Sladek's second short story collection (of four published during his life-time). This is a collection of seventeen stories, foreword and an afterword - previously published in (mostly) various S/F magazines between 1968 and 1975. Sladek wrote some of the best science fiction stories of the 20th-century and his parodies of famous s/f authors are uproariously "right-on". His talent went under-appreciated except by a few devoted followers, even though his satirical writing was on a par with the early Kurt Vonnegut, and (blessedly) without the Vonnegut mannerisms.