History Literature / ScienceFiction101

* HuntingTheMostDangerosGame: "Home is the Hunter" is set in a future world where a nobility of hunter-warriors spends all of their lives endlessly training in order to hunt the most dangerous prey of all -- one another.

[[folder:''Scanners Live in Vain'']]

[[folder:Hothouse]]

[[folder:''Four in One'']]
''Four in One'' is a short story by Creator/DamonKnight. Its protagonist is George Meister, a biologist on an expedition through a new planet with three other individuals: Vivian, a geologist, Major Gumbs, their military guard, and Miss [=McCarty=], a government supervisor. An accident causes them to fall into a strange amoeba-like organism, which promptly engulfs their bodies... but their nervous systems survive. Now in control of this strange creature, the four people attempt to transform themselves in a more useful shape, and pursue their opposing goals.

[[folder:Fondly Fahrenheit]]
''Fondly Fahrenheit'' is by Creator/AlfredBester, and it concerns a man and his android. James Vandeleur has been forced to go on the run, because his android has a murderous streak and will sometimes randomly kill people. Too afraid to turn in the android and possibly lose all chance of making a living, Vandeleur puts them both into hiding, while trying to find out what makes his android go wrong. But maybe it's not just the android that's messed up...

[[folder:''Home Is the Hunter'']]
''Home Is the Hunter'', by Creator/HenryKuttner, takes place in a dystopian New York, where society has been split into two castes. The Populi are the common folk, who go about their daily lives and stay out of the way of the Head-Hunters, the elite class who battle each other in gladiatorial duels. The story is narrated by the Head-Hunter Honest Roger Bellamy, the mightiest warrior in the city who knows full well he's only as good as his most recent duel.

* BloodKnight: A necessary quality for every head-hunter.
* CrapsackWorld: New York is one now. No word about the rest of the world.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:After defeating his final threat to his title, Bellamy poisons himself during the victory ceremony.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Bellamy notes at the beginning of the story that there's only two ways out of a head-hunters life: you're either killed by a rival and thus your head is mounted and your treasury looted, or you die naturally/by suicide and be honored with a plastic statue in Central Park. [[spoiler:Bellamy takes the suicide route at the end of the story.]]

* OffWithHisHead: Why else do you think they're called "head-hunters"?
* VillainProtagonist: The narrator is a head-hunter, who murders for a living.

[[folder:''The Monsters'']]
''The Monsters'' is a short story by Creator/RobertSheckley. It concerns a village of "humans" who are one day visited by extraterrestrials. However, their differing values quickly create conflicts, and each side begins to view the other as evil monsters.

* AffablyEvil: The "humans", maybe.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Debatably. The "humans" (who are probably not ''homo sapiens'' or even from Earth at all) commit casual murder on a daily basis, [[spoiler:but it's all to keep their population in check]]. They, however, view the aliens as monsters for [[spoiler:saying killing is wrong and thus going against their way of life.]]
* HypocriticalHumor: The "humans" are constantly concerned about whether these alien visitors are moral beings, despite the villagers constantly killing each other. They also think the aliens lack hospitality, despite constantly calling them ugly.

[[folder:''Common Time'']]
''Common Time'' is by Creator/JamesBlish, and is about the strange things experienced by a pilot testing an experimental faster-than-light drive.

[[folder:''The New Prime'']]
''The New Prime'' is by Creator/JackVance, and concerns the selection of a new ruler of the galaxy.

[[folder:''Colony'']]
''Colony'' is a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick, about a colonization group's arrival to Planet Blue, a seemingly perfect newly-discovered world. Is this Eden-like paradise as perfect as it seems? Of course not!

[[folder:''The Little Black Bag'']]
''The Little Black Bag'' is a short story by Creator/CyrilMKornbluth. In the present, an old physician, Dr. Full, is living in poverty after his medical license is revoked due to alcoholism. One day he awakes to find a mysterious black bag, which is full of medical tools that make surgery a breeze. Unbeknownst to him, the bag comes from the future of Kornbluth's TheMarchingMorons, where the average human has become stupider and therefore rely on machines to simplify their jobs for them. With the aid of a street rat named Angie who knows the truth about his tool, Dr. Full returns to medical practice and gains much success with his healing... while these tools keep working.

