The Flight of the Horse

Another 1970s collection of Larry Niven - when he had just hit stride, and was churning out gems.

Like these: the hard science of Known Space gives way to five playful stories about collecting fantasy animals with a time machine, a truly magical story that may or may not explain werewolves - and a really good solution to crowd control in an age where teleportation is commonplace. Niven lays the foundation here for a lot of what he went on to explore in more detail - and it is wonderful. I remember now how easy it was to knock off such a book in an hour or two - because I've just done it again, forty years after I bought it.