Keith Roberts

Kaeti branches out, moves farther from her beloved London. In the process she makes a whole range of new, intriguing friends; and lands herself in some scrapes startling even by her standards. The shadows she sprays on the pavement of a Thames Valley town come alive to haunt her; later, the magic Tiger Sweater she acquires does more than haunt the subjects of her wrath. While for a time her latest experience of France also looks like being her last. In a Thames-side hotel she conjures Hell on request; on a deserted airfield, and in the Green Palace, Glasgow, Hell returns to haunt her. In the West Country, she meets an eighteenth century benefactress; or is she? Certainly the experience lands Kaeti in hospital; for a while it seems shes about to cross the Bridge of Dreams herself. Finally she circles back to London but a London neither you nor she has never seen... But its all in a days work for Kaeti, the Bow Bells actress who is in touch with things magical and eternal.

Ladies from Hell contains five long stories. "The Shack at Great Cross Halt" describes a Britain dominated by motorways, juggernauts and a tyranny, in which the unfortunates of society eke out a miserable existence scavenging items that fall off lorries. "The Ministry of Children" shows comprehensive schools having become terrifying battlegrounds dominated by vicious gangs. "The Big Fans" concerns an experiment in wind-powered electricity which accidentally unleashes an apocalyptic storm of effects. "Our Lady of Destruction" ironically depicts a future in which a Stalinist British government taxes non-productive people (i.e. artists) at over 100% and assigns them individual Overseers to regulate their work. "Missa Privata" shows an opera singer in a communist-dominated Britain making a defiant individual gesture which will bring about her own ruin. These are not stories of spaceships and alien worlds; rather they are studies of imminent social change, written out of passionate concern about the directions in which our society may be heading - stories, in fact, in the great Orwellian tradition. Most importantly, they are stories about people: believable, defiant individuals struggling against oppressive forces.

Raised, tested, trained and indoctrinated in the Blocks, Molly Zero is being groomed for the governing Elite. Rebelling against her fate, she flees. An innocent searching for truth, Molly finds the world outside the Blocks alien and frightening. Her flight plunges her first into the heart of a small community. Next, attracted by their eccentric gaiety, she joins the travelling gypsies, roaming the country in Commercial Air Cushion Vehicles. And then Molly gets caught up in urban terrorism...

Keith Roberts The Lordly Ones offers a wide variety of sf and fantasy (and even a ghost story). The title story is a vision of near-future Britain collapsing in social disorder told from the viewpoint of a slow-witted lavatory attendant. Another take, "The Comfort Station", approaches a similar situation from a quite different perspective. In other stories we see Roberts in a more light-hearted vein: "The Checkout", another of his series of stories about a modern-day witch, Anita, or "Diva", a tale of singer of unique abilities. In "Ariadne Potts" a mans wish brings a classical statue to life, with, inevitably, unfortunate results. "The Castle and the Hoop" is an atmospheric ghost story set around the pubs of Southwark. And "Sphairistike" is perhaps the only sf story ever to centre on the game of tennis.

A garage owner is called on to repair an Unidentified Flying Object; the seductive rhythmic pulse emanating from beyond a continental shelf village mysteriously beckons the younger submarine generation; a small town cinema projectionist screens 3-D rushes for a 24th century film crew; a divorce case in which the co-respondent is a synthetic human...Keith Roberts injects his own brand of immediacy and realism through his punchy, readably style and his considerable technical know-how into these stories, ten rare new gems in the dazzling treasury of SF.

As author and illustrator, Keith Roberts did more than most to define the look of UK science fiction magazines in the 1960s. In addition to his BFSA Award wins, he was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. He is perhaps best known for his seminal alternate history novel, Pavane, but his work covered a broad range of SFs tropes and settings, as can be seen from the titles collected in this omnibus: The Chalk Giants, Kiteworld and The Grain Kings. THE CHALK GIANTS: After the apocalypse the hazardous evolution of mankind continues. And in primeval response to the disaster, humanitys solutions to catastrophe carve the harsh new world in violent patterns of magic and myth, rite and religion. Brave images scar the ancient hills, the clash of swords and the ageless power of sexuality sign-post another, bloodsoaked path to civilisation.KITEWORLD: Powerful churches have long kept their grip on the people with a theology of fear that makes formidable demons out of the poor, weak mutants of the surrounding badlands. To ward off these specters, an elaborate, tradition-encrusted system of kites with hex signs or armed observers fly over the realm. The men of this Kite Corps, performing hazardous duty to sustain a myth, are driven to find a separate peace, to transform, if they can, disillusionment into enlightenment, to move forward from an assumption of guilt to an assumption of responsibility.THE GRAIN KINGS: They call them The Grain Kings. Gigantic mechanical monarchs of the wheat-bearing plains that were once the frozen Alaskan wastes. Whole eco-systems in themselves, they can supply the food so desperately needed by the teeming millions of our overpopulated planet. But even now, as the whole world waits in hungry suspense, the great powers battle for control of the prairies and two competing combine harvesters find they are heading on a course of collision.

