Book excerpt: THE HOKAS ARE BACK IN THIS CLASSIC OF HUMOROUS SF FROM POUL ANDERSON AND GORDON R. DICKSON. The Interbeing League had been formed to make contact with new intelligent races in the galaxy and offer them membership. But when the League encountered the Hokas, furry creatures strongly resembling the teddy bears of Earth, the League’s agent, Alexander Jones, could have been excused for wishing he had a simpler assignment than making sense out of the Hokas—such as singlehandedly stopping an interstellar war. Not that the fuzzy aliens were unfriendly. In fact, they loved everything about humans, and adopted various Terram cultures wholesale and in every little detail—but with a bit of confusion about the differences between fact and fiction. So, if the Hokas suddenly started outing out the parts in a rip-roaring, shoot-em-up western, or brought to life the London of Sherlock Holmes, complete with a pip-puffing, deerstalker-wearing Hoka, or suddenly decided to fly the Jolly Roger and lead a life of adventure and piracy on the high seas, mate—well, that was to be expected. And as the Hokas threw themselves wholeheartedly into progressively wilder worlds from Terran history and fiction, Jones could be excused for feeling that his grip on reality was hanging by a single, thin, increasingly frayed thread. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Praise for the Hokas stories: “You aren’t apt to find a more gleeful book of S.F.”—The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction “. . . the funniest s-f ever written.”—A Reader’s Guide to Science Fiction About Poul Anderson: "One of science fiction's authentic geniuses."–Chicago Sun-Times “Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man’s technological future…”–Booklist “One of science fiction’s giants.”–Arthur C. Clarke About Gordon R. Dickson: "Dickson is one of SF's standard-bearers."—Publishers Weekly "Dickson has a true mastery of pacing and fine understanding of human beings."—Seattle Post Intelligencer "A masterful science fiction writer."—Milwaukee Journal