Book Description

Isolation is a collection of stories --- two novellas, a novelette, and two short stories --- that relate to the isolation that we all feel from our fellow beings on occasion, and the belonging that we all seek. The stories: Isolation: When Richard’s groceries don’t arrive by mail as usual, he’s a little concerned—but it’s no big deal. He makes the calls you’re supposed to make to clear up little misunderstandings. But then his car won’t take him to work, and he discovers that his home no longer exists online, even though he’s living in it. Today, that might not be a big problem. But in Richard’s near-future world, it soon renders him homeless… and that’s when he discovers something that makes all of his previous troubles seem very small indeed. Anticipation: When aliens land on the eastern tip of Siberia, people do what they’ve been planning to do for as long as people have dreamed of first contact: they go to investigate, and to try to talk to their new neighbors. But what happens when the aliens aren’t interested in talking? The Flowers Of Dawn: When Associate Ambassador Elaina Hirschbaum’s wife dies, she takes a leave of absence from her duties negotiating with the alien Helf Wanas, and she thinks that now she’ll have some time to be alone with her grief. But then, one of the Helf Wanas shows up at her door, curious about human burial customs. What happens next will lead to the discovery of a new species, and an attempt to exterminate it. Turn Me On: In Turn Me On, a soldier wounded in war receives one of the first whole-body prostheses. Adapting to life without flesh and blood turns out to be very difficult indeed… but he has the guidance of someone who came before him to help him relearn what it means to be human. Down On The Farm: In the not-so-far future, one of the few middle-class professions left is organ farming—growing human organs for transplant in your own body. Unfortunately, these extra organs make a person a prime target for organleggers. And if you manage to escape an organlegger, some of them can be terribly vengeful and persistent…