This is the first book I've received via Early Reviewers and an interesting book to be reviewing now - considering it was first released and reviewed in the 1970s. It's also the first writings of Hargreaves that I've read. I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection.

The fact that he wrote his characters as ordinary people. rather than exceptional types or heroes, makes this collection even more believable and enjoyable. Most of the stories are set in the near future, and some of the scenarios still have some degree of plausability. Dead to the World, for example, is in some ways, visionary.How far can you get today without some sort of identity card - even if it is just a credit card?

Well worth a read. ( )

I received this book as an early-reviewer copy. It was phenomenal ! The fact that these stories were written in the 70's showed what a great science fiction mind can imagine. This collection must have been mind boggling in it's initial printing. Each story was unique and even, almost 40 years later, was intriguing. Let's see more of this Canadian Sciience Fiction writing. ( )

First single-author collection of stories to be marketed as Canadian science fiction. Quintessential Canadian SF/literature. Includes "Dead to the World" perhaps best known and most reprinted Canadian SF short. Now (2012) available in new edition with additional stories by the author written after this edition came out. ( )

Hargreaves, in 1976, put together a collection of science fiction short stories with a shared world, and common message: no matter how advanced our technology, humans will still be confronted by their basic need to interact and share experience. And it is this overriding theme that renders timeless Hargreaves' stories.

The collection in many ways reflects Canadian cultural values: tolerance, collective cohesion, and a profound influence of the land on our fundamental nature.

Very much worth your time to find a used copy. ( )