Theodore Sturgeon was a model for his friend Kurt Vonnegut's legendary character Kilgore Trout, and his work was an acknowledged influence on important younger writers from Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg to Stephen King and Octavia Butler. His work has long been deeply appreciated for its sardonic sensibility, dazzling wordplay, conceptual brilliance, memorable characters, and unsparing treatment of social issues such as sex, war, and marginalized members of society. Sturgeon also authored several episodes of the originalStar TrekTV series and originated the Vulcan phrase "Live long and prosper." This final volume of North Atlantic's ambitious series reprinting his complete short stories includes classic works such as the award-winning title story, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1971, as well as "Case and the Dreamer," a well-crafted tale of an encounter with a trans-spatial being that is also a meditation on love, and "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff," a creative exploration of the human ability to achieve self-realization in response to crisis. The book includes a new Foreword, an illuminating section of Story Notes, and a comprehensive index for the entire series.

Theodore Sturgeon (1918—1985) is considered one of the greatest masters of the science fiction story and is ranked with classic contemporaries such as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. He received the International Fantasy Award for his 1953 novel More Than Human, as well as Hugo and Nebula awards for his story “Slow Sculpture.”