The Gift of Joy (Signed Hardcover) Ian Whates

CONDITION VERY GOOD

AUTHOR: IAN WHATES
CATEGORY SCIENCE FICTION

PUBLISHER  NEWCON PRESS 1ST EDITION. 2009. SIGNED BY IAN WHATES AND IAN WATSON.  NO  18/150

ISBN  NO:  978-907069-00-0

SYNOPSIS 

Eighteen stories, five original to this collection plus thirteen that have appeared previously in various venues, including both pieces featured in the science journal Nature and the BSFA Award shortlisted title story.  Eighteen tales that take you to distant futures and disturbing tomorrows, to strange new worlds and others that may seem uncomfortably familiar.  

• 1. Introduction ~ Ian Watson
• 2. The Gift of Joy
• 3. A Hint of Mystery
• 4. The Key
• 5. Gossamer
• 6. In Fear of Fog
• 7. One Night in London
• 8. Ghosts in the Machine
• 9. Knowing How to Look
• 10. The Sum of the Past
• 11. Flesh and Metal
• 12. Hanging on Her Every Word
• 13. The Final Hour
• 14. Darkchild
• 15. A Piratical Sabbatical
• 16. Glitch in the System
• 17. The Battle for Paradise
• 18. It’s About Time!
• 19. The Laughter of Ghosts 

“Planetary escapades and vivid battle action rub shoulders with charming yet eerie rural tales and with perilous urban nightmares.”  Ian Watson

“Ian Whates has a way with words and a storyteller's sensibility… Definitely one to watch.”  Jon Courtenay Grimwood.

“Darkly funny tales of the unexpected, with a deft science-fictional turn of the knife.”  Ken MacLeod

“It is his characters who live through the story and make the reader need to know just how it’s all going to pan out, human characters who may seem familiar but then there’s that one thing, that shifted alteration that changes the world and changes the reader too.”  Michael Cobley in Interzone.