapped by a madman, who forces them to pursue the salvage anyway. Success will mean Grainger's freedom from Titus Charlot, owner of the Hooded Swan; failure will mean the death of the inhabitants of an entire planet. And then the Gallacellans appear! Hooded Swan, Book Five.

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's help, but there seems to be nothing he can do—until the planet's ecosystem takes a hand, and "paradise" suddenly turns deadly! Hooded Swan, Book 4.

Kit is a twenty-five-year-old Yorkshire bus driver who isn't quite like the rest of us, as the old story goes. One day she hears a passenger playing a song-the Electric Hellfire Club's "Kiss the Goat"-a song she never knew existed outside the ghostly manifestations that have been haunting her lonely nights, complete with sounds, smell and sight. Enter, then, the ghost of Rose Selavy . . . a devil-worshipping prostitute with more on her mind than just bodily possession . . . A romp through satanic disco music, ethereal auto-erotica and apparitions with agendas, this modern ghost story is Brain Stableford at his quirky and subversive best. "This unusual ghost story, with its heady mix of historical and pop culture sources, shows how a truly inspired writer can find an original new angle from which to present one of supernatural fiction's most familiar themes." -- Publishers Weekly

The eleven stories in Designer Genes showcase the latest volume in this intriguing science fiction that explores intriguing future possibilities in biotechnology, ranging from stories of imminent technology reflecting issues that are already controversial, to stories that feature drastically altered worlds. Most of the stories are domestic dramas in which ordinary people are trying to get on with their everyday lives in circumstances that are altering in confusing ways by the year or by the day. Most of them have an element of comedy, because the human predicament is essentially comic, and most of them sound a powerful note of optimism, or at least of hope, because, the world being what it is, biotechnology is the one realistic source of optimism and hope that we have, if we are to come through the present ecocatastrophe relatively unscathed. Great, thought-provoking entertainment by a major SF writer!