The Best of R. A. Lafferty

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these stories are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE BEST OF R. A. LAFFERTY

Copyright © 2019 by The Locus Science Fiction Foundation

All introductions and afterwords are copyright © 2018 by their respective authors and are used with permission.

All rights reserved.

Cover photograph by Danny Xu / Shutterstock.com

Cover design by Jamie Stafford-Hill

A Tor Essentials Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates

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New York, NY 10271

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Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lafferty, R. A., author.

The best of R. A. Lafferty / edited by Jonathan Strahan.—First edition.

p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

ISBN 978-1-250-79481-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-77853-6 (trade paperback)

ISBN 978-1-250-77868-0 (ebook)

1. Science fiction, American—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3562.A28

813'.54—dc23

2020044266

ISBN 978-1-250-77853-6 (trade paperback)

ISBN 978-1-250-79481-9 (paper over board)

ISBN 978-1-250-77868-0 (ebook)

eISBN 9781250778680

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First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd

First U.S. Edition: February 2021