Starburst

Starburst, Alfred Bester, Signet Books, 1958

Included in this group of science fiction stories first published in the 1950s is the story of a man who flies a privately-built rocket ship to the moon. He doesn't realize that a chemical in his propulsion system, when it reacts with the atmosphere, causes a total, chain-reaction holocaust over the whole world. He returns a few days later as the Last Man on Earth. A man from 1950 comes into possession of an almanac from 1990 and has to deal with a man from the future who wants it back.

A ten-year-old boy and his friends seem to have invented things like a disintegration beam, a matter-transmuter, and a way to build miniature androids. Everyone has heard of people who are accident prone; what if someone is good luck prone? In the 22nd century, America is in a state of Total War, and every citizen is made part of the war effort. The end of the war comes, not on the battlefield or the negotiating table, but, in a locked mental ward whose patients are able to disappear into worlds of their own imagination, practically at will.

These are not some average, lesser stories written just for the money. These are well-done, first-rate tales to which any author would be proud to affix their name. This group of stories is very interesting, and highly recommended.