The first thing to strike me was the cover illustration…Science Fiction Art-Deco, very well done. After much effort I believe Michael Kaluta is the artist—you can see more of his excellent work in the “The Adventure of the Three Madmen”.

Anyway, this book seems to be a compilation of 7 short stories, from 1967 to 1984, assembled by the publisher, who asked Farmer to write an in-depth justification of the collection, as well as an explanation of the inspiration for each story. Nice idea, poor execution. I found the introductions less of an explanation/clarification of anything as much as an excuse for a muddled rambling describing Farmer’s work habits. I get the feeling that Farmer was not really eager, or interested, in putting out too much effort and merely wrote off-the-top-of-his-head. It actually took me a while to figure out where his intros stopped and the stories started—they merged so fluently into one another. I think I would have liked the stories better without the intros.

The Shadow of Space: a rather bizarre story of the ramifications of faster-than-light travelling—with a woman, casting herself naked out the space lock, and then ballooning in size to where the space ship can only survive by flying up her vulva. If only Farmer had offered the story for Harlan Ellison’s “Dangerous Visions” he probably wouldn't have had to "sanitize" the ending.

A Bowl Bigger Than Earth: a different take on the Riverworld Series, where the only option to insanity is to try to irritate the “powers that be”.

Sketches Among the Ruin of My Mind: now THIS story presents an intriguing problem—a) how do you stop the alien invasion when the alien’s weapon causes us to lose our memories 4 days at a time?; b) and, if you do stop them, how do you recover?

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World: how can you initiate an affair with a woman when she is awoken/retrieved from storage on the wrong day of the week?

After King Kong Fell: what if King Kong really happened?

Totem and Taboo: every person has an animal Totem—and woe to the lovers whose Totems are not compatible.

The Adventure of the Three Madmen: is actually a pretty good Sherlock Holmes meets Tarzan meets Mowgli meets She meets…etc. spoof with a lot of tongue-in-cheek silliness. ( )