Rod walker reread the notice slowly, while trying to quiet the quiver in his nerves. He checked off the test conditions—why, those were not 'conditions' but a total lack of conditions, no limits of any sort! They could dump you through the gate and the next instant you might be facing a polar bear at forty below—or wrestling an octopus deep in warm salt water.
Or, he added, faced up to some three-headed horror on a planet you had never heard of." Chapter 1, The Marching Hordes, pg. 2

"Rod should have gone straight home. His family lived in an out-county of Greater New York City, located on the Grand Canyon plateau through Hoboken Gate. But his commuting route required him to change at Emigrants' Gap and he found himself unable to resist stopping to rubberneck." Chapter 1, The Marching Hordes, pg. 10

"Rocket ships did not conquer...