The Second Omni Book of Science Fiction

Omni Books of Science Fiction #2

by Ellen Datlow (Editor)

Enter the world of Omni & explore the recesses of the human mind. Experience 17 more original science fiction works in volume II. Travel to the stars & beyond & glimpse the world of tomorrow from the writings of some of the best Sci Fi writers of our time, including Harlan Ellison, Spider Robinson, Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, & many others.
* 9 • Foreword (The Second Omni Book of Science Fiction) • essay by Ellen Datlow
* 11 • On the Slab • (1981) • shortstory by Harlan Ellison
* 25 • Lobotomy Shoals • (1979) • shortstory by Juleen Brantingham
* 41 • Fivesight • (1979) • shortstory by Spider Robinson
* 67 • Icons • (1981) • shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
* 71 • The Genius House • novelette by Dmitri Bilenkin
* 107 • The Man Who Met Picasso • (1982) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick
* 129 • The Vacuum-Packed Picnic • (1979) • shortstory by Rick Gauger
* 155 • Blind Spot • (1981) • shortstory by Jayge Carr
* 183 • A Sepulchre of Songs • (1981) • novelette by Orson Scott Card (aka A Sepulcher of Songs) [as by Orson Scott Card ]
* 217 • Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-Made Truly Egyptian Mummy • (1981) • shortstory by Ray Bradbury
* 235 • Triggering • (1982) • shortstory by John Shirley
* 255 • Out of Luck • (1980) • shortstory by Walter Tevis
* 275 • Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams • (1982) • novelette by Dan Simmons
* 315 • Vox Olympica • (1981) • novelette by Michael Bishop
* 345 • Forever • (1981) • shortstory by Damon Knight
* 355 • Johnny Mnemonic • (1981) • shortstory by William Gibson
* 381 • Waiting for the Earthquake • (1981) • novelette by Robert Silverberg

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of SF from the pages of OMNI magazine, a magazine which combined science and science fiction/fantasy, which was published from 1978 to 1995 ( when it went online but ceased publication in '96). This collection was edited by Ellen Datlow and published in 1984. I found it an interesting mix of some of the "old" stars who arose in the 30s to the 50s, such as Bradbury, Damon Knight, Ellison, and Bob Silverberg, and the rising "new" stars of the 80s, such as Dan Simmons and William Gibson. Here are my ratings:
"On the Slab" by Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) *****
"Lobotomy Shoals" by Juleen Brantingham (1942-- ) ***
"Fivesight" by Spider Robinson ( 1948--) ****
"Icons" by Barry Malzberg (1939--) **
"The Genius House" by Dmitri Bilenkin (1933-1987) *** (translated from the Russian)
"The Man Who Met Picasso" by Michael Swanwick (1950--) ***
"The Vacuum-Packed Picnic" by Rick Gauger (1942--) ****
"Blind Spot" by Jayge Carr (1940-2006) ***
"A Sepulcher of Songs" by Orson Scott Card (1951--) ****
"Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Homemade Truly Egyptian Mummy" by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) *****
"Triggering" by John Shirley (1953--) ***
"Out of Luck" by Walter Tevis (1928-1984) ***
" Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams" by Dan Simmons (1948--) *****
"Vox Olympica" by Michael Bishop (1945--) ****
"Forever" by Damon Knight (1922-2002) ****
"Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson (1948--) ***
"Waiting for the Earthquake" by Robert Silverberg (1935--) ****
No surprise, perhaps, that my three favorites here are by my three favorite authors in the collection--Ellison, Bradbury, and Simmons. Malzberg's story- I thought- was a weak one, but I have not been a big fan of his... I rate the overall collection ****.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know who gave me this book. Some kind soul dropped it in the 'Free To A Good Home' box at my son's daycare, nestled between a Harlequin romance and a Readers Digest Condensed collection. I owe them a drink.

Any short story collection with William Gibson's classic Johnny Mnemonic and Spider Robinson's Fivesight is already a winner.

Add the hilarious Vacuum Packed Picnic by Rick Gauger, and the equally funny and yet revealing Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-Made Truly Egyptian Mummy from Ray Bradbuy and it's become a must read.

There are great, touching stories by Orson Scott Card and Dan Simmonds and.... actually darn it, they're almost all great, and the couple that didn't speak to me just might work for you.

Find a copy and read it. I'm off to see if I can find volume one.

[Brett Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Johnny Mnemonic this collection of Sci Fi shorts was off to a great start... many good tales, but I have the most fond memories of The Man Who Met Picasso...

[Matthew Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, I found this 20 years ago in a small library and have remembered it since

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this collection about one story per week, when I had time to sit down and focus on each story in its entirety in one sitting. I also developed a cadence of writing down a couple of sentences immediately after each one with my thoughts. I have collected them all together here as a mini-review of each story.

