Michael Swanwick

Space-time for springers / Fritz Leiber -- The game of rat and dragon / Cordwainer Smith -- The cat from hell / Stephen King -- Out of place / Pamela Sargent -- Schrödinger's cat / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Groucho / Ron Goulart -- My father, the cat / Henry Slesar -- The cat man / Byron Liggett -- Some are born cats / Terry and Carol Carr -- The cat lover / Knox Burger -- Jade Blue / Edward Bryant -- Tom cat / Gary Jennings -- Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kittee / Gene Wolfe-- The witch's cat / Manly Wade Wellman -- Antiquities / John Crowley -- A little intelligence / Randall Garrett -- The cat / Gene Wolfe -- Afternoon at Schrafft's / Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann, and Michael Swanwick.

The Future Boldly Imagined From Breathtaking New PerspectivesThe world as we will know it is far different from the future once predicted in simpler times. For this newest collection of the finest short form SF to appear in print over the preceding year, acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have gathered remarkable works that reflect a new sensibility. Courageous and diverse stories from some of the finest authors in the field grace this amazing volume -- adventures and discoveries, parables and warnings, carrying those eager to fly to far ends of a vast, ever-shifting universe of alien worlds, strange cultures, and mind-bending technologies. Tomorrow has never been as spellbinding, terrifying, or transforming as it is here, today, in these extraordinary pages. Hang on!New tales from:Kage BakerGregory BenfordTerry BissonRick MoodyMichael SwanwickJohn Varleyand many more

Often humorous, sometimes chilling, always entertaining, this collection of award-winning author Michael Swanwick's short-short fiction is a work of masterfully sustained whimsy for adults. "Cigar-Box Faust" contains more than seventy fantastical stories in fewer than a hundred pages. The title piece is a five-minute condensation of a classic of Western literature, featuring a cigar-cutter as Mephistopheles; a box of matches in the roles of Helen of Troy, an Angel of the Lord, and the Light of Ontology; and a cigar as Faust himself. Although it has previously been performed live by the author, this is its first appearance in print. There is also an abecedary showcasing Swanwick's bravura imagination with a separate story for every letter of the alphabet, another set of tales for every planet in the solar system, and a series of pieces that the author literally wrote in his sleep! To say nothing of a clutch of alternate autobiographies, a novella of decadence and corporate politics in a future Venice that has been boiled down to 416 words, Picasso and Philip K. Dick as existential heroes...and a rhyme for orange.

An abiding glory of the fantasy genre lies in its willingness to provide a haven for the lonely dreamer, the maverick iconoclast, the man or woman with a vision for whom the doors of the conventional literary establishment would otherwise remain forever closed. And one of the great concomitant joys of this genre is the emergence of such a bold new voice: the appearance of a fledgling fantasist who, with novalike effulgence, embarks upon a scintillant ascent across the science-fictional firmament. Michael Swanwick's first published story was such an event. "The Feast of Saint Janis" appeared in the anthology series New Dimensions, promptly became a finalist for the Nebula Award, and inaugurated the Great Swanwick Story Search of the 1980s: where would this splendid new writer turn up next, and how would he endeavor to delight us? For all those readers who have spent the previous decade tracking down Swanwick stories in obscure academic quarterlies, mainstream periodicals, one-shot anthologies, SF magazines both prominent and not-so-prominent, the search is over. Gravity's Angels collects all of his short fiction that the author wishes to preserve and comprises thereby a rich and rewarding assemblage of some of the finest speculative writing in recent years. In the magnificent novelette "Covenant of Souls," a beleaguered inner-city church becomes the milieu for a miracle with apocalyptic repercussions, while lore and legendry magically commingle in the spaceways fable "The Blind Minotaur." A mystical descent to "The Edge of the World" causes three teenagers to confront their innermost fears and forebodings, while in "The Dragon Line" an emissary from the mythic past is summoned to reprieve a polluted planet. From the nightmarish landscape of postmeltdown Pennsylvania to transstellar travel via black holes, Gravity's Angels is a collection of compelling human portraits, impressive technological extrapolation, and lofty literary distinction.

Timeskip / Charles de Lint -- We could do worse / Gregory Benford -- Prescience / Pat Murphy -- Windwagon Smith and the Martians / Lawrence Watt-Evans -- Miss Carstairs and the Merman / Delia Sherman -- Events which took place a day before other events / Avram Davidson -- What befell Mairiam / Algis Budrys -- Jack Straw / Midori Snyder -- A dirge for Clowntown / James Powell -- The edge of the world / Michael Swanwick.

Zach, a human boy who is actually an extraterrestrial agent for the Galactic Union, travels to California's Lassen Volcanic National Park on a dangerous mission to save the Earth from evil aliens known as the Syndicate.

A collection of sixteen stories from the Hugo-winner features such situations as time-traveling dinosaurs wreaking havoc on a quiet town in Vermont to a locked room murder of an ogre.

Briefly discusses different types of stories and encourages the reader to complete and compose stories.