Most people think witches are old and ugly - but ANITA isnt.ANITA doesnt cackle and hiss as she works dark curses, either. Oh, she casts witchs spells and incantations, but not the usual kind.ANITAs main interest is boys, just like any other girl her age. And she doesnt really need things like love potions - not with her face and figure.But ANITA is a witch, and shes young and a little reckless. Which means she sometimes makes mistakes (usually with boys), and when she does... all Hell might break loose....

The Realm of Kiteworld has survived nuclear catastrophe and is governed by a feudal and militant religious oligarchy - the Church Variant.In the outer Badlands, real or imagined Demons are kept at bay by flying defensive structures of giant interlocking Cody kites piloted by an elite and brave Corps of Observers.Through a series of Kite stories we are drawn compellingly into a strange but recognizable world where loyalty to the Corps is everything and non-conformity is a sin. Keith Roberts depicts the fortunes, passions and failings of his characters against this background of a fragile and superstitious society. As the fanatical Ultras embark on a religious campaign of destruction, the Realm starts to disintegrate fast.

Welcome to a haunted world; the world of Keith Roberts powerful and unique imagination. These stories show Roberts fascination for the curious and unclassifiable; and as ever, his mastery of character and detail. Susan introduces the reader to a schoolgirl with awesome psychic powers; but the sensitive treatment turns a shock situation into a brilliant fable, while The Scarlet Lady, predating Stephen Kings Christine, has the genuine stench of petrol, oil and demons. The Eastern Windows chillingly continues the theme; by contrast, Winderwood introduces us to a fearsome locale that Roberts insists is real. Mrs. Cibber transports the reader, with complete conviction, to the smog-ridden London of the fifties and unfolds the strange tale of a young graphic designer haunted by a woman from the eighteenth century. The Snake Princess, equally atmospheric, tells the story of a boys doomed, bizarre love, while Everything in the Garden presents the tour de force of a haunting within a haunting.

AFTER THE APOCALYPSE the hazardous evolution of mankind continues. And in primeval response to the disaster, humanitys solutions to catastrophe carve the harsh new world in violent patterns of magic and myth, rite and religion. Brave images scar the ancient hills, the clash of swords and the ageless power of sexuality sign-post another, bloodsoaked path to civilisation.

We reap and we thresh; grain for half the world. We are the Grain Kings raised of old.They call them the Grain Kings. Gigantic mechanical monarchs of the wheat-bearing plains that were once the frozen Alaskan wastes. Whole eco-systems in themselves, they can supply the food so desperately needed by the teeming millions of our overpopulated planet. But even now, as the whole world waits in hungry suspense, the great powers battle for control of the prairies and two competing combine harvesters find they are heading on a course of collision. A collision with catastrophic consequences - not only for the hundreds of crewmen aboard each massive machine but for the future survival of all mankind.

America and Russian both explode huge H-bombs simultaneously. The tests go wrong, cracking the seabed, rupturing continents and engulfing cities. The Thames flattens into a flood plain, London is drowned.Now comes cosmic retribution - giant wasps, monstrous and deadly, directed by a supernatural intelligence, invade a reeling world. In England, isolated guerrillas fight on...

Men hammered at phones as the lines burned their hands; distributor caps split, engines flashed into flame as gasoline from torn lines doused their blocks; computers rebelled, barraged their operators with lunatic results. An army of poltergeists was loose, ripping and snapping, jamming beyond all repair the machinery of war.

En el prólogo de Pavana, Keith Roberts imagina el asesinato de la reina Isabel de Inglaterra en 1588. Esto permite que la armada española conquiste la isla y que la Iglesia Romana domine el mundo durante siglos. En las primeras paginas descubrimos que, en 1966, las locomotoras de vapor recorren los caminos y las comunicaciones dependen de un complicado sistema de semaforos. Los valores sociales y politicos, muestra el autor, no son nunca absolutos sino imagenes cristalizadas de los acontecimientos historicos. Encuadernacion: Tapa dura con sobrecubierta.