[[folder:''Light of Other Days'']]
''Light of Other Days'' is a short story by Creator/BobShaw. It's about a married couple with an unwanted pregnancy, who stop by a house in a beautiful valley selling "slow glass". Slow glass is a substance so thick that light takes years to cross it, allowing it to preserve images in it like a meadow, mountains, or sunshine, and thus, memories.

* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: Played with. A material called "slow glass" is technically transparent but so dense that light takes weeks, months, or even years to pass through it. As a result, images on it can be preserved by placing the slow glass near a scenic area for a while then hoisting it elsewhere. With it, one can have the appearance of a window to a grassy meadow or mountain range or other site right outside one's room.

[[folder:''Day Million'']]
''Day Million'' is by Creator/FrederikPohl, where he tells you ([[NoFourthWall yes, you]]) a little BoyMeetsGirl story. But not quite the story you expect.

''The Little Black Bag'' is a short story by Creator/CyrilMKornbluth. In the present, an old physician, Dr. Full, is living on the streets after having been fired in disgrace. One day he awakes to find a mysterious black bag, which is full of medical tools that make surgery a breeze. Unbeknownst to him, the bag comes from the future, where the average human has become stupider and therefore rely on machines to simplify their jobs for them. With the aid of his first customer, a receptionist named Angie who knows the truth about his tool, Dr. Full sets out to become a private doctor gaining much success with his healing... provided these tools keep working.

* "Literature/TheLittleBlackBag", by Creator/CMKornbluth

''The Little Black Bag'' is a short story by Creator/CMKornbluth. In the present, an old physician, Dr. Full, is living on the streets after having been fired in disgrace. One day he awakes to find a mysterious black bag, which is full of medical tools that make surgery a breeze. Unbeknownst to him, the bag comes from the future, where the average human has become stupider and therefore rely on machines to simplify their jobs for them. With the aid of his first customer, a receptionist named Angie who knows the truth about his tool, Dr. Full sets out to become a private doctor gaining much success with his healing... provided these tools keep working.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The entire crew is tricked into mistaking an imitation rescue ship for the real thing and are thus all killed when they enter.]]

* {{Transgender}}: Dora is genetically male, but in the womb her future aptitudes were analyzed and judged to be better suited for a female. Thus, Dora was induced while a fetus to be born female.

[[folder:Four In One]]
''Four In One'' is a short story by Creator/DamonKnight. Its protagonist is George Meister, a biologist on an expedition through a new planet with three other individuals: Vivian, a geologist, Major Gumbs, their military guard, and Miss [=McCarty=], a government supervisor. An accident causes them to fall into a strange amoeba-like organism, which promptly engulfs their bodies... but their nervous systems survive. Now in control of this strange creature, the four people attempt to transform themselves in a more useful shape, and pursue their opposing goals.

[[folder:Home Is The Hunter]]
''Home Is The Hunter'', by Creator/HenryKuttner, takes place in a dystopian New York, where society has been split into two castes. The Populi are the common folk, who go about their daily lives and stay out of the way of the Head-Hunters, the elite class who battle each other in gladiatorial duels. The story is narrated by the Head-Hunter Honest Roger Bellamy, the mightiest warrior in the city who knows full well he's only as good as his most recent duel.

[[folder:The Monsters]]

[[folder:Common Time]]

[[folder:Scanners Live In Vain]]
See ''Literature/ScannersLiveInVain''

''Hothouse'' is by Creator/BrianWAldiss, and is reprinted here in its original short story form before it was adapted as a novel. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where plant life has become dominant over human life, and far more deadly. A village of humans is constantly fending for survival amid everything trying to kill them, and eventually decide it's too dangerous to stay in their old home. Thus, their journey begins, and continues until they find a new home, farther away than they even thought possible.

