A collection of science-fiction short stories by the author of "Lucky's Harvest". They feature dozens of characters, a new way of travelling between the stars, a strange planet, magical powers, bravura set-pieces, and manoeuvres of narrative.
The Coming of Vertumnus
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Watson (Lucky's Harvest) is an often perplexing beneficiary of the British New Wave movement. His works possess a scattershot brilliance and feature the picturesque imagery and Big Ideas that SF fans love, but these attributes are often presented in a difficult manner. The 11 stories here demonstrate Watson's range. In the title tale, a tour de force spinning on international intrigue and conspiracy, the narrator's doubting of her own perceptions parallels the story's increasingly improbable (yet eerily imaginable) events. Elsewhere, "Nanoware Time" takes the themes of traditional SF and conflates them in ways that would make both Isaac Asimov and Bruce Sterling proud. Even stories more limited in scope, such as "The Tale of Peg and the Brain" or the frustrating but brilliant "Life in the Groove," overflow with imaginative marvels. Several selections suffer from Watson's most nettlesome stylistic tics, however, and his pack-rat attitude is reflected in his borrowings from the traditional fantasy milieu. While Watson's hodgepodges of plot and transgenre tropisms are often frustrating, even his relative failures never fail to fascinate.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Easily the most prolific of the UK's three Ians of science fiction (the others being Banks and McDonald), Watson also may be the most fanciful. His latest collection of short stories and novellas generously samples his sometimes quirky, sometimes macabre hybrid of fantasy and sf. In his fiction, a demonic ceiling fan in a rural pub has the power to suck up stray cats and a not-so-stray witch; an Israeli agent born in a concentration camp tracks down a Bible written by Nazi decree in rabbis' blood; and a failed playwright fuses with a pane of glass in a German skyscraper. In the title story, an art critic is kidnapped and drugged until her world resembles that of medieval artist Archimboldo's works in which human features are transformed into fruits and vegetables. With a keen ear for colorful language and a barely restrained penchant for surrealism, Watson circumnavigates a skewed universe quite unlike any other in imaginative fiction. This collection will rewhet the appetites of loyal fans and attract newcomers. Carl Hays
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