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Ian Watson

Science Fiction

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Ian Watson

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Titles to Look Out For::
1975. The Jonah Kit
1977. Martian Inca
1977. Alien Embassy
1978. Miracle Visitors
1980. Under Heaven's Bridge
1981. Deathhunter

About the Author:
Ian Watson was born in 1943 and after reading English at Oxford, he lectured in Literature for 5 years, first in Tanzania, then in Tokyo-'Where I started writing as a survival reaction to 21st Century Japan.' Back in England, he taught Futures Studies and SF courses in Birmingham. He resigned in 1976 to become a full-time writer

Ian Watson at Amazon:

Watson, Ian. 'The Jonah Kit', published by The Readers Union in 1976 in hbk, with dustjacket, 222pp. Condition: Good with some light tanning to internal pages. DJ in very good condition. Price: £1.70, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge, currently £2.75 for UK buyers and more for overseas customers)
1976, Readers Union
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  • The Jonah Kit [top]
    First published in 1975 by Victor Gollancz.
    Reprinted in hardcover in 1976 by the Readers Union (book club), 222 pages.

Storyline: The Jonah Kit tells the story of two apparently disconnected pieces of scientific research. In the Mexican mountains, Nobel prize-winner Paul Hammond has made the shattering discovery that signals received by his radio telescope show that God's created Universe no longer exists, and that what we perceive as the Universe is no more than the ghost of the real thing. Meanwhile, in Japan, a young Russian boy is found who appears to possess the mind, though imperfect, of a Soviet astronaut who is supposedly dead. These two events are linked, as we might have realised from the book's title, by the great whale population of the world's oceans...

Watson, Ian. 'The Martian Inca', published in 1977 by the Readers Union, hbk, 208pp, with dustjacket. Has some mild tanning to internal pages. DJ has some tanning marks to it. Price:£2.25, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1977, Readers Union
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  • The Martian Inca [top]
    First published in 1977 by Victor Gollancz.
    Reprinted in hardcover in 1977 by the Readers Union, 208 pages (reproduced by A Wheaton & Co Ltd, Exeter, UK)

Storyline: An unmanned Russian spacecraft, containing soil samples gathered from the surface of Mars, crashes on a remote Bolivian village. The Indians who salvage it fall into a mysterious comatose condition from which only two recover: Julio, young and ambitious, and Angelina, his beloved. Reawakening, they are conscious of a strange new awareness of themselves and the world outside. Julio, indeed, believes himself to be the Inca-the divine imperial ruler-reborn, with the duty of restoring to the Indians, their former dignity.
Meanwhile, up in space a manned American vessel is on its way to Mars; and it is essential that the three man crew should be warned of the unexpected danger. Within the ship, tension is high after the 240 million mile voyage; and when at last Mars is reached, the deadly soil adds an extra dimension to an already explosive situation.
What constituent of the Martian soil causes its uncanny effects? The answer may be the clue to a vital discovery about Man's evolutionary potential...

Watson, Ian. 'Alien Embassy', published in 1978 in hardback with dustjacket, 208pp, No ISBN. Condition: Good++ condition with tanning to internal pages. Overall a nice copy, just vintage. Price: £2.99, not including post and packing, which is Amazon UK's standard charge (currently £2.80 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1978, The Science Fiction Book Club, hbk
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  • Alien Embassy [top]
    First published in 1977 by Victor Gollancz.
    Reprinted in hardcover in 1978 by The Science Fiction Book Club (Readers Union), 208 pages (reproduced by A Wheaton & Co Ltd, Exeter, UK)

Storyline: Lila Makindi is a 22nd Century African girl, growing up in a peaceful and harmonious world. Old conflicts and destructive technologies have been left behind now that Mankind has made contact with three advanced and benevolent alien races-not through physical space flight, but mentally, by developing ancient mind and body disciplines. Lila's ambition is to become one of these psychic astronauts; but when she is selected for training she begins to discover that the truth about these alien species is not as simple, or as idyllic, as it seems. Her curiosity leads her into mystery & danger as she tries to discover the truth behind the embassies from which Man communicates with the stars... .

Watson, Ian. 'Miracle Visitors', published by Science Fiction Book Club (Readers Union),  1979, hbk, 240pp. Very good condition, very good dustjacket with some light tanning to internal pages from ageing. Price:£10.00, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1979, The Science Fiction Book Club
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  • Miracle Visitors [top]
    First published in 1978 by Victor Gollancz.
    Reprinted in hardcover in 1979 by The Science Fiction Book Club (Readers Union), 240 pages.

