"The blue light thickened, blotting out Janner's surroundings, and he existed in a displaced void-like limbo. Then the blue light vanished. Christ, he cried to himself, where the hell now?"It begins with a feeling of euphoria, then the light, lapis lazuli, leaking from your body, intensifying, a blinding nimbus, then it's gone. And so are you... somewhere, anywhere.And it is happening to you every day.This collection contains the novella Blue Shifting, plus seven other stories from the two-times winner of the British Science Fiction Award for Short Fiction.Take a journey into an extraordinary universe......where life and love face the demands of mortality on planets as far flung as Nova Francais, Earth and Henderson's Fall....where mankind has become Augmented or Altered, where zebra-men talk with unicorn-women....and where you can break the chains of physics in the cobalt glory of the Nada-continuum."The essence of modern science fiction" Bob Shaw"SF infused with a cosmopolitan and literary sensibility" Paul McAuley"British writing with a deft, understated touch: wonderful" New Scientist