THE METALLIC MUSE

Seven stories in which Biggle pushes buttons for a routine future of air-cars, visiphones and stellar imperialism -- or conversely of a TV-drugged underground civilization -- and stages toy-soldier battles between the old virtues of Art, Nature, and Home, on the one hand, and commerce, technology, and expansionism on the other. Then there's a Life-Form-From-Venus-Menaces-Earth fantasy and a CouldRobots-Have-Souls fantasy. One more jaunty shuffle of the same old SF deck.