Which in itself is a pretty odd question. But it is in fact typical of science fiction, a field of writing which examines the usual the better to extrapolate the unusual, which revels in oddity, in looking at things upside down, or backwards, or even forwards, which delights in the strange juxtaposition, the reversed field, the apparent contradiction--and which is, indeed, the genre where T. L. Sherred is certainly one of the first and most significant of writers (although not necessarily peculiar). His work is rare and precious and it is therefore all the more pleasurable to be able to present this collection.