Isaac Asimov swaps the grand machinery of galactic empire for something much more irritating: a two-centimetre demon named Azazel, summoned by George, a charmingly useless acquaintance whose attempts to improve people’s lives tend to make everything worse.

The result is comic fantasy with a beautifully petty operating system: wishes granted, logic obeyed, consequences delivered with a tiny red tail and absolutely no mercy. Asimov’s narrator plays the dry, long-suffering witness to George’s catastrophes, and the pleasure is in the elegant little reversals — bargain-bin Faust, but with better timing and worse friends. A good one for Asimov collectors, comic fantasy readers, fans of speculative short stories, and anyone who likes their supernatural intervention served with a raised eyebrow and a hangover.

First edition hardback published by Doubleday / Foundation Book in November 1988. Good second-hand condition, with light wear and marking to the dust jacket, plus some age toning to pages.