Another excellent collection of SFWA Grandmaster Damon Knight's always-excellent stories—five novellas in this case, generally circling around "the great unsolved problem of politics: how to keep the bastards from grinding you down."

Rule Golden—what if the Golden Rule were enforced in reverse by some force—the bad things you do to others are done to you?

Natural State—are cities doomed by genetic engineering?

Double Meaning—a race against time to find a shape-shifting alien spy.

The Earth Quarter—why did the aliens on a remote planet keep all the humans locked inside a section of the city?

The Dying Man—what would it be like to be immortal... then suddenly find out you'd become mortal?