ISFDB 7273. OCLC 317903431.

I read it for the stories, all by respected names. There were some articles of criticism, but they haven't stuck. ( )

Back in the day (a long, large number of days ago) I read through Damon Knight’s Orbit series and Terry Carr’s Universe series and John Carnell’s New Writings in SF series and a number of other short story collections that sprang into the world during the “New Wave” of science fiction. I wasn’t reading them when they first came out, but it was pretty soon after. What I remember is that a number of the collections were very hard to read through. There would be one or two (sometimes more) quite decent stories – even some award winners. But there was a lot of experimentation that, while it might have been needed to grow the genre, did not do much to entertain me. And it seemed that the longer a series would exist, the more obscure the stories would become. (And there would be few “success” stories.)

Reading this second collection from Clarion made me feel like I was part way through one of those early series – a lot of struggles, a couple of almost gems, and a question of whether it was worth my time. (Of course, in the 70s we were all so cool we had to pretend it was worth our time, even if it wasn’t.) And then throw in another challenge – because these are Clarion students and graduates, they tend to be stories by new authors that…well, they are trying.

The result is a collection of quite forgettable stories wrapped around some interesting thoughts and concepts. In particular, when the seasoned authors – the ones who came in as instructors – talk about what they experienced, it can become very interesting. Of course, as a Harlan Ellison fan, one of my favorite essays is his retelling of trying to break through to various Clarion classes by using techniques from Synanon. I don’t know that the actual story or lessons are that great, but he is a master story-teller, so it becomes interesting.

And, I don’t know if it was the afterglow from Harlan’s essay, but the story after next – “And Dragons in the Sky” by Glen Cook – was completely engrossing. It started out feeling like a cliché – a man sneaks aboard a space ship as a worker who will help rebuild an alien ship, but is actually trying to find information regarding riches desired by the entire universe - but quickly ecame entertaining and compelling as we learnd the underlying stories. (And what does it tell you that I had even forgotten there was a story between the Ellison essay and the Cook story.)

The essays (particularly Harlan’s) and one or two stories (particularly Cook’s) elevate this beyond bad, but that is not enough to recommend the overall collection. ( )