The Planet on the Table

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They sailed out of Lisbon harbor with flags snapping and brass culverins gleaming under a high sun, priests proclaiming the Pope's blessing, soldiers in armor on the castles, and sailors in the rigging waving at townsfolk who had come to watch the departure of the Armada, destined to subjugate the heretic English. Among them was Manuel Tetuan, a young Moroccan orphan taken from a Franciscan monastery. “Black Air” is a multiple award-nominated novelette that explores Manuel’s innocence, his compassion amid war, and the miracles that help him survive the tragedy of the doomed Armada. Robinson’s extraordinary range is showcased through haunting tales, including tourists looting the sunken ruins of Venice; an amoral future sleuth and her bumbling companion tracking a forger of Monets on a planet of wealthy esthetes; three friends confronting eternity and subtle magic in the snowbound Sierras; a company of hypnotically trained actors facing an unknown psychopath whose murders echo Elizabethan drama; the historic impact of a WWII traitor who fails to A-bomb Hiroshima; impoverished Uranian miners reviving Dixieland Jazz for fame; and a dilapidated Arizona grill-souvenir shop that becomes a drifter’s nexus with Time and destiny.