When the paranormal fraud Edward Kelley finds a mysterious black stone, he starts hearing the voices of angels. They implore him to seek out and warn scientist/magician John Dee. An alien invasion is about to hit 16th century England, if the country doesn’t tear itself apart before then.
While Stableford’s other two Plurality stories had clear references to the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, I couldn’t pinpoint any obvious literary inspiration for this one (but that might just be my own ignorance). However, it’s uncanny how closely it matches up to real history. Meanwhile, the alien metastory is coming more and more to forefront, which is a good thing if you’re keeping up with it but I doubt that anyone unfamiliar with it got much enjoyment out of this story. But not to worry, it’ll all make for a great novel someday.
(Asimov’s, July 2008)
