Part of me always believed that the way we lived was too good to be true, so none of what is happening has come as a surprise. Maybe it's because I come from a family of pessimists. Maybe it's because I've started writing science fiction again, and so was prepared for the idea that the … Continue reading Notes on the Virus
Category: Science fiction
Ganzer Eggs
'The Ganzer Rain Forest on Melde was deep and wide; the faintest ghost of a breeze whispered among the colossal trees, slithered through the interlocked vines, and crept broken-backed over hook-edged grass. Drops of water slid painfully down and around the tangled foliage like exhausted runners of a maze, coming to rest at last in … Continue reading Ganzer Eggs
Myths and Cities
‘“Because that means it’s the city. That means it’s the landscape: the bricks, and the girders, and the faulty wiring and the shot elevator machinery, all conspiring together to make these myths come true... Do you think a city can control the way people live inside it? I mean, just the geography, the way the … Continue reading Myths and Cities
Fires and Insanities
Dreaming, dreaming. Orr walked without goal, following one street and then another; he was exhausted, so that he sometimes wanted to lie down there on the pavement and rest for a while, yet he kept going. He was approaching a business section now, coming closer to the river. The city, half wrecked and half transformed, … Continue reading Fires and Insanities
The Port
'The port smelled like nowhere else in Arkanar. It smelled of saltwater, rotten pond scum, spices, tar, smoke, and old salted meat; the taverns reeked of cooking, fried fish, and stale beer. The humid air was thick with swearing in many languages. Thousands of strange-looking people thronged on the piers, in the narrow alleys between … Continue reading The Port
Electric Nation!
'This parched evening seasons the night with remembrances of rain. Very few suspect the existence of this city. It is as if not only the media but the laws of perspective themselves have redesigned knowledge and perception to pass it by. Rumour says there is practically no power here. Neither television cameras no on-the-spot broadcasts … Continue reading Electric Nation!
Interzone 285
My story 'Frankie' features in issue 285 of Interzone, out this week. 'Coming over with the night train and what else is there to say? Moonlight and gin is the recipe. None of us have the time. Starlings and eagles happen. Dream is the key. The line of traffic in the rural road, the faded … Continue reading Interzone 285
The City’s A Heart
'They were worldsick, as meaning yawed. Anything was anything, now. Their minds were sudden merchants: metaphor, like money, equalised the incommensurable. They could be mythologers now: they'd never had monsters, but now the world was all chimeras, each metaphor a splicing. They city's a heart, I said, and in that a heart and a city … Continue reading The City’s A Heart
Birch Grove
'The birch grove was more or less in the centre of the town of Cadast. Eight paths led away from it, winding narrowly off among trees. There was a whiff of woodsmoke in the air; where the branches were thin at the south edge of the grove you could see smoke rise from a house-chimney, … Continue reading Birch Grove
Frankie
After Frankie died, his shack in the woods became a sort of shrine. People travelled from all over the country to visit this place in the mountains to the south of our country, where he’d seen out the last of his days. Students and children camped outside on the grass, sleeping under light blankets, eating … Continue reading Frankie
Absence Club 