Caught in the Organ Draft

by Robert Silverberg

Included in :

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire and Other Science Fiction Stories
Unfamiliar Territory
Vertex: The Magazine of Science Fiction, April 1973
Wondermakers 2
Sundance and Other Science Fiction Stories
You and Science Fiction
Caught in the Organ Draft: Biology in Science Fiction
Beyond the Safe Zone: Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg
The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg IIIl Something Wild Is Loose: 1969-72
Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction

10 pages, ebook

First published December 1, 1972

About the author

There are many authors in the database with this name.

Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooooh this one hit hard. I mean, it's some rather hardcore horror/SF coming out of '72, and obviously referring to the Draft and the meat grinder of wars, it got my ire up.

Transplants. What a dystopian hellscape.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

In between the era of Moskowitz and Conklin and prior to Martin H. Greenberg, Roger Elwood was one of the most noted and notable and notorious editors in the science fiction field. He was most active in the 1970s, when this book was published. Elwood was deeply interested in religion, and there's a subtext of that in many of these original stories which were loosely written on a biochemical theme. I particularly liked the two Barry N. Malzberg stories (one under his K.M. O'Donnell pseudonym), the titular one by R.A. Lafferty, and an interesting one by Robert Bloch. The best piece in the book is Caught in the Organ Draft by Robert Silverberg.

[Danyel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Science Fiction. In this short story Robert Silverberg imagines a world where young people, who meet the requirements, are required to join the organ draft. Their organs are given to older, wealthier folks who are deemed important to society. I liked the exploration of bodily integrity.

[serprex]

Some stories were interesting, some were bad, the religious subtexts throughout the book were awkward