Salsa music changing the life of a weapons scientist, a 9-11 victim navigating the realm of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, accident investigators consummating their affair only when there is an airplane crash, a description of where lost books go, geniuses driven crazy by a glimpse of ultimate reality, and a man who insults a martial arts master with the Japanese word for masturbation are the premises for some of the stories in this collection of literary fiction.
A private detective who doubles as a professional organizer, a werewolf who transforms into a cuddly Newfoundland dog, and a non sequitur quoting superhero are some of the characters you’ll meet in this short-story collection.
Thisbe Anderton leaves her minimum wage job for a career, where she can spend idyllic days in virtual reality. The only catch is that while her mind is in paradise, paying customers are having sex wit
h her body. She finds a way around the moral ambiguities of cyber prostitution by devoting her virtual self to Mahamuni, the founder of a Japanese new religion. Things go well until the prophet starts stripping away the illusions Thisbe has built her new life around.
On his first day in graduate school Clark Weston kills the department head’s dog. Things get worse from there. Rejecting nerdy scientist stereotypes, The Department packs eccentric graduate students and faculty into the high-pressure environment of a physics department. Clark Weston wants to study quantum gravity, Oliver Kilter earns money for tuition by filming porn, the temperature drops whenever Jerry Mephisto enters the room, there’s a secret in the basement, and nobody can understand Hideo Kamakura.
Following the devastating Race Wars, the ruling order concluded that only by eliminating differences could further bloodshed be prevented. After witnessing a brutal murder, clone Hal LK2154 joins a shadowy organization to apprehend the mutants supposedly responsible for such crimes. With increasing knowledge of the group’s police-state tactics, Hal learns that the roots of human violence grow much deeper than the public suspects
Someone’s murdering mystics. Arab-American undercover FBI agent Rebecca Haddad infiltrates the Merry Disciples of Oneness a group of spiritual dilettantes who seem connected to the deaths. Agent Haddad follows them through ashrams and Zen centers in search of the killer, a male anorexic with a twisted plan to cleanse the world.
Joining the Interstellar Navy sounded like a good idea. But when aliens overrun planet Ganga, Ajuna Diebold is one of the few humans to escape alive. On returning to Earth he finds that due to the time dilation caused by travel between stars thirty years have passed while he has only aged two. Now an unwanted veteran with out-of-date skills Arjuna must adapt to a world, where AI computers with bad fashion sense control the economy, talk show hosts judge and sentence lawbreakers, and the only illegal drug is the one that makes you smarter.
insight, wit, and wisdom of one of our most widely published and
respected poets. A fixture in the poetry landscape of San Diego for two decades Jon Wesick shows why audiences have been smiling, laughing, and cringing with him for such a long time.”
Grady Evans’s life is finally on track after months caring for his sick mother. Soon he’ll head to college with his girlfriend but there’s a problem. His mother learns cancer will claim her life and wants to spend her remaining year traveling. As America prepares for war in Iraq, Grady’s parents spend his college fund on a family trip through Europe, Asia, and Australia. From the pot shops in Amsterdam to the casinos in Macao, Grady wears a brave face while wondering what responsibility his parents’ generation owes his own.
The Department
that only by eliminating differences could further bloodshed be prevented. After witnessing a brutal murder, clone Hal LK2154 joins a shadowy organization to apprehend the mutants supposedly responsible for such crimes. With increasing knowledge of the group’s police-state tactics, Hal learns that the roots of human violence grow much deeper than the public suspects
undercover FBI agent Rebecca Haddad infiltrates the Merry Disciples of Oneness a group of spiritual dilettantes who seem connected to the deaths. Agent Haddad follows them through ashrams and Zen centers in search of the killer, a male anorexic with a twisted plan to cleanse the world.
prepares for war in Iraq, Grady’s parents spend his college fund on a family trip through Europe, Asia, and Australia. From the pot shops in Amsterdam to the casinos in Macao, Grady wears a brave face while wondering what responsibility his parents’ generation owes his own.