Walter S. Tevis

"Fast" Eddie knows the scene. He knows the alcohol, he knows the road, he knows the men, and -- most importantly -- he knows the hustle. After years of beating everyone he can on the road, Eddie is getting tired of it all and dreams of something bigger. The greatest pool player in the world, to him, is Minnesota Fats, top-stick in New York who hasn't lost a game in years. Eddie has the skills he needs to be the best if he lets his skills transcend his arrogance. Tevis has written a heartbreaking treatise on a mix of many themes propping up the his big point: We lose if we choose to lose. An opponent gets the upper hand if they chose to win.

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

Beth Harmon, an orphan by eight years old, is unremarkable. She is plain and she knows it. In the Kentucky orphanage, she hordes the tranquilizers handed to the children daily to quell the ache of dullness and routine. A formidable math student, she is allowed to clean the blackboard erasers in the basement where she find the janitor playing chess daily. He is a sour old man and pays her no mind until she suggests a move he could have made. She learned the basics of the game by watching and he slowly teaches her the intricacies as she earns the right to learn them. Throughout the process her mind races and her dull, plain existence is replaced by the realization of prodigy. By the age of sixteen she is competing, under the new freedom of adoption, for the US Open and is on her way to international stardom if she learns to prioritize her chess, her addictions, and the distractions of youth.

On the slab / Harlan Ellison -- Lobotomy shoals / Juleen Brantigham -- Fivesight / Spider Robinson -- Icons / Barry N. Malzberg -- The genius house / Dmitri Bilenkin, translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis -- The man who met Picasso / Michael Swanwick -- The vacuum-packed picnic / Rick Gauger -- Blind spot / Jayge Carr -- A sepulcher of songs / Orson Scott Card -- Colonel Stonesteel's genuine home-made truly Egyptian mummy / Ray Bradbury -- Triggering / John Shirley -- Out of luck / Walter Tevis -- Eyes I dare not meet in dreams / Dan Simmons -- Vox Olympica / Michael Bishop -- Forever / Damon Knight -- Johnny Mnemonic / William Gibson -- Waiting for the earthquake / Robert Silverberg.

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.

Examines the Black struggle for equality and reaffirms King's belief in nonviolence.

