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| The Way of the Witchfinder [4] (as Brian Craig) | ||||
| Wolf Riders, GW 1989 | ||||
| ed. David Pringle | ||||
| Wolf Riders, Boxtree 1995 | ||||
| ed. David Pringle | ||||
| Translated into Polish as: | ||||
| 'Szlak Wiedzmolapa' in Jezdzcy wilk¢w ed. David Pringle, Games Workshop 1995 | ||||
| Those of you who are not familiar with the Warhammer world
will need to be told that the conflict here is not between good and
evil, but law and chaos. This story is about one such spat.
The citadel of Ora Lamae is ruled by Bayard Solon and his daughter Syrene, which is only a problem because the two of them are in thrall to deamons and taxing the local farmers out of house and home. In desperation, the people in the surrounding countryside pray for intercession and yay mighty Solkan delegates the priest Yasus Fiemme, who delegates Florian, who puts down his broom and sets to work. Pointless hackwork. |
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| What Can Chloë Want? [4] | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction (March 1994) | ||||
| Designer Genes: Tales of the Biotech Revolution, Five Star 2004 | ||||
| Translated into German as: | ||||
| 'Was Will Chloë?' in Partner fürs Leben ed. Wolfgang Jeschke, Heyne 1995 | ||||
| Translated into French as: | ||||
| 'Que peut bien vouloir Chloë?' in Galaxies 6 (09/1997) | ||||
| A
touching story, which like The Facts of Life features a child having
to deal with an issue and the domestic disturbances caused by their
parents.
This time it's a young girl, who for some reason needs a new heart and to avoid difficulties with tissue typing, is to be the recipient of a transgenic heart. The parental dissonance centres around the differing philosophical approaches to this situation: Daddy wants Chloë to understand everything and takes his daughter regularly to see the pig who will donate the organ. Mummy meanwhile, wants to shield her from the truth, which she finds disturbing and distasteful. This story revolves around its title. |
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| When Molly Met Elvis [4] (as Francis Amery) | ||||
| Interzone 118 (April 1997) | ||||
| Revised version in Year Zero | ||||
| Who Mourns a Necromancer? [7] (as Brian Craig) | ||||
| Inferno! 17 (March 2000) | ||||
| Lords of Valour, Games Workshop Ltd 2001 | ||||
| ed. Marc Gasgoine & Christian Dunn | ||||
|
Well, who would mourn a necromancer? Even if you didn't have spine enough to crack open a bottle, you'd certainly say 'good riddense' to the person who interfered with your late Great Aunt Agatha. Those who didn't believe the rumours might still mourn and that accounts for Alpheus Kalispera, High Priest of Verena and Magister of the University of Gisoreux, but what of Cesar Barbier, whose wife was the late Lanfranc Chazal's departed subject? Surely he would come to bury Chazal, not to praise him? One thing I have noticed about Brian's stories for the Warhammer series is that they tend to be critical of the blanket application of general principles, even good ones. In this, they are part of a tradition which includes Hardy's Jude the Obscure. Does that make them liturature? |
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| Why Flying Carpets Became Extinct [v] | ||||
| Redshift 3 (September 1979) | ||||
| The Widow Who Grieved Too Much [1] | ||||
| Realms of Chaos II: The Lost and the Damned, GW 1991. | ||||
| ed. Rick Preistley & Brian Ansell | ||||
| Wildland [6] | ||||
| Arrows of Eros, NEL 1989 | ||||
| ed. Alex Stewart | ||||
| Complications & Other Science Fiction Stories, Cosmos Books 2003 | ||||
| This is interesting, because it shares the same universe as
The Blind Worm, though it appears
to be set some time earlier than the events in that novel.
The Wildland is an alien organism, which has invaded Earth, subsumed almost all the life forms and drained even such major bodies of water as Lake Michigan. As part of a counter-plan, two scientists leave the tunnels under San Francisco to collect samples for study, until they come across a specimen shaped like a human girl. Then the men start suspecting each other's motives and trouble begins to brew... |
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| The Will [4] | ||||
| Dark Fantasies, Century 1989 | ||||
| ed. Chris Morgan | ||||
| Whispers and Shadows, Prime Books 2001 | ||||
| ed. Jack Fisher | ||||
| Translated into French as: | ||||
| 'Dernières volontés' in Territoires de l'inquiétude 3 ed. Alain Dor, Denoël 1991 | ||||
| I haven't found a story this disturbing since I watched David
Cronenberg's The Brood, after a break of about ten years. In that time
I had come to understand some of the gravity of the subject matter dealt
with in that film. Even now, I find myself questioning whether child
abuse should be the subject of entertainments.
If The Will has a saving grace, it is that it is told from the perspective of the victim and includes the reactions of a family in chronic denial; thus any romantic gloss or rationalisation is undermined. However, this does nothing to ally my misgivings. I passionately believe in free speech, but stories like this leave a bad taste. |
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| The Winter Wind [7] (as Brian Craig) | ||||
| Inferno 26 (August 2001) | ||||
| The Woman in the Mirror [8] (as Brian Craig) | ||||
| The Dedalus Book of Femmes Fatales, Dedalus 1992 | ||||
| ed. Brian Stableford | ||||
|
Martin lives in a dingy flat, which he has largely furnished second hand from an auction house. He works in a department store and apart from his customers, enjoys little human contact. One day he comes home from the auction house with an oval mirror, which he hangs above the fireplace. At first fleetingly and then more often, he spies a woman in the mirror who is living forlorn in an identical flat. Touched by her plight, Martin gets the idea that if he changes his décor, he can improve the situation for the woman in the mirror world. A much more successful story than Salome and one with a very different intent. It is both more subtle and sympathetic, with a more satisfying consummation. |
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| Worse than the Disease [2] | ||||
| Interzone 113 (November 1996) | ||||
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