In this book Robert Silverberg has assembled a group of writers, most of them Hugo and Nebula winners, whose names read like a roster of science-fiction greats: Isaac Asimov, Murray Leinster, Clifford D. Simak, Foul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. Le Guin, Edmond Hamilton, and himself. They are represented by stories about interplanetary or interstellar expeditions to worlds that are strange, deceitful, and oddly appealing.

Here are matchstick-like humanoids, or deadly creatures that seem perfectly harmless, or intelligent life too small to be seen, or lovable mutant bears who protect their master from night-walkers and savage sphexes, or the relics of an extinct Jovian race whose ancient spaceship still exists for earthmen to discover.

The crews on these journeys are as varied as the creatures they find. They include ten incompatible misfits suffering through a survey trip lasting centuries, a compassionate young astronaut who must explain to survivors on earth what happened to his companions on a voyage to Mars, explorers seeking specimens of alien life who suddenly find it much too easy, and two vastly different types of life who form a close and enduring rapport.

The reader can confidently expect each one of these eight stories to be above average in every respect.

------

Exploration Team byMurray Leinster
Beachhead byClifford D. Simak
Kyrie byPoul Anderson
Jupiter Five byArthur C. Clarke
Collecting Team byRobert Silverberg
Each an Explorer byIsaac Asimov
Vaster than Empires, and More Slow byUrsula K. Le Gain
What’s It Like Out There? byEdmond Hamilton