James Blaylock is one of the finest writers in the fantasy field. Sixteen of his acclaimed short stories are collected here for the first time. Included is "Thirteen Phantasms," his brilliant World Fantasy Award-winning story of a man who returns to the Golden Age of science fiction through an ad in a pulp magazine. "Myron Chester and the Toads" recounts one man's encounter with aliens and the effect it has on him and his neighbors. And in the strange otherworldly California of "Paper Dragons" one man's obsession with the creation of a dragon slowly destroys him.