Figures in a Landscape

The Drake equation, formulated in 1961 by Frank Drake, attempts to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy, albeit principally for the sake of scientific argument. It has very little to say about the possibility of a planet where it's Christmas every day, whether Popeye the Sailor Man was real, or the role of gnomes in humanity's future intergalactic expansion. On the other hand, Figures in a Landscape explores these proposals and more over the course of thirteen short stories from the author of Against Nature and Golden Age - or twelve short stories and a novella, depending on what you count as a novella. Also, an inconsequential young man named Orville soils his pants on page thirty-five with hilarious consequences, if that's of any interest.