Approaching Oblivion

The most honored (and the most controversial) writer in the field of imaginative literature is at the peak of his volcanic form in these eleven previously uncollected stories that (if they don't rip aside, at least) pull back for a disturbing view the veil separating us from our possible futures. These are stories of odd delusions, wry fantasms, terrifying glimpses of where we're going, individually and as a species... stories that sound a cautionary note about the foolhardiness of Humanity tinkering with a Universe that, up till now at least, has been content to let us survive here on this infinitesimal dust-mote... as long as we don't get too smart for our own good.

The fires that Ellison sets with these stories range from the ultimate futuristic sexual experience to the terrible and oddly poetic fate that befalls a man who programs the death of entire worlds, to the apocryphal saga of the very last student militant in a nation of universities that have become armed camps. There's also the uproarious Yiddish science fiction story "I'm Looking for Kadak" and the touching "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" that seems to tie in closely with the author's memories of his own childhood.

Contents:

• Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman
• One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty
• Erotophobia
• Silent in Gehenna
• Kiss of Fire
• Hindsight: 480 Seconds
• Cold Friend
• Ecowareness
• I'm Looking for Kadak
• Knox
• Catman