James Morrow

An acerbic, entertaining caper of evolution, gangsters, Darwin's brain, and the Golden Age of Hollywood. When Sonya Orlova, a successful 1930s horror-film actress, crosses paths with a gorilla whose brain has been swapped for the frozen cerebrum of the late Charles Darwin, the two are inspired to write and produce evolution-themed monster movies-with Sonya in her greatest role, Korgora the Ape Woman As this offbeat and controversial Hollywood series finds a devoted cult audience, Sonia's relationship with her strange simian collaborator acquires an intensity neither could have imagined. Then disaster strikes, as zealous opponents to Darwin's ideas contrive to put the Ape Woman out of business. By turns satiric and romantic, madcap and thoughtful, Behold the Ape is at once an outr love story, a tribute to classic monster movies, and a science-fictional celebration of that beleaguered institution we call public education.

Where the Everyday Begins is a study of environment and everyday life. It uses innovative research methods to bear witness to the ways by which environment defines everyday life. And its lively narrative pulls together a multitude of observations that reveal incredible details about the social and material ecologies that bind the world.

Terminal baptism, erotic performance art, and voodoo economics with actual voodoo are just a few of the subjects that James Morrow tackles with humor and sharp criticism in this book of science fiction stories. Other outlandish tales include John Wayne battling cancer using a highly alternative therapy, a gene for integrity being harvested from the brain of an unwilling donor, and the landing of Christopher Columbus in modern-day Manhattan. Included are the Locus and Nebula Award-nominated novelette Auspicious Eggs and several previously unpublished pieces.

It is the early summer of 1945, and war reigns in the Pacific Rim with no end in sight. Back in the States, Hollywood B-movie star Syms Thorley lives in a very different world, starring as the Frankenstein-esque Corpuscula, and Kha-Ton-Ra, the living Mummy. But the U. S. Navy has a new role waiting for Thorley, the role of a lifetime. The top secret Knickerbocker Project is putting the finishing touches on the ultimate biological weapon: a breed of gigantic, fire-breathing, proto-Godzillas engineered to stomp and burn cities on the Japanese mainland. The Navy calls upon Thorley to don a rubber suit and become the merciless Gorgantis, starring in a film that simulates the destruction of a miniature Japanese metropolis. If the demonstration succeeds, the Japanese will surrender and many thousands of lives will be spared; if it fails, the horrible mutant lizards must be unleashed. One thing is certain: Syms Thorley must now give the most terrifyingly convincing performance of his life.

A lacerating Swiftian satire on nuclear war, like 1984 before it, THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS stands as a stark warning of the path history so easily might have taken - and still could ...

2010 Sturgeon Award winner Nebula and Hugo Award nominee It is the early summer of 1945, and war reigns in the Pacific Rim with no end in sight. Back in the States, Hollywood B-movie star Syms Thorley lives in a very different world, starring as the Frankenstein-like Corpuscula and Kha-Ton-Ra, the living mummy. But the U. S. Navy has a new role waiting for Thorley, the role of a lifetime that he could never have imagined. The top secret Knickerbocker Project is putting the finishing touches on the ultimate biological weapon: a breed of gigantic, fire-breathing, mutant iguanas engineered to stomp and burn cities on the Japanese mainland. The Navy calls upon Thorley to don a rubber suit and become the merciless Gorgantis and to star in a live drama that simulates the destruction of a miniature Japanese metropolis. If the demonstration succeeds, the Japanese will surrender, and many thousands of lives will be spared; if it fails, the horrible mutant lizards will be unleashed. One thing is certain: Syms Thorley must now give the most terrifyingly convincing performance of his life. In the dual traditions of Godzilla as a playful monster and a symbol of the dawn of the nuclear era, Shambling Towards Hiroshima unexpectedly blends the destruction of World War II with the halcyon pleasure of monster movies.

A brilliant philosopher with a talent for self-destruction, Mason Ambrose gratefully accepts an offer no starving ethicist could refuse. He must travel to a private tropical island and tutor Londa Sabacthani, a beautiful, brilliant adolescent who has lost both her memory and her moral sense in a freak accident. Londa's soul is an empty vessel--and Mason's job will be to fill it. But all is not as it seems on Isla de Sangre. Londa's reclusive mother is secretly sheltering a second child whose conscience is a blank slate. Even as the mystery deepens, Mason confronts a frightening question: What will happen when Londa, her head crammed with lofty ideals and her bank account filled to bursting, ventures out to remake our fallen world in her own image?

Horrified by the execution of her beloved Aunt Isobel, unjustly convicted as a witch, young Jennet Stearne, the daughter of an eighteenth-century English witchfinder, takes it upon herself to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act, inspired by a cryptic letter from Isaac Newton, taking on the Salem Witch Court, Algonquin Indian captors, her young lover Ben Franklin, and others in the process. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Morrow unabashedly delves into matters both sacred and secular in this collection of short stories buoyed by his deliciously irreverent wit. Among the dozen selections is the Nebula Award-winning "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge."

In Veritas, people have been conditioned to always tell the truth, no matter how unnerving the truth may be. Jack Sperry must learn to lie in order to save his son in this witty science fiction novella. Recipient of a 1992 Nebula Award.