Orbit (anthology series)

Orbit was a long-running series of anthologies of new fiction edited by Damon Knight, often featuring work by such writers as Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, R. A. Lafferty, and Kate Wilhelm, who was married to Knight. The anthologies tended toward the avant-garde edge of science fiction, but by no means exclusively; occasionally the volumes would feature some nonfiction critical writing or humorous anecdotes by Knight. Inspired by Frederik Pohl's Star Science Fiction series, and in its turn an influence on Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions volumes and many others, it ran for over a decade and twenty-one volumes, not including a "Best-of" collection which covered the years 1966-1976.

Orbit 1

Volume 1 was published in October 1966. Algis Budrys described it as an example of "a book that represents science fiction well, but not to any extraordinary extent."^[1]

Table of contents:

• "Introduction," by Damon Knight
• "Staras Flonderans," by Kate Wilhelm (ss)
• "The Secret Place," by Richard M. McKenna (ss)
• "How Beautiful with Banners," by James Blish (ss)
• "The Disinherited," by Poul Anderson (ss) reprinted as "Home"
• "The Loolies Are Here," by Allison Rice (ss)
• "Kangaroo Court," by Virginia Kidd (nv), reprinted as "Flowering Season"
• "Splice of Life," by Sonya Dorman (ss)
• "5 Eggs," by Thomas M. Disch (ss)
• "The Deeps," by Keith Roberts (ss)

Orbit 2

Volume 2 was published in 1967, and edited by Damon Knight. Budrys received it without enthusiasm, saying "It is more a sign that Damon's heart is in the right place than it is a really satisfactory book." ^[2]

Table of contents:

• "Full Sun", short story by Brian W Aldiss written in 1967, with a werewolf theme. Republished in 1968 World's Best Science Fiction fourth edition.^[3] and Creatures from beyond: Nine stories of science fiction and fantasy ^[4]
• "Trip, Trap", short story by Gene Wolfe

Orbit 3

Volume 3 was published in 1968, and edited by Damon Knight. Algis Budrys found the volume "happens to contain some remarkable work," although he faulted the jacket copy as overpromotional. ^[5]

Table of contents: (incomplete)

• "Why They Mobbed the White House", short story by Doris Pitkin Buck
• "Don't Wash the Carats", short story by Philip José Farmer
• "Here Is Thy Sting", short story by John Jakes
• "Mother to the World," novelette by Richard Wilson
• "The Changeling", short story by Gene Wolfe

Orbit 4

Volume 4 was published in 1968, and edited by Damon Knight.

Table of contents:

• "Windsong," novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• "Probable Cause," novella by Charles L. Harness
• "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin," short story by Harlan Ellison
• "This Corruptible," novelette by Jacob Transue
• "Animal," short story by Carol Emshwiller
• "One at a Time," short story by R. A. Lafferty
• "Passengers," short story by Robert Silverberg
• "Grimm’s Story," novella [in the "Tatja Grimm" series] by Vernor Vinge
• "A Few Last Words," short story by James Sallis

Orbit 5

Volume 5 was published September 1969 by G.P. Putnam's Sons. It was Reprinted October 1969 by Putnam, December 1969 by Berkley Medallion, and November 1970 by Rapp & Whiting. It was edited by Damon Knight^[6]

Table of contents:

• "Somerset Dreams", short story by Kate Wilhelm
• "The Roads, The Roads, The Beautiful Roads", short story by Avram Davidson, written in 1969, reprinted in the anthology Car Sinister^[7] The head of a state highway department, whose highest passion in life is designing highways even if they are not needed, is driving on one of the highways he built. He takes the wrong exit and ends up in a closed off tunnel where a highway minotaur attacks him.

