Overruled

Lawyers—pardon me, attorneys—may be portrayed in fiction as the good guys (and gals) or as greedy conniving shysters.

In mundane fiction, the former are represented ably by Earle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason and by Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (we’ll pass over her other novel, Go Set a Watchman, with a less inspiring portrait—consider it obviously set in a parallel world). The less favorable view was expressed by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his SF classic, A Princess of Mars, in which his doubly immortal John Carter observes that the Martians are very fortunate in that, while they may behave with savage cruelty, and are constantly at war, at least they have no lawyers.

Both views of the legal profession have been explored in science fiction and fantasy since John Carter set foot on the Red Planet, as well as looking into possible ways that future punishment for crimes may change, not necessarily for the better. Some of science fiction’s greatest talents are included in this book, including classics by Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, Clifford D. Simak, Robert Silverberg, and more, and newer stories by Sarah A. Hoyt, Alex Shvartsman, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaros, and still other stellar talents bringing down the judge’s gavel with a verdict of excellent entertainment.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Praise for the contributors:

Robert A. Heinlein: “[Stories] as sleekly engineered as a starship.” –Publishers Weekly

Larry Niven: “[A] writer of supreme talent . . .” –Tom Clancy

Clifford D. Simak: “[W]armth, imaginative detail . . . finely rendered . . .” –John Cllute, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Robert Silverberg: “. . . when Silverberg is at the top of his form, no one is better.” –George R. R. Martin

Sarah A. Hoyt: “. . . fanciful and charming.” –Library Journal