Justice League International Year Two: Suicide Squad vs. Justice League (JLI #13-21)

The second year of Justice League International brings the title into a crossover with Suicide Squad. This time-span also saw four issues of Secret Origins with Justice League collections published; three of these were reprinted in the third JLI omnibus, but I chose to read them by release date, in between issues of JLI. (Clearly they're more useful to me here than much later, but also experience has taught me I don't enjoy reading a bunch of origin stories in a row, so better to spread them out a little.) Plus, as with my "Year One" post, there is one story set during this period that was written later.

from Justice League International vol. 1 #14

Suicide Squad vs. Justice League / "Shop...or Die" / "Gnort and South!", from Justice League International vol. 1 #13 & Suicide Squad vol. 1 #13 (May 1988) and Justice League International vol. 1 #14-15 (June-July 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis and John Ostrander; pencils by Kevin Maguire, Luke McDonnell, and Steve Leialoha; inks by Al Gordon and Bob Lewis

First we get a crossover with Suicide Squad: the Suicide Squad decides to free one of their members from a Russian prison; in order to prevent an international incident, the JLI is sent in to stop them. I enjoyed it even if I am very unfamiliar with Suicide Squad. Apparently Captain Atom is dating one of its members; the gag about how they pretended to fight but were actually tickling each other was a good one. The best part, though, was when J'onn J'onzz runs into one of his old Justice League Detroit teammates, Vixen, now a Suicide Squad member. Vixen says he must have seen her and her version of the league as a joke, but he confesses how important they were to him. It's a great moment.

Weirdly, the story ends with Batman declaring his frustrations with the JLI, calling everyone a moron, and quitting. It doesn't feel quite in character... but also in later stories, he's still a member!

After this, we have the first two parts of an eight-part story about the alien Cluster coming to Earth to trade... or compel it to trade by blowing it up. While there has been lots of character-interaction comedy so far, Lord Manga Khan and his sidekick robot, L-RON, are the first overtly comic villain characters we've seen, with lots of goofy back-and-forth and even some metatextual jokes. ("Please, L-RON--you sound like a contrived plot summary." "Sorry, m'lord.") I enjoy their interplay a lot.

In addition, Gnort returns (so far so good but I'm worried there will be a point I max out on Gnort comedy), and the Green Flame and Icemaiden, formerly of the Global Guardians (who appeared in some backups earlier in the series), finagle their way into joining the shorthanded JLI.

from JLA: Incarnations #6

"Buddies", from JLA: Incarnations #6 (Dec. 2001)

written by John Ostrander, pencilled by Val Semeiks, inked by Prentis Rollins, lettered by Ken Lopez, colored by John Kalisz

JLA: Incarnations was a seven-issue 2001-02 miniseries, where each issue contained stories from the history of the Justice League, beginning with its original incarnation and ended with the then-current "Watchtower" version. Issue #6 contains two stories, one from the JLI era, the other from the (as far as I can tell, extremely regrettable "Extreme Justice" incarnation). Chronologically, there's no good place to fit this story in: the Green Flame and Icemaiden are League members, so it must take place after JLI #15, but Colonel Harjavti is still ruler of Bialya, so it must take place before issue #16. However, during that time, Mister Miracle was kidnapped by the Cluster, and Martian Manhunter was in space trying to rescue him, but they're both in this story. As we'll see, though, that was a problem the actual JLI series had too!

Anyway, this story is fun enough. Colonel Harjavti makes Bialya into a supervillain sanctuary so that supervillains will invest their money in his banks; Booster and Beetle decide to infiltrate the country (as some delightfully awful 1990s-style supervillains) to make the entire scheme collapse... only Colonel Harjavti expects their arrival, and they have to be rescued by the rest of the League. Writer John Ostrander decently captures the tone of this era, doing a good job with the Booster/Beetle interplay in particular. I really liked the art by Val Semeiks and Prentis Rollins which, like that of Kevin Maguire, goes for detailed and realistic, and lets the comedy emerge from that.

