[4] Panshin was the author of the Anthony Villiers series made up of Star Well, The Thurb Revolution, and Masque World.
A fourth volume, entitled The Universal Pantograph,[5] never appeared, reputedly because of conflicts between the writer and his publisher.
Of the Villiers series, noted SF writer Samuel R. Delany writes in the foreword of Star Well: It ... examines the proposition that the world is composed of small communities of mutual interest ... [Star Well] is a gallery of gamblers, duels and double-crosses, a minuet of manners and manners mangled; the machinery of the universe is speculated upon; inspector generals arrive to inspect it.
[6][1] Most of this work was originally published in fanzines, for which Panshin won the Best Fan Writer Hugo award in 1967.
A number of Alexei Panshin's books (including The World Beyond the Hill) are being republished by Phoenix Pick, an imprint of Arc Manor Publishers.