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Cities of Wonder
Cities of Wonder...eleven visions of the future...of man's place in a changing world...Damon Knight has collected a series of extremely individual short stories from the creamn of S.F. writers.
Stories by: J.G. Ballard, Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, C.M. Kornbluth, Walter M. Miller, Jr., James Blish, Robert Abernethy, Brian Aldiss, E.M. Forster, Stephen Vincent Benet, Don A. Stuart.
Stories by: J.G. Ballard, Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, C.M. Kornbluth, Walter M. Miller, Jr., James Blish, Robert Abernethy, Brian Aldiss, E.M. Forster, Stephen Vincent Benet, Don A. Stuart.
239 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
About the author
Damon Knight
600 books100 followersDamon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 26, 2013
Damon Knight wasn't a particularly great SF author, but he was an editor with a gift for assembling terrific anthologies. Here, he had yet another nice idea: a collection of Golden Age stories where the central character isn't a person, but the city they live in.
You see that people are rather frightened of cities. Forster's The Machine Stops and Ballard's Billenium are well-known pieces which I first came across here. Walter Miller's story is also very memorable; everyone in the robot city is dead, but it still continues to function and tend to its non-existent inhabitants. Kuttner's and Kornbluth's contributions are, again, characteristically bleak.
Heinlein and Blish are just about the only people striking a positive note, and it's kind of the same idea in both cases. The city, which is strangling and poisoning us on Earth, becomes the mystical womb that will carry us out into the cosmos. In Heinlein, it's a lighthearted comedy. Blish, in contrast, shows us his first sketch for the Cities in Flight series, where the eponymous flying cities turn out to be the tool through which we eventually achieve our destiny.
It's all fun stuff. Knight hasn't included a single dud.
You see that people are rather frightened of cities. Forster's The Machine Stops and Ballard's Billenium are well-known pieces which I first came across here. Walter Miller's story is also very memorable; everyone in the robot city is dead, but it still continues to function and tend to its non-existent inhabitants. Kuttner's and Kornbluth's contributions are, again, characteristically bleak.
Heinlein and Blish are just about the only people striking a positive note, and it's kind of the same idea in both cases. The city, which is strangling and poisoning us on Earth, becomes the mystical womb that will carry us out into the cosmos. In Heinlein, it's a lighthearted comedy. Blish, in contrast, shows us his first sketch for the Cities in Flight series, where the eponymous flying cities turn out to be the tool through which we eventually achieve our destiny.
It's all fun stuff. Knight hasn't included a single dud.
December 25, 2009
Using the futire of the city as a theme, Damon Knight has assembled 11 excellent tales.
The three best known are "It's Great to be Back!" by Robert Heinlein; "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster; and "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet.
Those three stories have been widely anthologized, so if you have read a lot of SF, they may be familiar. These three alone are worth the price of the book--but Knight also add tales by James Blish, Harry Kuttner, Brian Aldiss and others.
The earlist dated story--:The Machine Stops" was written in 1928---hard to believe, as it is such an excellent tale--hardley dated at all.
Should you be fortunate enough to find of copy of this anthology, it is well worth your time. Damon Knight is an excellent editor as well as an excellent author.
The three best known are "It's Great to be Back!" by Robert Heinlein; "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster; and "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet.
Those three stories have been widely anthologized, so if you have read a lot of SF, they may be familiar. These three alone are worth the price of the book--but Knight also add tales by James Blish, Harry Kuttner, Brian Aldiss and others.
The earlist dated story--:The Machine Stops" was written in 1928---hard to believe, as it is such an excellent tale--hardley dated at all.
Should you be fortunate enough to find of copy of this anthology, it is well worth your time. Damon Knight is an excellent editor as well as an excellent author.
May 17, 2024
It’s always fascinating to read visions of the future from authors living years ago. I enjoyed many of the sci-fi short stories in this anthology, and the overarching theme of cities as characters or central parts of the plot was pretty cool. I was only familiar with a handful of the authors before reading, and a collection like this is a great way to get introduced to different authors’ work. I did find the collection a bit uneven; E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” was particularly prescient and compelling, but some of the other stories felt quite dated, with “science” that made very little sense when reading in 2024. Still a fun read, and I always appreciate a well-written short story!
