Award-winning writer Barry N. Malzberg reflects back over four decades of writing science fiction, giving an insider's view of the field which few can match, both for its authority and for the sharp and witty way he describes the highs and lows of one science fiction writer's career. He also writes vivid profiles of writers and editors, ranging from the titans who transformed the field, such as John W. Campbell, to once popular writers who are now all but forgotten, such as Hugo Award-winner Mark Clifton. 'If there is any particular cachet to my perspective," he writes, "it comes because my career is, perhaps more than some, metaphoric. Breakfast in the Ruins is an indispensable book for every science fiction reader.