The future has space travel and genetic engineering, and while pushing to the stars, humanity begins to splinter into many wondrous new species. Joe Carroway is mostly human, handsome and smart and peculiarly equipped for violence. He is the hero that this future needs, and you don't dare stand in his way. "At four in the morning, the animals slept—which was only reasonable since this was a zoo populated entirely with synthetic organisms. Patrons didn’t pay for glimpses of furry lumps, formerly wild and now slumbering in some shady corner. What they wanted were spectacular, one-of-a-kind organisms doing breathtaking feats, and doing them in daylight. But high metabolisms had their costs, and that’s why the creatures now lay in their cages and grottos, inside glass boxes and private ponds, beautiful eyes closed while young minds dreamed about who-could-say-what." "Five Thrillers" was considered one of the best novelettes of 2008. It has been reprinted several times, but this is its first single performance.