The fiction of Lucius Shepard has more to do with Joseph Conrad than Isaac Asimov. Fascinated by deception and decay, and generally labeled a cyberpunk writer, his work transcends the limits of genre fiction. Beast of the Heartland contains seven tales that explore the darkside where science fiction meets horror. Headed by the award-winning Barnacle Bill the Spacer, a story of high-space mutiny, the book includes A Little Night Music, a gothic tale of insanity All the Perfumes of Araby, where an adventurer in the Middle East links up with an ancient entity Human History, a postapocalyptic chiller Sports in America, a noir tale in the Chandler tradition The Sun Spider, a mini space opera and the title story - an ingenious picture of a battered boxer on the decline.