The Elastic Book of Numbers edited by Allen Ashley Subject: Speculative Fiction / Contemporary Literature Publisher: Elastic Press (UK) Edition Our Price inc. p&p Status first edition paperback, A5, 278pp p/b, ISBN 0954881214, 2005 UK only: £6.00 in stock (out of print with publisher)

Numbers rule our lives: clocks, calendars and deadlines; salaries and benefits; tax codes and pin numbers; mortgages, bills and credit limits; the FTSE and the Dow Jones; mobiles, land lines and pagers; binary strings of digitised information held for and about us, instantly accessible.

In this unique collection of 21 stories, some of the world's finest fictioneers examine the effect of numbers on humankind's past, present and future. From the rewriting of history through the thrill of the roulette wheel to the codes controlling the starships, each of these tales engages with numbers in innovative, entertaining and meaningful ways.

Contributors: Marion Arnott, Allen Ashley, Neil Ayres, Paul Evanby, Toiya Kristen Finley, Jeff Gardiner, Kay Green, Sam Hayes, Charles Lambert, Joel Lane, Tim Lees, Phil Locascio, Rosaleen Love, John Lucas, Mark Patrick Lynch, Ellen McAteer, Joy Marchand, Tim Nickels, Donald Pulker, E. Sedia, Eric Shapiro, Julian Todd, and Neil Williamson.