Orbit 6

Orbit #6

by Damon Knight

Orbit is a long-running series of anthologies of new sf edited by Damon Knight; often featuring work by such writers as Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, R.A. Lafferty & Kate Wilhelm, who was married to Knight. The anthologies tended toward the avant-garde, but by no means exclusively; occasionally the volumes would feature some nonfictional critical writing or humorous anecdote-gathering by Knight. Inspired by Frederik Pohl's Star Science Fiction series, & in its turn an influence on Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions volumes & many others, it ran for over a decade & 18 volumes, including a double-volume but excluding a "Best-of" collection which covered 1966-76

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies

236 pages, Kindle Edition

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 2 out of 5]

Science fiction stories from 1970 that border on the edge of comprehension.



No, seriously. I'm starting to think that I've suffered some sort of brain damage because I cannot figure out what happened in most of these stories. And yet I know they are well-written because I was interested in what was going on and CARED about what happened.

Well, I mean, whatever it was that happened.

The best story here is also the most comprehensible -- Gene Wolfe's "How the Whip Came Back." It's also showed up in other anthologies such as The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories.

So, I'm a bit disappointed. I read about what a legend Damon Knight was and how revolutionary the Orbit series was and I see that someone has stolen some of the Orbit series from the library, so someone understands this stuff much better than I do.

EDIT Sept. 2025: For some crazy reason, I decided to give this book another read.

Selections:

* "The Second Inquisition" by Joanna Russ. In 1925, a really tall, really strange woman comes to board at the home of Our Protagonist. This was one of the more comprehensible stories -- if you read it twice.
* "Rememberance to Come" by Gene Wolfe. Good luck figuring out what's really going on in this university of the future.
* "How the Whip Came Back" by Gene Wolfe. As previously mentioned, the best story in this book. The whip refers to slavery.
* "Goslin Day" by Avram Davidson. You need to be Jewish, know Yiddish AND know the Kabbalah AND read this at least two times have a hope in hell of figuring this urban fantasy out -- and it just isn't worth the effort.
* "Maybe Jean-Baptiste Pierre ... Was A Little Bit Right" by Robin Scott. No, he wasn't.
* "The Chosen" by Kate Wilhelm. The wife of Our Editor writes a chilling horror sci-fi story that gets more pertinent with each passing year.
* "Entire and Perfect Chrysolite" by R. A. Lafferty. Um, no. Not funny. Not satirical. Not much of anything, really.
* "Sunburst" by Roderick Thorpe. It's the worst day of Johnnie Loughlin's life ... and everyone else's, too. And it all started with a Senator Clinton getting beaten up. Somehow, I pictured this unsatisfying story being entirely in black and white.
* "The Creation of Bennie Good" by James Sallis. Don't even bother with this one. At least it's short.
* "The End" by Ursula K. LeGuin. Bizarre fantasy about a midieval-like village convinced it's the end of the world. This world isn't very well described, so I have no idea why they would destroy and slaughter before the world's end.
* "A Cold Dark Night with Snow" by Kate Wilhelm. A story told in such a fractured, experimental way that you have no idea what's going on, only that somebody died.
* "Fame" by Jean Cox. Yeah. It's okay. You can dance to it. No great shakes.
* "Debut" by Carol Emschwiller. Um ... what?
* "Where No Sun Shines" by Gardner Dozois. This post-apocalyptic story reads like a chapter plucked at random from a book, because there's an awful lot that's not explained.
* "The Asian Shore" by Thomas M. Disch. So, Disch had a vacation in Turkey. No excuse for a shit story that goes absolutely nowhere.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mindwebs audiobook 56. Contains “The End” by Ursula K. Le Gunn. She is undoubtedly a great author but tends to write serious fantasy rather than the hard SF I prefer. (I loved the Earthsea trilogy btw).

[Bryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, but worth reading if you want a picture a picture of cutting edge SFF short fiction circa 1969/1970. My favs: Wolfe, LeGuin, Dozois, Disch.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly average collection of 70s sci-fi, there's nothing here that really stands out, hence the lack of award winners despite the several nominations. "A Cold Dark Night with Snow" is at least interestingly ambiguous in its presentation, and the expected twist in "Fame," which went unnominated, was not the readily predictable option, but the rest are largely the standard SF anthology fare.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent compilation of original science fiction stories.