I bought this for the Shaara and MacDonald stories, and in those i was not disappointed. Of the overall picks, however, I was sure that if Asimov had been actively consulted there would have been several that would not have appeared, and several that would have replaced them. This is all spilled milk, and I believe that the contgents and the terrible proof-reading bring it down to a book that will entertain you, but in which you may skim with ease. There are a lot of the last minute one-line twists. Sometimes these work. Sometimes they do not. The story where the alien is hung by red-coated humans and uttters "I regret that I have but one life to give for myh country" depends completely upon the reader knowing some basic revolutinary history. ( )

Stories by Andre Norton, Robert Silverberg, John D. MacDonald, Fritz Leiber, A. E. van Vogt, Roger Zelazny, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Philip Jose Farmer, Frederik Pohl, George H. Smith, Isaac Asimov, Bob Shaw, Charles G. Waugh, Poul Anderson, Greg Benford, Gardner Dozois, Brian W. Aldiss, Judith Merril, Jack London and many more. ( )