by Keith Laumer
First published 2020
This anthology pulls together six stories from science fiction's golden era. Keith Laumer contributes four tales including "The Star-Sent Knaves," where protagonists face alien infiltrators, and "The Long Remembered Thunder," which explores the aftermath of catastrophic events. His "The Night of the Trolls" presents survivors navigating a transformed world, while "The Frozen Planet" drops characters onto an ice-bound alien world. Kurt Vonnegut adds two contributions: "The Big Trip Yonder" follows characters confronting mortality and meaning, and "2 B R 0 2 B" depicts a society where death becomes a managed commodity. Each story captures the period's focus on technological change and human adaptation. The collection showcases both authors' ability to blend speculative concepts with character-driven narratives, examining how people respond when familiar rules no longer apply.
Genres: short-stories, science-fiction, speculative-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Period: Golden Era
267 pages · Kindle Edition · Otbebookpublishing