Kelly, James Patrick

Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology

Wreck of the Godspeed: And Other Stories

Think Like a Dinosaur: And Other Stories

This is a handsome, limited edition collection of the best work by one of the finest short fiction writers in science fiction. There are 14 stories in all, ranging from straight SF to tales that stray into the fantasy and horror genres. Of special note is the title story, which earned the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a 1996 Nebula Award nomination. But all of the stories are excellent in their own right. An insightful forward by James Patrick Kelly's friend and sometimes collaborator John Kessel (Corrupting Dr. Nice) leads off the collection and explores Kelly's somewhat underrated career.

This first major retrospective collects Kelly's finest short fiction from a 20-year career and includes a dazzling array of work, from hard science fiction and Twilight Zone-inspired fantasies to stark futuristic horror. The grim fable "Pogrom" presents a near-futuristic scenario in which internecine warfare has broken out between the aging boomer generation and a youthful dispossessed proletariat who must support them. The landmark novella "Mr. Boy" is the wildly inventive tale of a genetically stunted 12-year-old who literally lives inside his mother, who has turned herself into a three-quarter-scale model of the Statue of Liberty. "The First Law of Thermodynamics" is a remarkable evocation of the psychedelic sixties-the time of Vietnam, Kent State, and acid rock-in which, like that era itself, nothing is what it appears to be. The now-famous title story, "Think Like a Dinosaur," is a tale of a transporter beam maintained by aliens, through which humanity can visit the stars.

Seeing Ear Theatre: A Sci-Fi Channel Presentation

Strange But Not a Stranger

The 16 stories in this collection run the gamut from cyber adventure and a ghostly haunting to chemically modified romance and a time travel mission to save the world. The Hugo Award winner, "10(to the 16th) to 1," tells the story of a boy in the 1960s who gets caught up in a spirited adventure that becomes a desperate attempt to prevent a nuclear holocaust. In "The Cruelest Month," a grieving mother is haunted both by the past and a ghost. "The Prisoner of Chillon" presents a radioactive Lake Geneva overrun with cyberpunks seeking fame and fortune through software piracy. By turns humorous and harrowing, this collection highlights the short fiction of a lauded author at his best.

Burn

Wildlife

Breakaway, Backdown

This story presents a gritty, realistic view of what the real consequences may be of people occupying space for long periods of time. It's written in an unusual second-person style in which you, the reader, take the role of a shoe-sales person talking with a person who has just dropped out of the orbital space culture. The main character talks directly to the reader, and the story is written such that you will automatically fill in the other side of the conversation. Highly unusual style, but it works well for this story. Year's Best Science Fiction Pick

The First Law of Thermodynamics

Drugged out college kids from the 60's were not prepared for the changes a new drug makes in their lives.