From the aftermath of World War III to a world inherited by robots, where humans are from a handful of human survivors on a starship desperately searching for other ships carrying survivors of the destruction of the entire Earth by an unknown enemy, who may strike again at any time, to another starship hurtling through the cosmos at a speed so close to that of light - and unable to slow down - that relativistic effects make millennia fly by for each tick of the clock on from a team striving to make Venus habitable for humans to a group of men who find the ominous secret behind a new quasi-religious philosophy that is sweeping the world. The wide-ranging imagination and exciting storytelling of Poul Anderson brings many different worlds to vivid life in a great volume of his best stories that will thrill all fans of science fiction.