Showing results by author "James Patrick Kelly" in All Categories

Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!

She is the clone of a famed space explorer, but Mariska Volochkova rejects her mother and her heritage and wants no part of interstellar adventure. Although she is genetically engineered to hibernate through the interminable decades of space travel, Mariska's home is a habitat on the moon, and there she intends to stay. But the sweep of interplanetary politics and an affair with a Martian catches Mariska up in a conspiracy to commit a bold theft that will alter the future of space colonization.

From Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, here are the best stories of 2002, written by four of the most respected writers of our day: Robert Silverberg, James Patrick Kelly, Ian Watson, and Gregory Benford. Also try The Best of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 2002.

This novelette won the Hugo award in 1996 and has been hailed by many as a science-fiction classic. Intelligent dinosaurs from outer space offer humanity the chance to use their transporter technology to join the galactic culture, but at a terrible price. When a routine transport goes wrong, one man must face the consequences of becoming too much like an alien.

Rebelling against her fashion-drug designer father, freelance journalist and troubled clone Wynne Cage covers a data-heist that places her in the rank of a thief. To make matters more complicated, Wynne must also confront the forces of a world with unlimited bio-technological advantages.

James Patrick Kelly, the author of Planet of Whispers and the co-author, with John Kessel, of Freedom Beach has been nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards for his short fiction. This is a fable about a dissatisfied architect who travels "up-time" and changes shape to design a temple for a goddess.

In a hard-edged cyberpunk future, a courier is has stolen a load of the most dangerous, most dazzling drug ever invented and is smuggling it into New York City. Pursued by a hired hit woman disguised as a young girl and a federally-appointed vigilante, he must find his way through the mean streets of Manhattan to his lair. He is ruthless, amoral, and a rat. Not just figuratively, but literally: a two-foot-long, walking, talking rat. Hearing is believing.

Stonehenge is possibly the most mystical place on Earth. Its call has echoed through the ages and will continue as long as the stones continue to stand. The drug artist Tony Cage is almost as obsessed with Stonehenge as he is with his offspring Wynne, whom he had cloned from his own cells but then tweaked her sex chromosome from XY to XX. Is she his daughter or something entirely different? Tony will find the answer at Stonehenge on the Solstice Day.

Chip's luck has run out. He's been on the dole for most of his life and now the government wants to ship him off to fight in the never-ending war in Mexico. But he has two things going for him: a cocky attitude and his thinkmate, an all-knowing personal digital assistant named Mr. Jimmy. Maybe the way to escape is to get in line to step through the mysterious door down the alley. Hundreds of people have passed through, but no one has come out.

Waiting in a doctor's office sure can suck the life out of you. Unless...."Could Be Worse" is a never-before-published story, written and narrated by Hugo and Nebula Award-winner James Patrick Kelly.

Bernardo has gone and his intelligent house misses him desperately. Designed to meet all her master's needs, she is his cook, maid, secretary, lover, and secret refuge from the world. Now she struggles to cope with his loss. On the edge of madness, she is saved by the arrival of a damaged young girl, who will teach her what it means to be human.

He's a simple man, trying to live a simple life. He works at a dry cleaner and lives by himself. He doesn't have any friends and doesn't dare to reach out to others because there's a monster inside of him, a bloody-minded creature he's fighting a losing battle to control. He prays to God for help knowing that, unless his prayers are answered very soon, he will go on a killing spree. A taut tale of suspense and the fantastic, that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last sentence.

The circus is in town, and on the planet Boon, that’s big - potentially riotous - news. The delicate, decaying political balance maintained by the cloned human grands at the expense of the uplifted dog and cat populations is in danger of toppling under the influence of mysterious forces both outer and inner.

Talisha is shocked when she finds mechdream pills in the bottom of her husband's underwear drawer. Designed to create a unique virtual reality based on his wildest fantasies, they will allow him to plumb the depths of his pleasure centers. The only problem is, he's spending the rent money building his virtual paradise. Just what are her husband's deepest desires? Talisha isn't sure she wants to know.

Where did all the men go? When aliens make all men disappear from Earth, the women left behind struggle to rebuild the shattered human culture. Years later, private investigator Fay Hardaway is hired by a grieving mother to investigate the mysterious suicide of her daughter. The aliens take an interest in the case as well, as does a religious cult bent on breaking the aliens' stranglehold on Earth.

Here's an emotional tale of family secrets set in 2038. Jen has been estranged from her father, a Shakespearian actor, ever since he got divorced from her mother years and years ago. But when her mother dies, Jen is astonished to discover that she has left her ex-husband a fortune in her will. Jen tries to confront her father, but first she must get past the robot that cares for him. This is a Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon nominee, and the winner of the Locus Award for best short story of 1997.

In this charming romantic comedy, a divorced single mom decides to re-enter the dating scene via an ad in the personals section of her local paper. Among the many men who answer the ad is the mysterious Gardiner, who writes poems, breeds daylilies, and has the unsettling ability to know exactly the right thing to say to win a woman's heart. What is his secret?

More about the strange Cage family from the stories "Solstice" and "Chillon". Now comes Peter, Wynne's son, who is going to be 12 years old forever, or at least as long as Wynne keeps paying to have him twanked. With his robot playmate Comrade, Peter is growing up in a world where virtual reality is commonplace and where people can have themselves genetically altered into dinosaurs, bears or a three-quarters scale replica of the Statue of Liberty.

The Sixties are ending badly. It's the eve of the Kent State shootings, and Space Cowboy is on the prowl for the most powerful drug in the universe - the one that can make him who he is destined to be. A psychedelic romp with a sense of wonder ending.

It's Christmas and one of the aliens wants to go shopping at the mall to get in the proper holiday spirit. The trouble is, he doesn't know an elf from an elephant. Here's a wacky Yule story about intelligence, diversity, and too many tins of fruitcake.