What do you think?
Rate this book
The Planet on the Table
They sailed out of Lisbon harbor with the flags snapping and the brass culverins gleaming under a high white sun, priests proclaiming in sonorous Latin the blessing of the Pope, soldiers in armor jammed on the castles fore and aft, and sailors spiderlike in the rigging, waving at the citizens of the town who had left their work to come out on the hills and watch the ships crowd out the sunbeaten roads, for this was the Armada, the Most Fortunate Invincible Armada, off to subjugate the heretic English to the will of God. There would never be another departure like it.And aboard one of the ships was Manuel Tetuan, a young Moroccan orphan shanghaied from a Franciscan monastery. “Black Air” is the multiple award nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning novelette of Manuel’s beatific innocence, of his compassion in the face of war, and of the miracles that enabled him to survive the tragedy of the doomed Armada.Robinson’s extraordinary range of interests is demonstrated in haunting stories tourists looting the beautiful, sunken ruins of Venice; an amoral future sleuth who, with her bumbling Watson, must find the forger of Monets on a planet of wealthy esthetes; three friends, one brain-damaged, who confront eternity and subtle magic in the snowbound Sierras; a repertoire company of hypnotically trained, surgically altered actors, and an unknown psychopath whose murders mock the scripts of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama; the historic effects of the Second World War’s last traitor, the pilot who deliberately fails to A-bomb Hiroshima; impoverished Uranian miners who seek fame in an interplanetary music competition by reviving an ancient, lost form—Dixieland Jazz; and a dilapidated Arizona grill-souvenir shop that becomes the focus of a drifter’s encounters with Time and destiny.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
1 person is currently reading
377 people want to read
About the author
Kim Stanley Robinson
247 books7,475 followersKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 29, 2021
This was KSR's first story collection. All of these stories previously ran in magazines. It covers his published stories from 24-33 years old. KSR is 69 years old as of this writing. Almost every story in this collection was nominated for a major award, though only one won. It's not that these stories are bad, poorly written, or for the most part anything wrong with them. The problem was simply that they mostly simply didn't interest me in any way and I didn't find them engaging at all. I'm considering reading The Best Of Kim Stanley Robinson and ignoring his other collections. Half of this collection is included in that. Maybe I just don't like his short fiction. It's too soon for me to say much about his novels.
Introduction
KSR visits the grave of James Joyce and communes with him. It was rather different from the usual sort of introduction to a book.
Venice Drowned (1981)
In 2040, a Venetian man has an existential crisis about selling out his national heritage to foreigners who salvage the ruins beneath the waves.
Ok
Mercurial (1985)
A capricious detective and her reluctant sidekick investigate a murder and an art crime, on Mercury.
Meh
Ridge Running (1984)
Joe was never quite the same after he had part of his brain regrown, thought his friends as they traversed the snowy mountains.
Blah
The Disguise (1977)
A revenge tragedy play where the protagonist and other actors are unable to discern between reality and their implanted roles as actors. One of the actors is a murderer and will do so again, but maybe not even the murderer knows their identity. I should've liked this, but I didn't.
Meh
The Lucky Strike (1984)
An alternate history story of whether nuclear weapons were ever necessary, let alone justified. This has been one of his most popular and controversial works.
Ok
Coming Back to Dixieland (1976)
On Venus, a group of miners compete in a contest against professional musicians. They doubt they can win, but they believe that the exotic novelty of Earth music and instruments gives them a chance.
Blah
Stone Eggs (1983)
An experimental SF story where the protagonist isn't what he seems, let alone what he thinks himself to be. I didn't care for it at all.
Blah
Black Air (1983)
A very realistic depiction of the Spanish Armada heading to England. It's basically historical fiction. This story won the 1984 World Fantasy Award award for novella. I'm sure it's very enjoyable for the right audience, but it wasn't for me.
Meh
Introduction
KSR visits the grave of James Joyce and communes with him. It was rather different from the usual sort of introduction to a book.
Venice Drowned (1981)
In 2040, a Venetian man has an existential crisis about selling out his national heritage to foreigners who salvage the ruins beneath the waves.
Ok
Mercurial (1985)
A capricious detective and her reluctant sidekick investigate a murder and an art crime, on Mercury.
