A WorldThese are just four of the eleven worlds you will visit in a dazzling gran tour of the talent of Barry Malzberg, the award-winning author of Beyond Apollo, and a writer whose reputatin has soared ever higher in the sci-fi firmanent. Included are stories that in the few short years since their original publication already have attained classic status, as well as superb new works of the imagination appearing for the very first time in this enthralling collection.
where robots and neurotics try to make each other break down first.A World
where assassins are both the hunters and the hunted in a grisly maze of overkill.A World
where dreams turn into trips through time to the frightening revelation and ultimate horror.A World
where death is not the end but just the beginning of the strangest and most terrible nightmare of all.
Contents:
Review:
Review by Guy Salvidge:
The central piece to this collection is, of course, "Final War", which is a must-read for any Malzberg fan, but that story appears in other more comprehensive collections. "Death to the Keeper", which also appears elsewhere, is another excellent story; along with "Final War", Malzberg, in the introduction, describes them as "so terrifyingly close to the best work I have done that to reread them is actually depressing."
The story "Closed Sicilian" is the template for the later novel Tactics
of Conquest, and deals with a game of chess upon which the fate of
the universe is decided. There is, however, some material unique to this
collection. "Management" is a four-page story which (I believe) is about
the relationship of writer and typewriter, and is extremely funny. "Reconstitution"
is a short essay on the relationship of father and son. The introduction,
while brief, is, like all Malzberg introductions, informative and entertaining.
Many Worlds is not the best collection of this writer’s work but, for the
dedicated Malzberg fan, it is essential reading.