Perpetuity Blues: And Other Stories
Hardcover
256 Pages
Published 2000
Golden Gryphon Press
ISBN: 0965590143

Interestingly enough, when the late Jim Turner, who was editing this book when he passed away, asked the author to come up with his own dozen best, both Barrett's list and Turner's came up with the same twelve.

It's hard to describe the magic of this book, for it does, indeed, contain some of the very best of this writer's work. Perpetuity Blues made the final list at the World Fantasy Convention--didn't come home with the prize, but there were many good reason why it was there, and why it stands on its own as one of the finest collections anywhere...

There's Maggie McKenna who dreams of Broadway from Marble Creek, Texas, and Maggie's only friend, out-to-lunch alien Oral Blue.

You could ask why schoolboy Erwin Rommel, Billy the Kid and the Wright Brothers are stuck in a hotel south of nowhere in "Sallie C." The answer's easy enough: it could happen to anyone, but likely never will.

Things aren't quite right for Mary Louise, who lives in a story called "Stairs," and there's no use even giving a clue about this one. The New York Review of Science Fiction called it "possibly the weirdest story of the year."

So do yourself a favor. Read all twelve of these wondrous tales. You're in for a terrific ride.