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A new SFWA Hall of Fame anthology from european contemporary mastersThese powerful science fiction stories represent the best writers and stories in most of the major contemporary European languages. Editors James and Kathryn Morrow spent years working with translators to achieve sharp, polished, entertaining versions of these stories in English. This anthology belongs in every library of SF, personal or public.'Wondrous worlds await U.S. fans in this sensitively chosen, impeccably translated anthology of Continental European science fiction stories. These ‘disciplined speculations'by European writers and their painstaking translators not only excite the mind, they move the heart.'--Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The SFWA European Hall of FameAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

After thirty years of eating the brains of arrogant mountaineers, a James Bond-loving yeti decides that his life needs a touch more spirituality. But can an abominable monster truly change?Thus begins an improbable journey overseen by the true Dalai Lama himself, an adventure of attempted enlightenment, dietary restriction, unlikely friendship, and political intrigue.Bigfoot and the Bodhisattva is award-winning author James Morrow (Towing Jehovah, Shambling Towards Hiroshima) at his best: witty, incisive, and nonpareil.

“No one does history-meets-the-fantastic like Morrow. The Asylum of Dr. Caligari is a great example—Impressionism versus expressionism, psychology in the asylum of ‘dreams,'the weaponization of art, big laughs and big ideas, a wild imagination, and smooth, subtle writing.”—Jeffrey Ford, author of A Natural History of HellIt is the summer of 1914. As the world teeters on the brink of the Great War, a callow American painter, Francis Wyndham, arrives at a renowned European insane asylum, where he begins offering art therapy under the auspices of Alessandro Caligari—sinister psychiatrist, maniacal artist, alleged sorcerer. And determined to turn the impending cataclysm to his financial advantage, Dr. Caligari will—for a price—allow governments to parade their troops past his masterpiece: a painting so mesmerizing it can incite entire regiments to rush headlong into battle. The Asylum of Dr. Caligari is a timely tale that is by turns funny and erotic, tender and bayonet-sharp—but ultimately emerges as a love letter to that mysterious, indispensable thing called art.

This short story anthology by the author of The Godhead Trilogy “reveals him to be one of the wittiest writers of contemporary speculative fiction” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).Join the Abominable Snowman as, determined to transcend his cannibalistic past, he studies Tibetan Buddhism under the Dalai Lama. Pace the walls of Ilium with fair Helen as she tries to convince both sides to abandon their absurd Trojan War. Visit the nursery of Zenobia Garber, born to a Pennsylvania farm couple who accept her for the uncanny little biosphere she is. Scramble aboard the raft built by the passengers and crew of the sinking Titanic—and don't be surprised when the vessel transmutes into a world even more astonishing than the original Ship of Dreams. Reality by Other Means offers readers the most celebrated results from James Morrow's decades-long career designing fictive thought experiments. Anchored by seven previously uncollected stories, this omnibus ranges from social satire to theological hijinks, steampunk escapades to philosophical antics.

Algeria is a large country with a fascinating past and a troubled present. The nation was devastated by years of fighting between government forces and Islamic extremists. The unrest that began in 1991 left tens of thousands dead and forced many others to flee their homes. Fighting has also broken out between the country's Arab and Berber populations. In addition, although this large North African nation has great resources, including a large share of the world's oil and natural gas reserves, today its people are quite poor by Western standards.In recent years the violence has slowed, and the Algerian government has attempted to improve the lives of its people. However, it remains to be seen whether the country will have a peaceful and productive future, or whether the internal divisions within Algeria will ultimately fragment the nation beyond repair.

A New York Times Notable Book: The People vs. God in “a funny, ferocious fantasy” from the two-time Nebula Award–winning author (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Hallelujah! God is not dead. He's just been a deep-freeze coma in the Arctic. Strapped for cash, the Vatican has sold the body (a bargain at $1.3 billion!) to Baptists in Florida. Enterprising souls that they are, they've turned the Corpus Dei into a popular, two-mile long theme-park attraction at Orlando's Celestial City USA—hooked up to the largest life-support system on earth. Then things get weird. Martin Candle, a justice of the peace who's suffered a series of devastating setbacks, decides to put Him on trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity. Now, to accumulate evidence for the prosecution, Candle enters God's brain on a steamer to find out what in the world the Almighty could possibly have been thinking all these years. What ensues in this sequel to James Morrow's World Fantasy Award–winning Towing Jehovah is a “square off for the greatest moral debate of all time... [and it's] not to be missed” (Booklist). “Surreal... dark and powerful.” —Publishers Weekly “A wildly imaginative novel... as barbed with high and low comedy as an Aristophanes play—and just as fundamentally serious.” —The Bloomsbury Review “Hilarious... [Morrow] demonstrates a sharp mind, [and] a sharper tongue... Salman Rushdie, eat your heart out.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune

