Quirky, powerful short stories, many published in SF magazines in the late 1980s. Most of them have been unavailable for more than a decade. Now the best of them are collected for the first time - along with several new stories never before published.

Also includes a number of essays.

Contents:
WHILE YOU WAIT
• Two Cheers for Ned Ludd and One for Crazy Eddie
• Gentleman Pervert off on a Spree
• How to Build a Future
• Stochasm
• Under the Covenant Stars
FOR THE END
• Finalities Besides the Grave
• Restricted to the Necessary
• Enrico Fermi and the Dead Cat
• Empty Sky
LET US SPEND SOME TIME
• Why the Stars Are Always So Bright from Cousin Sid’s Farm
• That Style Thingie
• Delicate Stuff
• Deep in the Heart of Genre
• Bang On!
• Hope Against Hope
TALKING TO PEOPLE WHO AREN’T THERE
• Information and Unfictionable Science
• Between Shepherds and Kings
• That Kid Watching His Shoes
• Digressions from the Second Person Future
• My Advice to the Civilized
• Kids Are All Right