The Planet On The Table is Kim Stanley Robinson’s first short story collection, published in 1986. It consists of an introduction and 8 short stories, all of which were previously published in magazines. It contains the following stories:

• Venice Drowned
• Mercurial
• Ridge Running
• The Disguise
• The Lucky Strike
• Coming Back to Dixieland
• Stone Eggs
• Black Air

The title of the collection shares its name with the 1953 poem from Wallace Stevens.

Today it is considered to be no longer available.

Publication History

• Tor Books, hardcover, July 1986
• Tor Books, paperback, July 1987
• Futura, paperback, August 1987
• J’ai Lu, as La Planète Sur La Table (French translation), May 1988
• Bastei-Lübbe, as Geschöpfe der Sonne (German translation), 1988
• Editorial Caminho, as O Planeta sobre a Mesa (Portuguese translation), 1989
• Tor Orb, included in Remaking History And Other Stories, August 1994
• J’ai Lu, as La Planète Sur La Table (French translation), January 1999

Reviews

• Locus #302, March 1986, Debbie Notkin
• Fantasy Review #90, April 1986, Wendy Bousfield
• Publishers Weekly, May 1 1986
• The Washington Post, May 25 1986, Gregory Frost
• The New York Times, July 29 1986, Gerald Jonas
• Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine #111, December 1986, Baird Searles
• Science Fiction Review #61, Winter 1986, Fernando Q. Gouvea
• Foundation #40, 1987, Roz Kaveney
• Paperback Inferno #68, October 1987, Colin Bird
• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1987, Orson Scott Card
• Thrust #28, Fall 1987, Pascal J. Thomas
• Fiction #402, October 1988 (France), Pascal J. Thomas
• Short Form #3/4, 1989, Judy Geary

Resources

• The Planet on the Table at The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The Planet on the Table at Google Books