* AfterTheEnd: What caused the end is not clear. From the sounds of it, though, the story takes place perhaps more than a million years in the future.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Every plant has its own special way of making nearby humans have a really rough day.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Humans now have green skin. This may hint that they've become part plant or that it's an adaption to camouflage oneself better.
* ILoveNuclearPower: [[spoiler:Traveling from the Earth to the Moon exposes you to radiation, causing humans to mutate and begin transforming into flymen.]]
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Lily-yo assesses her bare breasts in one scene, disappointed that they're much saggier than they used to be.
* TidallyLockedPlanet: The Moon's tidal locking has progressed further over millions of years, to the point that its orbit now perfectly keeps pace with Earth's day/night cycle. As a result, the Moon floats over one sole area of Earth's surface, making travel to it much easier by "traversers", enormous spiders capable of passing through space on silk strands miles long connecting the Earth to the Moon.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Of a sort. Every kid is forced to become a warrior, learn to kill, and have more children quickly, because the death rate is so high in this future.
* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:The flymen are former humans, who have mutated from the radioactive belts between the Earth and the moon.]]
* WeirdMoon: The Moon has drifted far enough that it's no longer in Earth's orbit, and instead travels on a parallel orbit with it around the sun. The two exert just enough gravity on each other to keep them both moving at the same speed [[spoiler:allowing for travel from one to the other.]]

[[folder:The New Prime]]
''The New Prime'' is by Creator/JackVance, and concerns the selection of a new ruler of the galaxy.

[[folder:Colony]]
''Colony'' is a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick, about a colonization group's arrival to Planet Blue, a seemingly perfect newly-discovered world. Is this Eden-like paradise as perfect as it seems? Of course not!

* CassandraTruth: Major Hall is reluctant to admit that his own microscope tried to strangle him, because he knows no one would believe him. He only admits it when he's attacked again and when pressured by others to, and sure enough they do take him in to be checked. However, another attack occurs almost immediately afterward, proving the truth of his statement.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Guess.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The entire crew is killed by the protoplasms before they can alert future colonists about the danger on Planet Blue.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: The protoplasm can imitate any inanimate object, thus making everything aboard the ship suspect.
* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The entire crew is tricked into mistaking an imitation rescue ship for the real thing and are thus all killed when they enter.]]
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Toward the end of the story, the crew of the colony ship is forced to go naked to make sure they aren't carrying any of the creatures with them.
* NudityEqualsHonesty: When the officers realizes what it is going on, they order the entire crew to evacuate the ship naked to be sure nobody brings a parasite with them.
* ProperlyParanoid: No one is imagining their common items attacking them. Your towels and gloves really are out to kill you!

[[folder:The Little Black Bag]]
''The Little Black Bag'' is a short story by Creator/CMKornbluth. In the present, an old physician, Dr. Full, is living on the streets after having been fired in disgrace. One day he awakes to find a mysterious black bag, which is full of medical tools that make surgery a breeze. Unbeknownst to him, the bag comes from the future, where the average human has become stupider and therefore rely on machines to simplify their jobs for them. With the aid of his first customer, a receptionist named Angie who knows the truth about his tool, Dr. Full sets out to become a private doctor gaining much success with his healing... provided these tools keep working.

[[folder:Light of Other Days]]
''Light of Other Days'' is a short story by Creator/BobShaw. It's about a married couple with an unwanted pregnancy, who stop by a house in a beautiful valley selling "slow glass". Slow glass is a substance so thick that light takes years to cross it, allowing it to preserve images in it like a meadow, mountains, or sunshine, and thus, memories.
----
* AnAesop: The couple learns to appreciate their chance for a family.
* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: Played with. A material called "slow glass" is technically transparent but so dense that light takes weeks, months, or even years to pass through it. As a result, images on it can be preserved by placing the slow glass near a scenic area for a while then hoisting it elsewhere. With it, one can have the appearance of a window to a grassy meadow or mountain range or other site right outside one's room.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Noted in the afterword by Silverberg. A substance like slow glass in real life would likely distort the images through random movements of molecules long before they would ever reach the other side... but then we wouldn't have this story, would we?
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Mrs. Hagan and her son are dead, and the view the couple see of them through the window are just preserved slow glass images. Mr. Hagan keeps it up as the last memento of his family.]]
* LawOfInverseFertility: Hence why the couple is so cranky at the moment. They claim to have been hoping for a child "later", but secretly this meant "never".

