A space capsule reels into space (in the 1920s!), complete with rocket and weightless passengers. Intelligent ants guard a ledge of solid gold in darkest Africa. A scientific miracle makes people invisible. Fans of Erle Stanley Gardner will be surprised and delighted to discover in these long-unavailable stories that he was one of our earliest science fiction writers — and science fiction readers will regret that he did not write many more. Published in Argosy magazine in the 1920s and 1930s, these suspenseful tales display Gardner’s grasp of a vast range of unlikely subject matter and the masterful gift for plot and action that made him the best-selling author of all time. Some of the stories are peopled with his classic cops and killers, tough reporters and sleuths of detective fiction, along with the mad professors and strange geniuses of fantastic science. The nature of molecules is the key to a locked-room murder in The Human Zero title story, and A Year in a Day is another crime story. But there is also natural disaster when a shift in the earth’s poles causes a worldwide flood (with a gripping description of the inundation of New York City), and still more eerie events are tied to hypnotism, reincarnation, and exotic ceremonies in a lost temple in India. The author’s imagination and ingenuity seem limitless; the action and entertainment he could pack into a 10,000-word story are remarkable. The Human Zero: The Science Fiction Stories of Erle Stanley Gardner is a find for all his fans and collectors of his work