Content:

UN-MAN:

Probably the best story in this publication involves a set of identical twin brothers, bred to keep the world in balance and to avoid it all going to hell. Naturally, there are more than two brothers, rather hundreds of them.

Interesting is the development of privacy issues in this society, where almost everybody is wearing a mask to protect his or her privacy.

The story is interesting and moves at a good pace. Not many big surprises, but the idea and the characters are enjoyable.


MARGIN OF PROFIT:

It's a logical puzzle involving statistics. If your trade route crosses "enemy territory and the other side keeps abducting your crews, how can you stop them from doing so without making a loss on the route?


THE LIVE COWARD:

Another puzzle, involving a fugitive on a planet with 14th century style society set up and food poisonous to humans. Again. Seems like Anderson likes this sort of set up.


THE MAKESHIFT ROCKET:

This was a tough one to read because I really don't enjoy reading books where dialogue is written in dialect or partially in a foreign language, especially if that language happens to be German so I spot the mistakes. Although the ACE editor and Anderson did a pretty good job at getting things right.

This is basically a comedy with a Dane, a Martian and a Crow escaping Irish forces in a beer-powered spaceship ... you see where this is going.


More information on ACE Doubles at wikipedia.