Owen Oliver was an optimist with a dark imagination. What would happen if the earth's rotation began to slow? Or if strange alien “cloud men” attempted to take over the planet? Or a mad scientist tried to cure men's ills by developing chemical happiness? Natural catastrophes, bizarre creatures, and scientific misadventures are the backdrops for Oliver's short stories, but it is humanity's reactions to these dire threats, for better or worse, that make them literary gems. In Oliver's stories, horror always meets hope.