The Last Angel & Other Stories

11 science fiction short stories, and 2 contemporary ones added in for spice.

* Four glimpses into a future in which Earth is ruled by a benevolent corporation that controls all power generation, all resources, all weapons, and all of space. Every starship pilot is a member of a human species that was genetically engineered to replace our own. The cultural descendants of samurai, they’re more powerful, more intelligent, longer-lived, and only they have the neural architecture that makes interstellar travel possible. And every human who meets one falls helplessly in love.

* The definitive answer for why no alien ships have visited Earth.

* Humanity discovers the price of an alien foreign policy of “shoot first, ask questions later.”

* What would motherhood be like if children were larger and stronger than the adults?

* An irreverent look at why the Second Coming took so long.

* A super-soldier lives a quiet—sometimes not so quiet—life as a private investigator, handing the roughneck side of things while the biological computer in his head solves the problems.

* A woman who had been on a scientific survey mission in Antarctica wakes up alone in a locked hotel room, in a city she doesn’t recognize, with a note from herself telling her to be calm and wait. Wait for what? A future she could never have imagined waits just outside the door.