From a sheriff embroiled in a mystery at the Arizona Renaissance Faire, to a homesick beer-drinking alien, to an aging king and a newly risen zombie, this volume features twenty-one tales that will intrigue, humor, an send a few shivers. The author of a hundred books in the fantasy, science-fiction, mystery, and western genres, Vardeman takes you from the edge of death, to a UFO-hunted desert, to fantasy worlds rich with god-fire and mysticism. This collection is filled with some of his favorite gems, stretching from three decades past to the present. Robert E Vardeman has been reading science fiction since he was eight years old. Vardeman has written several dozen short stories (about a quarter collected in Stories from Desert Bob's Reptile Ranch) and more than 70 science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels. His most recent is a reprint by Zumaya Otherworlds Publications of a space opera, Alien Death Fleet, originally published under a pseudonym. He currently lives in Albuquerque, NM with his teenaged son, Chris, and two cats, Isotope and X-ray. One out of four of them enjoys the high-tech hobby of geocaching.