Gene Wars + Rocket Boy

Two amazing stories by the British Master of Science Fiction Paul McAuley on biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

Gene Wars tells the story of Evan, a boy who grows up in a future society where gene splicing and biotechnolgical techniques are widespread and commonplace. It shows the “progress” of Evan's career, from his pet-splicing youth, through his corporate spy adulthood, to his solar system-wide fame in the old age. Each stage is written as a lovely vignette, and the post-human climax it depicts is truly mind blowing.

Rocket Boy is the story of an Artificially Intelligent Gun falling in the hands of a little guy who will be forever changed by this extremely dangerous meeting. The consequences will be unpredictable... or maybe not.

Paul McAuley is the author of more than twenty novels, several collections of short stories, a Doctor Who novella, an anthology of stories about popular music which he co-edited with Kim Newman, and a monograph on Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil, published by the British Film Institute. His fiction has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Sidewise Award, the British Fantasy Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. After working as a research biologist and university lecturer, he is now a full-time writer.