This is nicely versatile collection, encompassing a wide range of themes, changes of pace and variances in style. All the stories on offer are clearly the work of an accomplished author. The rest is down to personal taste, and I must confess that the Darger and Surplus tales left me cold. Happily, there were other gems to glitter before my mind's eye. "Hello Said The Stick" the opening piece, features a fateful encounter between a travelling soldier and a talking object. "Tin Marsh" details the deteriorating relationship between two far future prospectors, going mad in the hellish heat of Venus. "The Skysailor's Tale" is a novelette set aboard a British airship, where a father tells his son about his adventuring past. "Slow Life" from which the quote at the top of the page is taken, reveals just how alien space can be. "Legion In Time" is polished pulp fiction, which reminded me of George O. Smith. "Dirty Little War" is a smart story that covers only seven pages, yet has impact worthy of a movie. "The Bordello In Faerie" chronicles the fevered encounters of a human customer with Fey prostitutes, and more interestingly where this eventually leads him in his life. Best of the bunch, for me, was an unusual whodunit called "A Small Room In Kobold Town." The action takes place in a world where the supernatural is normal, often quite grubby life, and a murder most foul has been committed behind a locked door. Did the ghostly Haint do it? You'll have to read this Sam Spade among the spooks tale to find out.

The one criticism I have is that Swanwick's stories sometimes end on a discordant note. As if they are pages torn from larger works, perhaps whole books stillborn inside his imagination. More than once I wanted to know what happened next, and felt slightly frustrated that I was unlikely to ever find out. Perhaps this is exactly what the author intended, leaving readers intrigued rather than satiated. All of the stories in this collection are imbued with charm, wit and imagination. Some fade away like filler episodes of a favourite show, but others linger. The subjects will not be everyone's taste, but I can recommend the book without reservation, in particular to readers who don't need all the answers lined up like fairground ducks.