A book of short stories by one of the SF masters. Introduced by Barry N. Malzberg as follows "He will probably leave a body of work that will define American science fiction as conceived by honest and talented people from its earliest maturity to that point at which it bacame the dominant literature of its age...I recommend him to you as giving the best that he and his field have to affer." ( )

Interesting old-school stories. Hold up better than some others I've read. ( )

I found this a bit of a mixed bag. I loved "Kyrie" and enjoyed the two short humorous stories "the Barbarian" and "The Last of the Deliverers." I thought "Sam Hill" was silly (and not in a good way). I hated "The Fatal Fulfillment" (which amongst other things suggests that society is being impoverished by our misguided allocation of far too many resources to fighting "mental illnesses") and had mixed feelings about "The Sky People" (which posits that in a science-starved future a society of scientifically advanced rapists would be "civilized").

For a couple of these stories Anderson's introductory comments were sufficiently offensive (e.g., McCarthy really did more good than bad, the real risks to America are foreigners and hippies) that I find my level of interest in ever buying another book of his substantially diminished. ( )

A nice set of stories by one of the grandmasters. I especially liked Sam Hall and The Sky People. ( )