Science fiction and space give way here to the imaginative, fantastic and the inexplicable, in 22 stories that make up a swift kaleidoscope of patterns. Further worlds are taken care of when a boy has a Christmas on a space ship, a rocket goes up, Mars absorbs its settlers, an earth girl does not get to see the sun on Venus, and a wife becomes content on Mars when her old earth belongings are delivered there. But the other tales are content with nearer things: a sick girl is cured by love, an ice cream suit entrances some Mexican-American youths, a boy's fever dream comes true and-gives him power, a bed brings a marriage to fruition, a stopover in a whistle stop leads to killing or being killed; two Irish stories add flavor and there is a mermaid, an attic that makes the past come true, and some old people who keep young in heart. The title is apt -- the variety here is spice.
