"Then the Devil had smiled. The door of Hell cracked open and, for a while, the churches were full of desperate creatures pleading to the God they had ignored for help and protection. The door of Hell had opened wider and, when it finally closed, something of Hell itself remained behind so that the world would never be the same again and craters glowed where cities had sprawled and things too horrible to be called human had been born to parents maimed without outward sign of injury..." Here are six stories of man in space and man on Earth, in each case facing some crucial decision that will impact the future of a settlement, of an individual, of humanity itself. First-rate science fiction adventure by a master of the form.