Connie Willis - Fire Watch

One of the elevators was on six and just starting down. The other one was on five and coming up. He punched his security code in and put his arm in the sleeve of his overcoat. The lining tore, and his arm went down inside it. He wrestled it free and tried to pull the lining back up to where it belonged. It tore some more.

“Well, dad fetch it!” he said loudly The elevator door opened. Brad got in, still trying to get his arm in the sleeve. The door closed behind him.

The panel in the door started beeping. That meant an override. Maybe Mowen was trying to call him back. He pushed the DOOR OPEN button, but nothing happened. The elevator started down. “Dagnab it all,” he said.

“Hi, Brad,” Lynn said. He turned around.

“You look a mite wadgetty,” Sue said. “Doesn’t he, Jill?”

“Right peaked,” Jill said.

“Maybe he’s got the flit-flats,” Gail said.

Charlotte didn’t say anything. She clutched the file folder to her chest and growled. Overhead, the lights flickered, and the elevator ground to a halt.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mowen Chemical today announced temporary nnalization of its pyrolitic stratospheric waste emissions program pending implementation of an environmental impact verification process. Lynn Saunders, director of the project, indicated that facilities will be temporarily deactivized during reorientation of predictive assessment criteria. In an unrelated communication, P. B. Mowen, president of Mowen Chemical, announced the upcoming nuptials of his daughter Sally Mowen and Ulric Henry; vice-president in charge of language effectiveness documentation.

CONNIE WILLIS has won six Nebula Awards (more than any other science fiction writer), five Hugo Awards, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for her first novel, Lincoln’s Dreams . Her novel Doomsday Book won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and her first short-story collection, Fire Watch , was a New York Times Notable Book. Her other works include Bellwether , Impossible Things , Remake , Uncharted Territory , and To Say Nothing of the Dog , and Miracle and Other Christmas Stories . Ms. Willis lives in Greelley, Colorado, with her family.

Your perspective will never be quite the same again.

— 56273-8 $6.50/$8.99 in Canada

WINNER OF THE HUGO AND NEBULA AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL

A twenty-first-century historian uses a newly developed technology to travel back to the fourteenth century-only to find she has become an unlikdy angd of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.

— 27025-7 $5.99/$7.99

WINNER OF THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

A young historical researcher for a Civil War novelist finds his life forever changed when he meets a woman haunted by Lincoln’s dreams and the strange resonance this war still has in all our lives.

— 56436-6 $6.50/$8.99

Winner of six Nebulas and four Hugos for her short fiction, Ms. Willis brings us a collection of some of her most immortal stories. Humorous, wry, and poignant, these are tales you won’t soon forget.

— 56294-0 $3.99/$4.99

Two explorers are sent to an alien world to survey the terrain, but as they are soon to learn, there are more uncharted territories than just the physical-and one of the most complex is the human heart.

— 57441-8 $5.99/$7.99

Computers have altered the face of movie making, as live-action Elms have been rendered obsolete. The need for actors has vanished, but a young woman still chases her dream of dancing in the movies.

— 56296-7 $6.50/$8.99

Two researchers, one who studies fads, the other chaos theory, work together in a bizarre joint project observing sheep.

A MIND’S-EYE VIEW INTO THE FAST AND HARD-EDGED WORLD OF FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

— 37871-6 $13.95/$19.95 in Canada

The millennium is fast approaching and computer-virus hunter Michael Arcangelo races to debug a seemingly self-aware virus that is sweeping through the internet

— 57549-x $6.50/$8.99

Achilling look at a future in which 94 year-old Mia Ziemann realizes she has led a life without adventure and pleasure. An experimental procedure restores heryouth, butthere are those who wish to erase hersecond life.

— 37545-8 $12.95/$17.95

Joe “Skid” Marak, aka the Pilot, is a smuggler in an age of borders. Amysterious force called Bokon Taylay is taking the lives of the world’s free traders and it is up to the Pilot to find the man who can break Taylay’s code.

— 57681-x $5.99/$7.99

Clio Finn is a bumed-out Dive pilot, one offew who can guide a ship into the past in search of plant species to save adying Earth. But a forbidden dive to the future reveals a species of seed that could save, or possibly destroy, the planet

— 57702-6 $5.99/7.99

In an age where one caninhabit bodies via satellite link, adying Watcher known only asC, plans to use an experimental brain link that could threaten the very notion of identity.

This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover. NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

A Bantam Spectra Book/published by arrangement with Bluejay Books, Inc.

Bluejay edition published February 1985

Bantam paperback edition originally published July 1986

Bantam Spectra reissue/April 1998

SPECTRA and the portrayal of a boxed “s” are trademarks of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

“Fire Watch” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Feb. 15, 1982.

“Service for the Burial of the Dead” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Nov. 1982.

“Lost and Found” first appeared in Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Jan. 1982.

“The Father of the Bride” first appeared in Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, May 1982.

“A Letter from the Clearys” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July 1982.

“And Come from Miles Around” first appeared in Galileo magazine, Sept. 1979.

“The Sidon in the Mirror” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1983.

“Daisy, in the Sun” first appeared in Galileo magazine, Nov. 1979.

“Mail-Order Clone” first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Aug. 1982.

“Samaritan” first appeared in Galileo magazine, May 1979.

“Blued Moon” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Jan. 1984.

All stories are reprinted with the permission of the author.

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984 by Connie Willis.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: Bluejay Books, Inc., 130 West 42nd Street, New York, New York 10036.