Cascade Point and Other Stories [Hardcover]

A selection of short stories based on a science fiction theme. This book is highly recommened and it is a complete shame that it's out of print.

"The Giftie Gie Us" is about a post apocalyptic world where justice is won the hard way and love is even harder to find.

"The Dreamsender" is a story about a possible future where very special people can go into others dreams and send messages, or just talk to them. "Dreamsending" doesn't seem to have anything to do with time and space...meaning that a person can just as easily send messages across the galaxy as they can to their next door neighbor. So when a conspiracy happens on the moon and men seem to be kidnapped how do they get messages in and out of their prison?

"The Energy Crisis of 2215" is about humanity needing more energy for the earth. They capture a black hole to fulfill this requirement. What they don't know is the black hole is unstable and sitting right next to the earth.

"Return to the Fold" is about a person that has been conditioned since birth to want to be away from other people. Not only can he not stand being in the same room as someone else, he can't stand being in a room someone else was in. This works well on space voyages lasting twenty or thirty years, but horrible when a person wants to be like everyone else. What is he to do?

"The Shadows of Evening" is about humans colonizing another planet and an indigenous life form that doesn't like technology. This life form encircles anything technological and tries to get rid of any people around it. There is a special group of men that can get rid of these "shadows" and have been doing it for generations. When a new, easier way is found to rid the world of "shadows" these highly trained, highly respected Shadow Warriors are no longer needed. These men start to resent the newly trained Mindmasters.

"Not Always To The Strong" is the sequel to "The Shadows of Evening." In this story a rich man wants to control the newly made Mindmasters. To do this he gets the help of some of the best Shadow Warriors he can, including the main character in the last story.

"The Challenge" is about humanities obsession with video games and an alien race watching us from the outside.

"The Cassandra" is about humans that can see disasters and death in the future. Sometimes their predictions are right, usually they're not. Or so people assumed....

"Dragon Pax" is about what happens to a planet after mankind has had a war that turned human civilization throughout the universe into chaos. On this planet there is a ruler called the Dragonmaster. This man has absolute power over gigantic dragons that can cause death and mayhem to anyone he desires. Does this man really want to have the kind of government he has for this country or will he make someone stand forward to help bring democracy to this world?

"Job Inaction" is about a future Earth where people get jobs based on a lottery rather then work experience, or education. In this future world a man is fired because of a computer glitch and he must find a way to either get his job back or make money some other way.

"Teamwork" is about an alien spacecraft that lands on Earth and makes humans into slaves. A special group of people must go in and destroy the craft and save the humans aboard.

"The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment" is about a psychic man that decides to find out when humans have human thought patterns. The consequences of his actions are unforeseen by him or anyone else until years in the future.

"Cascade Point" is about a space ship lost in time and space and what they have to do to get back to their Earth.

An excellent collection of early short fiction by Zahn. I particularly liked "Shadows of Evening" and the sequel "Not only to the Strong". Some stories are clearly showing a writer still learning his craft, but are still very good, and the title story is top-notch.