Why I Hunt Flying Saucers And Other Fantasticals: A Science Fiction Short Story Retrospective

Hugh A. D. Spencer's weird, wonderful, side-splitting short fiction has been delighting audiences for over 25 years. His stories have been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies and broadcast on National Public Radio satellite networks. Now collected together for the first time, Why I Hunt Flying Saucers And Other Fantasticals contains thirteen of his best-loved stories, along with all-new introductions by the author.

Malfunctioning household robots, an endless apocalyptic loop, potash-fuelled interstellar travel, and more-these stories stretch science fiction to its limit and bring it into our backyards at the same time.

Includes the Aurora Award-nominated story "Why I Hunt Flying Saucers"!

Foreword by Dr. John Colarusso, Professor of Linguistics, McMaster University

Stories in this collection

Why I Hunt Flying Saucers
Icarus Down/Bear Rising
The Triage Conference
The Robot Reality Check
Strategic Dog Patterning
The Z-Burger Simulations
Mormonism and the Saskatoon Space Programme
Pornzilla
The Hospital for Sick Robots
Problem Project
A 21st Century Scientific Romance
When Bloomsbury Fails
(Coping With) Norm Deviation

Praise for the stories in this collection

"'Why I Hunt Flying Saucers' delivers a superb jolt of humour." ~ Toronto Star

"[O]ne of the best, and most original, stories." ~ Locus Magazine on "(Coping With) Norm Deviation"

"'Problem Project'... is a whipsaw change in tone... A tight grin of a story, not quite a laugh, but lingering." ~ Tangent

"Spencer has fun with quantum realities." ~ Best SF on "Problem Project"

"'Pornzilla' was weird beyond belief." ~ Best SF

Praise for Extreme Dentistry

"Spencer stacks it with so many odd elements that it all works. Well worth searching out." ~ Toronto Star

"Extreme Dentistry is very funny and quite horrific." ~ Amazing Stories

"A dark and mordantly funny satire." ~ Armed and Dangerous

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy vibe." ~ Read, Play, Review

Praise for the writing of Hugh A. D. Spencer

"Hugh's work never fails to crack me up and make me think." ~ Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Homeland

"Lucid, lyrical, and savvy." ~ Paul Levinson, author of Unburning Alexandria and The Silk Code

"If you like to laugh and cower at the same time-if you like science fiction that is simultaneously progressive and retro-then you need to read this... Like nothing I've ever read before. Highly recommended." ~ Dale Sproule, author of Psychedelia Gothique