[[folder:Day Million]]
''Day Million'' is by Creator/FrederikPohl, where he tells you ([[NoFourthWall yes, you]]) a little BoyMeetsGirl story. But not quite the story you expect.
----
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The point of the story. [[spoiler:Dora and Don's marriage is merely a sensory download that they can access at any time. Among other strange details of their future culture.]]
-->"Rats, you say, it looks crazy to me. And you--with your aftershave lotion and your little red card, pushing papers across a desk all day and chasing tail all night--tell me, just how the hell do you think you would look to [[spoiler:Tiglath-Pileser]], say, or [[spoiler:Attila the Hun]]?"
* FourthDateMarriage: Dora and Don fall in love and marry after just knowing each other for seconds. [[spoiler:The marriage is over just as fast. Technically.]]
* OverlyLongName: "Dora" is short for "omnicron-Dibase seven-group-totter-oot S Doradus 5314". Don's name is said to be just as long.
* {{Transgender}}: Dora is genetically male, but in the womb her future aptitudes were analyzed and judged to be better suited for a female. Thus, Dora was induced while a fetus to be born female.
* WhamLine: "Go ahead, glare and grumble. Dora doesn't care. If she thinks of you at all, [[spoiler:her thirty-times-great-great-grandfather,]] she thinks you're a pretty primordial sort of brute. You are. [[spoiler:Why, Dora is farther removed from you than you are from the australopithcines of five thousand centuries ago.]]"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Anthology itself]]
* BilledAboveTheTitle: The 2001 cover by [[Creator/IBooks ibooks]] lists Silverberg's name above the road sign that serves as a title.
* {{Tagline}}:
** "Thirteen stories selected and introduced by Creator/RobertSilverberg with an autobiographical essay" -- original 1987 cover
** "Thirteen classic stories. What makes them the best?" -- 1988 Great Britain cover
** "Where to start reading and writing science fiction" -- 2005 cover
** "A collection of essential science fiction masterpieces, selected and introduced by Creator/RobertSilverberg" -- 2014 cover by Creator/NewAmericanLibrary
[[/folder]]

* HumanoidAliens: Zig-zagged. What little we hear of the protagonists' anatomy tells us they have different structures like bladed tails or one eye, but they refer to themselves as "humans". Later on, the aliens say they are "humans". One possible explanation is that they use the word "human" to mean "sapient".

----
!!Works reprinted in ''Science-Fiction 101'':

[[folder:No Woman Born]]
''No Woman Born'' is written by Creator/CLMoore, and has nothing to do with [[NoManOfWomanBorn this trope]]. Or [[OneGenderRace this trope]]. Rather, it's about the woman Deirdre, a famous actress and dancer who was killed in a theater fire. However, her body was recovered before her brain was destroyed, and it was transferred to a robotic body built to replace her old. Thrilled at her new body and to be alive again, Deirdre promptly prepares to return back to her career. But the scientist who built her body, Maltzer, is skeptical. Despite the protests of Deirdre's manager John Harris that her real self is truly there, Maltzer cannot shake off the feeling that she will soon lose her humanity, if she hasn't already.

