David Ely

"Katie's got it pretty good. She's a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie's life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all--but they don't come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over: 1. Write your mistake 2. Ingest one mushroom 3. Go to sleep 4. Wake anew. And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She's also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms--and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it's against the rules. But Katie doesn't care about the rules--and she's about to discover the unintended consequences of the best intentions" --

The cops tell him he can't walk on the road--"but nobody walks! Roads aren't made for walking!" A reverse racist Jamaican tells Davis he hasn't "suffered" enough to tackle the project. His family doesn't care much, and his sponsor pulls support. And still Davis keeps walking...Des Moines, Peoria, Kankakee, Lafayette, Marion, Columbus and Newark, Pittsburgh, up into Vermont and then Canada, Scotland and England, France, Germany, Greece and Turkey... The obsession shines through in the writing. It's wonderful to see something as mundane as walking made a gripping adventure and a metaphor. Davis' trials are with the system as a rebel, with nature as a man. Just as I'd think of one of his setbacks as excessive, I'd recall that things could be worse. Which may be the point here. If we stop walking, we surrender to the world. Davis won't be stopped. Lack of support, a conman agent, the spotlight swinging to an upstart competitor, police, psychiatrists, Greek nurses and their jealous brothers, all are just bumps on the road. --Michael Z. Williamson at Amazon.com.

American tour director in a Latin American republic provides his wealthy clientele with a wide variety of experiences until his plans backfire.

Science fiction: before Christ and after 2001, an introduction / Ray Bradbury -- The gun without a bang / Robert Sheckley -- Crabs take over the island / Anatoly Dnieprov -- All watched over by machines of loving grace / Richard Brautigan -- EPICAC / Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. -- R.U.R. / Karel Capek -- The human factor / David Ely -- The thinking machine / Isaac Asimov -- Misbegotten missionary / Isaac Asimov -- Elegy / Charles Beaumont -- Aesthetics of the moon / Jack Anderson -- Constant reader / Robert Bloch -- Who's there? / Arthur C. Clarke -- We'll never conquer space / Arthur C. Clarke -- The sack / William Morrison -- Mariana / Fritz Leiber -- I always do what Teddy says / Harry Harrison -- The man who could work miracles / H.G. Wells -- Echoes of the mind / Arthur Koestler -- The reluctant orchid / Arthur C. Clarke -- Founding father / Isaac Asimov -- The wound / Howard Fast -- The [sound machine]( / Roald Dahl -- Love among the cabbages / Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird -- Puppet show / Fredric Brown -- Random sample / T.P. Caravan -- On the wheel / Damon Knight -- Orbiter 5 shows how Earth looks from the moon / May Swenson -- The king of the beasts / Philip Jose Farmer -- UFO detective solves 'em all, well, almost / Philip J. Hilts -- The good provider / Marion Gross -- A sound of thunder / Ray Bradbury -- Who's cribbing? / Jack Lewis -- The third level / Jack Finney -- Speed / Josephine Miles -- The inn outside the world / Edmond Hamilton -- On the relativity of time / Wolfgang Pauli -- Relativity wins again -- A matter of overtime -- There will come soft rains / Ray Bradbury -- The forgotten enemy / Arthur C. Clarke -- Earthmen bearing gifts / Fredric Brown -- The lfth of Oofth / Walter Tevis -- Electronic tape found in a bottle / Olga Cabral -- Brace yourself for another ice age / Douglas Colligan -- The census takers / Frederik Pohl -- Disappearing act / Alfred Bester -- Bulletin / Shirley Jackson -- Autofac / Philip K. Dick -- Toward the space age / William Stafford -- Spaceship Earth / R. Buckminster Fuller -- Biographies of authors -- Science-fiction awards.

Introduction - essay by Lawrence Block Deathbinder - novelette by Alexander Jablokov The Marked Man - short story by David Ely The Ones Who Turn Invisible - short story by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre Ever After - novelette by Susan Palwick The Living Dead - short story by Robert Bloch (variant of Underground) Report on a Broken Bridge - short story by Dennis O'Neil The Beast from One-Quarter Fathom - short story by George Alec Effinger Was It a Dream? - short story by Guy de Maupassant (trans. of La morte 1887) The Madonna of the Wolves - novella by S. P. Somtow [as by Somtow Sucharitkul] Placebo - short story by Andrew Vachss The Man at the Window - short story by Charles Gordon Yanqui Doodle - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr. An Inhabitant of Carcosa - short story by Ambrose Bierce Real Time - short story by Lawrence Watt-Evans Killer in the House - novelette by Jas. R. Petrin Sometimes They Bite - short story by Lawrence Block Three Men in a Tub - short story by Lemuel Cork The Wedding Gig - short story by Stephen King Flicks - novelette by Bill Crenshaw The Leopard Man's Story - short story by Jack London Something Evil in the House - short story by Celia Fremlin How the Wind Spoke at Madaket - novella by Lucius Shepard The Black Cat - short story by Edgar Allan Poe The Dive People - short story by Avram Davidson Graffiti - short story by Stanley Ellin The Dim Rumble - short story by Isaac Asimov The Leather Funnel - short story by Arthur Conan Doyle Trinity - novella by Nancy Kress Island Man - novelette by Robert Anton Wilson [as by R. A. Wilson]

Victory unintentional / by Isaac Asimov Coco-talk / by William F. Temple Second ending / by James White A discovery in the woods / by Graham Greene The human factor / by David Ely Six cubed plus one / by John Rankine

Danger Dimension - novelette by Stanley Mullen Zeritsky's Law - short story by Ann Warren Griffith [as by Ann Griffith] With These Hands - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth The Trouble with Ants - novelette by Clifford D. Simak (variant of The Simple Way) The Isolationists - short story by Robert Silverberg [as by George Osborne] Venus Is a Man's World - novelette by William Tenn A Gift from Earth - short story by Manly Banister Judas Ram - short story by Sam Merwin, Jr. Finders Keepers - short story by Milton Lesser The Rag and Bone Men - short story by Algis Budrys One Leg Is Enough - short story by Kris Neville She Who Laughs - short story by Peter Phillips

Nineteen tales of mystery & murder set in the world of sports. The man who pretended to like baseball / Isaac Asimov Diamond Dick / Jon L. Breen A game of chess / Robert Barr Coffin corner / Anthony Boucher The great rodeo fix / Leo R. Ellis The sailing club / David Ely The season ticket holder / Joyce Harrington The last downhill / Clark Howard The other runner / John Lutz Storm / Ed McBain Dead on the pin / John D. MacDonald The affair of the "Avalanche Bicycle and Tyre Co., Limited" / Arthur Morrison Tomorrow's murder / Stuart Palmer Trojan horse / Ellery Queen The return of Cardula / Jack Ritchie This won't kill you / Rex Stout Murder on the race course / Julian Symons The hustler / Walter S. Tevis Without the option / P. G. Wodehouse