Eclipse 4
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true...
In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen--where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new.
Continuing in the footsteps of the multiple-award-nominated anthologies Eclipse One, Eclipse Two, and Eclipse Three, Eclipse Four delivers new fiction by some of the genre's most celebrated authors, including Andy Duncan's tale of a man's gamble that he can outrun a bullet; Caitlin R. Kiernan's story of lovers contemplating the gravity of a tiny black hole; Damien Broderick's chronicle of a beancounter who acquires a most curious cat; Michael Swanwick's tale of the grey man who pulls an unhappy woman from the path of an oncoming train; Nalo Hopkinson's story of ghosts haunting a shopping mall; and Gwyneth Jones's story of an alien priest who suffers a crisis of faith...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest volume in Strahan's unthemed anthology series has almost no weak links. The highlight is Rachel Swirsky's "Fields of Gold," a diabetic ghost's witty and melancholy tale of his life and death. Other standouts are Andy Duncan's folksy, Twainesque "Slow as a Bullet," Kij Johnson's metafictional "Story Kit," and Ca tlin R. Kiernan's uncommonly beautiful Lovecraftian "Tidal Forces." Even familiar tropes are handled elegantly by top talents like Michael Swanwick (whose "The Man in Grey" explores the idea that human reality is controlled by others), Jeffrey Ford (playing with doppelg ngers in "The Double of My Double Is Not My Double"), and Eileen Gunn (nicely twisting time travel and paradox themes in "Thought Experiment"), as well as relative newcomers like Peter M. Ball (whose "Dying Young" is a surprisingly fresh postapocalyptic western). Less successful contributions from Gwyneth Jones and Emma Bull are still entertaining but outshone by their companions. Strahan continues to raise the bar for original genre anthology series.
