''Crystal Express'' is a collection of
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
and
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...
stories by American author
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the '' Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre.
Sterling's firs ...
. It was released in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...
by
Arkham House
Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which ha ...
. It was initially published in an edition of 4,231 copies and was the author's first book published by Arkham House.
Many of the stories appeared in ''
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication ...
'' and ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...
'', and the first five stories are set in Sterling's
Shaper/Mechanist universe
The Shaper/Mechanist universe is the setting for a series of science fiction short stories (and the novel ''Schismatrix'') written by the author Bruce Sterling. The stories combined cover approximately 350 years of future history, for the period r ...
.
Contents
''Crystal Express'' contains the following stories:
* "
Swarm
Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...
"
* "Spider Rose"
* "Cicada Queen"
* "Sunken Gardens"
* "Twenty Evocations"
* "Green Days in Brunei"
* "Spook"
* "The Beautiful and the Sublime"
* "Telliamed"
* "The Little Magic Shop"
* "Flowers of Edo"
* "Dinner in Audoghast"
Sources
*
*
*
1989 short story collections
Science fiction short story collections
Fantasy short story collections
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