Meh
Ridge Running (1984)
Joe was never quite the same after he had part of his brain regrown, thought his friends as they traversed the snowy mountains.
Blah
The Disguise (1977)
A revenge tragedy play where the protagonist and other actors are unable to discern between reality and their implanted roles as actors. One of the actors is a murderer and will do so again, but maybe not even the murderer knows their identity. I should've liked this, but I didn't.
Meh
The Lucky Strike (1984)
An alternate history story of whether nuclear weapons were ever necessary, let alone justified. This has been one of his most popular and controversial works.
Ok
Coming Back to Dixieland (1976)
On Venus, a group of miners compete in a contest against professional musicians. They doubt they can win, but they believe that the exotic novelty of Earth music and instruments gives them a chance.
Blah
Stone Eggs (1983)
An experimental SF story where the protagonist isn't what he seems, let alone what he thinks himself to be. I didn't care for it at all.
Blah
Black Air (1983)
A very realistic depiction of the Spanish Armada heading to England. It's basically historical fiction. This story won the 1984 World Fantasy Award award for novella. I'm sure it's very enjoyable for the right audience, but it wasn't for me.
Meh
August 2, 2017
This collection of short stories by KSR shows a number of different facets of the author-in-progress, circa 1970s and early 1980s. It reminded me of reading "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson, where the text sort of rambles awkwardly up until about page 75 when Stephenson finally finds his voice and propels into the stratosphere as an author from that point forward.
Some of these stories have clear traces of PKD and Joyce commingled with hard-boiled SF from earlier years -- I would account those to a post-doc KSR experimenting. Others are a half-step away from his "Three Californias" tryptic, with glimpses of the Mars trilogy that lie ahead. Oddly, they seem to miss the eco-poet influences of Edward Abbey that show so strongly in Antarctica and the Mars trilogy.
"Black Air" has some obvious precursor elements which show up later in "Years of Rice and Salt", one of my favorite novels. Highly recommended -- alternative history, syncretic religious references, and twists all around.
"Venice Drowned" could've been a chapter in Blue Mars. Period. Likewise for "Mercurial" and "Coming Back to Dixieland". I found those quite entertaining.
"Stone Eggs" is more of the hard-boiled SF ilk, highly experimental.
Overall, "The Disguise" tops the list. Seriously excellent experimental prose with a near-future bent. It's set among the actors performing a Renaissance play, who've never read the script -- merely had it implanted into their brains. Knowing that one of the actors is a serial murderer...
Some of these stories have clear traces of PKD and Joyce commingled with hard-boiled SF from earlier years -- I would account those to a post-doc KSR experimenting. Others are a half-step away from his "Three Californias" tryptic, with glimpses of the Mars trilogy that lie ahead. Oddly, they seem to miss the eco-poet influences of Edward Abbey that show so strongly in Antarctica and the Mars trilogy.
"Black Air" has some obvious precursor elements which show up later in "Years of Rice and Salt", one of my favorite novels. Highly recommended -- alternative history, syncretic religious references, and twists all around.
"Venice Drowned" could've been a chapter in Blue Mars. Period. Likewise for "Mercurial" and "Coming Back to Dixieland". I found those quite entertaining.
"Stone Eggs" is more of the hard-boiled SF ilk, highly experimental.
Overall, "The Disguise" tops the list. Seriously excellent experimental prose with a near-future bent. It's set among the actors performing a Renaissance play, who've never read the script -- merely had it implanted into their brains. Knowing that one of the actors is a serial murderer...
August 11, 2021
The Planet on the Table contains some worthwhile stories (e.g., "Mercurial", "The Lucky Strike", and "Coming Back to Dixieland"), along with mediocre material that does not warrant the effort required to read it.
March 8, 2014
This was one of those books that have rattled around my book shelves for a while now - I guess I am poor at finishing books of short stories as I know once I have finished one story I can either go on to the next or in my case pick up a novel and read that instead. Anyway this is a collecting of Kim Stanley Robinson's earlier works - that range in scope and subject and really the only linking feature is their age, each story was written between 1977 and 1986. This series really acts as a pre-running to the greater works that Robinson would later pen - that said for a varied and thought provoking this certainly is one of the more challenging ones though very rewarding.