Short fiction of biblical proportions—and bent—from the science fiction satirist and author of The Godhead Trilogy. James Morrow, “the most provocative satiric voice in science fiction,” unabashedly delves into matters both sacred and secular in this collection of short stories buoyed by his deliciously irreverent wit (The Washington Post). Among the dozen selections is the Nebula Award–winning story, “The Deluge,” in which a woman of ill repute is rescued by the crew of the ark, who must deal with the consequences of their misguided act of mercy. Also included is a follow-up to the Tower of Babel fable, an unprecedented nativity, and an attempt to stand so-called creation science on its head. Nothing is spared in a collection that “deliciously skewer[s] not only Judeo-Christian mythology but other sacred cows of modern society, from capitalism to New Age spiritualism” (Booklist). “Morrow's is a blend of parody and commentary which challenges readers to reflect upon the human spiritual condition.” —Midwest Book Review

The award-winning, irreverent, and darkly funny trilogy from “the most provocative satiric voice in science fiction” (The Washington Post). The complete Godhead Trilogy from James Morrow, including Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon, and The Eternal Footman. In the World Fantasy Award–winning Towing Jehovah, God has died, and Anthony Van Horne must tow the corpse to the Arctic (to preserve Him from sharks and decomposition). En route Van Horne must also contend with ecological guilt, a militant girlfriend, sabotage both natural and spiritual, and greedy hucksters of oil, condoms, and doubtful ideas. Blameless in Abaddon, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, is a “funny, ferocious fantasy” (Philadelphia Inquirer). God is a comatose, two-mile-long tourist attraction at a Florida theme park—until a conniving judge decides to put Him on trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity. The Eternal Footman completes Morrow's darkly comic trilogy about God's untimely demise. With God's skull in orbit, competing with the moon, a plague of “death awareness” spreads across the Western hemisphere. As the United States sinks into apocalypse, two people fight to preserve life and sanity. A few highlights: a bloody battle on a New Jersey golf course between Jews and anti-Semites; a theater troupe's stirring dramatization of the Gilgamesh epic; and a debate between Martin Luther and Erasmus. Morrow also gives us his most chilling villain ever: Dr. Adrian Lucido, founder of a new pagan church in Mexico and inventor of a cure worse than any disease.

God is dead, and Anthony Van Horne must tow the corpse to the Arctic (to preserve Him from sharks and decomposition). En route Van Horne must also contend with ecological guilt, a militant girlfriend, sabotage both natural and spiritual, and greedy hucksters of oil, condoms, and doubtful ideas. Winner of a 1995 World Fantasy Award.

Can civilization survive the untimely demise of God? “A buoyant romp... superlatively intelligent and entertaining” (The Baltimore Sun). Completing the World Fantasy Award–winning author's darkly comic trilogy, The Eternal Footman brings us into a future world in which God's skull is in orbit, competing with the moon, and a plague of “death awareness” spreads across the Western hemisphere. As the United States sinks into apocalypse, two people fight to preserve life and sanity. One is Nora Burkhart, a schoolteacher who will stop at nothing to save her only son, Kevin. The other is the genius sculptor Gerard Korty, who struggles to create a masterwork that will heal the metaphysical wounds of the age. A few highlights: a bloody battle on a New Jersey golf course between Jews and anti-Semites; a theater troupe's stirring dramatization of the Gilgamesh epic; and a debate between Martin Luther and Erasmus. And a chilling villain in the person of Dr. Adrian Lucido—founder of a new pagan church in Mexico, and inventor of a cure worse than any disease... “Morrow hilariously joins the ranks of the great satirists.” —The Denver Post “[An] insanely ingenious plot, reminiscent, variously, of B-science-fiction movies in the 1950s, Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One, and Terry Southern at his most charmingly deranged.” —Kirkus Reviews “Any novel that springs from a sparkling intellect rather than a dreary neurosis is cause for celebration, and The Eternal Footman, with its load of truth and laughter, justifies a considerable quantity of champagne.” —Tom Robbins, New York Times–bestselling author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

A dystopian tale about mass-entertainment-turned-toxic from the award-winning author of Towing Jehovah—perfect for Philip K. Dick fans. Cutting-edge virtual reality has emerged as a popular, albeit controversial, source of amusement. Devouring a cephapple or “dreambean” allows the eater to become the primary player in a preprogrammed narrative: love story, historical spectacle, horror thriller—this medium encompasses all genres. Our protagonist, Quinjin, is a professional dreambean critic, rating the hallucinogenic adventures hidden within these remarkable fruits. But something has gone terribly wrong. An anonymous “dreamweaver” has created a cephapple that, by transporting its users to the core of an inescapable nightmare, drives them stark raving mad—just the sort of ammunition the anti-dreambean movement needs to get the technology banned. Quinjin is hired to find the source of the poison and eradicate it. But the reviewer's heroic quest becomes highly personal when the person he most cares about—his teenage daughter—eats the forbidden fruit and lapses into a coma. Dark and satiric, The Continent of Lies is a bravura demonstration of the bold originality that has won James Morrow two Nebula Awards, two World Fantasy Awards, and the Prix Utopia.

