“It was because I was sleeping here,” said McPrince, and she hoped it sounded convincing. Miriam found the key and put it in the lock.
“Supposing…,” she said, looking back at McPrince. Then took a grip on herself and opened the door. There were no corpses outside.
The reunion with the crew and 500 passengers went off very well. All the women were convinced they had escaped death by miracles of bravery on the part of the crew, and the crew were well rehearsed in their stories of damage caused by the Perseids.
If there was any lingering doubt about the authenticity of the Perseids the appearance of McPrince pale and properly bandaged dispelled them. There was also the tangible evidence of Bellini’s confinement to the brig for the rest of the outward voyage. That would have been carrying a trick too far,
When the women landed on Mars all were delighted with the moderate temperature, the brightness of the distant sun, and by the positively soupy thickness of the air. Most of all they were delighted with the warmth of the waiting men. Franco Parzetti was a lulu.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
BRIAN BALL was born in 1932, in Cheshire. England. Much of his substantial body of novels — science fiction, supernatural, detective thrillers, and childrens’ fiction — was produced whilst Ball simultaneously was pursuing an academic career as a Lecturer in English at Doncaster College of Education, and serving as a Visiting Professor to the University of British Colombia, Vancouver,
Ball began by writing science fiction short stories for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, but very quickly made the transition to full-length sf novels, beginning with Simdog in 1965. His early SF novels, whilst action-packed adventure stories, were also rich in metaphysical speculation, qualities that quickly brought him international recognition. Of especial note was his trilogy about an ancient Galactic Federation. Timepiece (1968). Timepivot (1970), and Planet Probability (1973). By 1971 he had begun to diversify into supernatural novels with considerable success, and in 1974 his first detective novel. Death of a Low-Handicap Man, was published to wide acclaim. This novel is currently in print from Wildside Press, and a sequel. Death on the Driving Range (2009), is scheduled to appear from the Borgo Press, along with the best of his detective and supernatural novels. In 2004 Ball resumed writing short stories for Philip Harbottle’s Fantasy Adventures anthologies, published by Wildside Press. His Borgo Press books include: The Venomous Serpent: A Novel of Horror (2013), The Baker Street Boys: Two Baker Street Irregular Novellas (2012), The Evil of Monteine: A Novel of Horror (Ruane #2), 2012, Mark of the Beast: A Novel of Horror (Ruane #1), 2011, and Malice of the Soul (forthcoming).
ANTONIO BELLOMI, who was born in Milan, Italy, in 1945, has been prominent in all sectors of Italian genre publishing as a writer, agent, translator, and editor of books and magazine series (mostly science fiction, but including detective and western stories). His many successful science fiction series titles include, most notably, Spazio 2000, Solaris and the Italian edition of Perry Rhodan, which ran for sixty-six issues. Bellomi was the first Italian editor to extensively republish John Russell Fearn in Italy, including the first posthumous publication of such detective novels as The Man Who Was Not and Reflected Glory. Bellomi’s own SF novels and short stories have appeared in all the leading Italian magazines, including the Italian edition of Playboy. Altogether he has published more than 300 stories in many genres, including juvenile stories and comic strips. In recent years he has specialized in scientific detective stories. “The Broken Sequence,” featuring his ‘planetologist’ SF detective character Uriel Queta, was specially translated by the author for Fantasy Adventures.
Brighton-born English writer SYDNEY J. BOUNDS (1920–2006) was a leading prewar science fiction fan, but his professional writing career did not begin until after the war, when his first story “Strange Portrait,” a supernatural tale, appeared in the first (and only) issue of Outlands in 1946. He soon switched to contributing ‘spicy’ stories to the monthly periodicals produced by Utopia Press. He also wrote hard-boiled gangster novels for John Spencer under such pseudonyms as ‘Brett Diamond’ and ‘Rick Madison’, and contributed short stories to their line of SF magazines, including Futuristic Science Stories, Tales of Tomorrow, and Worlds of Fantasy.
Along with writing five SF novels during the 1950s, Bounds soon became a regular contributor to the magazines New Worlds Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Authentic Science Fiction, Nebula Science Fiction, Other Worlds Science Stories, and Fantastic Universe. Later, he was a prolific contributor to the anthology series New Writings in SF, The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories, the Armada Monster Book, and the Armada Ghost Book.
One of his best-known stories, “The Circus”, was scripted by George A. Romero for a 1986 episode of the syndicated television series, Tales from the Darkside. In 2013 Universal and Qwerty Films released a film starring Liev Schrieber, The Last Days on Mars, based on one his best short stories (“The Animators,” 1975). Bounds also pursued parallel careers as a successful children’s writer and a western novelist. In the late 1970s he wrote a number of science fiction novels for an Italian publisher, together with some new supernatural and crime stories.
The first-ever collections of the author’s SF and fantasy stories were published in two volumes by Wildside Press: The Best of Sydney J. Bounds: Strange Portrait and Other Stories and The Wayward Ship and Other Stories, both edited by Philip Harbottle. The same editor also invited Bounds to write new supernatural and SF stories that appeared regularly in each issue of Fantasy Annual and Fantasy Adventures (Wildside Press), whilst a number of his best horror stories were anthologized by Stephen Jones.
Bounds published more than forty novels, beginning with a detective thriller in 1950, A Coffin for Clara (AKA Carla’s Revenge), but soon switched to writing SF and westerns, most notably his ‘Savage’ series, begun in 2000, with the eighth and last novel, Savage Rides West appearing posthumously in 2007. He also returned to writing detective novels, including The Cleopatra Syndicate (1990 Italian, 2007 English), Enforcer (2005), The Girl Hunters (2005), Murder in Space (2005), and Boomerang (2008).
The best of Bounds’ SF and detective novels are presently being reprinted by the Borgo Press, among them: Carla’s Revenge (2013), Boomerang (2012), Time for Murder (2012), and The World Wrecker (2011).
British author ERIC BROWN was born in Yorkshire in 1950, and his first science fiction short stories were published in Interzone in the late 1980s, to immediate acclaim. He went on to win The British Science Fiction Award for his short stories “Hunting the Slarque” and “Children of Winter” in 1999 and 2001. He has published more than a score of novels, beginning with Meridian Days in 1992. In the 1980s, Brown travelled throughout Asia, which afforded him authentic Indian background material for a number of his SF novels, such as Bengal Station (2004). His latest novel is Weird Space: Satan’s Reach (2013). His short stories “The Tapestry of Time” and “Uncertain World” were written especially for Fantasy Adventures, and he has since published several collections of short stories, his latest being Salvage Infinity (2013).