* AnachronismStew / HistoricalBeautyUpdate: In-universe. Maltzer and Harris watch a theater dramatization of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, noting that the garb being worn by the women is far too tight for the period and the actress playing Mary is too attractive for the real deal.
* BadassBoast: Deirdre declares that even with her artificial body, eventually she'll be able to play [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Juliet]] and everyone in the audience would believe her.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Maltzer is convinced this will happen to Deirdre, once she eventually forgets about what her human life was like and from the lack of three of her senses. [[spoiler:She finally admits toward the end that she sometimes ''does'' worry about this, but not because she feels like her new body is inferior, but rather superior, since it's so much stronger than her old one.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler:Maltzer's attempted suicide is what breaks through Deirdre's show of confidence.]]
* BrokenAesop: Noted in-universe. Maltzer brings up the example of the story of ''{{Literature/Frankenstein}}'' as proof that creating life is doomed to go wrong. Deirdre responds back that Maltzer ''didn't'' create her, he only gave her a new body.
** While not pointed out, also of note is that Dr. Frankenstein's creation went wrong because he mistreated it. Had he been kinder to it, it would have not rebelled.
* ChekhovsSkill: Deirdre points out that she no longer has to worry about lack of vocal range or breath when singing. [[spoiler:It also lets her scream loud enough to break windows and put others in pain.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Maltzer tries to kill himself rather than witness Deirdre fall from glory. It also has the double affect of threatening her to be honest. However, when he jumps out the window Deirdre runs so fast she catches him before he lands.]]
* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Deirdre is the most important character, but instead we see from Harris's perspective so we can both be left in mystery about whether she is still truly human and to understand why people are in such awe of her.
* GiantRobotHandsSaveLives: [[spoiler:Well, not "giant" this time, so it's more plausible.]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:Maltzer has become so convinced that Deirdre is doomed to become soulless that he can no longer recognize human nature himself.]]
%%* MakeMeWannaShout: [[spoiler:See ChekhovsSkill above.]]
* NoEnding: [[spoiler:The story ends with Deirdre admitting her fear to the men about what will become of her. In her last line ("I wonder..."), spoken to herself, she forgets to make it sound human and it instead emerges robotically.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Zig-zagged. It's unclear whether Maltzer is right to be afraid of what will happen to Deirdre, as sometimes she seems human and other times she doesn't. [[spoiler:Deirdre eventually admits that he's partially right that she's at risk of losing her humanity, but for the wrong reasons.]]
* RobotGirl: Guess who.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: [[spoiler:Once Deirdre sings "The Yellow Rose of Eden" while onstage, the crowd recognizes her and goes wild.]]
* StepfordSmiler: Deirdre always appears confident that she can keep living as though her old body was never lost. [[spoiler:However, she eventually reveals that the ''real'' reason why she hopes to continue performing in front of an audience because they remind her of the people she belongs to. The joy of dancing and acting has become laced with fear of what will happen if she stops.]]
* {{Technobabble}}: During the scene where [[spoiler:Deirdre runs fast enough to catch Maltzer from his suicidal jump off a balcony]], the story has this lengthy "scientific explanation" about the fourth dimension and travel through time and space. In his commentary, Silverberg argues that this is an unnecessary flaw to the story, as it makes no sense, overcomplicates a simple action, brings an intense scene to a halt, and is unlikely to have all gone through Harris' head in that short span of seconds.
* TitleDrop: Early on, Harris remembers a poem by James Stephen about a lost love also named Deirdre, of whom he wrote: ''There has been again no woman born, Who was so beautiful; not one so beautiful, Of all the women born-''. Harris decides that Stephen was wrong; there ''is'' another beautiful Deirdre, and she's not lost at all, he hopes.
* [[invoked]]UncannyValley: Specifically avoided with the design of Deirdre's new body. It only mimics a human form, and does not attempt to replicate her old one. Harris thinks to himself that he's glad the designer avoided giving her face definite features or human-like eyes. Even her clothes are not cloth, because it would have reminded of her old body too much.
** Maltzer asserts that this is why he's certain Deirdre will eventually forget how to be human: because something about her actions always feels off. [[spoiler:He may be right, but the tells are instead originated from fear, rather than forgetting.]]
* UnresolvedSexualTension: It's not clear if Harris is merely in awe of Deirdre or if they were lovers. Whatever the case, they're not shown attempting a relationship in her new form, though he still almost faints at the mere sight of her.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Deirdre finds comfort in that fact that her brain will wear out at the normal rate, and therefore she won't have to outlive her friends.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: What the title refers to, as shown by the poem it references. Deirdre is believed to be this, and Harris feels she still is the most beautiful even in her artificial body.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Zig-zagged, as noted above in BrokenAesop. Maltzer knows perfectly well about how messing with life in stories has always gone wrong, but whether he's wrong or not streaks back and forth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Home Is The Hunter]]
''Home Is The Hunter'', by Creator/HenryKuttner, takes place in a dystopian New York, where society has been split into two castes. The Populi are the common folk, who go about their daily lives and stay out of the way of the Head-Hunters, the elite class who battle each other in gladiatorial duels. The story is narrated by the Head-Hunter Honest Roger Bellamy, the mightiest warrior in the city who knows full well he's only as good as his most recent duel.
----