Overall, I would say that this is just an okay collection. It was published in the early 1980s and consists of stories that were all written within a few years of its publication. Some were by established authors at the time, and others by relatively unknown authors. A few of those authors would go on to become very well-known in the genre while some have remained more obscure. As such, the stories collected here are somewhat hit and miss. Some of the stories hold up brilliantly while others have not aged so well. I would say that some of the best stories are On the Slab, The Man Who Met Picasso, and Waiting for the Earthquake. I would also give an honorable mention to The Genius House, which, although I would consider it to be of less importance than the aforementioned stories, I thought it was quite unique and memorable.


On the Slab by Harlan Ellison. Ellison is an author I have never read before, and is an interesting, if somewhat simplistic, Lovecraft-inspired tale.

Lobotomy Shoals by Juleen Brantingham. I have not heard of this author and was not particularly impressed with the story - perhaps these two things go hand in hand.

Fivesight by Spider Robinson. This is the first work I have read by Robinson. I have always had the impression that he is somewhat of a pulpy science fiction writer. This story does not really affirm or refute that. It is just an okay story about precognition.

Icons by Barry Malzberg. A four-page story about... suicidal robots? An okay idea, even if not so original by today's standards, but left me wanting for something with more substance.

The Genius House by Dmitri Bilenkin. This one is about embryotechnology, quite literally growing technology from an egg of sorts, or embryo, into a full size item, in just minutes, taking from the environment surrounding it to "grow" into the final product. In this story, the focus is a house. An entertaining story, but it seemed more like magic than science fiction.

The Man Who Met Picasso by Michael Swanwick. The story is quite literally what the title implies. I would say it barely qualifies as science fiction, at least in the traditional sense, but nonetheless a very interesting little story about art.

The Vacuum-Packed Picnic by Rick Gauger. Two people have a picnic on the moon. Something happens to add some drama and suspense. Just a moderately entertaining okay story. Nothing particularly memorable or noteworthy here.

Blind Spot by Jayge Carr. I was not familiar with Carr before this. Apparently she wrote several novels, but most of her works were short stories. This was okay. A story about a doctor trying to help an artist from another planet who is losing her vision. There are so many ideas here with far-future medical advances, space travel, alien races, etc., that I think it could have benefited from being a longer story.

A Sepulcher of Songs by Orson Scott Card. An okay story about a psychiatrist evaluating an insane patient. Or is she actually insane?

Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Mummy by Ray Bradbury. A fun little pulpy story that feels like it could be a product of the 1950s or 60s. Think Leave It to Beaver meets Lost in Space. Probably a good selection for fans of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Triggering by John Shirley. A strange story that I did not much care for. It also seemed a bit rushed. Something like souls meeting in some plane of existence between life and the afterlife in order to reconcile what happened in the past?

Out of Luck by Walter Tevis. A mostly forgettable story about a man whose drinking is causing him to hallucinate. Or is he hallucinating? This one feels a little but like a Philip K. Dick-lite story, just less interesting and less bizarre than what I have read of PKD.

Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams by Dan Simmons. This predates all of his other published works as far as I can find, so he may have been a completely unknown author at the time of this compilation. It is a story centered around telepathy. I thought it was alright. I have read quite a few of his novels, and I would have to say that I prefer his later/longer works to this short story.

Vox Olympica by Michael Bishop. A story about music, and Mars? Maybe there is something deep in this one that was lost on me. I did not care for this story at all.

Forever by Damon Knight. This is a story about the discovery of an elixir that permanently stops aging when taken. It very briefly explores the social ramifications before going in some bizarre directions, all in the span of less than ten pages. It felt way too rushed. There were some interesting ideas here that I felt would have benefited greatly from a lengthier format.

Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson. This is a fast-paced cyberpunk thriller by one of pioneers of the subgenre. Gibson uses a lot of unfamiliar tech and terminology, and does not hold the reader's hand. This story is no exception. For this reason, much like with his other works that I have read, I did not enjoy reading it as much as I wanted to or felt that I should.

Waiting for the Earthquake by Robert Silverberg. My first Silverberg. A story about an old man alone on a world that is just weeks away from experiencing a cataclysmic earthquake. As I gather that many of his works do, this one deals with deals with loneliness, isolation, and mortality. It began just okay, but somewhere along the line I found myself completely absorbed by the story. Silverberg can write!

[Earl Truss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the best of this series. Most of the stories were interesting an engaging.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Each of the selections is a different variety of science fiction.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites are “The Vacuum-Packed Picnic by Rick Gauger and “Johnny Mnemonic” by William Gibson.