Near omnipotent tyrants returned from the dead. Cyborg ennui.

Human brains in alien pets. Alien invasions through capitalism.

Self-dissection and pleasure nanomachines. Slave-owning robots.

Squirrels and pigeons at war. All that and more in these darkly comic science fiction stories of greed, sloth, arrogance, and shame from J.

I. Greco, author of Take the All-Mart! and Yuki Feldman: Licensed Space Pirate.

This collection includes: MONDO HEETZE - He thought he was getting his brain transplanted into a nearly immortal, indestructible human body. What he got instead was his brain put into the body of an alien pet, and a new job as a rat catcher aboard an alien ship.

AMERICAL SUICIDAL - Week in, week out, the desperate come to "Final Exit" to kill themselves in front of a world-wide audience. But when a knock-off Russian suicide show threatens to topple "Final Exit" from its number one spot, producer Jack Brasca knows he's got his work cut out for him to keep his show on top, and he's willing to do whatever it takes.

WHEN THE SQUIRRELS AND PIGEONS HAD A WAR - The squirrels and the pigeons in the back yard have always provided entertainment to the house cats. .

. especially now that their long simmering feud has erupted into a full-scale war.

EDGY AND THE VOID - Mind-linked teens taunt a gang of cyborg killers into a midnight chase through a future Pittsburgh. THE CREDITORS - The aliens have landed, offering easy credit terms.

SECOND UNIT - A second unit film crew heads out to the stars in an old tug to take some pretty pictures. .

. even if it ends up killing them.

DISSECTING HENRIES - A man becomes obsessed with getting to know himself, by dissecting his own clones. THE ROAD TO SENILITY - After a long and event-filled life, a one-hundred-and-two year old cyborg mercenary travels to Jupiter intending to end it all.

But as he floats in orbit he see a face below in the gas giant's clouds. For anyone else, it would be a religious experience.

For him, it's a sign that there still might be miracles to exploit. .

. for cold hard cash.

SALONA REX - A deposed, near-omnipotent tyrant escapes from her prison to wreak havoc on the galaxy that spurned her. HELMET TIME - His parents sold him into alien slavery -- and his life hasn't gotten any better since.

Now he spends his days doing chores and dangerous work for his owners, his only respite time in a virtual reality. .