This short-story collection includes 9 stories originally published in the 1950’s. Several of the stories felt very dated, and "The Big Hunger" was rather abstract for my tastes. Still, I was impressed by the quality of Miller’s writing and the depth of some of his characters, especially in the context of the short-story format. My favourite story was "Crucifixus Etiam" about a migrant laborer on Mars, who is working to make the planet habitable for future generations of humans. ( )

When the restless ones, the wild-eyed spacers were gone, the addicts got religion and the federalists became placid anarchists and the Parliaments voted themselves out of existence. There was peace on the third planet of 27 Lambda Serpentis, and good will among the inhabitants thereof. They made love and studied sociology under a friendly sun, under a pleasant blue sky forever.
From "The Big Hunger".

Nine science fiction stories by the author of one of my favourite books "A Canticle for Leibowitz", who was just as good at short fiction. I bought this book recently from a used book store, and was irritated to find that five of these stories are also found in "The Darfsteller and other Stories" which I already own, and that I had read nearly all of the stories before. My favourites are "You Triflin' Skunk!"," Big Joe and the Nth Generation" and "The Big Hunger". ( )