I'm enjoyed the hell out of this book, and I'm not a sci-fi reader. Believe it or not, I took it from a colleague who was using it to prop up and display some specimens and instruments when teaching his lab class. The stories are intriguing, the characters eccentric, and the settings and plots out of another world; more importantly, the prose and wording doesn't saturate you with pseudo-scientific jargon. A real gem. ( )