Transgalactic is a collection of works by A E van Vogt. Eric Flint negotiated with the van Vogt estate, and I wrote the short introduction and chatted with Eric about the contents. It contains the original versions of what as the novel Mission to the Stars shares the honor of being the first SF book I bought. (I ordered it and Andre Norton’s The Stars Are Ours at the same time.) It was a good choice.
Van Vogt does a better job than anybody else I can think of in showing that there’s more going on in the story universe than you’ll find in the story. It’s a huge, wonderful world out there–and you’re getting just a peek through a window. That is what “Sense of Wonder” means to me.
–Dave Drake