Bad Timing and Other Stories by Molly Brown Subject: Science Fiction Publisher: Big Engine (UK) Edition Our Price inc. p&p Status first edition trade paperback, 267pp p/b, ISBN 190346806X, 2001 N/A out of print

Watch out! Molly Brown's Bad Timing and Other Stories is not so much a short story collection as an explosion of parallel universes and provocative ideas! Wow! Connie Willis

Molly Brown is the best company imaginable. If you can't get a date with her (and you probably can't), the next best thing is reading her stories -- which are funny, creepy, sweet, touching and wicked in equal parts. If you buy this book, you won't regret it in the morning. Kim Newman

A blast: an effervescent mix of comedy, horror and sheer weirdness. There are some eerie twists and turns in this anthology, which also takes a few leaps into the sunny uplands of sheer amusement. If you have a friend who's currently enamoured of Bridget Jones-esque thirty-whatever fiction and you want to seduce them to the sf/fantasy side of the force with something different (and a lot better), then this collection would be a good starting place. Interzone

An Earthman's stranded spaceship is besieged by thousands of cuddly aliens whose idea of war is to commit ritual suicide; a teenage princess is kidnapped by an army of undead skeletons; a Chinese demon rides through the streets of Soho; and Toni Fisher tells Joanna Krenski, "I'm working on a calculation that will show density of shoulder pad to be in directly inverse proportion to level of intelligence. I'm drunk by the way."

From the satire of the award-winning "Bad Timing" to the horror of "Feeding Julie", via the mind twisting paradoxes of "Women On The Brink Of A Cataclysm" and the out-and-out comedy of "Agents of Darkness", these stories from the first 10 years of Molly Brown's writing career show her range and her versatility, and never fail to enthrall. Several of the stories have been specially updated for this collection.

Titles include:

• "Bad Timing" (first published in Interzone, December 1991).
• "Feeding Julie" (first published in Interzone, October 1995).
• "Community Service" (first published in Interzone, May 1996).
• "Agents of Darkness" (first published in Interzone, October 1992).
• "Doing Things Differently" (first published in Interzone, September 1996).
• "The Vengeance of Grandmother Wu" (first published in Interzone, July 1992).
• "Return of the Princess" (first published in Villains, edited by Mary Gentle and Roz Kaveney, Penguin/Roc, 1992).
• "No Better Than Anyone Else" (first published in Interzone, April 1993).
• "The Psychomantium" (first published in Interzone, February 1997).
• "Star" (first published in New Crimes 3, Robinson, 1991).
• "A Sense of Focus" (first published in Constable New Crimes, Constable, 1992).
• "Choosing The Incubus" (first published in Bad Sex, Serpent's Tail, 1993).
• "Asleep At The Wheel" (first published in Phantoms, November 1996).
• "Rules of Engagement" (previously published in Substance Magazine, Autumn 1995).
• "Women On The Brink Of A Cataclysm" (first published in Interzone, January 1994).
• "Learning To Fly" (first published in Interzone, February 1993).
• "The Final Rushlight" (scheduled for publication in anthology of short short stories to be published by Dark Raptor Press).
• "Doris and Angie and Me" (first published in The Hardcore #8, 1992).
• "Angel's Day" (first published in London Noir, Serpent's Tail, in 1994).
• "Neon Nightsong" (first published in After Hours, Spring 1991).
• "Ruella In Love" (first published in Interzone, October 1993).

The author
Molly Brown has been everything from an armed guard to a stand up comic. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and she writes in a wide range of genres. Her short stories have been included in such "Best of" collections as: The Best of Interzone, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy, and The Best Time Travel Stories Ever Written. Other works include a novelisation based on the Cracker television series, Cracker: To Say I Love You, and a science fiction thriller for teenagers, Virus.