Orbit 10

Orbit #10

by Damon Knight (Editor), Jack Dann, Gardner Dozois

Science Fiction. The most exciting fiction of our time! The most acclaimed series in science fiction history!

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

Includes index to Orbit volumes 1 thru 10.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Short Story Collection

255 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 1972

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 4 out of 5]

This tenth volume in the Damon Knight-edited long-running original anthology series was one of the strongest. His goal was to present more literary, character-driven stories (more grown-up fare, if you will), than was appearing in the genre magazines of the time. I particularly liked the Gardner R. Dozois novelette, R.A. Lafferty's fanciful Dorg, the short stories by George Alec Effinger and Edward Bryant, and Kate Wilhelm's (who was married to Knight, and was the only author to have appeared in all the previous volumes according to the handy index) longish The Fusion Bomb. My favorite was the now-classic Gene Wolfe novella, The Fifth Head of Cerberus.

[Ratiocination · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a mixed bag, though that's not to say the better stories in the anthology weren't pretty good. Some may have suffered from context. A few too many used the same kind of abrupt ending, one without a lot of explanation. It's a device that can be done well, but it's not easy, and it doesn't bear a lot of repetition. Gene Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", probably my favorite story in the book, had an especially stark finish-- the last sentence took a couple of readings to even parse. Ultimately I think it worked well for that story, but it's a good thing it was placed early in the anthology, or I might already have been sick of that approach.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought I'd give four stars to an Orbit anthology, but here we are. Damon Knight must've started to care about his series again, as most of these stories are actual STORIES and not just his friends jerking around in order to get a sweet check. There are a couple of mostly incomprehensible stories -- this is Damon Knight editing, after all -- but the understandable stories are far better than can be found in the "usual" sf/fantasy/horror/whatever anthology.

I wonder if Damon Knight sat his writer friends down and said, "I've got bad news, folks -- you gotta go back to storytelling basics." Even his wife produced managed go produce one of her best.

After the text, there's a story index for the first ten Orbit books. Seems so cute, now that there's the Internet. But who knows -- perhaps the power will go out forever and someone might care about this index again.

Selections:

* "The Fifth Head of Cerebus" by Gene Wolfe. This finely crafted novella is about the best thing published in the last three or four Orbits. The colonizers from mostly French stock did to a new planet what Europe did to the New World -- destroyed the natives, set up slave markets, treated animals as disposable and kicked reason to the curb. Except for one guy ... who has a thing for clones. Wolfe wasn't exactly Nostradamus when he predicted that human cloning would become illegal on Earth.
* "Jody After the War" by Edward Bryant. Decent, well-crafted post-nuclear war story (where China was the country that set off the first bomb.) There is not only nuclear war, but a war of sorts between a boyfriend and his girlfriend, who survived a bomb going off in Pittsburgh.
* "Al" by Carol Emschwiller. And now we go back to the experimental schlock, set in America during the Vietnam War. One of the major characters is real writer Tom Disch. The whole thing has the feel of a complex in-joke ... and we readers are not let in on the joke.
* "Now I'm Watching Roger" by Alexi Panshin. And now we're back to decent storytelling. This is about three guys on the moon ... and the eternal fight between the white hats and the black hats.
* "Whirl Cage" by Jack M. Dann. AAAAAAAND back to the experimental schlock.
* "A Kingdom By the Sea" by Gardner R. Dozois. This is an understandable horror story with many levels to it. A slaughterhouse worker finds the love of his life. WARNING: Not for those with a weak stomach.
* "Christlings" by Albert Teichner. Beautiful story about a miracle cure turned deadly. Keep in mind that this was written decades before the opioid addiction crisis.
* "Live, From Berchtesgaden" by George Alec Effinger. If you don't know German, skip this. Even if you do know German, AND have read Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Friedrich, it still won't help. The soul of Germany is symbolized by a young woman in a coma during WWI ... a bizarre attempt to put meaning into meaninglessness.
* "Dorg" by R. A. Lafferty. This is one of his more understandable stories. To feed an Earth with an overpopulation of people, a mad cartoonist draws a creature he calls a dorg (which seems pig-like.) One of those satires that's meant to be funny -- but isn't.
* "Gantlet" by Richard E. Peck. Very good metaphor of a future that's practically the same as the present ... when this was written in the early 1970s to today. There's been no difference, really.
* "The Fusion Bomb" by Kate Wilhelm/Mrs. Damon Knight. This novella -- and it's not really an Orbit without a Kate Wilhelm novella, is it, kids? -- is one of Wilhelm's best. It's based loosely on Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, where ten scientists and their wives are working on, not a fusion bomb, but the cycles in everything.

[E.S. Wynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Orbit 16, I decided to delve back in the series and take a look at an earlier installment. I choose Orbit 10 because it features one of my favorite authors-- George Alec Effinger.

Unfortunately, I have to say that the story Effinger contributed to this anthology was the only Effinger story I have read that I will admit to not liking at all. It's sad, really, to encounter a story so pointless in an anthology series so beautiful and from an author I respect so much.

Other contributions to this series span the gulf between weird and almost sci-fi, which is strange because Orbit is supposed to be all about sci-fi. Damon's editing prowess is a little off-- two typos that I caught in this one versus the completely clean Orbit 16. All in all, the stories in this one are alright, but not on par with those in Orbit 16.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Fifth Head of Cerberus" by Gene Wolfe, making his eleventh appearance in the series, well deserves its marquee placement, as it is the longest and best story of the lot. Just creepy enough to maintain the reader's engagement. The rest are hit-and-miss, though my favorites were "A Kingdom by the Sea" by Gardner R. Dozois, "Christlings" by Albert Teichner, the fanciful "Dorg" by R. A. Lafferty, and the oddly-titled "The Fusion Bomb" by Kate Wilhelm, the only author to have appeared in every installment of the series to date.