First published in 1978 by editor Robert R Potter, this Anthology contains twenty-one short stories.
Works in this anthology:
- "The Weapon", by Fredric Brown (1951)
- "Prolog", by John P Mc Knight (1951)
- "Appointment At Noon", by Eric Frank Russell (1954)
- "The Fun They Had", by Isaac Asimov (1951)
- "Mr Lupescu", by Anthony Boucher (1945)
- "Test", by Theodore L Thomas (1962)
- "The Oval Portrait", by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)
- "The Perfect Woman", by Robert Sheckley (1953)
- "The Mathematicians", by Arthur Feldman (1953)
- "Mrs Hinck", by Miriam Allen De Ford (1954)
- "The Flatwoods Monster", by Frank Edwards (1959)
- "The Mansion Of Forgetfulness", by Don Mark Lemon (1907)
- "Who's Cribbing?", by Jack Lewis (1953)
- "In Our Block", by R. A. Lafferty (1965)
- "The Room", by Ray Russell (1961)
- "So You Too Can Write Sci Fi?", by K Ripke, L Leigh, and T Bruey (1986)
- "Examination Day", by Henry Slesar (1958)
- "The King Of The Beasts", by Philip José Farmer (1964)
- "Something Green", by Fredric Brown (1951)
- "The Gift", by Ray Bradbury (1952)
- "The One Who Waits", by Ray Bradbury (1949)
- "Finis", by Frank Lillie Pollock (1906)
Tropes appearing in this work:
- Advert-Overloaded Future: In "The Room", a Short Story by Ray Russell, has ads being printed on everything (clothes, money, toilet paper, between the lines of newspaper articles), along with always-on daytime television, Subliminal Advertising in bathroom mirrors, doorbells that play commercial jingles, and ads projected on room ceilings.
- The Aloner: In "Something Green", by Frederic Brown, the protagonist is trapped on an alien world where there is apparently nothing that is colored green. He keeps himself sane by a combination of talking to his alien pet and occasionally firing his Ray Gun, which has a green energy discharge, while he dreams of returning to Earth, apparently the only planet where green things grow.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Henry Slesar's "Examination Day": A boy wishes on his twelfth birthday to do well on the government exam. He does and it turns out people who do too well are killed.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: In "The Flatwoods Monster", Frank Edwards talks about a mysterious figure reported to exist in West Virginia. Some of the evidence can be explained by known factors, and some factors cannot.
- Chronoscope: In "Who's Cribbing?", a writer accused of plagiarism claims that what's really going on is that he wrote the original work, and the long-dead author he's accused of plagiarising stole it using a chronoscope.
- Doom as Test Prize: Henry Slesar's "Examination Day": A 12-year-old boy undergoes a mandatory IQ test administered by the government. In the last scene the parents are notified that the boy exceeded the IQ limit, and are asked how they'd like his remains to be handled.
- Floating Head Syndrome: The cover of this 1986 Anthology has a line art of part of a head, with random lines of letters, numbers, and symbols to imply rapid and complex thinking.
- Imaginary Enemy: In "Mr Lupescu", a Short Story by Anthony Boucher, Alan invents two characters, "Mr. Lupescu" and "Gorgo". Lupescu is supposed to be Bobby's friend, and Gorgo is a monster that will punish people that do evil. Gorgo turns out to be not-so-imaginary when it turns up to punish Alan.
- Muse Abuse: "The Oval Portrait", by Edgar Allan Poe: An artist becomes obsessed with painting a perfect portrait of his new wife and fails to notice that her health is failing while she models for him. When he finishes the painting, he ecstatically declares it to be "life itself" then turns to look at his wife eager to share his triumph only to see that she died while he was finishing the portrait.
- The Namesake: "The Flatwoods Monster", by Frank Edwards, takes its name from The Flatwoods Monster.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: In "Mr Lupescu", a Short Story by Anthony Boucher, Alan pretends to be Bobby's fairy godfather "Mr. Lupescu". He wears an elaborate costume, gains his trust with stories of travels in the Milky Way, and instills a fear of "Gorgo", an Imaginary Enemy that will punish Bobby if he misbehaves. When Bobby takes "Mr. Lupescu" home to meet his father Robert, "Mr. Lupescu" kills the man. Of course, no one believes stories of a fairy godfather killing Robert, leaving the police baffled. Alan goes home and destroys his costume, satisfied in the knowledge that Marjorie, now a rich widow, is available for him to marry. Unfortunately for Alan, Gorgo turns out to be a Not-So-Imaginary Monster.
- Persecuted Intellectuals: Henry Slesar's "Examination Day": The government exterminates anyone who scores too high on a mandatory examination so they can't grow up to question or threaten the power structure.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: "The Flatwoods Monster", a Short Story by Frank Edwards, is a Non-Fiction story about the efforts to explain/find a tall, green figure with a head like a spade. West Virginia locals call it the Flatwoods monster.
- Robotic Spouse: In "The Perfect Woman", there's a contrast between the "primitive" woman and the "modern" woman. The "modern" woman refers to the fact that they're artificially created. The husband notices that his modern wife is showing symptoms of damage, and worries that the factory may not be able to restore the robot to the same woman that he loves.
- Typeset in the Future: The cover of this 1986 book uses Westminster typeface
beneath the title, with random lines of letters, numbers, and symbols to imply rapid and complex thinking by the face on the cover. - Wingdinglish: The face on the cover is incomplete in order to show random lines of letters, numbers, and symbols to imply rapid and complex thinking.
