Book Preview Suddenly Rodrone understood why the scene before his eyes held such fascination for him, and why he returned again and again to worlds like this one. Lurid, offbeat and infernal, it offered the exaggerated symbolism of a painting rendered by a schizophrenic; and so drew him to that attractive realm of mental aberration … Read more
Book Preview There was a concave stripper in the game. Cheyne Scame, as he shuffled the deck preparatory to dealing, covertly sized up the player sitting opposite him across the green baize table. The stripper was not much over twenty-five years of age; with his pale face and thin nose, he had an icy sort … Read more
Book Preview We have a suspicion that there are more original ideas tossed into this one novelette than one is likely to encounter in entire issues of some sf magazines. Bayley does not write as much as he ought to, but when he does he comes up with some surprising premises. This tale, for instance, … Read more
Book Preview Histrina scarcely dared raise her head once she was in the chapel. Eyes downcast, she followed the tonsured acolyte across the tiled floor, walking between slanting slats of hard white light which entered through narrow openings high in the walls. They were like arrows picking out stone recesses and elaborate wood carvings in … Read more
Book Preview Strangers are a nuisance. Few people have anything new to say to a man once he’s settled down in life. But occasionally someone turns up whose chance words stir up vivid memories, and set me thinking again. A man like that turned up at a small party my wife and I gave. He … Read more
Book Preview Never take pop culture too seriously – after all, look what happened to Woody Allen and Paul McCartney. Luckily for us, there’s no better writer to prick the vacuum bubble into which too many critics have retreated than Barry Bayley, whose witty, transsurreal stories have ornamented SF since the early days of New … Read more
Book Preview Jundrak came as a bringer of uncertain news. The manner of his coming was far from uncertain. He came hurtling down the long-range spaceslip with tubes screaming; when still a couple of light-years from Smorn he cut the motors, to fall the remaining distance along the galactic causeway with transcendental velocity. Then, applying … Read more