Assignment in Tomorrow

A rocketing voyage into the worlds of tomorrow. This new anthology brings together a short novel, three novelettes, and twelve short stories. Such top-flight authors as Ray Bradbury, Fletcher Pratt, H.L. Gold, and C. M. Kornbluth give a provocative preview of a future of unpredictable robots, supersonic speeds, and exploration of strange worlds in stranger machines - of the worlds that lie just beyond the horizons of our imagination. But this is not a mere collection of gimmick tales. Concerned rather with the plight of man trying to survive in an ever-more-complicated world, these ingenious tales range from the powerful and tense account of a man who could not resist his destructive urge to power, to the tale of an interplanetary hobo in search of a shot of whiskey. From the question of what forms the devil might assume to the horrors wreaked by a manufactured philosopher-king, here is an exciting, often amusing, and always entertaining sampling of speculation on the worlds to come.ContentsIntroduction (Assignment in Tomorrow) essay by Frederik Pohl 5,271,009 (1954) novelette by Alfred BesterMother (1953) novelette by Philip José FarmerWe Don't Want Any Trouble (1953) short story by James H. SchmitzMr. Costello, Hero (1953) novelette by Theodore SturgeonHall of Mirrors (1953) short story by Fredric BrownThe Big Trip Up Yonder (1954) short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.Back to Julie (1954) short story by Richard WilsonThe Frightened Tree (1953) short story by Algis Budrys (aka Protective Mimicry)A Matter of Form (1938) novella by Horace L. GoldHelen O'Loy (1938) short story by Lester del ReyThe Peddler's Nose [Quarantine] (1951) short story by Jack WilliamsonShe Who Laughs… (1952) short story by Peter Phillips (aka She Who Laughs)The Adventurer (1953) short story by C.M. KornbluthAngels in the Jets (1952) short story by Jerome BixbyOfficial Record (1952) novelette by Fletcher PrattSubterfuge (1943) short story by Ray Bradbury