F/SF

An anthology of original fiction from 1971, Knight uses many of the same authors from prior Orbit anthologies (and future ones). It is a mix of stories, a few that I enjoyed and too many that I didn't, primarily the ones that had "new wave" all over them. Others were interesting but odd, such as Robert Thurston's first published story that kept a mystery going through the pages and then ended without resolution. I read a story last year by Thurston called "Looking for Jake" in an issue of Asimov's Science Fiction mag that I recall liking a lot. 45 years had passed from 1971 to 2016. James Sallis has two stories in the anthology, and 'Binaries' which is one of those experimental 'new wave' types I would say, left me scratching my head and wondering what it was. It has, like several stories here, a running fascination with women's breasts. Make of that what you will. Coincidentally Sallis also had a story in Asimov's a few months ago, but I have run across his fiction over the years in magazines, primarily F&SF.

I read this over a period of time and some of the stories are not fresh in my mind. I did like Gene Wolfe's 'The Toy Theater' quite a bit. Joanna Russ's 'gleepsite' was lost on me. Kate Wilhem's novella 'The Infinity Box' takes up about a quarter of the space in the anthology and is a minor classic in the genre, a rather dark and somewhat creepy psychological suspense thriller. Not really to my taste but if you like the psychological suspense tales Wilhelm was writing in this era you'll probably like this.

Overall, for me, the stories were a big disappointment and I would not recommend this.

The included stories are:

7 • Heads Africa Tails America • (1971) • shortstory by Josephine Saxton
21 • What We Have Here Is Too Much Communication • (1971) • shortstory by Leon E. Stover
37 • Dominant Species • (1971) • shortstory by Kris Neville
42 • The Toy Theater • (1971) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe
50 • Stop Me Before I Tell More • (1971) • shortstory by Robert Thurston
70 • Gleepsite • (1971) • shortstory by Joanna Russ
76 • Binaries • (1971) • shortstory by James Sallis
87 • Lost in the Marigolds • (1971) • novelette by Lee Hoffman and Robert E. Toomey, Jr.
137 • Across the Bar • (1971) • shortstory by Kit Reed
147 • The Science Fair • (1971) • shortstory by Vernor Vinge
158 • The Last Leaf • (1971) • shortstory by W. Macfarlane
167 • When All the Lands Pour Out Again • (1971) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
181 • Only the Words Are Different • (1971) • shortstory by James Sallis
188 • The Infinity Box • (1971) • novella by Kate Wilhelm ( )