Short Stories/Novellas

Offers a collection of science fiction stories featuring two tales--"The Cat" and "The Map"--in the familiar setting of Urth

Gene Wolfe is producing the most significant body of short fiction of any living writer in the SF genre. It has been ten years since the last major Wolfe collection, so Strange Travelers contains a whole decade of achievement. Some of these stories were award nominees, some were controversial, but each is unique and beautifully written.

Gene Wolfe follows his acclaimed all-fantasy short story collection, Innocents Aboard , with a volume devoted primarily to his science fiction. The twenty-five stories here amply demonstrate his range, excellence, and mastery of the form. A few tantalizing samples: Viewpoint takes on the unreality of so-called reality TV and imagines such a show done truly for real, with real guns. Empires of Foliage and Flower is in the classic Book of the New Sun series. Golden City Far. is about dreams, high school, and finding love, which Wolfe says is about as good a recipe for a story as I've ever found. You're sure to agree.

Humans go into space for many reasons. For some it’s adventure and excitement. Others, it’s the solitude. And some choose it for their final resting place. March Wildspring is a freelance cameraman, working on a documentary on the memorials drifting in the emptiness of space. Some are lovely, peaceful monuments to the deceased. Others are built not to honor the dead but trap the living. Memorial 19 is like nothing March has ever seen before. And when he and his crew enter it, they will not be allowed to leave unchanged.... Only 500 signed numbered copies of this book were published.