Get Off the Unicorn
First edition cover
AuthorAnne McCaffrey
Cover artistPaul Alexander
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherDel Rey/Ballantine
Publication date
June 1977
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pagesxii, 303 pp.
ISBN0-552-10965-7

Get Off the Unicorn is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Anne McCaffrey, first published in paperback by Del Rey Books in June 1977. Eleven of the fourteen stories were previously published in various magazines and anthologies. Initial sales were brisk; two additional printings were required by year's end. Del Rey reprinted Get off the Unicorn regularly throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and its edition remains in print as of 2015. Corgi issued a British edition in 1979 and an Australian edition in 1980.[1] An audiobook based on the Corgi edition was released in 1985.[2] Severn House issued a hardcover edition in 1982.[1]

The title was derived by accident: McCaffrey's working title had been "Get of the Unicorn" but this was misprinted as "Get Off the Unicorn" in Ballantine's roster of unfilled contracts. After McCaffrey's editor, Judy-Lynn del Rey, was repeatedly asked what "Get Off the Unicorn" was, del Rey asked McCaffrey what she could do about that theme.[3]

Contents

Relation to McCaffrey's series

Reception

Evie Wilson and Michael McCue praised the collection, citing McCaffrey's introductory anecdotes as a highlight of the work.[6] Others have commented that the collection's stories "demonstrate the limits of McCaffrey's range of emotions and subjects".[7] McCaffrey biographer Robin Roberts wrote that the collection demonstrates McCaffrey's status in the field, showing "the power and appeal of [her] reputation as an author . . . [and] the power of her name to sell books".[8] Duncan Lunan, however, reviewing the first hardcover edition for the Glasgow Herald, received the collection without enthusiasm; he was particularly critical of "The Smallest Dragonboy", declaring that "the grimness [of the Pern series] has gone, and the grandeur has gone along with it".[9]

References

  1. ^ a b ISFDB publishing history
  2. ^ National Library of Australia
  3. ^ McCaffrey, Anne (1977), Get Off the Unicorn, p. Introduction, ISBN 0-552-10965-7, retrieved 2011-03-20
  4. ^ "Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections". Archived from the original on 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  5. ^ McCaffrey, Anne (1977), Get Off the Unicorn, p. 278, ISBN 0-552-10965-7
  6. ^ Gunton, Sharon, ed. (1981). Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale Research Company. p. 283. ISBN 9780810301078. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  7. ^ Cowart, David; Wymer, Thomas L. (1981). Twentieth-century American Science-fiction Writers, Part 2. Gale Research Company. p. 18. ISBN 9780810309180. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  8. ^ Robin Roberts, Anne McCaffrey: A Life with Dragons, University Press of Mississippi, 2007, p.147
  9. ^ "The answer lies in the spirit", Glasgow Herald, November 27, 1982

External links

Works by Anne McCaffrey
Categories