Ian Watson

Resplendent style, plenty of ideas, very visual narrative, highly recommended intense body of work - since the early 1970s. More info. ---------------------------------------------- "Agoraphobia, AD 2000" © Andromeda # 2, ed. P. Weston, 1977 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ cool sf story "Ahead!" © Interzone, May 1995 --best of Interzone selection --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ awesome scale --/ shock value "The Artistic Touch" © IASFM, Oct 1981 Sunstroke and Other Stories, 1982 --/ cool sf story --/ style award "The Black Current" (The Book of the River) © F&SF, Nov 1983 --short story: Locus 1984 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award "Chekhov's Journey" (nv) © 1983, Gollancz --/ cool sf novel --/ style award "Cold Light" © F&SF, Apr 1986 Evil Water and Other Stories, 1987 --novelette : 1987 Locus /21 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ style award "The Flesh Of Her Hair" © F&SF, Oct 1984 Slow Birds And Others, 1985 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "The Ghosts of Luna" © New Worlds # 7, 1974 New Worlds # 6 (U.S.) 1975 --/ cool sf story --/ style award ---------------------------------------------- "The Girl Who Was Art" © Ambit # 65, 1976 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ cool sf story --/ style award This is a highly unusual story, both in subject matter and in masterful narrative technique. A testimony to Ian Watson's skill as a stylist, it has been posted recently in a "Poetry Magazine" online (link here), which marks it as a "poetry in prose" perhaps (at least some passages read like this). It is by no means a masterpiece, but a refreshing occasion in SF genre. Avangardistic take on one photo model's uber-stylish experiences. review: 26-Oct-06 (read in 1994) ---------------------------------------------- "Immune Dreams" © Pulsar # 1, ed. G. Hay, 1978 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ cool sf story --/ style award "Jean Sandwich, the Sponsor, and I" © Universe # 11, 1981 Sunstroke and Other Stories, 1982 --/ cool sf story "The Jonah Kit" (nv) © 1975, Gollancz --novel : 1978 British SF W --/ cool sf novel --/ style award ---------------------------------------------- "The Legend of the Seven Who Found the True Egg of Lightning" © Universe # 16, 1986 Salvage Rites and Other Stories, 1989 --/ cool sf story --/ style award "The Egg of Lightning", eh? What a wonderful idea alone. Maybe I should ask Ian Watson for rights to this idea and write epic fantasy about it. Or just give it to my son as a night-time story. Just kidding, of course, but maybe the egg of lightning is hatched by the flock of ruffled feathered thunder clouds, thunderously grumpy and sad with all these "teardrops of rain" review: 09-Jul-06 (read in 1987) ---------------------------------------------- "The Martian Inca" (nv) © 1977, Gollancz --sf novel : 1978 Locus /21 --/ cool sf novel --/ style award "Nightmares" © 1982, F&SF Sunstroke and Other Stories, 1982 --/ cool sf story "The People On The Precipice" © Interzone, Aut 1985 Evil Water and Other Stories, 1987 --short fiction : 1986 British SF --fiction : 1987 Interzone Poll W --/ fourth place sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award "Programmed Love Story" © Transatlantic Review # 48, 1974 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ cool sf story "Salvage Rites" © F&SF, Jan 1987 Salvage Rites And Others, 1989 --/ cool sf story --/ style award "Sitting On A Starwood" © Science Fiction Monthly, 1974 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ cool sf story "Slow Birds" © F&SF, Jun 1983 Slow Birds And Other Stories, 1985 --novelette : 1984 Hugo --novelette : 1984 Nebula --novelette : 1984 Locus /3 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ style award "Thousand Cuts" © OMIN Best SF 2, 1989 --/ fourth place sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award --/ emotion award "Thy Blood Like Milk" © New Worlds # 6, 1973 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ fourth place sf story --/ style award "A Time-Span To Conjure With" ©  Andromeda # 3, ed. P.Weston, 1978 The Very Slow Time Machine, 1979 --/ fourth place sf story --/ idea award --/ style award "The Very Slow Time Machine" (coll) © 1979, Gollancz --single author collection : 1980 Locus /15 --/ fourth place sf collection --/ idea award --/ style award ---------------------------------------------- "The Navigator's Children" (also as "The Navigator's Tale") ©  Constellations, ed. by Peter Crowther, 2005 The Butterflies of Memory, 2006 --/ fourth place sf story --/ idea award --/ style award --/ awesome scale I loved this story for its epic feel and a baroque atmosphere, plus the interesting premise of a Universe where you can only travel by certain rules and connected constellations. If the constellations change, it affects the very fabric of world events and geography. There is a lot of depth in this idea; much of it stems from Kaballah, and would've been technically fantasy, not science fiction, if not for the additional "world in a tea-cup" twist in the end... Seek out this story and enjoy having your brains cosmologically wrecked, and your worldview turned on fire. Didn't I say, this was an epic story? There is a Neal Stephenson trilogy hidden in there somewhere, and you know it. review: 22-Feb-09 (read in 2005) ---------------------------------------------- "The Width Of The World" © Universe # 13, 1983 Slow Birds And Other Stories, 1985 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ style award "Wild Hunt" © Darlite, Sep 1966 --/ cool f story "Windows" © IASFM, Dec 1986 Evil Water, 1987 --novelette : 1987 Locus /13 --novelette : 1987 Asimov's Reader Poll /2 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award ----------------------------------------------

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