In this volume of sci-fi blended with horror: Barnacle Bill The Spacer: John is a technician on the space station Solitaire on which ships with solar sails are built. Tensions between the crew members are aggravated by subversive agents of a subversive group…and the inevitable showdown must happen without endangering the lives of all. A Little Light Music: an art critic writes an article about a quartet of resurrected corpses, but there is a more sinister revelation…Human History: On a largely deserted planet with a technically backward human population a man goes through a marriage break-up, a mid-life crisis, the maturing of his son and the domination of those who live in the orbiting space stations. Sports in America: Gangsters, the Irish mafia against the Sicilian mafia, paid assassins, revenge and spectacular upheavals. The Sun Spider: A husband and wife on the space station Helios each have a tale to tell of infidelities, tension and the attempts to discover life on the sun.  All the Perfumes of Araby: In Egypt, Danny Shields and his Gulf War veteran friend become involved in drug trafficking and extremist groups. Beast of the Heartland: Mears, a boxer whos sports career is on the decline is about to go blind and suffers from hallucinations in which opponents in the ring have monstrous faces.