Michael Swanwick - The Dog Said Bow-Wow

PRAISE FOR The Dog Said Bow-Wow

Every reader with a dollop of humanity will admire Michael Swanwicks rowdy good humor. His towering creativity seems so effortless that it is easily overlooked so effortless, and so immense. You wont want to put this book down.

- GENE WOLFE

By turns funny, clever, mysterious, and possessing hidden depths, the stories in Swanwicks latest collection demonstrate hes at the top of his game. Delightful, thoughtful work, sure to please his readers.

- JEFF VANDERMEER

For most writers, its a good day when a story is witty, or has great ideas or characters. Michael Swanwick consistently wins on all three.

- VERNOR VINGE

Michael Swanwick is one of my all-time favorite short story writers. Sometimes he makes me laugh, sometimes he makes me shudder, sometimes he makes me weep. He always makes me think. And thats just when I am talking to him.

- JANE YOLEN

In The Dog Said Bow-Wow, a valuable author has taken the disreputable duckling of category fiction and nurtured it into a swan of elegant speculation, as the wick of disciplined fancy draws the readers inflamed imagination ever downward through the waxen feast. Swan and wick: an essential conjunction yielding wonder, warmth, wit, and many a synergistic epiphany.

- JAMES MORROW

Michael Swanwicks stories start soft, sneak close, and punch hard. And nobody else nobody! in science fiction has his range.

- NANCY KRESS

Michael Swanwicks The Dog Said Bow-Wow is an extraordinarily strong collection. His fierce imagination, subtle humor, and genius for implication are evident in each of these stories. From outer space to the land of faerie to all those strange and familiar places in between, hes gathered wonder and brought it back alive.

- JEFFREY FORD

Toto, I dont think were on Pern anymore.

- Locus

Swanwicks wildly imaginative and beautifully written short stories have been, for several years, one of the primary joys of the field.

- Washington Post Book World

One of contemporary sfs greatest short-story writers.

- Interzone

Swanwicks work illustrates the power and potential of contemporary science fiction.

- Publishers Weekly

(Swanwick) is an amazingly assured writer, seemingly incapable of writing a sentence that isnt interesting in itself, in addition to the way it moves the story forward.

- The New York Review of Science Fiction

Michael Swanwick is darkly magnificent. Tales of Old Earth is just one brilliant ride after another, a midnight express with a master at the throttle. Sit back and enjoy.

- JACK MCDEVITT

A classic in his own right

- Analog

What makes Swanwick special is his ability to wring fresh, unexpected consequences from standard sf notions.

- Kirkus

Swanwick has emerged as one of the countrys most respected authors.

- Philadelphia Inquirer

Michael Swanwick is one of the most intellectually astute sf writers of his generation.

- Washington Post Book World

Since the publication of his first stories back in 1980, Swanwick has developed a reputation for radically deconstructing the hoariest of old clichs in science fiction and turning them into something bright, shiny, and new.

- Locus

Swanwicks prose takes no prisoners.

- Time Out

Swanwick is our Prospero.

- TERRY BISSON

The Dog Said Bow-Wow
Copyright 2007 by Michael Swanwick

This is a work of fiction. All events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Cover design by Ann Monn
Interior design & composition by John D. Berry
The typeface is Kingfisher, designed by Jeremy Tankard

Tachyon Publications
1459 18th Street #139
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 285-5615
www.tachyonpublications.com

Series editor: Jacob Weisman

ISBN 10: 1-892391-52-x

ISBN 13: 978-1-892391-52-0

Printed in the United States of America
by Worzalla

First Edition: 2007

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Introduction 2007 by Terry Bisson. | The Bordello in Faerie 2006 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Postscripts #8, October 2006. | Dirty Little War 2002 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in In the Shadow of the Wall, edited by Byron R. Tetrick (Nashville: Cumberland House). | The Dog Said Bow-Wow 2001 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, October/November 2001. | An Episode of Stardust 2006 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, January 2006.| Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play, 2005 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, July 2005. | A Great Day for Brontosaurs 2002 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, May 2002. | Hello, Said the Stick 2002 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, March 2002. | The Last Geek 2004 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic, edited by F. Brett Cox and Andy Duncan (New York: Tor Books). | Legions in Time 2003 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, April 2003. The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport 2002 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, October/November 2002. | The Skysailors Tale 2007 by Michael Swanwick. First appearance in print. | Slow Life 2002 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, December 2002. | A Small Room in Koboldtown 2007 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, April 2007. | Tin Marsh 2006 by Michael Swanwick. First appeared in Asimovs Science Fiction, August 2006.| Triceratops Summer 2006 by Michael Swanwick. First published by Amazon Shorts, August 2006. | Urdumheim 2007 by Michael Swanwick. Forthcoming in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2007.

Terry Bissons introduction didnt arrive in time, so we are substituting this transcript of a conversation with TV talk host Charlie Ross:

CHARLIE ROSS: Tonights guest, Michael Swanwick, is a leading example of that most curious modern or perhaps postmodern creature, the science fiction writer, a species uniquely equipped to explore and hopefully illuminate the shimmering interface where literature and science intersect, giving birth to the elusive paradigms that populate our cultural psyche, so to speak. Welcome to the show, Michael.

MICHAEL SWANWICK: Thank you. I am very

CR: I cant think of anyone who has brought such diligence and intelligence to speculative fiction as yourself. You came to Philadelphia in 1976, armed, as legend has it, with nothing more than seventy-six bucks, a determination to be a writer, and the conviction that SF was the field of literature most worthy of your efforts. Do you still have that conviction today?

MS: Yes. In fact

CR: And indeed, it shows in your work. But nothing worthwhile comes easy. It was only in the early 1980s, after years of false starts and rejection slips, that you sold your first two stories and then saw both of them nominated for awards and picked up for Years Best anthologies. Can you share with us the thrill of accomplishment that you must have felt when that happened?