'The illegible signature of teetering disaster'

Three great stories—"The Aurelian", "Signs and Symbols" and "Lance"—the last both a derisive attack on science-fiction and an attempt to imagine the real pain and horror that would accompany space travel.

Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.