No American writer during the 1990s has published a more distinguished bibliography of first-rate science fiction than Robert Reed. In the title piece, a renegade misfit conquers the dragons and renews the threat of nuclear chaos aboard Springplace, a man-made repository for old reactor cores, dirty plutonium, and dismantled bombs. Another story is a sprawling intergalactic epic that takes place aboard a starship. Salvaged and commandeered by humans, the massive generation starship becomes the setting for a titanic struggle between two alien entities who engage in a monumental battle for survival. In 'Chrysalis', the author explores not just an alien milieu but the nature of man himself when another ancient starship lands and investigates an icy unknown planet inhabited by humans millions of years earlier.

Table of Contents

The dragons of Springplace -- Waging good -- To church with Mr. Multhiford -- Stride -- Chrysalis -- The utility man -- Guest of honor -- Decency -- Thr remoras -- Aeon's child -- The shape of everything.