ISBN 1-85723-413-8
First published 1986.
I must stop reading David Brin books; I always end up disapppointed.
Several of these stories deal with extra-terrestrial contact, the others with future inventions and their effects on society. While the ideas are good, they're not enough to hold a story by themselves. Even the 250-word story, Toujours Voir, seems to have too many words in it.
The first story, the Hugo Award-winning The Crystal Spheres, is probably the best; I didn't get bored until I was almost at the end. The author's afterwords are reasonably interesting, but can't rescue the book.
24 September 1998