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Post by dem bones on Feb 25, 2009 0:17:41 GMT
Ian Watson - Salvage Rites (Grafton, 1989)  Front cover illustration by Mick van Houten
The Moon And Michelangelo
Jewels In An Angel's Wing
The Legend Of The Seven Who Found The True Egg Of Lightening
Hyperzoo
Letters From The Monkey Alphabet
Day Of The Wolf
The Mole Field
The Emir's Clock
Lost Bodies
Samathiel's Summons
Aid From A Vampire
When Jesus Comes Down The Chimney
The Resurrection Man
Joan's Worldblurb Ian Watson's latest collection shows the same range and apparently inexhaustible fund of ideas that have characterized all his previous books. No other contemporary figure in SF is so prolific or inventive a writer of short stories. In the title story we immediately encounter a phantasmagoric vision of a society increasingly dependent on recycling its usable material; other brilliant inventions include a planet inhabited by lemur-like aliens who bafflingly produce marvellously finished stone carvings without apparently having the tools to do so ('The Moon and Michelangelo'); people fighting their way through the various levels of what appears to be a real-life version of a computer adventure game ('Jewels in an Angel's Wing'); and a zoo in which are caged the extensions into our universe of four-dimensional hyperbeings ('Hyperzoo'). And that is only the beginning: there are fifteen stories in all, each one a state-of-the-art example of short science fiction at its finest.
He's brilliant, is Ian Watson. I'm not even gonna insult him by trying to categorise him as virtually every story is a fusion of horror, fantasy, sci-fi - and Ian Watson. Even a heads down, no nonsense mindless horror fiend like me can only applaud. Not all of the stories noted below appear in Salvage Rites, but I wanted to make a start on him and they are all worth seeking out. Salvage Rites: Tim and Rosy, two of life's losers, take their garbage to the town dump and never return, being themselves trashed by the weird family who own it. As Rosy whispers to Tim when he can't find the road that takes them out of the junkyard, "We've entered the world of rubbish .... where we've been heading for the past twenty-seven years". A very horrible and sad allegory and an ideal choice as opener. The Resurrection Man: Jim Park's family's most treasured heirloom is the ear of William Burke which they've kept preserved in a jar down the years. Jim discovers that when he places the ear to his own he can hear events from the life of the notorious corpse-trader. Inspired, he goes about collecting parts from other bodies for similar use, unearthing them from cemeteries nationwide. Lost Bodies: Extraordinarily weird tale of a foxes head which continues to live despite its being torn off during the hunt. Two young couples are concerned that it is an alien spy - and the narrator wonders if his bashful wife, Karen, is one of the same kind ... Samathiel's Summons: Terror stalks the Campus! Three women students have been killed by 'The Butcher' in as many months, and radical feminist Helen decides it's time to take judo lessons, learn self defence versus man scum. Her dope-smoking, New Age hippie room-mate Trish opts for a more ambitious means of protection - she summons a demon. Samathiel, all goats horn and sardonic wisecracks - he's very much a demon out of the Henry Kuttner-Anthony Boucher schools - agrees to step in for her should she fall prey to the Butcher, but in return for saving her life, he must also do her a bad turn to restore the natural order of things. Trish accepts, takes to strolling the college grounds by night looking to draw the killer from hiding. Comes the night she gets "lucky" .... These two from Chris Morgan's Dark Fantasies and Jones & Campbell's Best New Horror respectively. Tales From Weston Willow: Three short stories narrated by Mrs. Prestige in The Wheatsheaf Inn. The first deals with cross-country runner, Charlie Fox, who sabotages the hunt and pays a heavy price for his sins. In the second story, Paul and Ruth won't believe the former vicarage is the centre of the universe ... until they're given appalling proof. Finally, three villagers pretend to be deaf, dumb and/ or blind as they attempt to cheat their way to victory in the County inner-village quiz. The Eye Of The Ayatollah: Horror fiction as a means of starting a major international incident! Iran. Teenager Ali the half-face (so named because he lost most of it after stepping on a land mine while fighting the infidel), flukily obtains the eye of the Ayatollah when the mobs besiege Besthe Zahar Cemetery and tear the holy martyr apart in the name of obtaining sacred relics. He becomes the earthly receptacle of Khomeini, sworn to track down and destroy the "Satan author", safe in the knowledge that the usual quota of fanciable virgins will await him in Paradise once his mission is accomplished.
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Post by erebus on Mar 7, 2009 11:51:55 GMT
Don't want to go off topic here but is there a thread for Ian Watson's book MEAT ? On the forums.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 7, 2009 21:09:25 GMT
I can't remember any of his other books being mentioned on here which is weird. So if you'd like to start one for Meat ...?
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Post by erebus on Mar 10, 2009 18:04:55 GMT
I would do my friend but I do not have the book. I'm looking for it though. Read it over ten years ago and to be truthful it did'nt impress me. The artwork drew me in ( its a great cover )
But over the years Ive become more forgiving and I want to read it again. Hopefully I'll track one down soon.
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