Slow Birds and Other Stories

From the front flap of the Gollancz first edition: "Ian Watson's third short story collection is his best yet: a brilliant array of original and imaginative ideas even by Watson's own high standards. The title story provides a powerful metaphor of nuclear madness, depicting a parallel Earth through which super-sophisticated missiles from our future are diverted for tactical reasons; in this other Earth they move more slowly, three feet a minute, and occasionally and unpredictably detonate. In "The Width of the World" distances suddenly and inexplicably increase throughout the world, making long-distance travel impossible: London and New York are now the equivalent of 100,000 miles apart. "Mistress of Cold" describes a future war, and a weapon that reduces the world's temperature to Absolute Zero, and beyond, into the strange realm of Absolute Heat... Eleven stories in all, each brimming with invention."