[1] The book collects eighteen short stories and novelettes by various science fiction authors, interspersed with a foreword, introduction, poems and essays by the editors and others.

[1] Publishers Weekly called the anthology "[a]n ambitious, and for the most part rewarding, melange of science fiction, anthropology, and nonfiction about the future" featuring both "tried and true stalwarts" like Clarke, Oliver, Heinlein, Knight, and Del Rey, and "other lesser known writers."

Hall's and Suggs's contributions are singled out for particular comment, the former as "one of the most devastating and original satires on Army red tape through the ages we have ever read," and the latter as "both good anthropology and interesting at the same time, no mean achievement."

"[2] Kirkus Reviews considered the book "a handy and stimulating anthology for the student who might wonder whether what would happen if Pithecanthropus were still around—as a football player for instance.

What if a galactic survey team picked an Eskimo as representative of Earth's highest form of civilization; if dolphins had to train man to survive in their world after the holocaust; if there were a lost tribe of Neanderthals somewhere?