Description

by Steven Utley

Silurian Tales Volume 2

Introduction by Barry N. Malzberg

This is the second volume collecting Utley’s Silurian Tales, following November 2012’s The 400-Million-Year Itch. Presented in an internally chronological order, 16 stories and novellas continue the ongoing narrative of a scientific expedition that has traveled through a space-time anomaly to the Earth of 400 million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era. Utley focuses on an ever-changing cast of scientists and creative types, using them as mouthpieces to debate politics, religion, parallel universe theory, love, environmentalism, and other weighty matters. There’s an understated disdain for big business, a melancholy yearning for a pristine world, and a keen understanding of human nature running throughout the stories, many of which are linked only by shared characters. Playing with the many-worlds hypothesis, Utley hints at a much larger picture without giving straight answers. No aspect of the premise goes unconsidered in these intelligent, provocative character- and concept-driven tales, making this collection a treat for readers in need of a challenge.
– Publishers Weekly

Contents

1. Invisible Kingdoms
2. The Real World
3. Babel
4. “Another Continuum Heard From!”
5. Variant
6. The World Within The World
7. The Despoblado
8. The Wave-Function Collapse
9. Treading The Maze
10. Diluvium
11. Sidestep
12. Slug Hell
13. There And Then
14. Silv’ry Moon
15. The World Without
16. A Paleozoic Palimpsest