The Beloved of My Beloved

by Ian Watson, Roberto Quaglia

Tattooed on a woman-sized tumour, these tales, told to it as bedtime stories, are by turns surreal, satiric, erotic, obscene, ingenious, hilarious, and quite, quite brilliant. Together, they combine to create a weird and wonderful love story, unlike anything told before.

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

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Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable and in many places hugely inventive read: packed with enough ideas, wit, and bizarre sexual practices to fill several books rather than the one. Occasionally some of the stories lose their way, circle themselves, and end up spiralling out of control across themes which might have been better explored elsewhere. In some ways, it's a book of ideas rather than straightforward stories, but when both idea and story hit the spot some great pieces result: "The Grave of My Beloved", "The Mass Extinction of My Beloved", and "The Beloved Time of Their Lives" being good examples. However, despite the sometime ramshackle nature of it all, the book is never less than entertaining and a whole lot of fun; although if you're easily offended you won't get past the first couple of pages.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Supposedly Important

A collection of work that is supposedly voted as seminal by the SFWA, someone must have voted this in as tongue-in-cheek. I'm still unsure if all these are supposed to be collaborative works or what. While I didn't really mind the sexual context, it was mostly just a little bizarre too my tastes.