From the story, "The roads, the roads were engineered beautifully. It was the stupid bastard "people" who were engineered wrong." ^[8]

• "Look, You Think you've Got Troubles", short story by Carol Carr, about a non-religious Jewish family whose daughter marries an alien who subsequently converts to Judaism.
• "Winter's King", short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• "The Time Machine=", short story by Langdon Jones, with a prisoner reminiscing about an affair he had with a married women.
• "Configuration of the North Shore", short story by R.A. Lafferty about a man obsessed about finding a particular beach somewhere in the southern hemisphere.
• "Paul's Treehouse", short story by Gene Wolfe
• "The Price", short story by Belcher C. Davis, reprinted as "Just Dead Enough". A local newspaper reporter follows a case where a man dies in a car accident and his organs are transplanted into other people in the town. The case becomes interesting when one of the organ recipients kills someone in a car accident and doesn't have insurance. The lawyer tries to make the argument that the organ recipient is the heir of the donor. Then the heirs sue the hospital for getting them involved in the case to begin with.
• "The Rose Bowl-Pluto hypothesis", short story by Robert S. Richardson written under the pen name Philip Latham. A professor notices that racing scores have dramatically improved and proposes that it is due to space shrinking.
• "Winston", short story by Kit Reed,^[9] written in 1969 ^[10] and reprinted in 1976 in the anthology The Killer Mice and in 1981 in the collection Other Stories and...The Attack of the Giant Baby.^[11] A family purchases a child bred for intelligence, but neglects it and beats it until it suffers irreparable brain damage. In its brain damaged state the mother finally views it as a normal child.
• "The History Makers", short story by James Sallis, written in 1969. The story is told in a series of letters from a person known as Jim to his brother John. He writes about his stay on an alien planet. The beings there live in an "alternate time span" whereby interaction with humans is nearly impossible. Over the course of the planet's "day" the inhabitants build a city from a rude village. Over the course of the day of city gains in size until it becomes a major metropolises. Than as the day ends the inhabitants began to go through a change. Most go comatose, while others began insanely destroying their city. Eventually the entire city, nicknamed Siva, including ruins is destroyed.

• Quotes

"All my faces had run together like cheap watercolor." ^[12]

• The Big flash

A short story by Norman Spinrad. Which won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette The pentagon hatches a plan to use atomic warfare in Vietnam War. It had been determined that a single nuclear attack would destroy 2/3 of the enemy's fighting force. In order to get the American population to go along with the idea of nuclear warfare, the pentagon gets a band formed called the four horseman. The band's theme is advocacy of nuclear warfare ^[13] By funneling money to them the military is able to get them very popular.

Orbit 6

Edited by Damon Knight

Table of contents:

• "Remembrance to Come", short story by Gene Wolfe
• "How the Whip Came Back", short story by Gene Wolfe

Orbit 7

Edited by Damon Knight

Table of contents:

• "Eyebem", a short story by Gene Wolfe
• "The Island of Doctor Death and Other stories" short story by Gene Wolfe
• "The Pressure of Time", short story by Thomas M.Disch

Orbit 8

Published in 1970 by G.P. Putnam's Sons and edited by Damon Knight.

Table of contents:

• "Horse of Air", by Gardner Dozois, reprinted in Nebula Award Stories, The Best from Orbit, and The Visible Man.^[14] A man survives the end of the world inside his apartment.
• "A Method Bit in "B"", by Gene Wolfe.^[15] A police sergeant investigating a murder discovers he is actually a bit character in a B-movie.
• "Interurban Queen", by R.A. Lafferty,^[16] reprinted in RINGING CHANGES, Days of Grass, Days of Straw,^[17] and in Lafferty in Orbit.^[18] A lightly satirical story about an alternate history America where light rail systems have become the norm^[19] and cars are outlawed.^[20] This world is portrayed as a paradise, with all cities small, unique, and mostly for entertainment. Cars still exist, and are built by "Sly klunker makers". Being caught driving a car is a capital offense without trial.

• Notable quote

"A man in an automobile is worth a thousand men on foot" ^[21]

Orbit 9

Edited by Damon Knight, published by Putnam Books in 1971.

