<p>&ldquo;One of the most imaginative, exciting talents to appear on the SF scene in recent years.&rdquo;<strong><em>&mdash;Publishers Weekly</em></strong></p><p>&ldquo;A master of hard science fiction.&rdquo;<em><strong>&mdash;Noumenon</strong></em></p><p>This collection contains sixteen stories and science articles by the remarkable author, Charles Sheffield.</p><p>The stories range in length from being barely a page (&ldquo;The Seventeen-Year Locusts&rdquo;) to long novelettes (&ldquo;The Courts of Xanadu&rdquo;). They also range in mood from the &ldquo;very silly to very somber.&rdquo;</p><p>Each of them provides a unique and highly imaginative look at the impact of technology on the human condition from one of the most innovative minds in science fiction.</p><p>Charles Sheffield was a mathematician and a theoretical physicist who had that rare gift of making complex science understandable to everyone, as evident in this collection.</p>