Orbit 19, by Damon Knight (ed)
Great mix of 1977 SF short stories
(Review posted 8 Feb 2006 02:23:05)

I have this in an ancient dustjacketless hardcover with an illegible stamp from some used-book store somewhere on the inside front cover. It contains thirteen short stories which, if I'm figuring correctly, all appear here for the first time in 1977 (i.e. it's not a reprint anthology; I'm sure there's some technical term). It also has a sort of a forward made from longish quotations from various vaguely SF-related or not (sources), one brief interlude made from shortish quotations from more random sources, and a sort of an afterward ("Arcs and Secants") of more or less disconnected chatty paragraphs in which Damon Knight tells tiny stories about the authors, or recounts bits of correspondance, or whatever. (Oh, and there's a quirky little contest for readers, whose grand prize is five dollars and a free copy of the next Orbit.)

It's great.

Some of the stories have a sort of dated feel, like things written in a simpler and less demanding time. Others would be entirely at home today.

The last one, for instance, Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Disguise", is about time and emotion and Jacobean revenge plays and manipulation and murder and reality, and could have been written yesterday. The first one, John Varley's "Lollipop and the Tar Baby", feels very slightly but pleasantly dated (although it does involve cloning and lesbian incest and a sentient black hole and the nature of truth).

So anyway, this is fun, and if you happen on it and you like good 70's SF, you should definitely read it.