Music of the Spheres

Dangerous jazz, a royal reality showThis collection of fantasy and scifi stories takes you tothe world of Pegasus, Chimera and the gods,to ghost-shadows in water, the Mars of a frightened spirit,vacation moons and Bodhisattvas following the Fall,netting for raw lithium among exploding suns;the worlds of balloon races, A.I. love-matches,of a space-miner’s daughter in a triangular trade,of a mission to the Rings, of big-top cats and lynxes...You’ll travel to places where matter is created,a farm with quantum twists, the hills of Kazakhstan,the closely-watched preserve of an actuary’s cat,one city in crisis, one prodded by the gods of chance...Twenty new tales, eight of them award-winners,from the author of Reboot of the Moon.Piquant and insightful, these stories contain characters so vivid you’ll feel that you’ve always known them, in situations that are extraordinary and yet strikingly familiar. Ultimately they are about the kinship of all life, wherever it is found. They are destined to surprise and sometimes amuse you, but seldom to shock you. They’re likely to provide, each one, a little (or large) escape; they are vacations from the ordinary but they don’t forget to take you with them. And although they carry you away from the routine vistas of life, still you will probably feel that you are in good hands, traveling in good company. Warning: You may hate to see these stories end. 6