Orbit (anthology series)

Orbit was an American 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 other original speculative fiction anthologies, it ran for over a decade and twenty-one volumes, not including a 1975 "Best of" collection selected from the first ten volumes.

Orbit 1

Orbit 1 was published in October 1966.

Table of contents:

Orbit 2

Volume 2 was published in 1967, and edited by Damon Knight. Budrys said "It is more a sign that Damon's heart is in the right place than it is a really satisfactory book."[1]

Table of contents:

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.[4]

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Orbit 4

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

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Orbit 5

Volume 5 was published September 1969 by G.P. Putnam's Sons. It was reprinted in October 1969 by Putnam, December 1969 by Berkley Medallion, and November 1970 in the UK by Rapp & Whiting. It was edited by Damon Knight[5] Barry Malzberg wrote that the anthology "doesn't, somehow, seem to be at the same high level of ambition or accomplishment as the earlier volumes," but singled out "The Big Flash" for praise, declaring "The last pages of this story may be one of the strongest experiences available in modern American fiction."[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.
  • "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 woman.
  • "Configuration of the North Shore", short story by R.A. Lafferty about a psychiatrist exploring a patient's extraordinary dream that could lead to the ultimate fulfillment of human existence.
  • "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,[8] written in 1969 [9] 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.[10] 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.
  • "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 the 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 hire a rock band called the Four Horsemen to popularize the use of nuclear warfare.[11]

Orbit 6

Edited by Damon Knight

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Orbit 7

Edited by Damon Knight

Table of contents:

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 7, The Best from Orbit, and The Visible Man.[12] A man survives the end of the world inside his apartment.
  • "A Method Bit in "B"", by Gene Wolfe.[13] A police sergeant investigating a murder discovers he is actually a bit character in a B-movie.
  • "Interurban Queen", by R.A. Lafferty,[14] reprinted in RINGING CHANGES, Days of Grass, Days of Straw,[15] and in Lafferty in Orbit.[16] A satirical story about an alternate history America where light rail systems have become the norm[17] and cars are outlawed.[18] 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.

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."[19]

Orbit 10

Edited by Damon Knight, published in 1972.[20] Table of contents:

Orbit 11

Edited by Damon Knight, published in 1973. Table of contents:

Orbit 12

Edited by Damon Knight Table of Contents:

Orbit 13

Edited by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

Orbit 14

Edited by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:[21]

Orbit 15

Edited by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

Orbit 16

Table of contents:

Spider Robinson dismissed the anthology as minor and disappointing, noting that most of the stories were "manifestly by newcomers, first sales or nearly so."[22]

Orbit 17

Edited by Damon Knight]], first published in 1975.

Table of contents:

  • "The Anthropologist" by Kathleen M. Sidney
  • "The Man with the Golden Reticulates" by Felix C. Gotschalk
  • "The Steel Sonnets" by Jeff Duntemann
  • "Toto, I Have a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore" by Jeff Millar
  • "Autopsy in Transit" by Stepan Chapman (as Steve Chapman)
  • "House" by John Barfoot
  • "Fun Palace" by Raylyn Moore
  • "When We Were Good" by Dave Skal
  • "Which in the Wood Decays" by Seth McEvoy
  • "Great Day in the Morning" by R. A. Lafferty
  • "The Maze" by Stuart Dybek
  • "Quite Late One Spring Night" by John M. Curlovich
  • "Under the Hollywood Sign" by Tom Reamy

Orbit 18

Edited by Damon Knight, first published in 1976.

Table of Contents:

Orbit 19

Edited by Damon Knight first published in 1977

Table of Contents:

Orbit 20

Edited by Damon Knight First published in 1978

Table of Contents:

  • They Say Quotes re Science Fiction
  • "Moongate" by Kate Wilhelm
  • "The Novella Race" by Pamela Sargent
  • "Bright Coins in Never-Ending Stream" by R. A. Lafferty
  • "The Synergy Sculpture" by Terrence L. Brown
  • The Memory Machine Quotes from Science Fiction
  • "The Birds are Free" by Ronald Anthony Cross
  • "A Right-Handed Wrist" by Stepan Chapman
  • "They Made us Not To Be And They Are Not" by Phillipa C. Maddern
  • "Seven American Nights" by Gene Wolfe
  • Arcs and Secants - Afterword
  • Index to Volumes 11-20

References
  1. Budrys, Algis (December 1967). "Galaxy Bookshelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 187–194.
  2. World's Best Science Fiction : 1968. Donald Wollheim/Terry Carr (eds), 1968.
  3. Carr, Terry (1975). Creatures from Beyond: Nine Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Terry Carr: 9780840764591: Amazon.com: Books. ISBN 0840764596.
  4. "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1969, pp.184-86
  5. "Bibliography: The Time Machine". isfdb.org.
  6. "Books", F&SF, May 1970, p.27-8
  7. "The Roads, the Roads, the Beautiful Roads". wizards.pro.
  8. "Kit Reed". fantasticfiction.co.uk.
  9. "Teosed". ttu.ee.
  10. "Winston". wizards.pro.
  11. Seed, David (1999). American Science Fiction and the Cold War. ISBN 9781579581954.
  12. "Stories, Listed by Author". philsp.com.
  13. "Stories, Listed by Author". philsp.com.
  14. "Stories, Listed by Author". locusmag.com.
  15. R. A. Lafferty papers - Indexes; Collected Works
  16. "Lafferty Collections". mulle-kybernetik.com.
  17. "Uchronia: Interurban Queen". uchronia.net.
  18. Garlic fries and Ichirolls
  19. "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, March 1972, pp.87
  20. "Damon Knight's Orbit 10 (Open Library)". openlibrary.org.
  21. "Publication: Orbit 14". www.isfdb.org. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  22. "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1975, pp.145-46
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