Among the new generation of science ficiton writers Ian McDonald stands out as a brilliant master of the imaginative. Now, in eleven superbly crafted stories, he creates spellbinding worlds of the past, present, and future...
In "Gardenias" a futuristic machine brings its inventor a dubious immortality and gives rise to a seductive new religion of annihilation - and ecstasy.
In "Rainmaker Cometh" the inhabitants of a small desert town meet the mysterious Rainmaker and come face to face with their secret dreams and desires.
In "Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria" a patient of Sigmund Freud surmounts her own hidden fears, only to be caught in the grip of a waking nightmare in the madness of Nazi Germany.
In "Floating Dogs" self-aware animals created by angels learn the chilling purpose of their dutiful existence.
In "Toward Kilimanjaro" the Earth of the future must contend with a strange and insidous otherworldly invasion ... and its promise of a monstrous paradise.
Wildly inventive, beautifully written, Speaking in Tongues envisions haunting landscapes that both challenge and illuminate the mind and heart of humanity.
Cover blurb of Bantam Spectra edition
This is a short story collection containing the following stories:
- Gardenias
- Rainmaker Cometh
- Listen
- Speaking in Tongues
- Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria
- Approaching Perpendicular
- Floating Dogs
- Atomic Avenue
- Fronds
- Winning
- Toward Kilimanjaro
Together with Empire Dreams, Speaking in Tongues collects all Ian's short fiction published up to the publication of Speaking in Tongues.
Editions
- Gollancz (hardcover)
- 1992
- 248 pages. £14.99.
ISBN 0-575--05062-4.
- Bantam Spectra (paperback)
- 1992
- 310 pages. $4.99. Cover by Stephen Youll.
ISBN 0-553-29239-0.
- Gollancz (paperback)
- 1993
- 248 pages. £4.99. Cover by Jim Burns.
ISBN 0-575--05608-8.
Reviews
- John Clute in Interzone #66, December 1992, page 60
- Faren Miller in Locus #378, July 1992
- Gary K. Wolfe in Locus #381, October 1992
- John Clute in Look at the Evidence: Essays and Reviews by John Clute, Liverpool University Press, 1996, pages 370-371 (reprint of the Interzone review above)
Back to the