Theodore Sturgeon found the anthology "fascinating," saying "I profoundly admire what Knight is doing here."^[22]

Orbit 10

Edited by Damon Knight, published in 1972.^[23]

• Table of contents:
• "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", Gene Wolfe
• "Jody after the War", Edward Bryant
• "Al", Carol Emshwiller
• "Now I'm Watching Roger", Alexei Panshin
• "Whirl Cage", Jack M. Dann
• "A Kingdom by the Sea", Gardner R. Dozois
• "Christlings", Albert Teichner
• "Live, from Berchtesgaden", Geo. Alec Effinger
• "Dorg", R.A. Lafferty
• "Gantlet", Richard E. Peck
• "The Fusion Bomb", Kate Wilhelm

Orbit 11

Edited by Damon Knight, published in 1973.

• Table of contents:
• "To Plant a Seed", short story by Hank Davis
• Quote

"If the human race ever stops acting on the basis of what it thinks it knows, paralyzed by fear that its knowledge may be wrong, then Homo sapiens will be making its application for membership in the dinosaur club."^[24]

• "Father's in the Basement", short story by Philip José Farmer

Orbit 12

Edited by Damon Knight

• Table of Contents:

• "Shark" by Edward Bryant
• "Direction of the Road" by Ursula K. LeGuin
• "The Windows in Dante's Hell" by Michael Bishop
• "Four Stories" by Brian W. Aldiss

• "Serpent Burning on an Alter"
• "Woman in Sunlight with Mandoline"
• "The Young Soldier's Horoscope"
• "Castle Scene with Penitents"

• "The Red Canary" by Kate Wilhelm
• "What's the Matter With Herbie?" by Mel Gilden
• "Pinup" by Edward Bryant
• "The Genius Freaks" by Vonda N. McIntyre
• "Burger Creature" by Steve Chapman
• "Half the Kingdom" by Doris Piserchia
• "Continuing Westward" by Gene Wolfe
• Arcs and Secants Afterword

Orbit 13

Edited by Damon Knight Table of Contents: "The Scream" by Kate Wilhelm "Young Love" by Grania Davis "And Name My Name" by R. A. Lafferty "Going West" by Edward Bryant "My Friend Zarathustra" by James Sallis "Therapy" by Gary K. Wolf "Gardening Notes From All Over" by W. Macfarlane "Idio" by Doris Piserchia

Orbit 16

Spider Robinson dismissed the anthology as minor and disappointing, noting that most of the stories were "manifestly by newcomers, first sales or nearly so."^[25]

Orbit 19

Edited by Damon Knight

• Table of Contents:

• They Say - Forward
• "Lollipop and the Tar Baby" by John Varley
• "State of Grace" by Kate Wilhelm
• "Many Mansions" by Gene Wolfe
• "The Veil Over the River" by Felix C. Gotschalk
• "Fall of Pebble-Sky" by R. A. Lafferty
• Memory Machine - Quotes
• "Tomus" by Stephen Robinett
• "Under Jupiter" by Michael W. McClintock
• "To the Dark Tower Came" by Gene Wolfe
• "Vamp" by Michael Conner
• "Being of Game P-U" by Phillip Teich
• "Night Shift" by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
• "Going Down" by Eleanor Arnason
• "The Disguise" by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Arcs and Secants - Afterword

References

1. ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1966, p.157
2. ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1967, pp.192
3. ^ bestsf.net
4. ^ amazon.com
5. ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1969, pp.184-86
6. ^ isfb
7. ^ wizard pro-books
8. ^ google books
9. ^ fantastic fiction
10. ^ SFBooks
11. ^ pro-books
12. ^ grasslimb
13. ^ google books
14. ^ ISFAC
15. ^ ISFAC
16. ^ [1]
17. ^ [2]
18. ^ [3]
19. ^ [4]
20. ^ [5]
21. ^ google books
22. ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, March 1972, pp.87
23. ^ [6]
24. ^ [7]
25. ^ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1975, pp.145-46

External links

• Orbit 10 book description from the book jacket