Storyline: Psychologist John Deacon, director of a consciousness research group at an English university, stumbles upon repressed memories of contact with Space People aboard a flying saucer, during an experiment in hypnosis with a volunteer student, Michael Peacocke.
Deacon's discovery triggers a series of strange and frightening events, as he probes the enigma of UFOs-Unidentified Flying Objects. He becomes convinced that it is possible to invoke and consciously control this phenomenon, which has apparently haunted Makind for centuries-first in a religious and magical guise, but wearing nowadays an 'extra terrestrial' mask.
His search leads him to Egypt, to a Sheikh of the Sufis-a religious group which seems to possess the wisdom necessary for dealing with the 'miracle visitors' who appear from outside ordinary human knowledge.
Meanwhile, on the moors of his native Yorkshire, Michael meets a bizarre but persuasive visitor from a star system 18 light years away, who explains the danger that Earth's UFOs spell to the human race. He is whisked away by this alien to a base on the far side of the Moon...

Watson, Ian. 'Under Heaven's Bridge', published by Readers Union in 1981, hbk, 160pp, well looked-after, clean copy with very good dustjacket and mild tanning to the internal pages (browning effect from ageing). Price:£6.25, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.80 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1981, Readers Union
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  • Under Heaven's Bridge [top]
    Co-written with Michael Bishop
    First published in 1980 by Victor Gollancz.
    Reprinted in hardcover in 1981 by the Readers Union (book club), 160 pages (reproduced by A Wheaton & Co Ltd, Exeter, UK)

Storyline: A multinational expedition has landed, from their orbiting starship Heavensbridge, on the planet Onogoro, a cold and dour world circling one star of a binary pair. Their objective is to investigate a strange alien race, known to the human visitors as the Kybers.
These aliens, dwelling in a great network of ruined palaces, are partly biological creatures and partly machine, with the ability to switch themselves off at will, thus appearing to 'die' periodically.

The expedition's linguist, a beautiful Japanese, and the impulsive Andrik Norn, aspiring specialist in alien behaviour, are together drawn into a fierce knot of passion and ultimate betrayal as they struggle to understand the strange origin and motives of the aliens-which, if true, could shatter humanity's concept of the universe. Meanwhile, other expedition scientists discover that the Kybers' sun is soon to blaze up in a nova. Although the Kybers' sun is soon to blaze up in a nova; when they are told of this, they are not alarmed...

Under Heaven's Bridge is the first science fiction collaboration spanning the Atlantic. England's Ian Watson and America's Michael Bishop have created here a novle that is a landmark in science fiction

Watson, Ian. 'Deathhunter', published in 1982 by SFBC, hardback. Condition:Very good dustjacket; overall a nice,clean, well looked-after copy. Internal pages have some light tanning (browning effect from ageing). Price:£4.95, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1982. The Science Fiction Book Club
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  • Deathhunter [top]
    First published in 1981 by Victor Gollancz.
    Reprinted in hardcover in 1982 by the Science Fiction Book Club, Volume 3, Issue 7 (Readers Union), 176 pages (reproduced by A Wheaton & Co Ltd, Exeter, UK)
    Part of this story appeared, in different form, in Omni magazine as a story entitled "A Cage for Death"

Storyline: Deathhunter introduces us to a peaceful and harmonious future world, its philosophy based on a full understanding, acceptance and appreciation of death as the proper final event of life. Jim Todhunter holds the respected position of guide in the House of Death: the place where those due to die come to compose themselves. His arrival to take up a new post in the town of Egremont coincides with an almost unprecedented atrocity: the murder of revered poet Norman Harper just as he is about to embark ceremoniously upon his own death. Todhunter is assigned the sensitive task of guiding Harper's killer, the terminally-sick Nathan Weinberger to his death.
He soon learns that Weinberger has a startling theory: that humans aware they are about to die emit a chemical signal which attracts a strange predator-a creature which is Death itself. Only those who die suddenly escape it, and thus Weinberger was trying to save Harper by killing him. Todhunter is persuaded to help Weinberger, and together they build a cage to trap Death-and then follow the creature into the strange world of the afterlife...

 



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