A collection of sixty-seven contemporary American science fiction stories includes contributions by Poul Anderson, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, and Philip K. Dick

Star Soldiers

In the early chapters, the author sorts out some of the confusion about the term fantasy, distinguishing the fantastic as a technique from fantasy as a popular formula and a literary genre. Looking back to the early reception of Tolkien's trend-setting epic fantasy, he points out how critical theory at the time was simply unable to account for either the strengths or the weaknesses of The Lord of the Rings. By contrast, critical methods developed for coping with postmodernist metafictions are shown to apply equally well to the genre of fantasy. Having worked primarily with older fantasies in his study of The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, Attebery focuses here on important recent examples such as Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, Suzette Haden Elgin's Ozark Trilogy, and John Crowley's Little, Big.

When a group of archeologists uncover the remains of an interstellar spaceship, they plan a trip to the past for additional information on their find. But their starship goes haywire and the explorers are trapped in a void between the past and present. Not even guide Travis Fox can predict if they'll make it home--or wander through space and time forever.

The animals thrive after men flee the polluted planet and leave behind an epidemic virus born of experimentation. After several generations, space ships bring back men of the exiled race, both animals and men face decisions as to their loyalties.