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Description:
Publisher's
description: "Professions, jobs, Strange Trades . . .
In this new collection, author Paul Di Filippo reconstructs our (mis)conceptions
about what it means to work for a living. The eleven stories gathered
here emphasize the moral and spiritual dimensions of employment, and
examine the practical and ethical quandaries that future occupations
may elicit. Yet not all of the professions about which Di Filippo
writes are strange—sandwich shop proprietor, nightclub performer,
business analyst —but rather it's the exigencies surrounding
these jobs that enter the realm of the strange and, occasionally,
the surreal.
In "Spondulix,"
Rory Honeyman concocts a way to preserve his sandwich shop's meager
cash flow by offering store coupons, which quickly take on a life
of their own. Shenda Moore uses an inheritance to start a corporation,
"Karuna, Inc.," that cares more about people than products,
but she, and the corporation, soon encounters sinister forces. Luxcloth,
treasured and worn throughout the galaxy, can only be manufactured
in "The Mill," for an omnipotent buyer known as the Factor.
In "Skintwister" and "Fleshflowers," psychokineticist
Dr. Strode tends to misplace his Hippocratic oath, focusing his "peeking"
ability for personal gain. And in "The Boredom Factory,"
we experience the real meaning of working to live, living to work.
These
eleven narratives, filled with suspense and adventure, romance, and
laughter, present a welcome and refreshing change of pace from more
typical science fiction."
Clarkesworld
Comments: I highly enjoy and recommend Di Filippo's works to anyone
looking for something different. He's one of those terribly overlooked
authors that more people should be reading and opening their minds
and imagination to. This is just one of many entertaining short story
collections that have been published over the years. Read it, enjoy
it, and tell a friend!
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