Quite a nice collection from Philip Jose Farmer. These five stories all feature the character John Carmody, an escaped wife murderer who eventually becomes a jovial, caring, devout catholic priest. Three of the stories are more or less novella length. The range of style and tone is impressive, ranging from the almost Delanyesque "The Night of Lights," to the almost Monty Pythonesque "A Few Miles," to the quite interesting theological questions of "Prometheus." "Father" seems like a clear inspiration for one of the truly bad Star Trek movies (the one about a friendly Godlike alien who turns out to be more crazy than beneficent). I'm still chuckling at the image of striking union electricians complaining that they cannot picket due to unreasonable rules of the militant picketers union. ( )