All of the stories collected here are outstanding on their own, obviously, but this anthology also provides a useful jumping-off point. Shorter/lighter works from several heavyweight names in the field (Roger Zelazny, for example) appear here, as well as the novella which became Nancy Kress' hugely-successful "Beggars" trilogy and a story from Mike Resnick's Kirinyaga series.

This note was recorded by James Bennett from page of Asimov's Science Fiction.