Nebula Award Finalist: A fantastical and darkly comic tale of nuclear apocalypse that “begins where Dr. Strangelove ends” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). George Paxton is a simple man, happy enough with his job carving inscriptions on gravestones. All he needs is a high-tech survival garment—a scopas suit—to protect his beloved daughter in the event of nuclear Armageddon. But when George finally acquires the coveted suit, the deal comes with a catch: He must sign a sales contract admitting to his complicity in the nuclear arms race between the US and the Soviets. Inevitably, the bombs fall, and our hero finds himself imprisoned on a submarine headed for Antarctica, where he and five other survivors will stand trial for “crimes against humanity.” George Paxton's accusers are no ordinary plaintiffs: They are “the unadmitted,” potential people whose hypothetical lives were canceled in consequence of humankind's self-extinction. In the months that follow, George's dark journey will take him through the hellscape that was once the Earth, through a human past that has become as unthinkable as the human future, to his day in court before the South Pole tribunal, and finally into the intolerable heart of loss. From the World Fantasy Award–winning author of Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah, this is an “astute, highly engaging, and... moving” journey into a bizarre postapocalyptic world (Los Angeles Times).

The World Fantasy Award–winning novel of a female deity trying to save a modern world gone mad—“Invites comparisons with Vonnegut and even Rushdie” (The Washington Post). Rejoice! A new messiah has come, and her name is Julie. Born to Murray Katz, the solitary (and celibate) keeper of an abandoned lighthouse on the Jersey shore, our protagonist arrives on Earth boasting supernatural abilities evocative of her divine half brother, Jesus. As a child, she revels in her talent for walking on water, resurrecting dead crabs, and treating fireflies as luminous alphabet blocks. But after she reaches adolescence, her life becomes as challenging and ambiguous as any mortal's. Not only is Julie Katz obliged to deal with a silver-tongued devil and self-righteous neo-Christian zealots, she must also figure out what sort of mission her mother—the female Supreme Being—has in mind for her. At once outrageous and affirming, this Nebula Award finalist is a magnificent work of contemporary satire that holds a mirror up to human nature, astutely reflecting our species'failings, foibles, and often misguided affections.

This “delightful” Nebula Award–winning novella about a world without lies has “a sharp, unmerciful edge that would have pleased old Jonathan Swift” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). Truth reigns supreme in the city-state of Veritas. Not even politicians lie, and weirdly frank notices abound—such as warning: this elevator maintained by people who hate their jobs: ride at your own risk. In this dystopia of mandatory candor, every preadolescent citizen is ruthlessly conditioned, through a Skinnerian ordeal called a “brainburn,” to speak truthfully under all circumstances. Jack Sperry wouldn't dream of questioning the norms of Veritas; he's happy with his life and his respectable job as a “deconstructionist,” destroying “mendacious” works of art—relics from a less honest era. But when his adored son, Toby, falls gravely ill, the truth becomes Jack's greatest enemy. Somehow our hero must overcome his brainburn and attempt to heal his child with beautiful lies. Alternately hilarious and moving, City of Truth thoughtfully explores the pitfalls inherent in any attempt to engineer a perfect society.

On a distant planet, two human societies keep an uneasy equilibrium—one nonviolent, the other ferocious—in this “triumphant writing performance” (Atlantic City Press). A fact-finding mission has crash-landed on a harsh world, leaving entomologist Francis Lostwax and physicist Burne Newman marooned. The scientists are rescued by a mysterious society whose inhabitants are wholly incapable of murder, assault, rape, or any other form of aggression. Protected by a river made of liquid hate, the descendants of Quetzalia's original human colonists have devised a strange techno-religion that has in turn engendered a culture of total pacifism. While Burne undertakes to rid the planet of the savage and menacing brain-eaters that flourish beyond the utopia's walls, Francis cultivates his romantic feelings for Tez Yon, the Quetzalian surgeon who saved his life. But the entomologist's obsession with Tez's soul leads him down a dark and twisted path, in time confronting him with a terrible dilemma. Should he murder the woman he loves to save a society he abhors?

