A collection of dark, twisting tales that explore the dance between human ideas and the cutting edge of science and technology. Chris Lawson writes challenging, disturbing excursions into the cutting edge of science. Collected here for the first time, these stories will take you into the borderland between technology and emotion. Winner of the Aurealis and Ditmar awards.

Pilgrims write their religion literally into their blood. The secret story of a young girl after her mother suicides. A scientist with Parkinson's disease discovers that some cures are worse than the disease... Six stories about the human condition on the edge of biotechnology and neuroscience.

Also included are a number of the author's essays. From a hillbilly's impression of the Columbia disaster, to an alternative periodic table, to the philosophy of science and a serious critique of creationism.

Contents:
Your Time Starts Now (A new interview between the author and Simon Brown)

Chinese Rooms (story -- new version)

Fun Experiments With Your Own Brain (essay)

Unborn Again (story)

Your Soothsayers Are Better (essay -- new version)

Lacey's Fingerprints (story -- new version)

The Standard Book of Alchymical Elementals (essay)

Matthew 24:36 (story. Read it online)

Evolutionary Pressure on Creationists (essay -- new version)

Faster, Higher, Stronger (story)

We Done Kil'd Columbia (essay)

Written in Blood (story)

'Consistently original, inventive and illuminating,' Garth Nix

'a unique look at the religious impacts of bioengineering,' Paul Di Filippo, SciFi.com

'narrative power and emotional punch,' Simon Brown, Eidolon: SF Online Review #3

'appropriately gruesome,' Mark R Kelly, LOCUS

'a fine example of what Event Horizon is trying to accomplish,' James S. Reichert, Tangent Online

'particularly noteworthy...a marvellously titled but horrifying story",' Kathryn Lance, Tucson Arizona Daily Star

'the truly outstanding new find in Australian sf writing,' Judges' Report, Aurealis Awards 2000

'sophisticated and ironic,' Jonathan Strahan, LOCUS

'an unusual cultural perspective,' Mark R Kelly, LOCUS

'outstanding,' Clinton Lawrence, Tangent Online

'intriguing,' Fred Cleaver, The Denver Post

'challenging...asking questions, but giving no answers,' Erika Maria Lacey, ASF Online

'a powerful story... shows he has the skills to be a major talent,' Clinton Lawrence, SCIFI.COM

'a wonderfully insightful tale of faith and technology in the modern world,' Keith Brooke, Infinity Plus

'the horror at its heart is based in real events, and real human atrocities,' Andrew M Butler, Foundation

'Lawson has a knack of making us care about the effects of the technology he so carefully posits because he convinces us that the effects impact on what it means to be human. Isn't that what all science fiction should strive to achieve?' Simon Brown, Eidolon: SF Online Review #5

To purchase this book, go to the How to Order page. For customers outside Australia, go to The Australian Online Bookshop