Orbit 19

Orbit #19

by Damon Knight (editor)

Many Mansions story by Gene Wolfe
To the Dark Tower Came story by Gene Wolfe
Lollipop & the Tar Baby/8 Worlds novelette by John Varley
State of Grace story by Kate Wilhelm
The Disguise novella by Kim Stanley Robinson
Tomus story by Stephen Robinett
Night Shift story by Kevin O'Donnell Jr
Fall of Pebble-Stones story by R.A. Lafferty
Going Down story by Eleanor Arnason
Beings of Game P-U story by Phillip Teich
Vamp novelette by Mike Conner
Under Jupiter novelette by Michael W. McClintock
The Veil Over the River novelette by Felix C. Gotschalk
Arcs & Secants essay by Damon Knight
The Memory Machine essay by Damon Knight
They Say essay by Damon Knight

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

217 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1977

About the author

Damon 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.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the nineteenth volume of Orbit, the long-running original anthology that Damon Knight edited. His goal was to present character-driven speculative fiction with a literary bent, unlike the traditional fare of the genre magazines. The "New Wave" movement was loosing some steam by the time this one appeared, primarily because they had won the revolution and their alternate brand had become the mainstream. It has good stories by John Varley, Gene Wolfe, and R.A Lafferty, as well as Stephen Robinett, now almost forgotten but one of my favorites at the time. I still miss the luscious Paul Lehr covers of the earlier books.

[Mark Edlund · Rating 2 out of 5]

Science Fiction short stories - Collection of rather bad SF short stories from 1977. Too artsy by far.
Canadian references - one mention of Canada and another of Vancouver.
No pharmacy references.

[Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

1970s SF short stories. Read this as a teen and again today. Doesn’t seem to have held up well.

[Philip Hollenback · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent collection in the style of 70s scifi. The usual mix of odd stories you find in anthologies from this period.

I particularly enjoyed 'Under Jupiter' by Michael W. McClintock. It caught my eye that this story quoted a Richard Hugo poem ('Driving Montana').

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of short science fiction stories which I read twice, the second time at the end of 1985, all unknowing.