from Justice League International Annual vol. 1 #2

"Hit or Miss!" / "Bialya, My Bialya" / "Only the Dead Know Bialya!" / "Where No League Has Gone Before!" / "Raising the Roof!", from Justice League International Annual vol. 1 #2 (1988) and Justice League International vol. 2 #16-18 (Aug.-Oct. 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis and Mark Askwith; pencils by Bill Willingham, Kevin Maguire, and James Webb; inks by Joe Rubinstein, Al Gordon, and Mark Pennington

Like "Buddies" from JLA: Incarnations #6, Justice League Annual #2 takes place in a nonexistent gap because Fire and Ice are on the team and Colonel Harjavti still rules Bialya, but Mister Miracle, Martian Manhunter, and Big Barda are not in space. The omnibus places it before issue #14, but I think it reads better after #15 since otherwise the presence of the Green Flame and Icemaiden is completely random even if there's not an actual gap for it to fit in. 

Anyway, this is a goofy story about the Joker teaming up with Colonel Harjavti while Booster and Beetle try to make extra money by doing repossessions, which leads to them running afoul of the criminal gang the Thousand; meanwhile, Big Barda and Mister Miracle are preparing to host a barbecue... and while Scott Free can rewire a mother box, a gas grill may prove beyond his ken. I enjoyed this a lot, particularly all the Booster/Beetle stuff and the Scott/Barda stuff. Mister Miracle has been part of JLI from the beginning, but I'm happy to see the increased inclusion of Big Barda, who is also a great character.

After this, we get the last four parts of the Cluster storyline, though it also incorporates a story about Colonel Harjavti and Bialya. It reads a little weirdly to have the JLI infiltrating Bialya again if you've read JLA: Incarnations, but there's nothing that says they haven't done this before. This one, again, has some fun stuff, with Batman pretending to be Bruce Wayne (!), Booster and Beetle being Wayne's hired help, and the Green Flame getting into a number of improbable escapades. It all ends, though, in the death of Colonel Harjavti, replaced by his consort "Queen Bee" as ruler of Bialya... as well as the reveal of Bialya's own super team, made up of the alien superheroes from JL #2-3 and rejects from the Global Guardians.

Meanwhile in space, Martian Manhunter and Big Barda do their best to liberate Scott; Lord Manga Khan hires Lobo to take them down. Lobo is a character who is often misused... but here he's in the hands of cocreator Keith Giffen and thus on great form, particularly in the sequence where he's accidentally sent to JLI embassy on Earth.

There's also a backup story here called "Raising the Roof"; Scott and Barda's home is accidentally blown up, so they move into the JLI embassy. Barda does housework to earn her keep but is terrible at it, so the other JLI members decide to rebuild their home to get her out... only they do a bad job of it. I have no idea where this story might fit chronologically, if at all, but I enjoyed it. Will Scott and Barda still live in the embassy in future stories? I guess I will see when we finally get there.

from Secret Origins vol. 2 #32

"All Together Now: The Secret Origin of the Justice League of America", from Secret Origins vol. 2  #32 (Nov. 1988)

story by Gardner Fox, plot by Keith Giffen, dialogue by Peter David, art by Eric Shanower, letters by Gaspar, colors by Gene D'Angelo

While issues #33-35 of Secret Origins were origins for various JLI members, #32 was an origin for the JLA overall, the first one told in the post-Crisis universe. It's not included in the JLI omnibus volumes, which makes sense, but I did want to read it. (The cover has some JLI members on it, but they're not in the actual story.) The story is fine, nothing too exciting to be honest; it does its job well, but that's about it. That said, I did really like the sequence where the various future JLA members figure out how to work together without actually talking about it. Peter David does the dialogue to a plot by Keith Giffen, but surprisingly, there's only one overtly comic bit in it. The art is by Eric Shanower, best known on this blog as the illustrator of numerous Oz books and author of quite a number of Oz comics. Shanower is an excellent storyteller, and overall he does a good job adopting a superheroic style... but I noticed he draws Black Canary's face the same way he does Princess Ozma's!

Coincidentally, I recently read JLA: Year One, and I note that that story basically picks up right from the end of this one. Maybe they should have collected Secret Origins #32 with it?

from Justice League International vol. 1 #19

"No More Mr. Nice-Guy!" / "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be-- Apokolips!" / "Apokolips... Wow!", Justice League International vol. 2 #19-21 (Nov.-Dec. 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen, scripts by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kevin Maguire and Ty Templeton, inks by Joe Rubinstein

I alternated these issues with the three Secret Origins issues below, but reviewing them that way seems silly. These finally bring an end to the ongoing Cluster storyline, with Manga Khan trying to sell Scott Free to Darkseid on Apokolips, while Barda summons the whole JLI to help her battle. Lots of great stuff in this one... particularly Darkseid being above it all! Barda is awesome. Also, Guy Gardner turns into an asshole again and throws down with Lobo.

Also during this stretch of issues, the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl briefly (re)join the League. Hawkman is depicted as an obnoxious old fogey who doesn't like how thew League has become more irreverent. At one point, he complains about how their cursing shows a lack of decorum, which causes Beetle to tease him by calling him a Republican. Funny to think that thirty-five years ago it was the Republicans who were the party of public decorum! 

from Secret Origins vol. 2 #35

Secret Origins of Justice League International, from Secret Origins vol. 2  #33-35 (Dec. 1988), reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 (2024)

written by Mike Carlin, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Gerard Jones, Cary Bates with Greg Weisman, William Messner-Loebs, J. M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Mark Verheiden, and Robert Loren Fleming; pencilled by Don Heck, Chuck Austen, Valentino, Alan Weiss, Irv Novick, Stephen DeStefano, Dan Jurgens, Ken Steacy, and Eduardo Barreto; inked by Klaus Janson & Art Adams, Gary Martin, Eduardo Barreto, Joe Rubinstein, Stephen DeStefano, Tom Dzon, and Ken Steacy; lettered by Albert De Guzman, Todd Klein, Helen Vesik, Bob Lappan, and Agustin Mas; colored by Tom Ziuko, Greg Theakston, and Gene D'Angelo

These three issues of Secret Origins give us origins for Mister Miracle and Oberon, the Green Flame, Icemaiden, Captain Atom, Rocket Red, Gnort, Booster Gold, Martian Manhunter, and Maxwell Lord. 

Some are good. The Gnort one is fun (is his planet supposed to be a Dr. Seuss planet?). The Captain Atom one doesn't really give an origin for him, but ties into what I think was an idea in the character's then ongoing, that he had a superheroic career in the 1960s... that was all made up! (I think I detected a bit of a Miracleman influence here. I'll be curious to see what I think if I ever read his actual solo series.) The Rocket Red one also doesn't give much of an origin, but it does give us more of a sense of the main character that has been missing from his appearances in JLI so far. The Booster one is great—for a character so often played for comedy in JLI, he has quite a tragic life! The Martian Manhunter one is nicely atmospheric.

Some are just fine. It's good to get backstory for Green Flame and Icemaiden; my understanding is they had no origins at all until these stories. But the actual Icemaiden story is just okay, and I didn't care for the art in the Green Flame one, which I don't think quite matches what the Bierbaums were trying to do in their writing. The Maxwell Lord one is kind of pointless, because it retells something we just got a few issues ago in JLI #12... but I did find this telling more streamlined.

One is not good. I found the Mister Miracle and Oberon one a chore to read, and it felt to me like it didn't really capture key parts of the characters' origins, rushing over them, spending a lot of time on stuff that didn't matter much. The key to Mister Miracle is that need to escape, and this story doesn't really nail that at all.

This is the second in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #22-30 of JLI/JLA and #1-6 of JLE. Previous installments are listed below:

1. Justice League #1-6 / Justice League International #7-12 (May 1987–Apr. 1988)

Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda by Jim Zub, Lan Medina, Craig Yeung, et al.

This eight-issue miniseries came out in parallel to The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Book 3, but if you've only been following T'Challa's adventures in his main title, it reads very oddly. Far from being lost in space, Black Panther is apparently the chairman of the Avengers!? According to this series, not only that, but he's assembled a special strike force to support the Avengers in times of particular crisis, called the "Agents of Wakanda" and led by the leader of the Dora Milaje, Okoye.

from Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #1

I didn't really buy any of this. Why would T'Challa be the chair of the Avengers, particularly at this point in time? If he did think the Avengers needed extra back-up, why would he call the group "Agents of Wakanda"? Surely a group called that would be backing up Wakanda's interests, not the Avengers'? Based on the title, I expected something more like The Crew. How come Okoye is leading this group? Doesn't she have a whole other group of elite warriors to spend her time leading?

If you can get past all this, what's here is fine, sometimes even good. The eight issues are made up of four two-issue stories; each one puts a set of different Agents of Wakanda into the spotlight, which are a mix of prominent Marvel characters (e.g., Mockingbird, the Wasp) and ones I had never heard of (e.g., Fat Cobra). I do like goofy, obscure superhero characters, and writer Jim Zub really leans into that with the rotating line-up here. Of the four stories here, my favorites were the first, with its emphasis on Fat Cobra, a sumo wrestler who can eat his way out of trouble, and the last, which has a big focus on Fin Fang Foom. The goofy stuff on the moon in the second one was also good. 

from Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #8

The only one I didn't really like was, predictably, the Deadpool one. Any amount of Deadpool is too much.

So I don't really get why this comic had to be made (its best moments have pretty much nothing to do with the Black Panther or his milieu), but if it did, it was decent enough. I enjoyed it enough that when I got to the end, I was interested to see its threads would be continued in a comic called Empyre: Invasion of Wakanda... but disappointed to discover the comic never actually came out! 

Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda originally appeared in eight issues (Nov. 2019–Sept. 2020). The stories were written Jim Zub; penciled by Lan Medina (#1-4, 7-8) and Scot Eaton (#5-6); inked by Lan Medina (#1), Craig Yeung (#2-4, 7-8), and Sean Parsons (#5-6); colored by Marcio Menyz (#1-8) and Erik Arciniega (#4-5), with Federico Blee (#3); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

New Publication: Review of Speculative Whiteness by Jordan S. Carroll

This summer, it was my privilege to get to read Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by my former colleague Jordan S. Carroll. I reviewed the book for the academic journal that I am associate editor for, Studies in the Fantastic.

After I read and reviewed the book, the book won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work—which I think was well-deserved, and I think I would think that even if I didn't know Jordan! 

Jordan cites the idea of the "modal imagination" that he gets from Mark Jerng (who in turn got it from the philosopher Adrian M.S. Piper), which I have found really useful in articulating what makes science fiction what it is—I used it in my sf class this semester, and I suspect it might even find its way into a book project I've been contemplating.

The full review can be read here if you have access to Project MUSE, but here are the first couple paragraphs:

As Jordan Carroll discusses in the introduction to this slim volume from the University of Minnesota Press’s “Forerunners: Ideas First” series, “[s]cience fiction thinking turns out to be surprisingly prevalent in the alt-right and antecedent white nationalist movements” (5). Many like to think of science fiction as an inherently progressive genre: its urtext, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), is after all the work of the daughter of one of the founding thinkers of feminism, and early sf writers like H. G. Wells used the genre to criticize imperialism and nationalism. Science fiction allows us to imagine a better world.
     How, then, could the genre attract those who want to take society backward in some kind of way? This is a question often expressed by baffled fans and critics alike, but as Carroll demonstrates, there have long been racist undercurrents in sf and its fandom, as evidenced by controversies such as 2009’s “Racefail,” when authors of color critiqued the field (17), and the “Sad” and “Rabid Puppies” movements (2013–17), when right-wing fans attempted to pack the fan-voted Hugo Awards with their chosen finalists, many of them racist and homophobic (47–8). Prominent racist thinkers such as Richard Spencer and Nick Land are science fiction fans, and adherents of President Donald Trump sometimes refer to him as the “God Emperor,” drawing on a term from Frank Herbert’s Dune novels (1963–85) and the sf wargame Warhammer 40,000. How can all of this happen, given the genre’s supposed leanings and origins? As Pamela Bedore says (drawing on Carolyn Miller), we should “ask not what various genres or subgenres look like, but rather, what they accomplish rhetorically” (9). Is there something about the rhetoric of science fiction itself as a genre that allows it to be a breeding ground for racism?

The review works in a couple of my own obsessions: Pam Bedore's features/project distinction for articulating genre and Isaac Asimov's definition of sf.

But probably the thing I am most proud of is the title, which is a reference to a classic Internet meme, and somehow neither of the two editors I worked with on the review put the kibosh on that... which I totally expected them to do: "Racism? In My Science Fiction? It’s More Likely than You Think."

Reading Roundup Wrapup: September 2026

Pick of the month: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold. Do I always pick a Bujold novel as my best book in the months where I read one? I bet I do. More on this sooner or later—but I think this might be my favorite Vorkosigan novel thus far.

All books read:

1. The Living House of Oz by Edward Einhorn, illustrated by Eric Shanower
2. The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume Four: Minority Report by Philip K. Dick
3. Star Trek Classics #2: Enemy Unseen by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Scott Ciencin, Andrew Currie, Peter Pachoumis, Lucian Rizzo, et al.
4. From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich by Peter Hayes
5. Tongues of Serpents: Book Six of Temeraire by Naomi Novik
6. The Monster Makers: Collected Comic Strips from the Pages of Doctor Who Magazine by Alan Barnes, Lee Sullivan, and Mike Collins
7. Mirror Dance: A Vorkosigan Adventure by Lois McMaster Bujold
8. Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (part 1) by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.
9. Oz-story Magazine, Number One edited by David Maxine
10. Ms. Marvel Team-Up by Eve L. Ewing, Clint McElroy, Joey Vazquez, Ig Guara, et al.

All books acquired:

1. Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.
2. Ms. Marvel Team-Up by Eve L. Ewing, Clint McElroy, Joey Vazquez, Ig Guara, et al.
3. Legion Lost, Volume 1: Run from Tomorrow by Fabian Nicieza, Pete Woods, Tom DeFalco, et al.
4. Legion Lost, Volume 2: The Culling by Tom DeFalco, Pete Woods, et al.
5. Black Canary: Best of the Best by Tom King and Ryan Sook
6. Oz-story Magazine, Number One edited by David Maxine
7. Tongues of Serpents: Book Six of Temeraire by Naomi Novik
8. The Monster Makers: Collected Comic Strips from the Pages of Doctor Who Magazine by Alan Barnes, Lee Sullivan, and Mike Collins
9. Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.
10. Mirror Dance: A Vorkosigan Adventure by Lois McMaster Bujold

Currently reading:

• Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, et al.
• Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
• Black Panther Adventures by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, et al.

 Up next in my rotations:

1. Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles; Or, Pirates of the Second Aether!! by Michael Moorcock
2. Formerly Known as the Justice League by Keith Giffen & J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Joe Rubinstein
3. Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton 
4. Wait, Wait…I’m Not Done Yet! by Carl Kasell 

 Books remaining on "To be read" list: 683 (up 1)

Hugos Side-Step: The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume Four

As part of my project to read old Hugo winners and related books, I've also been reading the complete Philip K. Dick short stories; this year that brings me to the fourth of its five volumes, which covers stories published from 1955 to 1964. (The stories are collected in order of composition, though, so it actually overlaps with volume three.) None of these stories were ever Hugo finalists, though notably, one of the stories collected here takes place at a Worldcon! This volume was originally published under the title of The Days of Perky Pat, but when the Steven Spielberg film adaptation came out, it was retitled Minority Report.

Previous volumes of this series covered just two to three years of publication time; this one covers a whole decade, indicating a drop-off in how many short stories Dick wrote due to, I believe, his novel-writing career taking off. Perhaps thanks to that, this volume has the highest hit rate of any of these I've read before. I'll just give an overview of some of my favorites and other thoughts here. 

