From Booklist
Beginning with "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," which addresses the matter of extreme modification of self for advancement in the corporate world, and concluding with the collaborative effort "Green Fire," which details the alternative careers of Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, the stories in Gunn's first collection bespeak a first-rate writer with a knack for a certain timelessness. "Stable Strategies," first published in 1989, still sounds disturbingly likely. Equally perdurable seem such divergent and bizarre gems as "Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp," a truly inclusive recipe from the Tiptree Bakesale Book; "The Sock Story," which considers the deeper implications of losing socks; and "Coming to Terms," an examination of the scraps and marginalia of a dead man's life. Besides Gunn's work, there are William Gibson's introduction to it, Michael Swanwick poetically cheering for it, and Howard Waldrop's closing words on Gunn's motley career and glacial writing pace. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
"Very few writers have the range or impact of Eileen Gunn."

Cory Doctorow, author of Eastern Standard Tribe and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
"Gunn’s stories are in another league entirely. . ."

Kelly Link, co-editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and author of Stranger Things Happen
"When you read Gunn, you remember that short fiction can be spare, beautiful, and deadly."

Stephen King, about “Spring Conditions”
". . .perfectly realized horror. . ."

Connie Willis, author of To Say Nothing of the Dog
"Eileen Gunn has a barbed-wire-sharp mind. . .unsettling insight into the way the world works. . .a wicked sense of humor."

Publishers Weekly
"Hugo-nominee Eileen Gunn's collection...showcases tales with fresh, unusual perspectives on ordinary life..."

Booklist
"…the stories in Gunn’s first collection bespeak a first-rate writer with a knack for a certain timelessness."

The Seattle Times
"Corporate satire and Kafkaesque metamorphoses gleefully collide..."

SciFi.com
"…deceptively compact, explosive stories."

Book Description
This collection of tightly crafted, highly imaginative short stories employs surrealist, satirical, and fantastical devices to explore politics, class, and gender. From a hilarious tale about bioengineering and the stresses of climbing the corporate ladder to an evocative story of a woman who loses a sock at the the laundromat and finds she's missing a bit of her soul, these science fiction stories showcase an award-winning writer's compelling vision of the universe. Computer pioneers, cross-country skiers, and aliens figure into these literary stories that challenge the boundaries of imagination with quirky, anti-establishment characters and visionary technological extrapolation.


About the Author
Eileen Gunn is an editor of www.infinitematrix.com, a science fiction web site. She is the chair of the board of directors of the Clarion West Writer's Workshop and a former director of advertising and sales promotion at Microsoft Corporation. She lives in Seattle, Washington. Howard Waldrop is the recipient of Nebula and World Fantasy awards. He lives in Austin, Texas. William Gibson is the author of "Johnny Mnemonic," Neuromancer, and Pattern Recognition. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This collection of tightly crafted, highly imaginative short stories employs surrealist, satirical, and fantastical devices to explore politics, class, and gender. From a hilarious tale about bioengineering and the stresses of climbing the corporate ladder to an evocative story of a woman who loses a sock at the laundromat and finds she's missing a bit of her soul, these science fiction stories showcase an award-winning writer's compelling vision of the universe. Computer pioneers, cross-country skiers, and aliens figure into these literary stories that challenge the boundaries of imagination with quirky, anti-establishment characters and visionary technological extrapolation.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Hugo-nominee Eileen Gunn's collection, Stable Strategies and Others, showcases tales with fresh, unusual perspectives on ordinary life, including "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," based on the author's experiences as advertising director at Microsoft Corporation. William Gibson provides a foreword. Agent, Linn Prentiss. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Eileen Gunn has a barbed-wire-sharp mind. . .unsettling insight into the way the world works. . .a wicked sense of humor.  — Connie Willis

. . .perfectly realized horror. . .  — Stephen King

Gunn's stories are in another league entirely. . .  — Cory Doctorow

Very few writers have the range or impact of Eileen Gunn.  — Karen Joy Fowler

Open it and be dazzled!  — James Patrick Kelly

When you read Gunn, you remember that short fiction can be spare, beautiful, and deadly.  — Kelly Link

Without Eileen Gunn, life as we know it would be so dull we wouldn't recognize it.  — Ursula K. Le Guin