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Best of OMNI Issue #1 i * HI 111 1 seiHCEraafioN EDITOQA ^ FEl^TJJliirUE: ISAAC asjjmov ALFRED BESTER BEN BOVA ORSON SCOTT CARD ARTHUR C. CLARKE ( HARLAN ELLISONf JOE HALDEMAN 1 ROBERT SHE©KU^ ROGER ZELAZNY& THE BEST OF onnrui SCIENCE FCTION EDITED BY BEN BOVA AND DON MYRUS DO OMNI SOCIETY THE BEST OF onnrui SCIENCE FICTION FOL.NDI few by Iscac Asir-ic-.: i i,s"al;cn by H R, Giger IAT TELLS THE TIME fit y HclanFI ison. lustro~-cn by 'vlaf. -(lorwein - : c ci cl! Lee-;, fex" ba Kara een vein Cera. Ls-'OicnoyEveyri byb' by Scot Morns siralionoy ivelya oyer okoloy tsx' by F C. Duront III I m NO FUTURE IN IT fiction by Joe Haldeirar . aire ;.- by C ofrti ed -e -weir, - GALATEA GALANTE fiction c-v '''ea Bey ei ; lustration by H. R. Giger ALIEN LANDSCAPES pictorial by Les Edwards, John Harris, Terry Ookes, and Tony Roberts y^\ KINS VAN fict on by Ben Rove, i ustronor by John Schoenherr SPACE CITIES pictorial by Harry Harrison Cover pointing by Pierre Lacombe HALFJACKficorioy ~'cy? '.<? -:-. .:.-'- v -:.- bv Ivtchsl Henricot SANDKINGS fiction by George R. R Martin llustrafol by Ernst Fuchs PLANET STORV pictor c ey - rr 3'ir^s a:-'d -crry Harrison : ARTHUR C.C .ARk'E!,-i:ef,igvv a-d i ...s-ofc', ::v VcIcoItsS. Kirk Copyriari jM9.'5. '97y. !930 by Or.n. P..Ld--:lioni- -te-e.:!cnal -id All nglrs 'ess : aiaies o ArTon,.;. Ni :!.-: c""""b so;* tray ::,; epr-duosd n; -'onsTii-tec n any torn- o- 'lecfifl-ica i--:udinc bhr-.iDr.c-pvi-g (eco'OV'g. or any irfcir'iai'on a--d 'errievslsyste-r 1 the D_bi st'is I- o'" i O.T'i,- t jfjai rie (Eon Gi.ooio-ne. e:: "::' i:-uo:is-(V. ;r;i design "i'g.~; Kathy Keeion.assr pub.is-er) II- ! ::..'. .!! 309 id Avenue N. n o. n: li- 1 r . a, i , States of America; Canada. Library of CcngisMx oa-:;iog 73-92003 Frs; sd Iky Omni is 3 regist Omni Public; GREAT EXPERIMENT It is difficult to understand, now that THEOmni magazine is such an obvious success, how great a risk Bob Gucoione took when he decided to launch "the maga- zine of the future." No one had ever dared to produce a magazine that blended factual science, science fiction, fantasy, and sophisticated graphics into a single handsome package of extremely high quality— and high cost. Publishing "experts" predicted that the magazine would never get off the ground. It would contain science fiction I Who would read that stuff? The only people who read science fiction then were tiny groups of fanatics who never lifted their noses up from their digest- sized magazines and paperback books. They preferred this literary isolotion. Even within the science-fiction community itself, considerable doubt was expressed about an "outsider* bringing out such a magazine, someone who wasn't intimately connected with sci- ence fiction from childhood, immediately captured the attention I had a deeper worry Omni of millions of readers. Science fiction was no longer confined to digest-sized magazines and a relatively small and "in group" sci- readership. As Omni's fiction editor I wondered whether the ence-fiction writers would come through for Omni. Could they write stories that would entertain those readers who had never read science fiction before? Take a look In just the first twelve issues of Omni, science-fiction writers from Asimov to Zelazny came through with memorable, exciting stories. This anthology presents the cream of the first years crop: ten fine new stories by such Old Pros as Harlan Ellison and Robert Sheckley as well as such newer stars as George R. R. Martin and Orson Scott Card. And in keeping with Omni's breadth of subject material, we include in this volume some of the pictorials that, for the first time,- opened up the visual side of science fiction to your future-seeking eyes. We offer an interview with Arthur C. Clarke, perhaps the best-known and most respected science-fiction writer in the world. The great experiment that, is Omni has proved to be a stunning success. Turn the page and learn why —Ben Bova FOUND! Thousands of lives were eopardized by Computer-Two's nalfunction ... so we had to go aloft and set things straight than it had BMBSfiguch larger to be. t diagnose. Show us (he error and we'll i« you the malfunction. Or Joe will, any- ' j sinqs one's o Anyway, this time, neither of us could "Well, then, what do we do?" capacity make the diagnosis. Joe looked I uncomfortable. think it was Joe held his breath through acceleration, The first thing that happened