JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN • • •

“COLLABORATING”—Michael Bishop

A young man bom with two heads discovers that it’s hard work competing for one body— especially when one of him falls in love….

“FATE’S PURSE”—Russell Kirk

If money is the root of all evil, perhaps it is also the cause of terror? After all, people sometimes murder for money … why shouldn’t spirits?

“RENT CONTROL”—Walter Tevis

An affluent New York couple realizes that they can make time stand still when they make love —with chilling consequences… .

“THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGES

OF AMÉLIE BERTRAND”—Joanna Russ

A passenger in a French railway station, hurrying for his train, enters a passageway—and discovers the gateway to another world… .

Anthology of three original stories: 

The Feast of St. Dionysus (1973) by Robert Silverberg; 'Kjwalll'kje'k'koothaïlll'kje'k [Nemo] (1973) by Roger Zelazny; 

My Brother Leopold [Tales of a Darkening World] (1973) by Edgar Pangborn.

Nebula Award: Best Novella of 1978

The Persistence of Vision, by John Varley

Hugo  Award: Best Novella of 1978*

Hugo Best Novella - nominees

The Persistence of Vision, by John Varley 

The Watched, by Christopher Priest 

Fireship, by Joan D. Vinge 

Seven American Nights, by Gene Wolfe

103° today. The fourth successive day of intolerable heat. Met Swanson in the elevator at lunchtime, nearly blurted the truth about myself to him. I must be more careful. But my control is slipping. Last night in the worst of the heat I was tempted to strip off my disguise. I could no longer stand being locked in here, pivoting and ducking to avoid all the machinery festooned about me. Resisted the temptation just barely. Somehow I am more sensitive to the gravity too. I have the illusion that my carapace is developing cracks. Almost collapsed in the street this afternoon. All I need: heat exhaustion, whisked off to the hospital, routine fluoroscope exam.

You have a very odd skeletal structure, Mr. Knecht..…

Indeed. Dissecting me, next, with three thousand medical students looking on…

—From uThe Reality Trip” by Robert Silverberg.

Are there other intelligent beings in the universe?

Are some of them watching us, waiting for their chance to take over?

Or are they already in control?

Disturbing and fascinating answers to these questions can be found in this masterful collection of stories by some of the world’s great writers of science fiction and fantasy.