Edward Willett
Paths to the Stars
Twenty-Two Fantastical Tales of Imagination
Twenty-two science fiction and fantasy stories, illustrated and set for the screen — from silver starships to prairie ghosts.
22 stories · 355 minutes
This book is dedicated to all the writers whose books I loved as a child, who inspired me to tell my own stories, in the hope I could move and entertain readers as much as I have been moved and entertained.
The collection
Open a story
01The Minstrel
THE MUSIC SANG OF THE INFINITE DARK and the suns that burn within it. It shimmered like starlight on alien seas, and whispered with the voices of strange winds.
02A Little Space Music
DRIPPING VISCOUS GREEN SLIME onto the brushed-steel plates of the recreation room floor, the pulsating blue slug reared until it towered a full meter above my head. Three eyes the colour of old blood reared up on black…
03Strange Harvest
THE TOMATO ROLLED ACROSS my coffee-spattered notes from the previous night’s school board meeting and fetched up against my Garfield cup with a “clink!”. I stared at the fruit, then tapped it with the end of my pen.
04Waterlilies
Danny eased a step closer to the black-leather couch. The rhesus macaque balanced on the armrest bared its teeth. Danny snarled back, then lunged. All he came up with was a handful of fur; the monkey, chattering,…
The author
Edward Willett
Author of more than sixty books of science fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction. Aurora Award winner. This collection gathers nearly all of his published short fiction — and a few stories that never found a magazine home.
About Edward Willett