"Stross's work offers a potent reminder of why short stories used to be the preferred delivery method for science fiction." - The A.V. Club This selection of speculative fiction runs the gamut-from "Palimpsest," a decidedly nontraditional time-travel novella, to "Dawn on the Farm," an adventure of hapless secret agent Bob Howard (star of the Laundry novels: The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and The Fuller Memorandum). Also included are "MAXOS," a stunning example of the new flash-fiction form; his Locus Award-winning novella, "Missile Gap"; and "Unwirer," a collaboration with Cory Doctorow. Rounding out the contents are "A Colder War," "Rogue Farm," "Trunk and Disorderly," and "Snowball's Chance," four unique, genre- bending tales that could only come from the limitless imagination of one of the twenty-first century's most daring visionaries, Charles Stross.