A collection of nine stories originally published from 1987 to 2015, in such venues as Tomorrow SF,
Pirate Writings,
Air Fish (anthology), and Perihelion SF. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia says of Michael Andre-Driussi’s fiction: his parodies of what might be called pulp Scientific Romance idioms are exact and arousing. Michael Andre-Driussi has seen 32 of his stories published to date, but the nine gathered here were the hardest to find as each lacked an enduring online presence.* White Japan tells of an American tourist having visions in the Land of the Rising Sun.* The Ragnarockenroll Overture gives the strange history of a mutated Asia. Ann Vandermeer reprinted it in her magazine The Silver Web. * Mad Dogs Raid Mars shows a daring commando strike against a cyber-theocracy on the Red Planet.* The Slushpile Surfer paddles out to catch the next wave.* Doomsday Tours has a zeppelin full of tourists visiting historical sad spots across a Europe that is in the process of buckling after the withdrawal of American forces. (Originally published as a cover story in 1996, the background setting seems disturbingly current in 2016.)* Tex of the Dobermans gives the weird history of a feral boy in a mutated California. (This is the story The Science Fiction Encyclopedia was referencing by name immediately prior to the quote above.)* Aliens with Candy is a sad little tale.* Mentally Gifted Mutants tells about a government program to identify and train psionic children.* It’s a Long Road to the Sky Train is about a woman who goes on a big trip across a strange landscape. Lois Tilton called it An entertaining, if gruesome, read, with the imaginative characters that populate the absurdly dystopian setting, and of course Marika [the heroine] in Locus Online Reviews, February 2015.These stories amount to 37,000 words of content, which is the size of a long novella, or just short of a novel (at 40,000 words).
