He is called "Lewis Carroll of the twentieth century." In forty years of his career, Harlan Ellison has collected eight and a half “Hugo”, three “Nebulas”, five Bram Stoker awards (for the best work in the genre of “horror”), including the award “for contribution to the development of the genre”, two awards named E . A. According to (for Best American Detective), the “Silver Pen” of journalism from the international PEN club and the only one four awards of the Writers Guild of America for the best script of the year, not to mention smaller awards more than any other writer. His name became synonymous not only with great success, but also with outstanding literary skill. And also strong will, firm character, extraordinary demands on yourself and others, by word and deed .. It is impossible to list all the achievements of the writer on his creative path .. Based on his stories, such films as the famous “Terminator” and the fantastic television series “Babylon-5” were made. Harlan Ellison's works were repeatedly included in the anthology of the best stories of the year And according to the collections of his essay on television, students study at hundreds of universities .. Now the most outstanding of modern American novelists, presents his works to the Russian reader. The best of the 1,700 stories he has written over the years are included in this collection, approved by the author personally. Especially for Russian readers Harlan Ellison wrote new prefaces to many stories included in the gold fund of world literature. All persons, places and organizations mentioned in this edition, except those whose existence is well-known, are fictitious, and any similarity with real or existing persons, places and organizations is completely accidental.