Gray Matters

Three novellas explore themes of appearance versus reality and the search for things that are hidden in plain sight. They are set in a future galactic empire whose emperor is popularly believed to be divine, but isn't what he seems; and where humans have to share civilisation with other intelligent races who have widely-differing cultural norms. In the first story, Tais sets out on a quest, but almost fails to recognise her goal when she finds it. In the second, Beth joins a quest for the mysteries of the universe, but she and her fellow quester find their goals by very different paths from the one they planned. And finally, settling into a new job, Sonja doesn't realise until it is too late that the nicest people can do the greatest damage to her career. The mysterious and good-looking Gray ensures that nothing works out quite as they expected.