Book excerpt: Twice Aurora Award-nominated author Hugh A. D. Spencer collects more of his previously published short fiction in this fun collection. Featuring a series of interconnected stories about the Progressive Apparatus, a sometimes anti-muse, sometimes amoral high-tech firm, and a Galactic Super-culture that meddles in human life through heavy drugs and museum exhibits, this collection asks the big questions in science fiction. Like what happens to those breakthrough scientific projects when the funders pull the plug? What if that crazy scifi religious cult is actually on to something? How can a heartless multi-galactic corporation be affected by a small act of rebellion, like driving a truck through their headquarters? Stories in this collection Five Stories About Alan The Progressive Apparatus ...And the Retrograde Mentor ...Experience Denial Then Acceptance The Heritage Drug Project Sticky Wonder Stories The Meaning of Steel Ammonite City Cult Stories John, Paul, Xavier, Ironside and George (But Not Vincent)