book cover of Surprise Party
 

Surprise Party

(2016)
A Novella by

 
 
James Patrick Kelly is back on Future Fiction Series with two wonderful stories.

"Surprise party" is an introspective story seen through the eyes of an actress who offers a vivid immersion in a future where celebrities "guest" their fans directly in their minds. But what gift awaits the famous Mercedes Nunez for her fiftieth birthday? And who's the mysterious fan observing every move she makes during the surprise party that her close friends have prepared for her?

In "The Promise of Space" the repeated visits to the hospital of Kirk Anderson's wife reveal a touching, poignant story. In fact, due to the prolonged exposure to extreme environmental conditions in space, Kirk Anderson has lost many of his intellectual faculties and memory; however, an artificial intelligence makes up for these deficiencies thanks to the incredible amount of recordings that Kirk himself has captured before leaving for the last space mission. It would seem an acceptable solution, unless his wife Zoe, a science fiction writer, is not satisfied to talk to an augmented simulation of Kirk, which leads her to make a very difficult choice for the future of their relationship.

The Author: James Patrick Kelly has had an eclectic writing career. He has written novels, short stories, essays, reviews, poetry, plays and planetarium shows. His fiction has been translated into sixteen languages. In 2007 he won the Nebula Award, given by the Science Fiction Writers of America, for his novella "Burn" and the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award twice: in 1996, for his novelette "Think Like A Dinosaur" and in 2000, for his novelette, "Ten to the Sixteenth to One." He writes a column on the internet for Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and has two podcasts: Free Reads and James Patrick Kelly's StoryPod.
He is a member of the faculty of the Stonecoast Creative Writing MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. He is the Vice Chair of the Clarion Foundation, which oversees the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop at the The University of California at San Diego. He served two terms as a Councillor on the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and was Chair of the Council from 2003-2006. He has also served on the New England Foundation for the Arts.


Genre: Science Fiction

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