The last story was very good; the others are fairly tied to seventies.
A Mind of His Own • novelette by Joe Haldeman
The story happens in a future where it is possible to buy and sell different talents. An embittered war veteran, who has lost his both legs, has already sold his piano playing skills and is contemplating selling his mathematics skills. His wife arranger him to go to psychiatric treatment where he must make the right choices in induced dreams. He opposes the treatment and keeps making the wrong choices. The end was somewhat ambiguous. ***+
The Amphibious Cavalry Gap • shortstory by James E. Thompson
A stupid shaggy dog story about horses in submarines. *+
Violence on TV • shortstory by Glenn Lewis Gillette [as by Glenn L. Gillette ]
An engineer builds a robot with a telemetric system to take care of his infant so that he and his wife can go to the movies without a babysitter. The practicalities or even the morality of this not questioned at all. The problems are caused by a burglar/kidnapper. The writing was ok, but the author hopefully didn’t have children before (or after) writing this story. **½
Wet Blanket • novelette by P. J. Plauger
A scientist finds out that there are two different states for the universe. He is able to switch the state in one direction locally around earth, but not back again. The altered state differs in one main detail: the fission reactions of heavy elements won’t work. That causes some very divided reactions. The ending of the story was more than a little strange.***-
A Bonus for Dr. Hardwick • novelette by Brian C. Coad
A brilliant young scientist goes to work on gigantic corporation full of bright ideas and enthusiasms. He doesn’t have time for reports and detailed memos, but makes a brilliant discovery during his first three months in a firm. He gets severely reprimanded as he has failed to make his reports, and has not even shaved his mustache as the company police dictates. As a punishment he literally loses years of his life. An excellent ironic story told in very straight forward manner. The end was left very open. Would be worth of a reprint somewhere. ****
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