It was first published in the United Kingdom by Sphere Books in paperback in May 1974, and in the United States in hardcover by Doubleday in June 1974; a British hardcover and American paperback followed in November of the same year from Sidgwick & Jackson and Ballantine Books (as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction), respectively.

The collection contains twenty-two fantasy, science fiction and horror novelettes and short stories.

Both contain the same stories, but the British edition arranges these chronologically in the order of their original publication, while the American edition presents the novelette "Gonna Roll the Bones" first, out of its chronological order.

The book won the 1975 Locus Poll Award for Best Single Author Collection.

As of July 5, 2009, Night Shade Press was planning a new Leiber collection to be issued under the same title, but covering the whole of his writing career through his death in 1992.