Ian Watson

Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has in common some diversion in history, some alternate reality from what we know, resulting in a very different world. In addition to original stories specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow, Stephen Baxter, and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics from Kim Stanley Robinson, Harry Turtledove, and George Zebrowski: over 20 stories in all.

Tutta la storia è una caduta del sacro, una limitazione e una diminuzione. Ma il sacro non cessa di manifestarsi e con ogni nuova manifestazione riafferma la sua tendenza originale a rivelarsi pienamente. E d'altro canto vero che le innumerevoli manifestazioni del sacro nella coscienza religiosa del sacro di una società o l'altra ripete le innumerevoli manifestazioni del sacro che quelle cosietà conobbero nel corso del lor passato, della loro «storia». Ma è ugualmente vero che questa storia non paralizza la spontaneità delle ierofanie; in qualsiasi momento è possibile una rivelazione più piena del sacro

A contemporary Sherlock Holmes, Bernie Quist operates as a consultant detective from Baker Avenue in the city of York. His personality and deductive methods resemble the celebrated sleuth and his assistant is named Watson, although this Watson is a youth from the Grimpen housing estate and he's definitely no doctor. The mismatched duo take on bizarre cases which invariably lead into the realms of the supernatural, a shadowy world Quist is all too familiar with. Their friend Rex Grant has disappeared from an Edinburgh hotel. He vanished without paying the bill, but the police seem more concerned with the murdered girl in his room…

This collection contains 16 original short stories of psychological and supernatural horror. A series of unpleasant happenings in a charming English village, a visitation of the vengeful dead and other tales are presented by such authors as Brian Aldiss, Ian Watson and Tanith Lee.

After his friend suspects something strange going on at the launch facility where they both work - and then goes missing - Martin Hepton doesn't believe the official line of "long-term sick leave"…
Refusing to stop asking questions, he leaves his old life behind, aware that someone is shadowing his every move…

Ian Watson's brilliant debut novel was one of the most significant publications in British sf in the 1970s. Intellectually bracing and grippingly written, it is the story of three experiments in linguistics, and is driven by a searching analysis of the nature of communication. Fiercely intelligent, energetic and challenging