April 23, 2020
I don't usually like short stories very much and honestly I didn't realize this was a collection when I picked it up. But each one in here sucked me right in. And then left me to lament that there wasn't more to read about that little world I stepped into ever so briefly. I really liked how different both in style and topic each story was.
June 8, 2010
Collection of SF and fantasy stories. Love the cover.
July 20, 2025
Je me suis arrêté par manque d'intérêt après la 5ème nouvelle, soit 69% du texte total. Le style n'est pas en cause, c'est juste que ces récits de jeune écrivain peinent à garder éveillées l'attention et la curiosité du lecteur. Lucky Strike est la meilleure des 5. Le synopsis des nouvelles restantes m'a convaincu que j'allais m'ennnuyer encore davange sur 100 pages que j'oublierai sans peine et sans doute.
Sinon Lucky Strike voit très juste en dénonçant l'usage de la bombe atomique par Truman; un génocide que le narratif occidental a toujours traité avec une gênante bienveillance. Surtout si l'on compare avec la vision diabolisante de l'Iran par nos médias.
Sinon Lucky Strike voit très juste en dénonçant l'usage de la bombe atomique par Truman; un génocide que le narratif occidental a toujours traité avec une gênante bienveillance. Surtout si l'on compare avec la vision diabolisante de l'Iran par nos médias.
May 28, 2018
One of the best collections of short stories I've read (this is my second time through and it's been a while as the first time I got it through the library).
KSR is an amazing writer. There is something epic and poetic with many of his stories and novels. His story, "The Disguise", is a masterpiece!!
KSR is an amazing writer. There is something epic and poetic with many of his stories and novels. His story, "The Disguise", is a masterpiece!!
December 23, 2019
Wow!
This is an incredible group of stories. I really liked Venice Drowned and loved Black Air.
This is an incredible group of stories. I really liked Venice Drowned and loved Black Air.
May 12, 2025
Alternate history/future stories told in a classic literature style. There are stories in here that are playful, thought provoking and at times gut-wrenchingly engaging on an emotional level. The absolute highlight for me was the tale about the intergalactic battle of the bands where our heroes, a chaotic lunar miner jazz players playing for the chance to see the universe and Earth for the first time. Unfortunately about half the stories fall a bit flat with their lack of action and underwhelming message, at times i couldn't wait for these short story to end. Would recommend, but feel free to skip around. anyone want my copy?
April 3, 2017
Eight short stories, four of which I've read previously in The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson.
Of the new-to-me stories, there's:
Mercurial -- A Watson-type helps his Holmes solve a murder and cover it up for the sake of art on Mercury's capital, Terminator, the city that runs around the planet on train tracks, pushed by the sun. Sort of a precursor to the Swann character and her home in 2312.
The Disguise -- The dangers of using memory implants to help theatre actors is explored when a performer becomes murderous while staging a newly rediscovered Jacobean revenge tragedy. I loved the concept, but the execution was kind of disappointing, sort of like every theatre performance I've ever attended.
Coming back to Dixieland -- Asteroid miners enter a jazz contest and play for all their worth in an attempt to win their passage home. Somewhat predicts the American Idol/X-Factor nonsense of the last decade.
Stone Eggs -- a PKD-inspired vignette about a runaway on a Greyhound bus in the desert who discovers he may be a simulacrum.
Stories I'd already read: Venice Drowned, Ridge Running, The Lucky Strike & Black Air.
Overall, I'd say my favourites were Mercurial, Venice Drowned, The Lucky Strike and Stone Eggs.
Of the new-to-me stories, there's:
Mercurial -- A Watson-type helps his Holmes solve a murder and cover it up for the sake of art on Mercury's capital, Terminator, the city that runs around the planet on train tracks, pushed by the sun. Sort of a precursor to the Swann character and her home in 2312.
The Disguise -- The dangers of using memory implants to help theatre actors is explored when a performer becomes murderous while staging a newly rediscovered Jacobean revenge tragedy. I loved the concept, but the execution was kind of disappointing, sort of like every theatre performance I've ever attended.
Coming back to Dixieland -- Asteroid miners enter a jazz contest and play for all their worth in an attempt to win their passage home. Somewhat predicts the American Idol/X-Factor nonsense of the last decade.
Stone Eggs -- a PKD-inspired vignette about a runaway on a Greyhound bus in the desert who discovers he may be a simulacrum.
