A Locus #1 bestseller from Hugo Award-winner Zelazny and legendary SF humorist Robert Sheckley. The authors suggest this premise is true, only nobody notices--except the forces of good and evil who vie for control of the universe every thousand years.

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Roger Zelazny once again teams with Robert Sheckley for the latest comic fantasy starring demon extraordinaire, Azzie Elbub. On a devilish sabbatical in Europe, Azzie discovers that morality plays are all the rage, so he strikes back by producing an immorality play.

CONTENTS: ~ ~ ~ Visit to a Small Planet [Gore Vidal]; Up [Charles L. Fontenay]; Dawn Invader [Robert Sheckley]; Last [Fritz Leiber]; The Proper Spirit [Robert Bloch]; Added Inducement [Robert F. Young]; The Canvas Pyramid [Jane Roberts]; The Splendid Source [Richard Matheson]; Survival Technique [Poul Anderson & Kenneth Gray]

THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A NEW ARRIVAL ON OMEGA AVERAGED THREE EARTH YEARS Barrent had been tried, convicted, and memory-washed on Earth - an Earth strangely altered and stratified by fear of the radical and non-conformist. Now he was serving his sentence on Omega - a prison planet walled by a ring of hovering guard-ships from which there was no escape. Omega was a world of horror, a savage, ruthless way of life. But it was only a momentary ordeal, a prelude to a return to Earth and the subtle terrors of its own status civilization. Robert Sheckley was a Hugo and Nebula-nominated American author. He was first published in science fiction magazines of the 1950's. His numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and comical. Sheckley was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

CONTENTS: ~ ~ SERIAL: Time Killer (Part 2 of 4) [Robert Sheckley]; NOVELETTES: Birds of a Feather [Robert Silverberg]; The Civilization Game [Clifford D. Simak]; SHORT STORIES: No Substitutions ]Jim Harmon]; People Soup [Alan Arkin]; ARTICLES: The First Spaceship [Willy Ley]; The Tin Age [H. L. Gold]

Arthur Fenn is an ordinary young professor with an esoteric specialty, Comparative Mythology. He is in financial trouble and suddenly finds himself in possession of a magical spell that allows him access to the realm of the gods. He may be a professor, but he's got no common sense--so when he goes there, he makes the mistake of inviting a con-man god and his companions back to Earth. What develops is a fantastic mess full of rich opportunities for humor, satire, and surprise. Arthur's mistake unbalances his own life, life on Earth, and the lives of the gods in their realm...and universal darkness threatens to cover all. Chaos spread on a greater and greater scale until all creation is threatened. It's a good thing that Arthur is able to find the courage and self-confidence to save the day, even if the universe has to die and be reborn

Minor wear on spine.