For the first time, you can get Terry Bisson's three Wilson Wu novelettes in one place, including the Hugo-nominated "Get Me to the Church on Time." Everybody should have a friend like Wilson Wu. He's been a rock musician, an engineer, and a pastry chef; he got halfway into a medical degree and a math Ph.D.; he graduated law school and passed the bar on the first try. Combining meteorology and entomology, he helped on a weather-control project in Quetzalcan. (Don't ask.) And then there's his scholarship on desert caravans. . . .

Of course, he's not the main character. That would be Irv, another lawyer, who met him while they were working Legal Aid. Irv's got this talent for stumbling on strange phenomena. Wilson just crunches the numbers. A junkyard dedicated to Volvos conceals a rift in the space-time continuum. A beaded seat cushion in a vacant lot heralds the premature collapse of the universe. And when an airport baggage claim runs like clockwork . . . ? (Shudder.) Check out the math! Bisson has scrupulously illustrated the stories with formulas, all of which have been reviewed for "elegance" by famed mathematician Rudy Rucker.