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Infinity Plus Two edited by Keith Brooke
and Keith Gevers
pub: PS Publishing. 282 page hardback. Price: £15
(UK), $65.00 (US). ISBN: 1-902-880-58-7
check out website: www.pspublishing.co.uk
One
immediate thing that can be said about this book is that it will
sell out regardless.
This is a limited edition with autographs of all the contributing
writers ranging including Adam Roberts, Ian Mcdonald, Lisa Goldstein,
Stephen Baxter, Michael Moorcock, Brian Stableford, Vonda Mcintyre,
Charles Gross, Paul Park, Paul Mcauley, Eric Brown, Terry Bisson
and Lucius Shephard in the frontispiece.
The stories have all appeared elsewhere in the past 3 years, although
mostly in magazine format. As they’re from a diverse range, chances
are you wouldn’t have seen most of them unless you were widely connected
across the world.
Of
course, that can also be considered a limitation as you’re also
seeing what different editors bought and the prevailing thought
that came about from other anthologies recently is very few of these
stories have sharp endings.
This doesn’t necessarily degrade the quality of
the stories content but can give a less than ‘I want to tell you
about a story I read’ attitude afterwards.
Of these 13 short stories, my favourite has to
be Terry Bisson’s ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ where a convicted child-murderer
is persuaded to have a crucifixion after he experiences a vision
of Christ.
This really is satire at its best and pin-points
the worse of some American attitudes in only a slightly-in-the-future
reality. ‘Emptiness’ by Brian Stableford is also an unusual character
piece where a woman raises an abandoned vampire baby for a few weeks
and experiences all of the stigma that goes with it. Paul Mcauley’s
‘The Rift’ illustrates the problems of upsetting the local inhabitants
on a distant world.
Eric Brown’s ‘Dark Calvary’ is also another off-world
piece where humans upset the local inhabitants shortly before their
sun goes nova. A bizarre terrestrial religion where disfigurement
and dismemberment is used to demonstrate an act of faith is equally
disturbing but will have you riveted to this page.
There is enough diversity here to please everyone
and I’ve probably only picked ones out that appealed to me the most.
With so many of PS Publishing’s books selling out
quickly, I suggest you get your credit card ready and visit their
website pronto.
GF Willmetts
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