* %TheColony% "Colony", by Creator/PhilipKDick

* %%{{Colony}} Links to unrelated work%% "Colony", by Creator/PhilipKDick

* "Literature/TheNewPrime", by Creator/Jack Vance
* %ColonY% "Colony", by Creator/PhilipKDick %%Links to unrelated work

* "Literature/{{Colony}}", by Creator/PhilipKDick

''Science-Fiction 101'', previously released as ''Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder'' is an anthology of science fiction short stories written by various authors. The purpose of including each story, though, is not merely to entertain but actually to ''teach'' a principle about writing science fiction. Creator/RobertSilverberg, the organizer of the book, explains that this is how he learned to write, by reading from other authors, and hopes that by presenting these stories that other readers may do the same.

!!The short stories provide examples of the following tropes:

''Science-Fiction 101'', previously released as ''Robert Silverburg's Worlds of Wonder'' is an anthology of science fiction short stories written by various authors. The purpose of including each story, though, is not merely to entertain but actually to ''teach'' a principle about writing science fiction. Robert Silverburg, the organizer of the book, explains that this is how he learned to write, by reading from other authors, and hopes that by presenting these stories that other readers may do the same.

''Four In One'' is a short story by Damon Knight. Its protagonist is George Meister, a biologist on an expedition through a new planet with three other individuals: Vivian, a geologist, Major Gumbs, their military guard, and Miss [=McCarty=], a government supervisor. An accident causes them to fall into a strange amoeba-like organism, which promptly engulfs their bodies... but their nervous systems survive. Now in control of this strange creature, the four people attempt to transform themselves in a more useful shape, and pursue their opposing goals.

* BookEnds: Towards the beginning, George tries to think of a name for the organism, planning on "something ''meisterii''". At the end of the story, [[spoiler:he changes his mind and names it ''Spes hominis'' (Man's hope)]]. Silverburg notes this in his commentary on the story, writing: "It's always artistically pleasing when a story's end hearkens back to its beginning."

''Fondly Fahrenheit'' is by Alfred Bester, and it concerns a man and his android. James Vandeleur has been forced to go on the run, because his android has a murderous streak and will sometimes randomly kill people. Too afraid to turn in the android and possibly lose all chance of making a living, Vandeleur puts them both into hiding, while trying to find out what makes his android go wrong. But maybe it's not just the android that's messed up...

''No Woman Born'' is written by C.L. Moore, and has nothing to do with [[NoManOfWomanBorn this trope]]. Or [[OneGenderRace this trope]]. Rather, it's about the woman Deirdre, a famous actress and dancer who was killed in a theater fire. However, her body was recovered before her brain was destroyed, and it was transferred to a robotic body built to replace her old. Thrilled at her new body and to be alive again, Deirdre promptly prepares to return back to her career. But the scientist who built her body, Maltzer, is skeptical. Despite the protests of Deirdre's manager John Harris that her real self is truly there, Maltzer cannot shake off the feeling that she will soon lose her humanity, if she hasn't already.

* {{Technobabble}}: During the scene where [[spoiler:Deirdre runs fast enough to catch Maltzer from his suicidal jump off a balcony]], the story has this lengthy "scientific explanation" about the fourth dimension and travel through time and space. In his commentary, Silverburg argues that this is an unnecessary flaw to the story, as it makes no sense, overcomplicates a simple action, brings an intense scene to a halt, and is unlikely to have all gone through Harris' head in that short span of seconds.

