Book Review: 'The Best of Omni Science Fiction'
Edited by Ben Bova
19802 / 5 Stars
In 1973 Kathy Keeton, Bob Guccione's girlfriend, and later wife, asked / insisted on being the CEO of a magazine. Guccione assigned her to Viva, a new 'international magazine for women', and something of a knockoff of Playgirl (which had debuted that same year).
Viva ran through money without earning much in revenue, and folded in 1979. According to Gay Haubner, who worked at Viva as Keeton's secretary, Keeton - whose previous business experience was limited to Exotic Dancing - saw Viva as something of a dabble:
I reminded Miss Keeton of appointments with her hair dresser, dermatologist, astrologer, interior decorator, and jeweler. I fetched packs of Virginia Slims and made cups of tea. After Miss Keeton left for the day, I went into her office to remove and file every paper from her desk; she liked to start fresh every morning. I looked at that empty white desk and wished my mind were as blank.
...........But Viva was only kept alive because of the cascade of cash generated by Penthouse.
Even as Viva foundered, Keeton pressed Guccione to provide her with another outlet, this time, a 'science fiction / science fact' magazine called Omni. The first issue came out in October 1978, and revolutionized the slowly dying enterprise of science fiction periodicals.
To Keeton's credit, Omni was an immediate success, and stayed in print into 1997.
'The Best of Omni Science Fiction', published in 1980, was an anthology of stories appearing in the first year of the magazine, at which time Ben Bova served as editor.
Interspersed with the stories are pictorial essays, several of which are excerpts from the illustrated novels produced by Harry Harrison in the late 1970s: Mechanismo and Planet Story. Another portfolio came from the art book Immortals of Science Fiction (1980).
My capsule summaries of the contents:
Found, by Isaac Asimov: a computer, orbiting the Earth inside a customized spaceship, develops error messages. What the repair team discovers is unsettling. A decent enough tale from Asimov.
Count the Clock that Tells the Time, by Harlan Ellison: Ian Ross lives a remarkably boring life, and as penalty, he finds himself trapped in a Limbo devoted to those who waste time.
This is yet another story where Harlan, in a very earnest and sensitive way, seeks to tell us something Profound about the Human Condition. I was bored.
Body Game, by Robert Sheckley: grandfather is decrepit, and in need of a new body. Could Dapper Dan's Living Model store have what he needs ? A satirical tale from Sheckley.
Unaccompanied Sonata, by Orson Scott Card: in a world where Art is outlawed, Christian Haroldsen risks life and limb to produce music.
This story won considerable praise from the critics and was nominated for a 1980 Hugo award for best short story. It has not aged well, and stands as an exemplar of how sci-fi, at the end of the 70s, simply was recycling themes and motifs (in this case, the lone rebel / holdout who defies Authority because that's what all good humanists must do).
Iceback Invasion, by Hayford Pierce: the Russians decide to take over the USA by the simple expedient of illegal immigration. A comedic tale, with a political shading that probably would not pass editorial review nowadays.
No Future in It, by Joe R. Haldeman: a short tale about time travel. There is a twist at the very end.
Galatea Galante, by Alfred Bester: Dominie Mainwright decides to create a synthetic woman, a 'Perfect Popsy' that no man can resist.
This easily is the worst tale in the anthology. Bester clearly was trying to display his facility at writing comedic, New Wave sci-fi, but 'Galatea' is an overwritten mess. The adjective 'cringey' didn't exist in 1980, but if it did, it would have applied to 'Galatea Galante'.
Kinsman, by Ben Bova: our Editor decides to apply his Privilege, and prints an excerpt of his 1979 novel here in the pages of Omni. In this excerpt, astronauts training to be space shuttle pilots, annoyed by the hazing meted out by their superiors, decide to turn the tables.
Half-Jack, by Roger Zelazny: a slight tale about a cyborg who 'roams the stars, seeking fulfillment'. Sniff.
Sand Kings, by George R. R. Martin: the odious Simon Kress buys an 'alien ant farm' populated by an unusual species of insect. The so-called Sand Kings may not be quite as tractable as Simon expects them to be........
This is the best story in the anthology.
The anthology closes with an interview with Arthur C. Clarke, with Clarke touching on his 'retirement' from writing sci-fi following the publication of his 1979 novel 'The Phantoms of Paradise' (a clunker about a space elevator). Clarke also addresses UFOs, spoon-bender Uri Geller, and life in Sri Lanka.
The verdict ? 'The Best of Omni Science Fiction' sits quite comfortably in two-star Rating territory. Editor Bova, in an effort to establish that he new magazine was legit, preferentially sought out contributions from 'name' authors, and more than a few of those contributions were underwhelming.
But it's also important to note that one year after 'The Best of Omni Science Fiction' appeared on shelves, the magazine would publish William Gibson's short story 'The Gernsback Continuum', and in 1985, the cyberpunk classic 'Mozart in Mirrorshades' by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner. So however unadventurous Omni may have seemed in 1980, ultimately the magazine was heading in the right direction.
And we'll close with....... some oddball signs. For some reason the Lampoon editorial staff really liked this feature, and ran it continuously. Getting these images in the first place relied on readers sending in prints of candid photographs they took with their Polaroids or Kodaks. That's how it was done back in '78, long before smartphones, and their integrated cameras, even existed.
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