As you are no doubt aware I edit Futures, Nature‘s weekly foray into the many worlds of science fiction. This week’s example is a disturbing tale of computer love – just the thing for Alan Turing’s centenary year – and comes from Grace Tang, who in real life is a graduate student at Stanford. This is Ms Tang’s début appearance in Futures, and I hope there’ll be more.
I write, however, concerning a different Tang entirely, and that’s virologist Dr Julian Tang, who first deluged me with a story when he was working in Hong Kong, whence he moved to Singapore. I use the word ‘deluge’ advisedly. Julian has, over the years, submitted literally dozens of stories, and despite my best efforts to keep them out, I have published ten of them – assuredly (I haven’t counted) more than any other single author, even Professor Trellis of North Wales – and I shall soon publish Julian’s eleventh. The first story Julian sent that I actually published was called From Mars with Love, back in November, 2008.
Julian is a one-man volcano of imagination: I tend to reject his stories not because they’re no good (very far from the truth) but because I want to give everyone else a chance. If I asked him, I expect he could fill the column single handed. I have long thought it a shame that I am practically the sole reader of most of his fiction, so for some years I have been egging him to publish his mighty oeuvre in a small anthology, so that others could also enjoy it.
This oeuvre has finally hatched, and you can now buy it from Amazon and presumably all other good retail outlets. In it you’ll find much that Julian first aired in Nature – but much else, besides. From Mars With Love and other Short Stories contains no fewer than fifty-four bite-sized brain bombs. That’s one for every week of the year, with two left over for spares. His fiction often seems light – fun and frolicsome – but if you stop to think about it, a darker edge often emerges. I recommend From Mars With Love and other Short Stories without reservation, hesitation, or deviation.
Note to self: must deluge Henry. I haven’t written any flash fiction for a while, though.
Keep deluging, Ken. I should say that I’ve been off sick for a while so my rate of reading new copy has yet to match its accumulation. Sorry, everyone.
Thanks, Henry. Something to add to the list. Just bought two copies of the previous Futures book (one for me, one as a gift) so I have to work through that, first.
Ah, that begs an interesting question…
Is it time for Volume 2 of the Futures saga?
Henry, no, don’t run away like that… No! Stop!
I should report at this point that someone claiming to be Professor Trellis phoned the End Of The Pier Show to say that his oeuvre is yet greater than that of the estimable Dr Tang. I have checked, and it’s true, especially when one accounts for the 24 stories published under the Futures banner in Nature Physics a few years back. Duly noted, Professor Trellis.
Yes, I think it is time for Vol. 2, and I have floated the idea past the nostrils of our colleagues at Tor (the well-known SF publishing house that published the acclaimed first volume.) They haven’t yet said no, but instead asked difficult questions about rights, which is a good sign. But for now, we wait.
Having just trolled through the Nature Physics archive of Futures stories, I am beginning to suspect that this Professor Trellis might just be fictional him/herself.
Not bad! Though it’s not what I’d term “computer love”. More of a horrific mix-up of longing, platonic love, and rememberance …
Now I also write flash fiction, and the location I wrote about in the following got destroyed in the Feb 22nd earthquake in Chch NZ. Though not by the specific agency described …
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20091009-0000/www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/caught-in-the-middle-of-a-hungry-fire-by-wes-parish.html
I haven’t yet decided whether or not I’m a dangerous writer.
Thanks for the kind words Henry – and hope that you are feeling better.
I think a Vol 2 is a great idea (I still have yet to buy Vol 1 – but maybe if I wait, I can buy both of them in a box set…).
Having recently relocated to Canada (from +30 to -30 – hahaha), I have not been deluging you in my faithful manner for a while, but give me a little longer….
Julian