November 2, 2020
Cities of Wonder is an anthology of previously-published short works of science fiction Knight edited in the mid-1960s in which a city plays a major part in the story, aside from just serving as a setting for the action. He includes two literary classics, By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet and The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, as well as more traditional genre pieces. I particularly liked Okie by James Blish (part of his Cities in Flight series), Dumb Waiter by Walter M. Miller, Jr., The Luckiest Man in Denv by C.M. Kornbluth, and Forgetfulness by John W. Campbell writing as Don A. Stuart. My favorite was "It's Great to Be Back!" by Robert A. Heinlein.
October 5, 2009
i love old school science fiction, this is published in 1970, but the stories range back to the 30's, 40's and 50's. simple and elegant stories written by authors with dreams of future cities. i enjoyed the tales, many different takes on what our futures might me like. there is one remember well about living in nyc when the standard living space is something like 18 square feet per person and getting smaller.
April 4, 2022
Fantastic collection, beautifully arranged by the great Damon Knight.
Single Combat by Robert Abernathy - A tense little thing showcasing a fun conceit about cities gets the collection started with a bang.
Dumb Waiter by Walter M Miller Jr - A bit old-school hokey but this classic by the author of Canticle for Leibowitz paints a fine tale of adventure
Jesting Pilot by Henry Kuttner - Slight but with such a wonderful conceit, the bread and butter of classic science fiction.
It's Great to Be Back by Robert Heinlein - Sucks just like everything Heinlein sucks. But his name sells so whadya gonna do.
Billenium by JG Ballard - A wonderful, laid back nightmare. This is the first Ballard I've read, but exactly what I'd expect based on some of the films I've seen based on his work. Loved it, hope to read some of his classics one of these days.
Okie by James Blish - Nothing to really write home about here but some lovely zip-bang future dealing. A little reminiscent of the traders sequence of Foundation.
The Luckiest Man in Denv by CM Kornbluth - A lovely little story with breakneck pacing, organically showing us just enough of this world to understand it fully without ever sacrificing narrative momentum. Never heard of CM Kornbluth before but I want more after this taste.
The Machine Stops by EM Forster - The only story in this collection I'd heard of before and it lives up to the hype. A true dystopian classic.
The Underpriveledged by Brian Aldiss - Slight and predictable but enjoyable.
By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet - Easily the best story in this collection. I'd never heard of it or the author before, though looking them up I find they're both well known (or perhaps once well known) classics and deservedly so. Has instilled in me a strong desire to check out his other well remembered story, The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Forgetfullness by Don A Stuart - Perfect way to cap off the collection, fully delivering on the promised City of Wonder. A bit like Forgotten Planet, but more to it than that. The kind of big-fuckin-ideas content that first got me hooked on science fiction as a lad.
Single Combat by Robert Abernathy - A tense little thing showcasing a fun conceit about cities gets the collection started with a bang.
Dumb Waiter by Walter M Miller Jr - A bit old-school hokey but this classic by the author of Canticle for Leibowitz paints a fine tale of adventure
Jesting Pilot by Henry Kuttner - Slight but with such a wonderful conceit, the bread and butter of classic science fiction.
It's Great to Be Back by Robert Heinlein - Sucks just like everything Heinlein sucks. But his name sells so whadya gonna do.
Billenium by JG Ballard - A wonderful, laid back nightmare. This is the first Ballard I've read, but exactly what I'd expect based on some of the films I've seen based on his work. Loved it, hope to read some of his classics one of these days.
Okie by James Blish - Nothing to really write home about here but some lovely zip-bang future dealing. A little reminiscent of the traders sequence of Foundation.
The Luckiest Man in Denv by CM Kornbluth - A lovely little story with breakneck pacing, organically showing us just enough of this world to understand it fully without ever sacrificing narrative momentum. Never heard of CM Kornbluth before but I want more after this taste.
The Machine Stops by EM Forster - The only story in this collection I'd heard of before and it lives up to the hype. A true dystopian classic.
The Underpriveledged by Brian Aldiss - Slight and predictable but enjoyable.
By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet - Easily the best story in this collection. I'd never heard of it or the author before, though looking them up I find they're both well known (or perhaps once well known) classics and deservedly so. Has instilled in me a strong desire to check out his other well remembered story, The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Forgetfullness by Don A Stuart - Perfect way to cap off the collection, fully delivering on the promised City of Wonder. A bit like Forgotten Planet, but more to it than that. The kind of big-fuckin-ideas content that first got me hooked on science fiction as a lad.
January 20, 2026
Some of these stories have aged well, and others seem dated. There are some well-known authors included in this anthology. Well worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews