This is a nice collection of eight early and varied short science fiction stories from Jack Vance, each of them featuring some element of psionics or the like. Most of these stories date from the early 1950s.

My favorites were “Guyal of Sfere,” one of the first of the “Dying Earth” stories, which follows a young man in the far future seeking the mythical Museum of Man; and “Noise,” which tells of a space castaway stranded on a strangely beautiful planet which just may be inhabited by ephemeral beings. “The Miracle Workers” is a gimmick story (science has become magic, and magic has become science) that works reasonably well nonetheless; “The New Prime” tells of a far future contest to become ruler of the galaxy, a contest with a surprise ending for a typical Vance protagonist.

I thought the weakest of the bunch was “Telek,” which followed the story of a group of normal men who battle the self appointed new telekinesis-endowed aristocracy of earth, but even this story raised at least one thought-provoking issue and provided a pre-Casino Royale prototype for later Vance protagonists like Kirth Gersen (the Demon Princes) and Adam Reith (Planet of Adventure), whom I had previously thought of as patterned on Ian Fleming's famous spy.

Good stuff. ( )