While the here and now imposes itself upon man through the animal imperatives eat, sleep, drink, it cannot control the creative process which obeys the human imperative?Think. Boundaries set by nature and circumstance limiting the scope of physical existence are made insubstantial in confrontation with the power of imagination. New frames of reference?new worlds?open to human experience. All things are suddenly possible: great triumph, tragic failure, ennui. In this volume, three of science fiction's most accomplished writers present worlds of human experience untrammeled by strictures of time and space. In Terry Carr's "The Winds at Starmont," man's spirit of adventure rises to the challenge of an unconquered mountain peak on a planet of winged aliens. "The Partridge Project," by Richard A. Lupoff, introduces a machine capable of viewing disparate futures and pasts across every dimensional continuum. And Robert Silverberg's novella, "This is the Road," projects the reader forward into a time when humanity has undergone radical mutation and yet retains its propensity for hatred and self-destruction. Each of these original stories attests to the capacity of the creative mind to push aside the barriers of time and space which may limit no mind of man.

SFWA Grandmaster Robert Silverberg is the multi-award-winning author of dozens of novels and countless short stories, including Lord Valentine's Castle and the rest of the Majipoor series, Dying Inside, and Sailing to Byzantium. Born in New York City, he now lives in California in the Bay area. For more information on him and his work, visit his extensive web site at www.majipoor.com.