Knight, who as an editor and writer had his hand in seemingly everything in science fiction in its heyday from the 1940s to the 1970s, deserves to be better remembered and kept in print. Even when reading his pulpiest fiction, I've always felt a kinship with his deeply intelligent and slightly pugnacious take on things; even when writing primarily for money, he always had a point to make about humankind's odd mix of cruelty and potential. "Rule Golden" is an expansion of his most famous short story, a consideration of what might happen if the Golden Rule were reversed: an alien comes to earth and releases a genetic virus that activates a kind of neurologic empathy, so that anyone who causes pain to another immediately feels the equivalent pain themselves. The implications for crime, government, and even diet are just a start.

"Double Meaning" is a particularly pulpy (and sometimes cringeworthy) thriller with an unusual linguistic premise, apparently included to pad the page count of the paperback reissue. ( )