Karl Schroeder again demonstrates that he is a master of Zen and the Art of Hard SF, as he mixes SF-techno-adventure with the a quest for meaning in this collection of ten short stories published over the last fifteen years, including one previously unpublished one, "Alexander's Road." It turns out that whether you're up against the cold universe, corporate calculations or alien strangeness, that survival depends less on beating the odds as it does on coming to terms with yourself and moving on from there. Fans will appreciate the look inside one of SF's best and brightest writers during this critically formative period.

(Source: Red Deer Press)