The Coming of Vertumnus and Other Stories

Another agreeably eclectic collection of 11 stories from Watson (Stalin's Teardrops, 1991, etc.). The two longest entries are among the best: the title piece, a whimsical commentary on sex, art, and eco-terrorism that twists darkly into frightening speculation on brainwashing via designer drugs; and "Nanoware Time," in which familiar Watson concerns - life after death, psi powers, aliens, governmental paranoia - meld into an intriguing jaunt through hyperreality. Also outstanding: a virtuoso surrealist nightmare involving lucid dreaming, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and aliens to the rescue ("Virtually Lucid Lucy"); a what-is-reality puzzle set by a composite alien, with advanced technology as the prize ("The Odour of Cocktail Cigarettes"); a protracted seduction leading to eyebrow-raising thoughts on fish farming and interspecies hybrids ("Swimming with the Salmon"); and another of Watson's unsettling English villages where nothing is quite what it seems ("The Tale of Peg and the Brain"). In a more eccentric and less convincing vein, Watson imagines a lamia and a people-eating extractor fan ("Happy Hour"); an invisible being in search of...something ("Looking Down on You"); and the universe as a jukebox ("Life in the Groove"). A stimulating array of fervid imaginings and weird perspectives from one of England's leading purveyors of the art. (Kirkus Reviews)