A rollicking and audacious collection of stories featuring Martian invaders, time travel, voodoo queens, giant Hollywood monsters, Dr. Moreau–like mad scientists, and moreIn The Cat's Pajamas, James Morrow—called “the most provocative satiric voice in science fiction” by the Washington Post—takes the reader on thirteen wild and gleeful rides, each exploring a demented, dystopian, or provisionally desirable world.A tyrannical church wields terrifying power over people's sex lives in the name of protecting “the rights of the unconceived.” The dead, raised by Caribbean magic, are put to benevolent use in a New Jersey suburb. A racist Supreme Court justice gets his karmic comeuppance. Columbus “discovers” a contemporary New York City. The island of Manhattan becomes a battlefield on which two alien races thrash out their philosophical disagreements. And in the remarkable title offering, a deranged doctor blesses his mutant creatures with ethical superiority, a simple matter of injecting them with a serum derived from the disembodied brain of the story's living—and understandably bewildered—protagonist.

Theodore Sturgeon Award winnerNebula and Hugo Award nomineeIt is the early summer of 1945, and war reigns in the Pacific Rim with no end in sight. Back in the States, Hollywood B-movie star Syms Thorley lives in a very different world, starring as the Frankenstein-like Corpuscula and Kha-Ton-Ra, the living mummy. But the U.S. Navy has a new role waiting for Thorley, the role of a lifetime that he could never have imagined.The top secret Knickerbocker Project is putting the finishing touches on the ultimate biological weapon: a breed of gigantic, fire-breathing, mutant iguanas engineered to stomp and burn cities on the Japanese mainland. The Navy calls upon Thorley to don a rubber suit and become the merciless Gorgantis and to star in a live drama that simulates the destruction of a miniature Japanese metropolis. If the demonstration succeeds, the Japanese will surrender, and many thousands of lives will be spared; if it fails, the horrible mutant lizards will be unleashed. One thing is certain: Syms Thorley must now give the most terrifyingly convincing performance of his life.In the dual traditions of Godzilla as a playful monster and a symbol of the dawn of the nuclear era, Shambling Towards Hiroshima unexpectedly blends the destruction of World War II with the halcyon pleasure of monster movies.

A seventeenth century Englishwoman embarks on a quest to end witch hunts in this “rich, rollicking” picaresque adventure (The New York Times).England, 1688. Jennet Stearne's father hangs witches for a living. But when she witnesses the unjust execution of her beloved aunt Isobel, the precocious child decides to make it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. Armed with little save the power of reason, and determined to see justice prevail, Jennet hurls herself into a series of picaresque adventures—traveling from King William's Britain to the fledgling American Colonies to an uncharted island in the Caribbean, braving West Indies pirates, Algonquin Indian captors, the machinations of the Salem Witch Court, and the sensuous love of a young Ben Franklin. For Jennet cannot and must not rest until she has put the last witchfinder out of business.

This book, a revision and organization of lectures given by Kodaira at Stanford University in 1965–66, is an excellent, well-written introduction to the study of abstract complex (analytic) manifolds—a subject that began in the late 1940's and early 1950's. It is largely self-contained, except for some standard results about elliptic partial differential equations, for which complete references are given. —D. C. Spencer, MathSciNet The book under review is the faithful reprint of the original edition of one of the most influential textbooks in modern complex analysis and geometry. The classic “Complex Manifolds” by J. Morrow and K. Kodaira was first published in 1971 …, essentially as a revised and elaborated version of a set of notes taken from lectures of Fields medallist Kunihiko Kodaira at Stanford University in 1965–1966, and has maintained its role as a standard introduction to the geometry of complex manifolds and their deformations ever since. —Werner Kleinert, Zentralblatt MATH Of course everyone knows Abel's exhortation that we should seek out “the masters, not their pupils,” if we are to learn mathematics well and effectively. … There is no question that this beautifully constructed book, full of elegant (and very economical) arguments underscores Abel's aforementioned dictum. Perhaps especially today, when so much is asked of the student of this material in the way of prerequisites, one can do no better than to turn to a master. —MAA Reviews The main purpose of this book is to give an introduction to the Kodaira-Spencer theory of deformations of complex structures. The original proof of the Kodaira embedding theorem is given showing that the restricted class of Kähler manifolds called Hodge manifolds is algebraic. Included are the semicontinuity theorems and the local completeness theorem of Kuranishi. The book is based on notes taken by James Morrow from lectures given by Kunihiko Kodaira at Stanford University in 1965–1966. Complete references are given for the results that are used from elliptic partial differential equations.