Annihilation Factor
Castor Krakhno believed he was waking from a nightmare. Opening his eyes, he found himself lying on his side on a concrete pavement. Near him were bodies, collapsed like rag dolls. They were all dead. The whole planet Carole was dead...
The Patch was happy. It had eaten well. It rested, savoring the flavor of the planets it had devoured. Then it began to move, following the slipline, drifting on to yet another inhabited world...
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Barrington J. Bayley
Barrington J. Bayley (1937–2008) was a British science fiction writer. He was born in Birmingham and educated in Shropshire. He died of complications from bowel cancer on October 14, 2008.
Bayley worked a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955. His first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in Vargo Statten Magazine.
In the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and then later in various New Worlds paperback anthologies, becoming friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock and joining science fiction's New Wave movement. His first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the likes of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.
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