In one place, a descendant of the Vikings rode a ship such as Lief never dreamed of; from another, one of the descendants of the Caesars, and here an Apache rode a steed such as never roamed the plains. But they were warriors all.
"Did you ever wonder at the lonely life the bird in a cuckoo clock has to lead --" wrote the editor of "Fantastic Universe" in January, 1954, blurbing this tale "-- that it might possibly love and hate just as easily as a real animal of flesh and blood? Philip Dick used that idea for this brief fantasy tale. We're sure that after reading it you'll give cuckoo clocks more respect."
Lane Fleming was a prominent collector of antique firearms. One night when he was working in his gunroom on a new acquisition, a shot rang out and he was found dead on the floor. The coroner somewhat hastily ruled that the death was an accident; more sober heads assumed it was suicide, but that the truth was hushed up for fear of scuppering a major takeover deal involving Fleming's company.
With no more room left on Earth, and with Mars hanging up there empty of life, somebody hit on the plan of starting a colony on the Red Planet. It meant changing the habits and physical structure of the immigrants, but that worked out fine. In fact, every possible factor was covered--except one of the flaws of human nature....
The captain had learned to hate. It was his profession--and his personal reason for going on. But even hatred has to be channeled for its maximum use, and no truths exist forever.
When Rudy bought a recycled robot to help his grandmother, he was expecting a home assistant, not a combat android with ninja reflexes and a killer instinct. Doña Nilda sees in her new companion the perfect opportunity to become the most feared vigilante in the area. Between extreme training, debt collectors fleeing in terror, and a flamethrower “standard for night operations,” Grandma and her robot take neighborhood security to a completely illegal level.
Hunted and hated in two worlds, Hradzka dreamed of a monomaniac's glory, stranded in the past with his knowledge of the future. But he didn't know the past quite well enough....