Chimerascope

Chimerascope - a story of many parts: A dinner conversation takes three lifetimes to finish; a geologist faces a planet-sized, eons-old puzzle to save her crew; the hero of the Fall of Earth must choose between love and revenge; a man is born each day into a new life - only to die each night; a sentient aurora threatens the last of humanity; and a house as big as the world. These are some of the stories you will encounter in Chimerascope, the first full collection of short fiction from award-winning Canadian author, Douglas Smith. Sixteen engaging stories of fantasy and science fiction that take you from love in fourteenth-century Japan to humanity's last stand, from virtual reality to the end of reality, from alien drug addictions to a dinner where a man loses everything.

"Smith's second collection (after 2008's Impossibilia) delivers an entertaining selection of 17 stories that deftly span multiple genres, often milking surprisingly original tales out of tired tropes. The Zelazny-inspired 'The Boys Are Back in Town' nicely toes the line between quirky humor and pathos. 'State of Disorder,' featuring a classic mad scientist out for revenge, is a neat twist on time travel and quantum physics. 'Jigsaw,' a young adult tale, is a fun romp involving aliens and continental drift. The best of the bunch, 'By Her Hand, She Draws You Down,' is a haunting variant on the vampire legend with an understated and brutal ending. Even the occasional subpar story is worth reading for Smith's innovative use of classic genre concepts. The introductions all provide nice context, though Smith occasionally overexplains in afterwords." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)