Bayley emerged as a significant figure within science fiction's New Wave movement. His early short stories were regularly featured in the influential New Worlds magazine, later appearing in various paperback anthologies. Known for a downbeat and gloomy approach to his novels, his work has been cited as influential on subsequent generations of writers. Bayley's distinctive voice and his melancholic visions left an indelible mark on the genre.
Accidental exposure to a form of natural radiation had caused scientist Jason Hyde's eyes to turn colourless and emit blue rays which gave him the power to see through solid objects and to read the thoughts of human beings. Hyde has dedicated his life to investigating strange phenomena and protecting the world from all manner of abnormal threats!
Set against a backdrop of interstellar exploration, Karl Krabbe and Boris Bouche are profit-driven partners who operate outside the law. Their crew includes Roncie Northrop, a bondman nuclear engineer who is disillusioned and has previously attempted to escape their exploitative grasp. The dynamics of power, control, and desperation unfold as their reckless pursuits lead them deeper into danger.
In a bizarre world governed by the twin gods Ormazd and Ahriman, Histrina, a child of Ormazd, is captured by malevolent forces and thrust into a realm of terror. There, she encounters Laedo, a man who is lost and far from his own home. Together, they navigate the challenges posed by their surroundings and the influence of the gods, exploring themes of good versus evil and the struggle for survival in a hostile environment.
Nine stories drawn eclectically from an astonishingly wide range of sources: from analytical philosophy, mathematics, physics, biology, and psychology. They demonstrate that Bayley possesses an extraordinarily fertile imagination, and a talent for combining the absurd and the abstruse with a dramatic flourish. He is a writer who delights in novel ideas and their exploration, a lover of bizarre juxtapositions. The range of his literary strategies extends from carefree space opera to stylishly satirical mock-intellectualism. Though his melodramas are magnificently surreal, he is perhaps at his best when he is at his most casual, affecting an earnest attitude of scrupulous reportage which throws his inventions into sharper relief. His powers of characterization are limited and his dialogue is frequently weak, but in the kind of fiction which he writes these faults are almost inconsequential, and they do not detract from the force and entertainment value of his fiction.--Brian Stableford
The novel about: the absolutely ultimate weapon that can ever exist...The sub-human who found it and tried to use it...The beasts who manned humanity's last star fleet...The widening rim in the space-time continuum...The brief cosmic empire of the pigs...The theory of gravitaitational recession...The super-samurai who served the zen-gunner...The colonial girl who defied the galactic empire...And many more "nova" ideas from the author of whom Michael Moorcock said, "There is no one else to match him."
Cheyne Scarne risks everything to infiltrate the Grand Wheel, the ultimate Syndicate governing all illegal activities across human-controlled planets. His journey delves into the dangerous underworld of crime, where loyalty and betrayal intertwine. As he navigates this treacherous landscape, Scarne's life hangs in the balance, revealing the high stakes of ambition and the dark allure of power within a vast criminal empire.
