Omega

by Roger Elwood

Mass market paperback by Fawcett, 1974, the first time in paperback. A unique collection of thirteen short stories of science fiction and fantasy by authors such as Barry Malzberg, Philip Jose Farmer, R. A. Lafferty, Anne McCaffrey, Poul Anderson, others. 159 pages

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Roger Elwood was an American science fiction writer and editor, perhaps best known for having edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early 1970s. Elwood was also the founding editor of Laser Books and, in more recent years, worked in the evangelical Christian market.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in the days between Martin Greenberg and Martin H. Greenberg, Roger Elwood was a well-known anthologist who edited quite a number of books of short science fiction. Omega, which had no clear cut theme, was not one of the best, but wasn't terrible. There's a nice King Kong story by Philip Jose Farmer, a pair of Barry N. Malzberg curiosities (one in collaboration with Valerie King), a cute short-short (today it'd be called flash) by James Sutherland, etc. My favorite was Slide Show by George R.R. Martin.

[Michael Tildsley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't often say this. This collection was hot garbage. From bad stories to archaic writing styles, this book is filled with a bunch of authors' D-material short stories. Avoid.

One good story. Maybe a four star story at that.

"Slide Show" by George R. R. Martin

[Snood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an incredibly eclectic collection of short stories, ranging from good to incomprehensible.

Running Around is a decent but unremarkable time travel story.

The Empty Field is a Japanese story that was translated terribly, resulting in a broken mess that I couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Od is the ramblings of an insane character and as a result, doesn’t make much sense.

Amfortas is a medical experimentation gone wrong story that didn’t particularly interest me.

After King Kong Fell is the story of King Kong as told by a bystander in New York. It’s competently written, but not much is gained from hearing the story from that perspective.

Symposium is confusing, but the ending made up for it.

Swords of Ifthan is a silly two page long story made completely pointless by the back of the book giving away the ending.

Beast in View finally felt like what one would expect from a sci-fi short, showing a strange society and how it reacts to someone who doesn’t belong, and was greatly refreshing.

Slide Show (by George R. R. Martin before Game of Thrones fame) is a story consisting almost entirely of dialogue, weighing scientific development against aiding the poor. Despite the dry-sounding premise, it is an interesting read.

Rabble-Dowser, in addition to having a clever name, is a story with an interesting concept and highlights that colleges have always been a place of left-wing thought and sometimes violent clashes of opinion.

The Serpent of Eden was my favorite of the collection, showcasing an alien world, people struggling to survive, and the morality of humankind settling a new planet when we ruined the first.

Beachhead in Utopia depicts a dystopian society where poverty and unemployment is eliminated by killing the unemployed.

Geraniums was yet another confusing story that I couldn’t understand, seeming to involve flower theft and Catholicism with a twist ending that might be the main character ascending into heaven after drowning a gopher. I really have no clue.

All in all, there are good stories in here, they’re just hidden among a load of average stories and incoherent stories.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mindwebs audiobook 22 part 2 contains this very short 1973 story "Swords of ifthan" by James E Sutherland (and the preceding one). A shy bookworm is disturbed whilst emersed in the world of chivalry by a glowing entity. It invites him to leave his library and embark on a quest to rescue the inhabitants of a distant planet from a terrible threat. He is shown a vision of the planets problem, a classic St George and the dragon scenario, so proudly agrees to go.... this results in a truly excellent outcome!

[Howard]

14

[Jacquie]

Rabbel-Dowser