Biopeculiar by Gigi Ganguly is the first in the ‘IF’ series under Westland Books, which will include an array of speculative fiction titles. It is a richly imaginative and whimsical collection of short stories which entails concepts that call for an examination of those that are beyond the constraints of ordinary reality. The skeletal framework of the book remains the same, that is, the natural world is the organizing whole that makes the thematic environmental concerns revolve around it. The vagaries of science fiction in alternate worlds are explored deftly. This speculative assortment comprises twenty-two vignettes, each interpreting the planet and its inhabitants in a charmingly peculiar way.
The stories are embedded with strange and fantastical elements that convey the oddity of the scenario in the text. They stand as a thought-provoking foray into the interplay between humanity and the surrounding environment. Phantasmic worlds are presented where the boundaries between the natural and the fanciful blur in unexpected ways. The first story, ‘Head in the Clouds’