Orbit 9

Orbit #9

by Damon Knight (editor), Josephine Saxton (Contributor), Leon Stover (Contributor)

Heads Africa Tails America story by Josephine Saxton
What We Have Here Is Too Much Communication story by Leon E. Stover
Dominant Species story by Kris Neville
The Toy Theater story by Gene Wolfe
Stop Me Before I Tell More story by Robert Thurston
Gleepsite story by Joanna Russ
Binaries story by James Sallis
Lost in the Marigolds novelette by Lee Hoffman & Rbt E. Toomey Jr
Across the Bar story by Kit Reed
The Science Fair story by Vernor Vinge
The Last Leaf story by W. Macfarlane
When All the Lands Pour Out Again story by R.A. Lafferty
Only the Words Are Different story by James Sallis
The Infinity Box novella by Kate Wilhelm

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

225 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

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 1 out of 5]

Must've been nice to be a writer friend of Damon Knight. You knew you were guaranteed to be published, no matter how badly you wrote. Only 12 slots open (11, really, since you knew his wife was going to get one slot) and he gives two to James Sallis. Must've pissed off any rejected writer. And how bad did a story have to be before Knight rejected it? Do we really want to try and contemplate that?

There was only one decent story in this lot, "Across the Bar" by Kit Reed. There are four halfway decent stories, but they didn't quite hit the spot. The rest are just tossers.

No wonder publishers became wary of doing anthologies made up of never before published material.

Selections:

* "Heads Africa Tails America" by Josephine Saxton. The most disturbing thing about this surreal mess is that the narrator is named Josephine. This reads a bit like a stream of consciousness diary entry ... or someone who needed to vomit out a certain amount of words for Damon Knight.
"What We Have Here is Too Much Communication" by Leon E. Stover. This sci-fi story set in the 1950s -- more about Japanese culture and racism than anything else -- was written by an American sociologist (specialist in China) who occasionally wrote fiction. I'd be interested to know what Japanese think of this story.
* "Dominant Species" by Kris Neville. The thoughts of an intelligent bird-like alien, who gets killed and dissected by people. Gee, thanks, Kris.
* "The Toy Theater" by Gene Wolfe. Very imaginative story about marionettes in the future, but ends too abruptly. I think the horse and buggy and idealized Earth on a human off world colony might be a nod to Ray Bradbury.
* "Stop Me Before I Tell More" by Robert Thurston. A traveling salesman joke with no punchline. WTF?
* "Gleepsite" by Joanna Russ. Another traveling salesman story, something to do with bats and from now on, you're on your own, since Joanna Russ ain't gonna help the readers out.
* "Binaries" by James Sallis. Absolute garbage. Don't even bother.
* "Lost in the Marigolds" by Lee Hoffman and Robert E. Toomey, Jr. Yet another piece of experimental trash. Has the 1970s quaint features of sci-fi at the time -- vidphones, the term Siamese fighting fish instead of betta, and incredibly large malls.
* "Across the Bar" by Kit Reed. Sharp, sad and poignant look at what America plans to do with old people ... and their pets. It's pretty much what wound up happening. Hey, sometimes sci-fi writers were able to predict the future.
* "The Science Fair" by Verner Vinge. Wait -- what?
* "The Last Leaf" by W. MacFarlane. A decent but abruptly ended alternative history story of folks from 1913 having the power of spaceflight. A return voyage to Earth doesn't go as planned.
* "When All the Lands Pour Out Again" by R. A. Lafferty. Stupid satires like this are the reason why I frigging hate Lafferty.
* "Only the Words are Different" by James Sallis. These are random scenes of nothing much. Why Sallis got TWO of these "stories" in here is appalling.
* "The Infinity Box" by Kate Wilhelm/Mrs. Damon Knight. This novella begins promisingly, gets deeply disturbing with battle of the sexes, then gets even weirder. There are elements introduced in the beginning pages that are just dropped. A boy in a full body cast is here -- and then gone. A Dalmatian moves in with a strange woman-- then the dog simply vanishes from the narrative. I read this whole damn novella just to find out about the dog. Good idea for a story, but sloppy execution. Knight really let his wife and the readers down by not making her remove unnecessary elements.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

An anthology of original fiction from 1971, Knight uses many of the same authors from prior Orbit anthologies (and future ones). It is a mix of stories, a few that I enjoyed and too many that I didn't, primarily the ones that had "new wave" all over them. Others were interesting but odd, such as Robert Thurston's first published story that kept a mystery going through the pages and then ended without resolution. I read a story last year by Thurston called "Looking for Jake" in an issue of Asimov's Science Fiction mag that I recall liking a lot. 45 years had passed from 1971 to 2016. James Sallis has two stories in the anthology, and 'Binaries' which is one of those experimental 'new wave' types I would say, left me scratching my head and wondering what it was. It has, like several stories here, a running fascination with women's breasts. Make of that what you will. Coincidentally Sallis also had a story in Asimov's a few months ago, but I have run across his fiction over the years in magazines, primarily F&SF.

I read this over a period of time and some of the stories are not fresh in my mind. I did like Gene Wolfe's 'The Toy Theater' quite a bit. Joanna Russ's 'gleepsite' was lost on me. Kate Wilhem's novella 'The Infinity Box' takes up about a quarter of the space in the anthology and is a minor classic in the genre, a rather dark and somewhat creepy psychological suspense thriller. Not really to my taste but if you like the psychological suspense tales Wilhelm was writing in this era you'll probably like this.

Overall, for me, the stories were a big disappointment and I would not recommend this. 2 stars at best.

The included stories are:

7 • Heads Africa Tails America • (1971) • shortstory by Josephine Saxton
21 • What We Have Here Is Too Much Communication • (1971) • shortstory by Leon E. Stover
37 • Dominant Species • (1971) • shortstory by Kris Neville
42 • The Toy Theater • (1971) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe
50 • Stop Me Before I Tell More • (1971) • shortstory by Robert Thurston
70 • Gleepsite • (1971) • shortstory by Joanna Russ
76 • Binaries • (1971) • shortstory by James Sallis
87 • Lost in the Marigolds • (1971) • novelette by Lee Hoffman and Robert E. Toomey, Jr.
137 • Across the Bar • (1971) • shortstory by Kit Reed
147 • The Science Fair • (1971) • shortstory by Vernor Vinge
158 • The Last Leaf • (1971) • shortstory by W. Macfarlane
167 • When All the Lands Pour Out Again • (1971) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
181 • Only the Words Are Different • (1971) • shortstory by James Sallis
188 • The Infinity Box • (1971) • novella by Kate Wilhelm

[Forked Radish]

"The Science Fair": ⭐️⭐️: Hooves eh? Hmmm… Dik-diks, goats, sheep, horses, okapi, gnu, camelopards, moose, deer, zebra, asses? I think asses. They smart the most. 🫏

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Michigan during the summer of 1982 after the conclusion of Loyola Univeristy Chicago's school year.