An exciting collection of SFWA Grandmaster James Gunn's never before published stories. Includes:
- INTRODUCTION
- SANE ASYLUM
- JUDGMENT DAY
- BROKEN RECORD
- THE BLACK MARBLE
- THE WHIP
- JACKPOT FOR JULIE
- THE MAN WITH ONE TALENT
- THE BIG ONE
- PEST HOUSE
From the introduction: "This [book] is not about the stories I sold. Rather it is about the stories I didn't sell. It takes a bit of courage to present them here in this volume ... because they have about them the aura of failure. They weren't good enough. Even now, though, I'm not sure why. When I was writing them I couldn't tell the difference between the ones that sold and the ones that didn't. I wrote them all the same.
I don't make these stories available as object lessons in what not to do, although students of writing might analyze them, if they wish, for reasons why they were less successful than my others. Rather I think it would be good to give these stories a chance. They are only nine out of ninety-two, most of them among my earliest. It would feel good to have all my fiction out where people could see and judge it, not just those pieces that editors liked well enough to publish. These stories give me a feeling of something unfinished, of something I once loved and forgot for a while but now have rediscovered.
Here are [nine] stories ... Take them for what they are. If you find something to like about them, I will be pleased. If you find them flawed, perhaps you can learn from their mistakes.
