Apostrophes and Apocalypses Author:John Barnes Before novels like Mother of Storms, A Million Open Doors, One for the Morning Glory, and Earth Made of Glass, John Barnes was known for quirky, powerful short stories, many published in SF magazines in the late 1980s. Most of them have been unavailable for more than a decade. Now the best of them are collected for ... more »the first time--along with several new stories never before published. Included are such noted tales as "My Advice to the Civilized," "Under the Covenant Stars," and "Stochasm." Here is also "Delicate Stuff," from the universe of Orbital Resonance; and appearing in print for the very first time are works like "Why the Stars Are Always So Bright from Cousin Sid's Farm" and "Gentleman Pervert, Off on a Spree." Also collected here are several examples of Barnes' trenchant writings on the art of SF, ranging from provocative polemics like "Deep in the Heart of Genre" and "That Style Thingie" to his classic "How to Build a Future," the definitive modern essay on the construction of science-fictional plausibility. According to the Los Angeles Reader, "Barnes combines philosophical speculation, high-speed action, and character development in a way that is the hallmark of a master. John Barnes knows how to make readers care." The stories in this volume show exactly that.« less