Stories I'd already read: Venice Drowned, Ridge Running, The Lucky Strike & Black Air.
Overall, I'd say my favourites were Mercurial, Venice Drowned, The Lucky Strike and Stone Eggs.
December 19, 2007
I picked this up on one of my used bookstore visits. I'd read Red Mars and thought it was pretty good, if a bit talky. The politics in the second book (either Green Mars, or Blue Mars) started getting tedious, so I dropped the series. I figured maybe Robinson was better in small doses, and for the most part, I was right.
While I didn't find anything unforgettable in this collection, it was an enjoyable diversion from the snow and the cold. "The Lucky Strike" is an intriguing alternate history of the events leading up to the Hiroshima bombing, while "Mercurial" is a whodunit, dealing with art forgery on the planet Mercury. "Black Air" reads as magical realism from the Spanish Armada. Both "Drowned Venice" and "Ridge Running" are extremely descriptive of their respective locations.
If you happen across this collection in a used bookstore or your local library has it - give it a whirl. As KSR said in his introduction:
"If you go on and read them, then you and I become collaborators in the strange and wonderful process that is reading fiction. "
He did recommend only reading one at a time, perhaps allowing a day or so to pass between readings. I'm not sure that would have changed my opinion either way.
While I didn't find anything unforgettable in this collection, it was an enjoyable diversion from the snow and the cold. "The Lucky Strike" is an intriguing alternate history of the events leading up to the Hiroshima bombing, while "Mercurial" is a whodunit, dealing with art forgery on the planet Mercury. "Black Air" reads as magical realism from the Spanish Armada. Both "Drowned Venice" and "Ridge Running" are extremely descriptive of their respective locations.
If you happen across this collection in a used bookstore or your local library has it - give it a whirl. As KSR said in his introduction:
"If you go on and read them, then you and I become collaborators in the strange and wonderful process that is reading fiction. "
He did recommend only reading one at a time, perhaps allowing a day or so to pass between readings. I'm not sure that would have changed my opinion either way.
January 21, 2023
My opinions about Venice Drowned by Kim Stanley Robinson, 1981, 28 pages
Read April 2021 and for some weird reason only Goodreads knows about the book was merged with this one.
The main character lives as a tour and dive guide in a town on the roofs of old Venice - now submerged. He guides tourists that often salvage artwork to bring home.
The plot is so simplistic as almost possible, and is just an excuse to sail and drive in submerged Venice. Fair enough.
It annoys me when people write about something they don’t know about. I am no expert in diving, but have tried scuba diving. No person carries four air tanks at the same time. Steel tanks are 23 kg a piece. Four tanks would be 92 bulky kgs. Aluminum tanks are less but have no handles and are carried by the neck. You cannot reach two necks with one hand.
On top of that after the dive he leaves the Japanese tourists with a “I’ll let you keep your scuba tanks“. What good would the empty tanks do? You use a tank for one dive.
Read April 2021 and for some weird reason only Goodreads knows about the book was merged with this one.
The main character lives as a tour and dive guide in a town on the roofs of old Venice - now submerged. He guides tourists that often salvage artwork to bring home.
The plot is so simplistic as almost possible, and is just an excuse to sail and drive in submerged Venice. Fair enough.
It annoys me when people write about something they don’t know about. I am no expert in diving, but have tried scuba diving. No person carries four air tanks at the same time. Steel tanks are 23 kg a piece. Four tanks would be 92 bulky kgs. Aluminum tanks are less but have no handles and are carried by the neck. You cannot reach two necks with one hand.
On top of that after the dive he leaves the Japanese tourists with a “I’ll let you keep your scuba tanks“. What good would the empty tanks do? You use a tank for one dive.
May 3, 2009
Some interesting, although grim, short stories more in the fantasy genre than science fiction.
August 22, 2015
I enjoyed these stories very much. They are special, they are weird, and they are told with seducing storytelling skill. Much recomended.
January 15, 2016
A good collection of short stories by Kim Stanley Robinson mostly speculative fiction but also a good look back at his early work.
Read
May 5, 2009The Planet on the Table by Kim Stanley Robinson (1987)
March 3, 2010
Kind of a hodge podge of creative writing exercises.
Read
June 5, 2018Excellent stories. I read it all on my phone.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews