In SILVERBACK, Simon Minchin has built a collection of short fiction that has an earthy, visceral take on the realms of fantasy and sci-fi. Short stories that make you think, but mostly they make you feel. These new worlds are steeped in character, idea and emotion and the flavour of them lasts well beyond the final page.

They are stories about something - the sparkling beauty of the world after global warming; the slowly growing dreadfulness of a GMO that has escaped the lab; the survival of a single billionaire trapped on the top of a kilometre-high skyscraper.

They are bite-sized tastes of possible futures and dubious pasts.