was that at this point he realized what was coming. or at (east (I he seemed to. must admit, I Computer-Two losl internal pressure. That's He had made it sound peculiar enough to wasn't very comfortable myself. It was only not unprecedented, and it's certainly not require the troubleshooters on the spot— my third trip. I've taken a couple of vaca- fatal. Computer-Two can work in a vacuum and Joe had never in been up space. It he tions on Settlement-Rho with my husband, after all. An. internal atmosphere was estab- had told me once that his chief reason for out I'm not exactly a seasoned hand.) After lished in the old days when it was expected taking the. job was because it meant he that he was relieved for a while, but only for there would be a steady (low of repairmen would never have.to go up in space, he had a white. He got despondent. fiddlmg with it it's kept "And been up out of told it to me 2" times, with x. a pretty ' high I "iooe ih's :hing knows where its go- tradition. Who told you scientists aren't number. ing," he said, pettishly chained by tradition? In their " spare time Sol said it for him. "We'll have to go up I extended my arms forward, palms up, from being scientists, they're human, too. Joe's only way out would have been to and felt the rest of me sway backward a bit From the rate of pressure loss, it was say he didn't think he could handle the job, in the zero-gravity field, "You," I said, "area deduced that a gravel-sized meteor oid had I and watched his pride slowly come out compj:e- soocia is: Dent you kn-jw i hit Computer- Two. Its exact radius, mass, ahead of his cowardice. Not by much, you knows"?" and energy were reported by Computer- understand— by a nose, let's say. "Sure, but Computer-Two is off." Two itself, using that rate of pressure loss, To those of you who haven't been on a not into "We're hooked Computer-Two," I and a few other irregularities, as data. spaceship in the last fifteen I years- and said. "There are three others. And even if The thing that second happened was the suppose Joe can't the only let be one— me only one were left functional, it could handle break was not seated and the atmosphere emphasize that initial acceleration is the all the- spaceflights undertaken on an aver- was not regenerated. After that came er- only troublesome thing. You can't get away age day. rors, they in. and called us from it, of course. "All four might go off. If Computer-Two is It made no sense. Joe let a look of pain After that it's nothing, unless you want to wrong, what's to stop the rest?" cross his homely face and said, "There count possible boredom. You're just a "Then we'll run this thing manually." must be a dozen things out of whack." spectator. The whole thing is automated "You'll it, I do suppose. You know how— I Someone at Computer-Central said, and computerized, The old romantic days think not?" "The hunk of gravel ricocheted very likely." of space pilots are gone totally. I imagine "So they'll talk me in." Joe said, "With that energy of entry, it they'll return briefly when our space settle- "For the love of Eniac," he groaned. would have passed right through the other the ments make shift to the asteroid belt as There was no problem, actually. We side. No ricochets. Besides even with they constantly threaten to do- but then moved out to Computer-Two as smooth as ricochets, I figure it would have had to take only until additional computers are placed vacuum, and less than two days after some very unlikely strikes." in orbit to set the up necessary additional takeoff we were placed into a parking orbit not ten meters behind it. What was not so smooth was that, about twenty hours out, we got the news from Earth that Computer-Three was losing J internal pressure. Whatever had hit Computer-Two was going to get the rest, HjE^zzI^' and when all four were out, spaceflight would grind to a halt. It could be reorga- nized on a manual basis, surely, but that would take months at a minimum, possibly years, and there would be serious eco- nomic dislocation on Earth. Worse yet, sev- eral thousand people now out in space would 11 surely die. WMm&f It wouldn't bear thinking of, and neither Joe nor I talked about it, bur it didn't make Joe's disposition sweeter and, let's face it, it didn't make me any happier, Earth hung more than two hundred thousand kilometers below us, but Joe wasn't bothered by that.
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