Copyright (C) 1998 by Cory Doctorow Craphound Cory Doctorow From "A Place So Foreign and Eight More," a short story collection published in September, 2003 by Four Walls Eight Windows Press (ISBN 1568582862). See http://craphound.com/place for more. Originally Published in Science Fiction Age, March 1998 Reprinted in: * Northern Suns (Tor, 1999, David Hartwell and Glenn Grant, editors) * Year's Best Science Fiction XVI (Morrow, 1999, Gardner Dozois, editor) * Hayakawa Science Fiction Magazine (Japan) September 2001 "Like most aliens-mingling-with-human-society stories, Doctorow's story serves mostly to hold a mirror up to human nature, but the odd corner of human nature it examines is fascinating, and the story is smoothly and expertly written, with some good detail and local color and some shrewd insights into human nature and human culture, and an almost Bradburian vein of rich nostalgia running through it (although the nostalgia is quirky enough that perhaps it might more usefully be compared to R.A. Lafferty or Terry Bisson than to Bradbury)." - Gardner Dozois Editor, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine -- Blurbs and quotes: * Cory Doctorow straps on his miner's helmet and takes you deep into the caverns and underground rivers of Pop Culture, here filtered through SF-coloured glasses. Enjoy. - Neil Gaiman Author of American Gods and Sandman * Few writers boggle my sense of reality as much as Cory Doctorow. His vision is so far out there, you'll need your GPS to find your way back. - David Marusek Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Award, Nebula Award nominee * Cory Doctorow is one of our best new writers: smart, daring, savvy, entertaining, ambitious, plugged-in, and as good a guide to the wired world of the twenty-first century that stretches out before us as you're going to find. - Gardner Dozois Editor, Asimov's SF * He sparkles! He fizzes! He does backflips and breaks the furniture! Science fiction needs Cory Doctorow! - Bruce Sterling Author of The Hacker Crackdown and Distraction * Cory Doctorow strafes the senses with a geekspeedfreak explosion of gomi kings with heart, weirdass shapeshifters from Pleasure Island and jumping automotive jazz joints. If this is Canadian science fiction, give me more. - Nalo Hopkinson Author of Midnight Robber and Brown Girl in the Ring