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Orbit #2
Orbit 2
Baby, You Were Great! (1967) story by Kate Wilhelm Fiddler's Green (1967) novella by Richard McKenna Full Sun (1967) story by Brian W. Aldiss I Gave Her Sack & Sherry/Alyx (1967) novelette by Joanna Russ The Adventuress/Alyx (1967) novelette by Joanna Russ The Dimple in Draco (1967) story by R.S. Richardson [aka Philip Latham] The Doctor (1967) story by Theodore L. Thomas [aka Ted Thomas] The Food Farm (1967) story by Kit Reed The Hole on the Corner (1967) story by R.A. Lafferty Trip, Trap (1967) novelette by Gene Wolfe
255 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
1 person is currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Damon Knight
581 books97 followersDamon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 6, 2017
An original collection of 10 stories with an introduction by the editor for each of the tales. I never know when I am going to stumble on a really good collection, but this was good but not great. The orbit anthologies I have read in the past have been generally good. The stories are:
7 • The Doctor • (1967) • shortstory by Ted Thomas
18 • Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
36 • Fiddler's Green • (1967) • novella by Richard McKenna
110 • Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
145 • The Dimple in Draco • (1967) • shortstory by R. S. Richardson as by Philip Latham
164 • I Gave Her Sack and Sherry • Alyx • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
185 • The Adventuress • Alyx • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
211 • The Hole on the Corner • (1967) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
227 • The Food Farm • (1967) • shortstory by Kit Reed
240 • Full Sun • (1967) • shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
The opening story "The Doctor" put me on notice that I might have a good one here. A physician from the present time volunteered for a time travel experiment at Pennsylvania State University which successfully sent him half a million years into the past of early man with no apparent way to return. In the story we see how the doctor tries to use his skills to help a tribe survive. Things do not go well, in fact they go very badly, but he perseveres, because he is a doctor. I liked this one a lot.
Kate Wilhelm's story "Baby, You Were Great" was noted by the editor as different from her usual work. It was and I didn't care for it, just not my cuppa.
The novella "Fiddler's Green" is the most interesting piece, sort of the star of this collection. Damon Knight says in his intro that it was one of a handful of unpublished stories Richard McKenna left behind when he died in 1964. Wikipedia defines Fiddler's Green so: 'Fiddler's Green is a legendary supposed afterlife, where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire. In 19th-century maritime folklore it was a kind of afterlife for sailors who have served at least 50 years at sea.' McKenna handles this idea of an imaginary place in a story where a ship transporting contraband explosives has sunk and eight men survive in an open boat. The future looks hopeless. McKenna was a US navy sailor (for 22 years) as well as an author and is best known for his famous novel and movie adaptation "The Sand Pebbles." I need to seek out other stories by this man, who died young at 51. As far as I know I have only read one other short story by McKenna in a supernatural/horror anthology several years ago. Orbit is advertised as the best new science fiction of the year, but this story would be better classified as fantasy although there is a mass hallucination of sorts within the story and one man develops a kind of telepathic mind control so I suppose many would think that element was science fiction. But is hypnosis or other forms of control sci/fi? Not to me. It was an intriguing story but I was disappointed with how it finished.
Gene Wolfe's "Trip, Trap" was a long fantasy / science fiction mashup that was pretty good and kept my interest, and told in an interesting fashion. Beware the troll bridge. Phasers on stun.
"The Dimple in Draco" was an interesting astronomy oriented story written by an astronomer.
I wasn't sure at first what to make of Joanna Russ's pair of related stories. In the first one Alyx bonks her abusive husband on the head, and perhaps makes him dead. She runs off, or rather swims off and finds herself on the ship of Blackbeard the pirate. Alyx is by no means an innocent sweet young thing. I found myself interested despite the strangeness of it all. There was probably a science fiction element somewhere I missed. I would call this a historical feminist fantasy as was the followup. Some people would probably love this sort of story - I found it amusing enough to give it an OK. I liked the first one more than the second.
Of the three remaining stories, Lafferty and Reed's stories were zany and a bit whacky and not really to my taste. Brian Aldiss, however, gives us a story of a dark future where machines have increasingly taken over and man has become pacified city dwellers. This tale is of a hunter, a hunter of werewolves which are men who have broken away from the cities. The story was interesting and had a very good and unexpected twist.
7 • The Doctor • (1967) • shortstory by Ted Thomas
18 • Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
36 • Fiddler's Green • (1967) • novella by Richard McKenna
110 • Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
145 • The Dimple in Draco • (1967) • shortstory by R. S. Richardson as by Philip Latham
164 • I Gave Her Sack and Sherry • Alyx • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
185 • The Adventuress • Alyx • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
211 • The Hole on the Corner • (1967) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
227 • The Food Farm • (1967) • shortstory by Kit Reed
240 • Full Sun • (1967) • shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
The opening story "The Doctor" put me on notice that I might have a good one here. A physician from the present time volunteered for a time travel experiment at Pennsylvania State University which successfully sent him half a million years into the past of early man with no apparent way to return. In the story we see how the doctor tries to use his skills to help a tribe survive. Things do not go well, in fact they go very badly, but he perseveres, because he is a doctor. I liked this one a lot.
Kate Wilhelm's story "Baby, You Were Great" was noted by the editor as different from her usual work. It was and I didn't care for it, just not my cuppa.
The novella "Fiddler's Green" is the most interesting piece, sort of the star of this collection. Damon Knight says in his intro that it was one of a handful of unpublished stories Richard McKenna left behind when he died in 1964. Wikipedia defines Fiddler's Green so: 'Fiddler's Green is a legendary supposed afterlife, where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire. In 19th-century maritime folklore it was a kind of afterlife for sailors who have served at least 50 years at sea.' McKenna handles this idea of an imaginary place in a story where a ship transporting contraband explosives has sunk and eight men survive in an open boat. The future looks hopeless. McKenna was a US navy sailor (for 22 years) as well as an author and is best known for his famous novel and movie adaptation "The Sand Pebbles." I need to seek out other stories by this man, who died young at 51. As far as I know I have only read one other short story by McKenna in a supernatural/horror anthology several years ago. Orbit is advertised as the best new science fiction of the year, but this story would be better classified as fantasy although there is a mass hallucination of sorts within the story and one man develops a kind of telepathic mind control so I suppose many would think that element was science fiction. But is hypnosis or other forms of control sci/fi? Not to me. It was an intriguing story but I was disappointed with how it finished.
Gene Wolfe's "Trip, Trap" was a long fantasy / science fiction mashup that was pretty good and kept my interest, and told in an interesting fashion. Beware the troll bridge. Phasers on stun.
"The Dimple in Draco" was an interesting astronomy oriented story written by an astronomer.
I wasn't sure at first what to make of Joanna Russ's pair of related stories. In the first one Alyx bonks her abusive husband on the head, and perhaps makes him dead. She runs off, or rather swims off and finds herself on the ship of Blackbeard the pirate. Alyx is by no means an innocent sweet young thing. I found myself interested despite the strangeness of it all. There was probably a science fiction element somewhere I missed. I would call this a historical feminist fantasy as was the followup. Some people would probably love this sort of story - I found it amusing enough to give it an OK. I liked the first one more than the second.
Of the three remaining stories, Lafferty and Reed's stories were zany and a bit whacky and not really to my taste. Brian Aldiss, however, gives us a story of a dark future where machines have increasingly taken over and man has become pacified city dwellers. This tale is of a hunter, a hunter of werewolves which are men who have broken away from the cities. The story was interesting and had a very good and unexpected twist.
March 17, 2023
This was a lucky find at an antique mall in Palm Springs. It was chilling on a wire book-spinner with a phantasmagoric cover.
I find with SF anthologies in general, and especially ones from the “new-wave” era, that if it a story isn’t grabbing me, just move on. The stories that hooked me in this collection are:
“The Doctor” by Ted Thomas (excellent opener, cave-man time-travel)
“Fiddler’s Green” by Richard McKenna (a posthumous publication with a wild premise, where a small ship of stranded sailors enter another world through group meditation and what happens after they enter this new world. A highly intriguing premise and some incredible ideas, but it suffers from heavy-handed exposition.)
“Trip Trap” by Gene Wolfe (a mind-melter. Incredible story, been thinking about it all week. One of his first publications, a very cool discovery)
“The Hole In the Corner” by R.A. Lafferty (as bonkers and interesting as I’d hoped. My first Lafferty story.)
“Full Sun” by Brian W. Aldiss (a cool twist ending. One story that I wish had been longer, or a short novel from the werewolf’s perspective after the revelation at the story’s end.)
I find with SF anthologies in general, and especially ones from the “new-wave” era, that if it a story isn’t grabbing me, just move on. The stories that hooked me in this collection are:
“The Doctor” by Ted Thomas (excellent opener, cave-man time-travel)
“Fiddler’s Green” by Richard McKenna (a posthumous publication with a wild premise, where a small ship of stranded sailors enter another world through group meditation and what happens after they enter this new world. A highly intriguing premise and some incredible ideas, but it suffers from heavy-handed exposition.)
“Trip Trap” by Gene Wolfe (a mind-melter. Incredible story, been thinking about it all week. One of his first publications, a very cool discovery)
“The Hole In the Corner” by R.A. Lafferty (as bonkers and interesting as I’d hoped. My first Lafferty story.)
“Full Sun” by Brian W. Aldiss (a cool twist ending. One story that I wish had been longer, or a short novel from the werewolf’s perspective after the revelation at the story’s end.)
July 22, 2025
RATED 65% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.3 OF 5
10 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
I want to like the Orbit original anthology series. I really do. Damon Knight is a legendary editor and these books gave the world one of the 20th Century’s finest authors - Gene Wolfe. And yet, I have great difficulty enjoying the stories within. Gene Wolfe stories excepted. Orbit 2 contains “Trip, Trap,” one of Wolfe’s first masterpieces.
Other good stories feature the sexy side of entertainment technology, the dark potential of time travel error, and the danger to human dignity in an antiseptic computer-controlled utopia.
Many of these stories - I’m looking at you Joanna Russ and R A Lafferty - have a quirky narrative voice that I find repellent. They are too cute for their own good and lack the story quality to make the prose worth trudging through.
Orbit 2 also suffers from the same problem as Orbit 1 [67%]. It has a long novella that I had to DNF because it was too boring. That eats up a bit chunk of the anthology’s page count.
Only one story joins the All-Time Great List:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
Great. "'Trip, Trap' was the first story I ever sold Damon Knight for his Orbit series; it marks the real beginning of my writing career." - Gene Wolfe. A masterpiece of epistolary fiction. The same perilous adventure is told from two points of view. One is a local chieftain who sees the world in the style of classic fantasy. The other is a scientist sent to explore the planet from a rational science fiction point of view. Together, they must defeat a troll under a bridge. Except it both is and isn’t a troll. A wonderful story and representative of the trajectory of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
***
ORBIT 2: Complete Story Breakdown
10 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
The Doctor • (1967) • short story by Theodore L. Thomas
Good. A doctor is stranded in the time of cavemen with a broken Time Machine, coming slowly to grip with the fact that he made live and die here … with his Neanderthal wife and son.
Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • short story by Kate Wilhelm
Good. A new technology that beams the thoughts and emotions of a person to a wide audience is taking over entertainment. A man has been pushing his female star farther and farther to more extreme emotions … and she’s just about had it.
Fiddler's Green • (1967) • novella by Richard McKenna
DNF. Capsized men dying of thirst on a raft use hypnosis to break through to another dimension. Overly long and pretty dull.
Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
Great. "'Trip, Trap' was the first story I ever sold Damon Knight for his Orbit series; it marks the real beginning of my writing career." - Gene Wolfe. A masterpiece of epistolary fiction. The same perilous adventure is told from two points of view. One is a local chieftain who sees the world in the style of classic fantasy. The other is a scientist sent to explore the planet from a rational science fiction point of view. Together, they must defeat a troll under a bridge. Except it both is and isn’t a troll. A wonderful story and representative of the trajectory of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
The Dimple in Draco • (1967) • short story by R. S. Richardson
Average. Hard astronomical science fiction with a lab assistance error leading to a minor discovery. Set amongst a backdrop of some relationship squabbles.
I Gave Her Sack and Sherry • [Alyx] • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
Average. In a savage alternate past, a young woman violent breaks free from her husband and connects with a pirate for adventure.
The Adventuress • [Alyx] • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
Average. Another story with the same setting and character as the one above it. This time our protagonist fights a sea creature. Both of these stories suffered from an intolerable authorial voice that alternates between whimsy and pretension.
The Hole on the Corner • (1967) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
Average. Homer arrives home one day to his perfect house and finds alternate versions of himself. Some of monstrous. This is supposed to be quirky fun.
The Food Farm • (1967) • short story by Kit Reed
Average. An obese woman literally cannot stop eating and is sent to a camp where she is forced to loose weight. An obsession with a musician turns the tables on her self image and the future of the camp.
Full Sun • (1967) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
Good. In a world where cities give human everything they could want, a man and his robot trundler go hunting a werewolf out in the dangerous wilds.
---
https://www.shortsf.com
91 Anthologies + 26 Author Collections + 18 Slates of Award Finalists + 3 Magazine Issues + 2 Novel(la)s.
10 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
I want to like the Orbit original anthology series. I really do. Damon Knight is a legendary editor and these books gave the world one of the 20th Century’s finest authors - Gene Wolfe. And yet, I have great difficulty enjoying the stories within. Gene Wolfe stories excepted. Orbit 2 contains “Trip, Trap,” one of Wolfe’s first masterpieces.
Other good stories feature the sexy side of entertainment technology, the dark potential of time travel error, and the danger to human dignity in an antiseptic computer-controlled utopia.
Many of these stories - I’m looking at you Joanna Russ and R A Lafferty - have a quirky narrative voice that I find repellent. They are too cute for their own good and lack the story quality to make the prose worth trudging through.
Orbit 2 also suffers from the same problem as Orbit 1 [67%]. It has a long novella that I had to DNF because it was too boring. That eats up a bit chunk of the anthology’s page count.
Only one story joins the All-Time Great List:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
Great. "'Trip, Trap' was the first story I ever sold Damon Knight for his Orbit series; it marks the real beginning of my writing career." - Gene Wolfe. A masterpiece of epistolary fiction. The same perilous adventure is told from two points of view. One is a local chieftain who sees the world in the style of classic fantasy. The other is a scientist sent to explore the planet from a rational science fiction point of view. Together, they must defeat a troll under a bridge. Except it both is and isn’t a troll. A wonderful story and representative of the trajectory of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
***
ORBIT 2: Complete Story Breakdown
10 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
The Doctor • (1967) • short story by Theodore L. Thomas
Good. A doctor is stranded in the time of cavemen with a broken Time Machine, coming slowly to grip with the fact that he made live and die here … with his Neanderthal wife and son.
Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • short story by Kate Wilhelm
Good. A new technology that beams the thoughts and emotions of a person to a wide audience is taking over entertainment. A man has been pushing his female star farther and farther to more extreme emotions … and she’s just about had it.
Fiddler's Green • (1967) • novella by Richard McKenna
DNF. Capsized men dying of thirst on a raft use hypnosis to break through to another dimension. Overly long and pretty dull.
Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
Great. "'Trip, Trap' was the first story I ever sold Damon Knight for his Orbit series; it marks the real beginning of my writing career." - Gene Wolfe. A masterpiece of epistolary fiction. The same perilous adventure is told from two points of view. One is a local chieftain who sees the world in the style of classic fantasy. The other is a scientist sent to explore the planet from a rational science fiction point of view. Together, they must defeat a troll under a bridge. Except it both is and isn’t a troll. A wonderful story and representative of the trajectory of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
The Dimple in Draco • (1967) • short story by R. S. Richardson
Average. Hard astronomical science fiction with a lab assistance error leading to a minor discovery. Set amongst a backdrop of some relationship squabbles.
I Gave Her Sack and Sherry • [Alyx] • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
Average. In a savage alternate past, a young woman violent breaks free from her husband and connects with a pirate for adventure.
The Adventuress • [Alyx] • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
Average. Another story with the same setting and character as the one above it. This time our protagonist fights a sea creature. Both of these stories suffered from an intolerable authorial voice that alternates between whimsy and pretension.
The Hole on the Corner • (1967) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
Average. Homer arrives home one day to his perfect house and finds alternate versions of himself. Some of monstrous. This is supposed to be quirky fun.
The Food Farm • (1967) • short story by Kit Reed
Average. An obese woman literally cannot stop eating and is sent to a camp where she is forced to loose weight. An obsession with a musician turns the tables on her self image and the future of the camp.
Full Sun • (1967) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
Good. In a world where cities give human everything they could want, a man and his robot trundler go hunting a werewolf out in the dangerous wilds.
---
https://www.shortsf.com
91 Anthologies + 26 Author Collections + 18 Slates of Award Finalists + 3 Magazine Issues + 2 Novel(la)s.
June 11, 2025
“The Doctor” in the tale from Ted Thomas is a volunteer for a time-travelling experiment that has gone wrong. Marooned some hundred thousand years in the past his attempts at medicine get little appreciation, and Kate Wilhelm takes us to a future of immersion into film and TV stars’ lives via emotion implants. Fun for the viewer but hell for the performer in “Baby, You Were Great!” Eight men in a lifeboat drifting aimlessly across the Indian Ocean, no food and no water, reach the inevitable point of choosing lots. But one of them, recalling an almost mythical tale of what could be called a shared illusion, helps them break across into the non-physical realm through a crack in reality. “Fiddler’s Green” by Richard McKenna is an astonishing piece. An archeologist is sent to Carson III to investigate carvings that may hint at a previous interstellar civilization. What Morton Finch finds is a medieval-level race of humanoids and legends of a hideous troll. “Trip, Trap” by Gene Wolfe is quite entertaining. Real-life astronomer ‘Philip Latham’ has his protagonist find an astonishing and unknown absorption line shift after a grad student error in “The Dimple In Draco”, while Joanna Russ in two tales introduces us to the pick-lock and thief Alyx, who meets the redoubtable Blackbeard in “I Gave Her Sack And Cherry”, and then assists an ingenue to escape an unfortunate betrothal in “The Adventuress”. Homer Hoose came home to find himself trying to devour his wife and another one of himself berating him for it. They really must do something about “The Hole In The Corner” in R. A. Lafferty’s typically insane tale. Kit Reed’s “The Food Farm” is macabre and bizarre and the world at the end of time in “Full Sun” by Brian Aldiss shows us the successors to man, and they aren’t pleasant. A solid book!
September 21, 2025
The second collection in the acclaimed anthology series by Damon Knight. Unlike most anthologies, this one consists entirely of previously unpublished material. This time around, we have a generous dash of fantasy in with the sci-fi. It's best to be familiar with what was going on in the late 1960s before tackling this.
Selections:
* "The Doctor" by Ted Thomas. An American doctor is the first time traveller, going into the prehistoric past where Penn State would be. Not much difference in the ignorance of the people.
* "Baby, You Were Great" by Kate Wilhelm. Knight's wife writes about the degeneration of television, in a piece that seems to predict a Truman Show -- or, reality TV.
* "Fiddler's Green" by Richard McKenna. This grim but brilliant novella was not published in McKenna's lifetime. It shows that we are our own devils, but in a way much better than I just phrased it.
* "Trip, Trap" by Gene Wolfe. Difficult but interesting "meeting the alien" story with two narrators -- the human explorer and the alien.
* "The Dimple in Draco" by Philip Latham/Robert S. Richardson. One of those frustrating stories dripping with 1950s references and astronomer slang which ultimately goes nowhere.
* "I Gave Her Sack and Sherry" by Joanna Russ. This is a tiresome parody of heroes like Conan the Barbarian, with the hero this time being a small teenaged girl named Alyx.
* "The Adventuress" by Joanna Russ. This is the second story in the series about Alyx, who has to protect a young maiden. Incredibly dull and inconsistent with the previous story.
* "The Hole on the Corner" by R. A. Lafferty. It's like a brainier version of The Simpsons.
* "The Food Farm" by Kit Reed. This is a warped twist on the saying, "Inside of every fat person, there's a thin person screaming to come out."
* "Full Sun" by Brian W. Aldiss. In the future, there will be sentient machines ... and werewolves. For a story written in 1966, this impressed me because it mentions watching TV and news FROM YOUR PHONE. Great ending to this book.
Selections:
* "The Doctor" by Ted Thomas. An American doctor is the first time traveller, going into the prehistoric past where Penn State would be. Not much difference in the ignorance of the people.
* "Baby, You Were Great" by Kate Wilhelm. Knight's wife writes about the degeneration of television, in a piece that seems to predict a Truman Show -- or, reality TV.
* "Fiddler's Green" by Richard McKenna. This grim but brilliant novella was not published in McKenna's lifetime. It shows that we are our own devils, but in a way much better than I just phrased it.
* "Trip, Trap" by Gene Wolfe. Difficult but interesting "meeting the alien" story with two narrators -- the human explorer and the alien.
* "The Dimple in Draco" by Philip Latham/Robert S. Richardson. One of those frustrating stories dripping with 1950s references and astronomer slang which ultimately goes nowhere.
* "I Gave Her Sack and Sherry" by Joanna Russ. This is a tiresome parody of heroes like Conan the Barbarian, with the hero this time being a small teenaged girl named Alyx.
* "The Adventuress" by Joanna Russ. This is the second story in the series about Alyx, who has to protect a young maiden. Incredibly dull and inconsistent with the previous story.
* "The Hole on the Corner" by R. A. Lafferty. It's like a brainier version of The Simpsons.
* "The Food Farm" by Kit Reed. This is a warped twist on the saying, "Inside of every fat person, there's a thin person screaming to come out."
* "Full Sun" by Brian W. Aldiss. In the future, there will be sentient machines ... and werewolves. For a story written in 1966, this impressed me because it mentions watching TV and news FROM YOUR PHONE. Great ending to this book.
December 1, 2021
The second of Damon Knight’s continuing original anthology series. No award winners this time round but I liked the stories by Ted Thomas, Kate Wilhelm, Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, Kit Reed and Brian W. Aldiss; so, 6 out of 10, which puts it into the very acceptable, above average range. The Thomas and Wilhelm short stories were both nominated for a Nebula Award in 1968, losing out to “Aye, and Gomorrah” by Samuel R. Delaney, which puts them into good company. Knight drops his introduction for author bios and very short paragraph notes before each story. The lack of such an introduction leaves the anthology slightly adrift in my view, lacking any historical context. R: 3.5/5.0
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July 10, 2023Recommended:
Baby You Were Great by Kate Wilhelm
The Hole on the Corner by R.A. Lafferty
Baby You Were Great by Kate Wilhelm
The Hole on the Corner by R.A. Lafferty
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August 31, 2020Fiddler’s Green ? stars
Kinross bit into papaya pulp. "How long have we been here, do you think?" he asked Garcia.
“It's been a while."
"I can't remember any whole day. Silva was blinded. Was that yesterday? Kerbeck stopped talking and started singing. Was that yesterday?"
"I don't know," the Mexican said. "It seems like everything happened yesterday."
Kinross bit into papaya pulp. "How long have we been here, do you think?" he asked Garcia.
“It's been a while."
"I can't remember any whole day. Silva was blinded. Was that yesterday? Kerbeck stopped talking and started singing. Was that yesterday?"
"I don't know," the Mexican said. "It seems like everything happened yesterday."
November 10, 2011
This science fiction collection was read in Michigan during the summer of 1982.
October 16, 2009
10 good SF stories
May 10, 2016
Knight's unerring eye for the best talent, both veteran and emerging new writers, is on full display here. An excellent sampler of some of the best science fiction stories of the mid-60's.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews