Starved of news, fed on rumour the crew of the observatory gain perceptual powers that anticipate the Earth's events. But they're on the Moon - or so Winter, their observer, thinks. But the crew think they're on the Earth. And who knows who is right in "Real-Time World".

The severed limbs of Todd Alport, the Master, are tempted from retirement into another starring role as the greatest self-mutilator the stage has ever seen. And just what horror this superstar of the future can perpetrate "The Head and the Hand" reveals.

How does a global government deal with dissidents? Simple. Sentence them to correction 0 and achieve it by removing their minds from their bodies and setting them to work in a computer. And there is only one way out of a "Sentence to Binary Code".

Just three mind-bending examples of the stories to be found in this collection by Christopher Priest, the author of INVERTED WORLD, who was voted 'Best British Writer of Science Fiction 1974' by fans.