The restriction that stories have to work to in this volume is of a humanity constrained to the solar system, but Sterling laughs in the face of this restriction in providing the most unique story in the volume. The story starts out in ‘The Anteroom of Profound Regret’, where a husband is due to meet his wife for the structured conjugal rights that is the norm with marriages on Mercury. Sterling looks at modernity and futurity in an altogether smart way.
