Orbit 8

Orbit #8

by Damon Knight (Editor)

Contains the stories: "Horse of Air" by Gardner Dozois; "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" by Harlan Ellison; "Rite of Spring" by Avram Davidson; "The Bystander" by Thom Lee Wharton; "All Pieces of a River Shore" by R. A. Lafferty; "Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kittee" by Gene Wolfe; "Tablets of Stone" by Liz Hufford; "Starscape with Frieze of Dreams" by Robert F. Young; "The Book" by Robert E. Margroff and Andrew J. Offutt; "Inside" by Carol Carr; "Right Off the Map" by Pip Winn; "The Weather on the Sun" by Theodore L. Thomas; "The Chinese Boxes" by Graham Charnock; "A Method Bit in 'B'" by Gene Wolfe; "Interurban Queen" by R. A. Lafferty; "The Encounter" by Kate Wilhelm.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Horror

219 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

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

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the introduction to Starlight 1, Patrick Nielsen Hayden relates a story about someone asking Damon Knight what kind of stories he wanted in for Orbit. Knight replied, "I'm trying to keep you confused about that."

Which not only best explains the series, but this collection in particular.

At least we have the most comprehensible stories in the series so far, and at least one story that winds up in The Best of Orbit.

Selections:

* "Horse of Air" by Gardner R. Dozois. Despite the title, this has nothing to do with horses. It has everything to do with a rich old white man going bug fucking nuts. For some weird reason, this is one of Dozois' most acclaimed stories.
* "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" by Harlan Ellison. A successful man (not unlike Ellison) goes back in time to stop his horrible childhood before it began ... and the horrorshow really begins.
* "Rite of Spring" by Avram Davidson. Here's a sick and confusing one from Davidson. WARNING: an American Robin gets killed.
* "The Bystander" by Thom Lee Wharton. Apparently, this was the only story Wharton ever got published -- or, the only story published with that pen name. At least he made it a good 'un, about the unlikely owner of a New Jersey bar and restaurant. Mention of "gold plate crowd" from the nearby trotting track was very nostalgic. Only problem? It's not fantasy, horror or sci-fi.
* "All Pieces of a River Shore" by R. A. Lafferty. Way too long piece about a Native American collector of "long pictures" from old carnivals.
* "Sonya, Crane Wesselman, and Kittee" by Gene Wolfe. There's an amusing shout out to Harlan Ellison here, and a not so amusing reference to JFK, Jr. A Julie Newmaar lookalike is here, given the embarrassing name of Kittee. Disturbing and unsurprisingly unsatisfying.
* "Tablets of Stone" by Liz Hufford. Very good horror story about the dangers of having an alien as a mate.
* "Starscape with Frieze of Dreams" by Robert F. Young. Humanity discovers spacewhales, so takes up spacewhaling. Because. Also a really nasty look at women.
* "The Book" by Robert E. Margroff and Andrew J. Offutt. It took 2 people to write this mess? WARNING: A snake is brutally killed for no reason.
* "Inside" by Carol Carr. This is a typical Orbit story, except it's understandable. A woman one day wakes up in a mysterious house that she can't leave.
* "Right Off the Map" by Pipp Winn. Now, this story is starting to happen. In a future overrun by people and very few animals (cats have become the new rats), two men find the last bit of undeveloped wilderness left on Earth. A good warning about overpopulation, and that a world of no wild animals is no world worth living in.
* "The Weather on the Sun" by Ted Thomas. Old fashioned sci-fi stuff, with controlling the weather on the sun key to the world government on Earth.
* "The Chinese Boxes" by Graham Charnock. Decent "morals in science" story, as well as a pointed comment on unemployment.
* "A Method Bit in B" by Gene Wolfe. An English Bobby's monologue about strange doings in the village.
* "Interurban Queen" by R. A. Lafferty. An Interurban is another name for trolleys. This is Lafferty' rant against cars and big cities. I'm not a fan of either, but Lafferty's preaching is tedious.
* "The Encounter" by Kate Wilhelm. It's just not an Orbit without something from Our Editor's wife. Must be great to know that your hubby will publish any old crap you write.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orbit was an anthology series that ran for about a dozen years from the mid 60's to the mid 70's. A total of 21 volumes appeared, simply numbered Orbit 1, Orbit 2 ... Orbit 21. Each edition presented stories newly written for the collection. I read a number of these when I was younger and sought them out as a source of new and interesting stories. They are primarily science fiction and some I would consider mainstream, or lightly fantasy, and spooky/horror, and they now serve as little time capsules of the sorts of stories being written in those years. You would get some edgy, experimental stuff in these collections but generally you could count on finding some fairly high quality stories to reward the patient reader.

Orbit 8 was published in 1971 and contains 14 original stories, all from 1970. Some of the authors are famous and a number of them I don't recall ever hearing of before. These are the included stories:

• Horse of Air • shortstory by Gardner Dozois
• One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty • shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• Rite of Spring • shortstory by Avram Davidson
• The Bystander • shortstory by Thom Lee Wharton
• All Pieces of a River Shore • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kittee • shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Tablets of Stone • shortstory by Liz Hufford
• Starscape with Frieze of Dreams • shortstory by Robert F. Young
• The Book • shortstory by Robert E. Margroff and Andrew J. Offutt
• Inside • shortstory by Carol Carr
• Right Off the Map • shortstory by Pip Winn
• The Weather on the Sun • novelette by Ted Thomas
• The Chinese Boxes • shortstory by Graham Charnock
• A Method Bit in "B" • shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Interurban Queen • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Encounter • novelette by Kate Wilhelm

Some of the included stories here are very good, and some are just plain awful, and a number as you would expect fall into that middle "OK" zone. I won't go over each story. The good ones make it worth reading through this anthology, and as I note, you get a little tme capsule of what was in writer's minds (and an editor) circa 1970.

