The Veldt
The Hadley family lives in an automated house called "The Happylife Home," filled with machines that do every task. The two children, Peter and Wendy, become fascinated with the "nursery," avirtual realityroom able to reproduce any place they imagine.
The parents, George and Lydia, begin to wonder if there is something wrong with their way of life.They are also perplexed and confused that the nursery is stuck on anAfricansetting, with lions in the distance, eating a dead figure. Wondering why their children are so concerned with this scene of death, they decide to call apsychologistm who suggests they turn off the house, move to the country, and learn to be more self-sufficient. The children, reliant on the nursery, beg their parents to let them have one last visit…
Caught in the Organ Draft
The United States no longer has a draft. Military conscription was ended under the Richard Nixon administration in 1973. But before that,millionsof American men experienced compulsory military service. When confronted with the possibility of wartime horror and the very real threat of death, these men could not run. They faced long sentences in military jails that were famous for their harsh conditions. Once their time was over, their legal records would be ruined.
These men could give their bodies and lives to the war machines, or they could throw away their futures. That was their choice.
In his story, Robert Silverberg paints a reality where young people must once again choose between their bodies and their futures. Their organs are needed by the rich and important, people who’ve got the power of the law on their side. A conscripted organ donor can live without a lung or a kidney, but a convicted draft dodger might wish he’d never been born.
Red Card
In “Red Card” Linda Jackson kills her husband in the opening line of the story: Late one April evening, Linda Jackson pulled a revolver from her purse and shot her husband through a large mustard stain in the center of his T-shirt. The rest of the story follows Linda and Sarah, her neighbor from across the street, as they go to turn in Linda’s “Red Card,” the license that makes her action not only legal but laudable.
Billennium
The story explores the life of Ward, a man who is struggling to find enough space in a world destroyed by over-population. The story is a post-apocalyptic tale set in the not so distant future in which the earth’s population has continued to expand exponentially since the 1950’s. The story revolves around Ward and Rossiter's combined discovery of a secret, larger-than-average room adjacent to their rented cubicle.
Ten with a Flag
“Ten With a Flag” is about a young mother-to-be caught in between the wishes of a meritocratic government and those of her husband, both of which are struggling to control the fate of her unborn child. The government believes the child is a prodigy destined to enrich society while her husband believes the child a danger to both he and his wife.
Different Kinds of Darkness
Jonathan joins a school club to look at illegal pictures in a world where terrorists post images which instantly kill if seen.
The Pedestrian
In this story we encounter Leonard Mead, a citizen of atelevision-centered world in 2053. In the city, roads have fallen into decay. Mead enjoys walking through the city at night, something which no one else does. "In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time." On one of his usual walks he encounters a police car which is possibly robotic.