''Hothouse'' is by Brian W. Aldiss, and is reprinted here in its original short story form before it was adapted as a novel. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where plant life has become dominant over human life, and far more deadly. A village of humans is constantly fending for survival amid everything trying to kill them, and eventually decide it's too dangerous to stay in their old home. Thus, their journey begins, and continues until they find a new home, farther away than they even thought possible.

''The Little Black Bag'' is a short story by C. M. Kornbluth. In the present, an old physician, Dr. Full, is living on the streets after having been fired in disgrace. One day he awakes to find a mysterious black bag, which is full of medical tools that make surgery a breeze. Unbeknownst to him, the bag comes from the future, where the average human has become stupider and therefore rely on machines to simplify their jobs for them. With the aid of his first customer, a receptionist named Angie who knows the truth about his tool, Dr. Full sets out to become a private doctor gaining much success with his healing... provided these tools keep working.

''Light of Other Days'' is a short story by Bob Shaw. It's about a married couple with an unwanted pregnancy, who stop by a house in a beautiful valley selling "slow glass". Slow glass is a substance so thick that light takes years to cross it, allowing it to preserve images in it like a meadow, mountains, or sunshine, and thus, memories.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Noted in the afterword by Silverburg. A substance like slow glass in real life would likely distort the images through random movements of molecules long before they would ever reach the other side... but then we wouldn't have this story, would we?

* [[spoiler:AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]]: Integrated with the ''meisterii'', the humans become shapeshifters, [[spoiler:and functionally immortal.]]

* [[spoiler:ImmuneToBullets: The group is shot at one point by a passing guard, but the bullet fragments are instead pushed through the body. George deduces that no attack to them would be fatal unless it hits their spinal cord or brain.]]

* [[spoiler:UngratefulBastard: Major Gumbs fails to kill George and is wounded when a rock falls on his spine. George helps him out and tells him he can heal it. Not long afterward, Gumbs tries to kill him again, only to kill himself instead.]]

* [[spoiler:BreakTheHaughty: Maltzer's attempted suicide is what breaks through Deirdre's show of confidence.]]

* [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide: Maltzer tries to kill himself rather than witness Deirdre fall from glory. It also has the double affect of threatening her to be honest. However, when he jumps out the window Deirdre runs so fast she catches him before he lands.]]

* [[spoiler:GiantRobotHandsSaveLives: Well, not "giant" this time, so it's more plausible.]]
* [[spoiler:HeWhoFightsMonsters: Maltzer has become so convinced that Deirdre is doomed to become soulless that he can no longer recognize human nature himself.]]
* [[spoiler:MakeMeWannaShout: See ChekhovsSkill above.]]
* [[spoiler:NoEnding: The story ends with Deirdre admitting her fear to the men about what will become of her. In her last line ("I wonder..."), spoken to herself, she forgets to make it sound human and it instead emerges robotically.]]

* [[spoiler:StepfordSmiler]]: Deirdre always appears confident that she can keep living as though her old body was never lost. [[spoiler:However, she eventually reveals that the ''real'' reason why she hopes to continue performing in front of an audience because they remind her of the people she belongs to. The joy of dancing and acting has become laced with fear of what will happen if she stops.]]

* [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide / BetterToDieThanBeKilled: After defeating his final threat to his title, Bellamy poisons himself during the victory ceremony.]]

* [[spoiler:ScrewThisImOutOfHere: The aliens leave the village and planet rather than stay with these "bloodthirsty" "humans".]]

* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: The entire crew is killed by the protoplasms before they can alert future colonists about the danger on Planet Blue.]]

* [[spoiler:KillEmAll: The entire crew is tricked into mistaking an imitation rescue ship for the real thing and are thus all killed when they enter.]]

* [[spoiler:DeadAllAlong: Mrs. Hagan and her son are dead, and the view the couple see of them through the window are just preserved slow glass images. Mr. Hagan keeps it up as the last memento of his family.]]