One of the best tales here, Gardner Dozois' Nebula nominated story "Horse of Air" opens the collection. It is a very disturbing look at a future world gone to ruin. A future very close to 1970. A man sealed in a small apartment in a tower building "for his protection" watches the world around him, powerless to do a thing. We quickly realize the state of the man's mind and also realize he is not a nice person.

Another very good story follows, Harlan Ellison's "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty." I've read this story long ago I think (in a Year's Best collection), and it was also made into an episode of the 1980's reboot of "The Twilight Zone." This is a time travel story where a man, Gus, goes to a house he lived in 35 years before in Ohio, and standing in his old backyard late at night rather mysteriously goes back in time ... to try and give his younger self some help. It is nostalgic and sentimental and a little sad. Possibly my favorite story here.

I really don't like to disrespect stories because they represent an author's hard work. Avram Davidson has been dead for over 20 years, however, so there's no possible chance for hurt feelings when I say that the strange folk tale that is the "Rite of Spring" had me cringing a little in its six page journey. The strange farmer wife in this fairytale saying "Done and done and Bradstreet." Really? Yikes. Bad fantasy. On the other hand the Editor obviously liked the story so others may too. I also disliked Gene Wolfe's disturbing "Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kittee." It wasn't the story content as much as the odd storytelling and odder name-dropping within the story. Confusing effete way of writing that put me off quickly. The puzzle of Kittee was just dropped there also. This, to me, seems like the germ of a larger story that wasn't allowed to grow and be polished. Later we get another Wolfe, "A Method Bit in "B"" that I did like, an interesting, clever (and short) story. That "B" is as in a B-movie, and this is detective fiction twisted this way and that.

I'm not a big fan of R. A. Lafferty, but I really liked "All Pieces of a River Shore" which vies with the Ellison story as possibly my favorite in this collection. This is also one of the longest stories, and is about a "rich Indian" named Leo Nation who collects things and his latest passion spooks the hell out of him and a friend. He has begun to collect picture reels from 18th century carnivals and as he finds and examines them he begins to believe that certain ones are many thousands of years old, showing the Mississippi River shore and creatures long extinct that were probably around at the time of the last ice age. These 15,000 year old images and the details they seem to contain really spook him. I think Lafferty could have expanded this to novella length and elaborated on things hinted at, but it works well as it is.

I rather liked Carol Carr's small piece "Inside." A woman in a mysterious house surrounded by mist eventually discovers she is dead. I also enjoyed Pip Winn's "Right Off the Map," a cute little piece set in a bleak future where a man discovers a place hidden from "civilization."

Kate Wilhelm's Nebula nominated "The Encounter" was an unusual wrap up for the stories, a psychological-suspense thriller type that didn't seem to fit with the other stories. I didn't care for it.

The misses among these stories, and there are several, really keep me from giving this anthology a higher overall rating. Thom Lee Wharton's story, like Kate Wilhelm's, didn't fit into this collection in the slightest and I am really puzzled why it was included. It was one of the weaker stories also. Nevertheless there are some very good stories that were a pleasure to read and get the brain thinking about things. 4 star stories, some of them. Several of the stories I didn't discuss were interesting stories with provocative ideas. I'd recommend this to fans of science fiction's history.

[Rick Keeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d heard a new name. Harlan Ellison. My best friend, a savant of sorts, told me it was an important name. I first read it in the opening credits of an episode of STAR TREK titled “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Wherein Captain Kirk, falls in love, watches love die, and says”Hell.” Cursing on television!!

I went to the library. 1973, no computers, instead card catalogs. Went straight to the Science Fiction section and because I knew somehow that this dude only produced short stories, I started checking spines for collections and anthologies. Zero Ellison collections. No R fir Ellison collections, so back to A, and painstakingly to K. Damon Knight’s ORBIT anthologies. Only a couple in stock, but I first struck ore with ORBIT 8.

Inside I gloried at the TOC. I found “One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty.” That’s my cherry read for Harlan. “Shattered Like a Glass Goblin,” and “ The Deathbird” were also devoured by me that day. But OLFIEP is the shining one. And young as I was, it is my first experience comprehending a fairly complex message. I got it. An intense moral fable, perhaps too intense for any 12 year old who lacked the gumption to locate it.

These 4+ decades later, in a life graced by a hard-to-conceive, honest-to-God relationship with the author, that’s still the indispensable tale. It’s certainly as good a representation of Ellison’s brilliance in the short form as “Grail,” or “The Resurgence if Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie.”

It’s more readily located, perhaps, in THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON.

And Damon Knight? A genius of a different sort. If you decide to locate ORBIT 8, read all of it. Knight was a splendid and highly influential editor. This is only one of his solid anthologies. And he wrote like a fire.

Also, there’s a Lafferty story in there. If you’re still with me at this point, don’t miss Crazy Ray Lafferty.

[Stephen Burridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent 1970 anthology of science fiction stories with a mainly “new wave” flavour. I liked several very much: two by R. A. Lafferty, two by Gene Wolfe, and one each by Gardner Dozois and Harlan Ellison. The other stories vary in quality and appeal.