The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume Four: Minority Report
by Philip K. Dick

Collection published: 2000
Contents originally published: 1955-64
Acquired: August 2025
Read: September 2025

You can see Dick's emerging interest in the figure of the media celebrity who controls the thoughts of the populace, a figure who would be a key character in some of his later novels, particularly Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974); here, they pop up in "The Mold of Yancy" (based on Eisenhower, according to Dick's note), "If There Were No Benny Cemoli," "Novelty Act" (where the First Lady controls America, and the President is selected on the basis of who she'd most like to be married to), and the linked pair of "Stand-By" and "What'll We Do with Ragland Park?", where a literal clown with a news broadcast runs for President and only loses thanks to dirty tricks by his opponents. Dick was not exactly right about which media figures would dominate in the future (I don't think newsreaders or variety show hosts carry the cachet now they did in the 1950s and '60s!), but right about our culture's increasing parasocial interest in hollow celebrities. Give me a Philip K. Dick story about TikTok, please.

To be honest, I didn't like the actual story of "Stand-By" very much, but I was tickled by its central conceit: in a future where a computer is the impartial President of the United States, as a concession to the unions over the fact that a human job had been taken by a machine, there'd be a stand-by president, a human being whose job is to sit around just in case the computer fails.

As the title of my edition indicates, the book contains "The Minority Report," a masterpiece of time travel fiction, and the only short story by Philip K. Dick I'd read before embarking on this project back in 2022. It's very cleverly plotted, and the mechanics of how precognition works and what the "minority report" actually is and what the main character chooses to do in the end are all much much more interesting and thought-provoking than in the mediocre Steven Spielberg film. It was interesting to learn that "The Minority Report" was just one of several stories about the mechanics of precognition; it's also the basis of "Recall Mechanism," where a psychiatrist who thinks he's uncovering a patient's suppressed past trauma ends up realizing it's their suppressed future trauma.

I wanted to like "What the Dead Men Say," whose opening premise is about a world where the dead can persist in a half-life; people can visit facilities to wake them and ask for their advice. This would make a great tie-in to my ongoing teaching about "technologies of immortality"... except that the story is barely about that idea! (Dick also used this idea in his 1969 novel Ubik, but again the story isn't really about it.) It's a decent story, but it has a rushed ending.

I didn't particularly get much out of "The Days of Perky Pat," but Dick's reflection on it in his notes was fascinating; the story comes out of his aversion to Barbies. Why are kids playing with adult dolls? Surely adults should be!

I really enjoyed "Oh, to Be a Blobel!", Dick's weird satire on how war changes people and societies—complete with an AI therapist. An Earth soldier infiltrated the enemy Blobels, and so had metamorphose into one, a blobby, protean life-form... and now that the war is over, he can't control and keeps doing it, as do many other vets, ruining his chance of reintegrating into society. The psychiatrist hooks him up with a Blobel who can't control her transformations into a human, and the story explores the ups and downs of their odd relationship, as well as his growing self-loathing over what he's become. Great sf take on the consequences of war.

My favorite story, though, was "Waterspider." In this story's future time, they believe that twentieth-century sf writers were precogs who could genuinely see the future; Dick himself is hailed for his prediction of World War III in "Second Variety." The future people need a precog, so on the basis of a story they read, they travel back in time to abduct Poul Anderson! I often hate "meta," self-indulgent stuff like this (David Gerrold wrote a very bad pastiche of Dick along these lines in "Jellyfish," which I will forever hold against him), but this story is genuinely hilarious and has a very clever time-travel twist; I loved it. Lots of good time travel stuff; I couldn't believe how brazen Dick was with Anderson as a character! "Orpheus with Clay Feet" is similar, if not quite as good, but still very fun—and gets quite weirdly meta by the end. These stories point toward Dick's increasing interest in the barrier between fiction and reality we see in novels like The Man in the High Castle (1962) and VALIS (1981).

I read an old winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel every year, plus other Hugo-related books that interest me. Next up in sequence: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny