Amazon.ca
In
The Perseids and Other Stories, his first short story collection, Robert Charles Wilson reveals himself as a stylist of mood. As he notes in the afterword, these stories are linked, not in a continuing tale, but by a style and atmosphere that result from the characters knowing that something strange is happening to and around them but never being sure just what it is.
In "The Observer," a young woman haunted by night visions of creatures that may be aliens or may be time travellers, meets the astronomer Edwin Hubble, who sees them, too. And in "The Perseids," a lonely man meets a new love, only to be haunted by an encounter with what may be the next stage in evolution. In these and the other stories, which are linked, too, by their setting in an urban Canada of ethnic neighbourhoods and mysterious used bookstores, the characters rarely find answers but are left only with the awareness that they have encountered something both strange and chilling. Who can tell if something is good or bad if you're not even sure what it is? By leaving the explaining to the imagination of the characters and the reader, the stories in The Perseids evoke a greater sense of wonder. They're to be read in the evening and savoured long into the night. --Greg L. Johnson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
These stories by the author of the prizewinning best-seller
Darwinia (1998) are mostly urban fantasies set in Wilson's hometown, Toronto. Readers familiar with that other Canadian master of urban fantasy, Charles De Lint, will certainly find echoes of him in them, and they will enjoy a feast. Wilson works variations on a variety of classic fantasy themes, giving a particular, individual twist to each one. "The Fields of Abraham" introduces Finders' bookstore and deals with immortality and alternate worlds. "Divided by Infinity" begins in Toronto but ends in a surpassingly original postholocaust world. "The Observer" features writer Aldous Huxley, the astronomer Edward Hubble, and ufologist George Adamski as its characters. "Pearl Baby" focuses on Deirdre Frank, a character who makes beneficial cameo appearances in several other stories. "Ulysses Sees the Moon in the Bedroom Window" is a cat story (something of an obligation for a fantasy collection) that employs a compelling twist to represent, sans sentimental anthropomorphism, the cat's viewpoint. The other tales have their delights, too.
Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
