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Lafferty in Orbit

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Lafferty in Orbit is an anthology of the Lafferty stories appearing in the famous Orbit series edited by Damon Knight. Playful, outrageous, ridiculous and sublime, Lafferty the magician performs open-heart surgery on reality, and just for kicks removes the lungs, liver and both kidneys, juggles with them, puts them back in random order, sews up the patient and walks away grinning. The operation is always successful, and we wake up feeling hunky-dory. Included in this collection is "Narrow Valley" an often-anthologized fantasy that is one of the funniest stories ever written. What happens when an Oklahoma valley a half-mile wide appears to be no bigger than a drainage ditch to the family of homesteaders who just bought it? "The Hole on the Corner" is tour-de-force science-fiction that will leave you rolling in the aisles. Lafferty the usher leads you back to your seat and mesmerizes you with "Continued on Next Rock," one of the most haunting and transcendent fantasies ever penned. Then comes a story, "Configuration of the North Shore" of a man obsessed by a recurring dream. Lafferty takes you out of normal consciousness and into the dream world where everything is possible, yet you never quite find the thing you are searching for so desperately, if it is a thing at all... Every story is unique and bears the Lafferty watermark, each time held up the light never appearing the same, but forcing you to see in a completely different way. Read this book, but check your reality after every story--or you may find yourself trapped inside.