Phil Chenevert

In Square Pegs, Ray Bradbury explores the lives of individuals who don't quite fit into society's conventional molds. Set in a world where conformity is prized above all, the story centers on those who are seen as "square pegs" in a world of round holes-people who dare to think differently, dream wildly, and challenge the status quo. With his signature lyrical prose, Bradbury crafts a tale that celebrates the uniqueness of the human spirit while...

A boy, a patchwork girl, and a glass cat go on a mission to find the ingredients for a charm which will transform some people turned to marble.

Tin Woodman and Scarecrow are changed into a tin owl and a teddy bear by a giantess who uses them for playthings.

He had invented something disturbingly like a time machine and was on his way to the Pentagon with the plans when the bombs fell. And that was the end of that, along with his family and the entire city of Detroit and every other major city in the nation. But he was still alive 3 years later and scrabbling in the dirt to grow enough food to live. Food that hopefully didn't turn around and try to bite him due to the all too frequent mutations. One day...

Pru'ut is a small hot planet, covered with fern forests and swamps, and inhabited by one of the innumerable primate-human species of the universe. It was also inhabited, for a while, by one Terran, James Grady. The natives called their world Pru'ut, Grady called it The Mud Hole. He was the sole human on the planet, and his job was to pay the natives to collect the native plants and have them picked up 3 times a year. The company turned them into an...

If you saw the stars in the sky vanishing by the millions, and knew you had but five days to prepare for your judgment-what would you do? Robert Sheckley's off beat imagination takes us to, well, the Final Judgment. Or at least the 5 days before it, when every person in it, is told personally that the ""Judgment of the inhabitants of the planet Earth will be held in five days. Please prepare yourselves for final examination and departure. This announcement...

Murray Leinster, known for his wacky imagination and outrageous plots, presents us with an anti-hero Bud Gregory, who wants just to be left alone to fish and sleep. The problem is that he is the only person with the ability to 'fix' anything, to see atoms intuitively and know what works and doesn't work. And thus is the only person who can solve horrible situations with runaway atomic piles and insidious plots to kill everyone in America. You know,...

The dead man had lived a mean and spiteful life fueled by hate and malice. He died alone still savoring his anger and resentments against all humans, no friends or relations in his decrepit house that was as far from neighbors as he could get it, deep in the woods. But the custom of sitting up with a corpse the first night is engrained in you as the right thing to do. With no friends or relations, the doctor asks you to do it, unless of course you...

These two stories by Kurt Vonnegut were written almost a decade apart but they are definitely connected. The Big Trip Up Yonder, published in Galaxy Science Fiction January 1954 is a comical yet scary description of what over population was going to do to society after aging was conquered and a simple daily dose of "anti-gerosone" would keep you forever the same age. Would Gramps EVER take 'That Big Trip Up Yonder', or would his hordes of descendants...

The beautiful girl lying naked and curled in a fetal position on the padded floor was a genius. Or rather had been before suddenly going crazy and then catatonic 3 years before. Jim Lawrence, the chief psychiatrist was responsible for her care and it is understandable that he was upset when five strange, dark men arrived at midnight, pointing guns at him and insisting they be brought to her room. He became even more upset when it was clear that they...