Synopsis
Contents (view Concise Listing)
v Introduction (Omni Visions Two) (1994) essay by Ellen Datlow
1 Against Babylon (1986) novelette by Robert Silverberg
21 The Gods of Mars (1985) novelette by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann and Michael Swanwick
43 Pictures Made of Stones (1987) poem by Lucius Shepard
53 E-Ticket to 'Namland (1987) novelette by Dan Simmons (variant of E-Ticket to Namland)
73 The Domino Master (1988) short story by Michael Blumlein
91 The Circular Library of Stones (1987) short story by Carol Emshwiller
103 Reason Seven (1985) short story by Barry N. Malzberg
113 The Fire Catcher (1985) short story by Richard Kadrey
121 Dead Run (1985) short story by Greg Bear
143 Adeste Fideles (1987) short story by Frederik Pohl
161 The Lions Are Asleep This Night (1986) novelette by Howard Waldrop
183 The Dragon Seed (1985) short story by Kate Wilhelm
201 Permafrost (1986) novelette by Roger Zelazny
Reviews
What exactly Omni 's vision might be isn't clear in longtime fiction editor Datlow's terse introduction to this second anthology, nor does it become obvious in her curt prologues to these 13 stories, nor in the stories themselves. Published in Omni between 1985 and 1988, they range from work by such older hands as Robert Silverberg and Frederik Pohl, through Roger Zelazny and Carol Emshwiller to the likes of Lucius Shepard and Dan Simmons. Included are not only fantasy and science fiction but even mainstream (Kate Wilhelm's "The Dragon Seed" might fit better in Redbook Visions ). All the pieces are uniformly polished--even slick--and most are typical of their authors' work. Some have been published in single-author anthologies (the version of Greg Bear's "Dead Run" included here is superior to the longer one in his anthology Tangents ). A charmer is Howard Waldrop's "The Lions Are Asleep This Night," an example of his trademark offbeat, postmodern alternate histories. Shepard's poetic, intelligently written prose poem, "Pictures Made of Stones," takes place in a version of the gorgeous threatening jungle he often uses. The one Hugo winner, Zelazny's overrated "Permafrost," is, at best, clever. Still, this is a high-quality sampling of what the genre has to offer.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
``It's weird enough for me'' seems to have been editor Datlow's rather flexible criterion for admitting stories into this anthology, the second of a series of science-fiction collections featuring pieces that originally appeared in Omni magazine. Some, like SF veteran Frederik Pohl's tale of Mars, are classic SF. Others, like Richard Kadrey's ``Fire Catcher,'' about a pill- popping hacker manning the cyberspace front against the Soviet Union in WW III, rely more on a noir tone than on a scenario (which is just as well, since a noir tone has proved more durable than the Soviet Union). A few entries, like Kate Wilhelm's ``The Dragon Seed,'' are, as Datlow notes, just as likely to find their way into a non-SF anthology. With work by Greg Bear, Carol Emshwiller, Howard Waldrop, Roger Zelazny, and others. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Robert Silverberg opens the anthology with the wry Against Babylon, which recounts the willing abduction by aliens of a firefighter's girlfriend during an L.A. inferno, and Roger Zelazny closes it with his superior, surrealistic Permafrost, set in a perpetually wintry world with a conscious computer as its caretaker. In between comes a broad range of imaginatively rendered themes, notably including war in Dan Simmons' chilling tale of a Vietnam transformed into an amusement park, and Martian exploration in Frederik Pohl's masterfully envisioned, grim Christmas carol (so to speak), Adeste Fideles. Although perhaps somewhat weaker than last year's collection (many selections are little more than thinly plotted vignettes), this one yet testifies to Omni's dedication to finely crafted prose. Carl Hays
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