A loint of paw / Isaac Asimov -- The advent on Channel Twelve / C.M. Kornbluth -- Plaything / Larry Niven -- The misfortune cookie / Charles E. Fritch -- I wish I may, I wish I might / Bill Pronzini -- FTA / George R.R. Martin -- Trace / Jerome Bixby -- The ingenious patriot / Ambrose Bierce -- Zoo / Edward D. Hoch -- The destiny of Milton Gomrath / Alexei Panshin -- The devil and the trombone / Martin Gardner -- Upstart / Steven Utley -- How it all went / Gregory Benford -- Harry Protagonist, brain-drainer / Richard Wilson -- Peeping Tommy / Robert F. Young -- Starting from scratch / Robert Sheckley -- Corrida / Roger Zelazny -- Shall the dust praise thee? / Damon Knight -- Bug-getter / R. Bretnor -- The deadly mission of Phineas Snodgrass / Frederik Pohl -- Fire sale / Laurence M. Janifer -- Safe at any speed / Larry Niven -- The masks / James Blish -- Innocence / Joanna Russ -- Kin / Richard Wilson -- The long night / Ray Russell -- Sanity clause / Edward Wellen -- If at first you don't succeed, to hell with it! / Charles E. Fritch -- The question / Laurence M. Janifer and Donald E. Westlake -- The perfect woman / Robert Sheckley -- The system / Ben Bova -- Exile to hell / Isaac Asimov -- Inaugural / Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini -- Martha / Fred Saberhagen -- Kindergarten / Fritz Leiber -- Landscape with sphinxes / Karen Anderson -- The happiest day of your life / Bob Shaw -- The worlds of Monty Willson / William F. Nolan -- Punch / Frederik Pohl -- Doctor / Henry Slesar -- The man from when / Dannie Plachta -- Crying willow / Edward Rager -- January 1975 / Barry N. Malzberg -- Mail supremacy / Hayford Peirce -- Mistake / Larry Niven -- Half-baked publisher's delight / Jeffrey S. Hudson and Issac Asimov -- Far from home / Walter S. Tevis Swords of Ifthan / James Sutherland -- Argent blood / Joe L. Hensley -- Collector's fever / Roger Zelazny -- Sign at the end of the universe / Duane Ackerson -- Stubborn / Stephen Goldin -- The re-creation / Robert E. Toomey, Jr. -- The better man / Ray Russell -- Oom / Martin Gardner -- Merchant / Henry Slesar -- Don't fence me in / Richard Wilson -- The die-hard / Alfred Bester -- The first / Anthony Boucher -- Eripmav / Damon Knight -- Feeding time / Robert Sheckley -- The voice from the curious cube / Nelson Bond -- I'm going to get you / F.M. Busby -- The room / Ray Russell -- Dry spell / Bill Pronzini -- Bohassian learns / William Rotsler -- Star bride / Anthony Boucher -- Latest feature / Maggie Nadler -- Chief / Henry Slesar -- After you've stood on the log at the centre of the universe, what is there left to do? / Grant Carrington -- Maid to measure / Damon Knight -- Eyes do more than see / Isaac Asimov -- Thang / Martin Gardner -- How now purple cow / Bill Pronzini -- Revival meeting / Dannie Plachta -- Prototaph / Keith Laumer -- The rocket of 1955 / C.M. Kornbluth -- Science fiction for telepaths / E. Michael Blake -- Kindergarten / James E. Gunn -- A little knowledge / Paul Dellinger -- A cup of hemlock / Lee Killough -- Present perfect / Thomas F. Monteleone -- A lot to learn / Robert T. Kurosaka -- The amphibious cavalry gap / James E. Thompson -- Not counting bridges / Robert L. Fish -- The man inside / Bruce McAllister -- The Mars stone / Paul Bond -- Source material / Mildred Downey Broxon -- The compleat consummators / Alan E. Nourse -- Examination day / Henry Slesar -- The sky's an oyster; the stars are pearls / Dave Bischoff -- The man who could turn back the clock / Ralph Milne Farley -- Patent rights / Daniel A. Darlington -- Alien cornucopia / Walt Liebscher -- The last paradox / Edward D. Hoch -- Course of empire / Richard Wilson -- Synchronicity / James E. Thompson -- Sweet dreams, Melissa / Stephen Goldin -- The man on top / R. Bretnor -- Rejection slip / K.W. MacAnn.

A collection of three m/m sci-fi novellas: Following the Sun - The nearly fatal crash of their spacecraft leaves Jack and Samuel stranded on a verdant planet far from civilization. Discovered and sheltered by a native tribe, the two resign themselves to new lives - lives that include a new culture, a new language, and even new love. But their new home isn't at all what it seems, and when war and illness strike, they find out just how far from home they are. Close Encounter - Space privateer Tris is just doing his job - delivering canisters to a military science vessel - when he discovers that he is transporting people infected with an engineered virus designed to exterminate the human race. In the midst of an alien attack, can the rogue pilot save patient Retter - the key to the cure? Or will he lose both humanity's salvation and his heart? Enhanced - In Earth's not-too-far future, a talented scientist stumbles over a plot to use the genetically enhanced military to declare martial law and take over the government. Dr. Ryne Siler enlists his friend, Dr. Cary Matthews, a brilliant engineer, to figure out how to stop it. When the investigation goes awry, they're on the run, and the only thing between them and capture is a hidden cache of sleeping soldiers with enhancements of their own. Ryne and Cary are desperate, but will waking these soldiers help - or just make things worse?

Introduction - essay by Isaac Asimov Country Doctor - novelette by William Morrison The Holes Around Mars - short story by Jerome Bixby The Deep Range - short story by Arthur C. Clarke The Cave of Night - short story by James E. Gunn Dust Rag - short story by Hal Clement Pâté de Foie Gras - short story by Isaac Asimov Omnilingual - novelette by H. Beam Piper The Big Bounce - short story by Walter Tevis [as by Walter S. Tevis] Neutron Star - novelette by Larry Niven Appendix - essay by Isaac Asimov

Set in 1899 in South Africa, as the rumblings of dissent and racial resentment began to erupt into a savage war between Boer and Briton, so three young men found their lives drawn together. Matthew Paget, son of an archdeacon, was turbulent, rebellious, and longing for excitement. Will Marriott, his cousin, was an officer who believed in England's greatness and the glory of battle. Hendon Bashford was an upstart social climber, a swindler and a cheat. as the passage of war unfolded, so the lives of these three young men, and the women they loved, moved towards a tumultuous climax.