Harlan Ellison, Richard Christian Matheson, Connie Willis, and many more contribute to a compelling psychological exploration of the many shades of love. An incubus disguised as a high school girl puts a disturbing spin on the teacher/student fantasy. An engineer creates a robot with unexpected consequences during the end of the world. A man becomes the pet of alien invaders. From stories of aliens in other worlds to those living among us, these tales will move you out of your comfort zone and open you up to experiencing something—or someone—completely different

The Cylinder is a massive structure rising miles above the surface of an unknown future Earth. Axxter, the hero of Farewell Horizontal, has forsaken the dull, nine-to-five life of Cylinder's Horizontal levels to go where the action is – the Vertical, where freelancers, warring tribes and other nomadic types live along the slings and cables of Cylinder's outer edge. His dream is to be a successful graffex artist, designing armour and ikons for the various tribes – and, like all citizens, he is linked by a microchip in his brain to the complex computer system that runs the economy. But when Axxter accepts a really big job – creating all-new military imagery for one of Cylinder's most powerful tribes – he begins a dangerous journey that will take him to the far side of Cylinder – and beyond

Travelt, a corporate flunkey at DynaZauber, is dead, but his prowler is still stalking the Wedge. Harrisch needs the prowler back, before it spews DynaZauber's secrets to the enemy, so he approaches ex-agent McNihil. McNihil's every nerve ending screams no, but Harrisch won't take no for an answer