The Baum Plan for Financial Independence: and Other Stories

This nuanced mostly reprint collection, the first in a decade from Nebula winner Kessel (Good News from Outer Space), plays on the theme of a hapless, down-on-his-luck man thrown into extraordinary circumstances. "The Juniper Tree," the Tiptree-winning "Stories for Men," "Sunlight or Rock" and "Under the Lunchbox Tree," all tied to Kessel's lunar colony sequence, explore the limits placed on a man's life in a beautiful, woman-dominated city on the barren moon. In "Powerless," the only story original to the volume, a hapless inventor finally perfects a strange new power generator, destroying his relationships along the way. Paying homage to the classics, "Every Angel Is Terrifying" serves as a sequel to Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," while in "Pride and Prometheus" Mary Bennet meets Victor Frankenstein. These well-crafted stories, full of elegantly drawn characters, deliver a powerful emotional punch.