Orbit 2. edited by Damon Knight. 1967
ORBIT 2
RATED 65% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.3 OF 5
10 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
I want to like the Orbit original anthology series. I really do. Damon Knight is a legendary editor and these books gave the world one of the 20th Century’s finest authors - Gene Wolfe. And yet, I have great difficulty enjoying the stories within. Gene Wolfe stories excepted. Orbit 2 contains “Trip, Trap,” one of Wolfe’s first masterpieces.
Other good stories feature the sexy side of entertainment technology, the dark potential of time travel error, and the danger to human dignity in an antiseptic computer-controlled utopia.
Many of these stories - I’m looking at you Joanna Russ and R A Lafferty - have a quirky narrative voice that I find repellent. They are too cute for their own good and lack the story quality to make the prose worth trudging through.
Orbit 2 also suffers from the same problem as Orbit 1 [67%]. It has a long novella that I had to DNF because it was too boring. That eats up a bit chunk of the anthology’s page count.
Only one story joins the All-Time Great List:
Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
Great. "'Trip, Trap' was the first story I ever sold Damon Knight for his Orbit series; it marks the real beginning of my writing career." - Gene Wolfe. A masterpiece of epistolary fiction. The same perilous adventure is told from two points of view. One is a local chieftain who sees the world in the style of classic fantasy. The other is a scientist sent to explore the planet from a rational science fiction point of view. Together, they must defeat a troll under a bridge. Except it both is and isn’t a troll. A wonderful story and representative of the trajectory of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
ORBIT 2: Complete Story Breakdown
10 STORIES : 1 GREAT / 3 GOOD / 5 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF
The Doctor • (1967) • short story by Theodore L. Thomas
Good. A doctor is stranded in the time of cavemen with a broken Time Machine, coming slowly to grip with the fact that he made live and die here … with his Neanderthal wife and son.
Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • short story by Kate Wilhelm
Good. A new technology that beams the thoughts and emotions of a person to a wide audience is taking over entertainment. A man has been pushing his female star farther and farther to more extreme emotions … and she’s just about had it.
Fiddler's Green • (1967) • novella by Richard McKenna
DNF. Capsized men dying of thirst on a raft use hypnosis to break through to another dimension. Overly long and pretty dull.
Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
Great. "'Trip, Trap' was the first story I ever sold Damon Knight for his Orbit series; it marks the real beginning of my writing career." - Gene Wolfe. A masterpiece of epistolary fiction. The same perilous adventure is told from two points of view. One is a local chieftain who sees the world in the style of classic fantasy. The other is a scientist sent to explore the planet from a rational science fiction point of view. Together, they must defeat a troll under a bridge. Except it both is and isn’t a troll. A wonderful story and representative of the trajectory of Gene Wolfe’s fiction.
The Dimple in Draco • (1967) • short story by R. S. Richardson
Average. Hard astronomical science fiction with a lab assistance error leading to a minor discovery. Set amongst a backdrop of some relationship squabbles.
I Gave Her Sack and Sherry • [Alyx] • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
Average. In a savage alternate past, a young woman violent breaks free from her husband and connects with a pirate for adventure.
The Adventuress • [Alyx] • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
Average. Another story with the same setting and character as the one above it. This time our protagonist fights a sea creature. Both of these stories suffered from an intolerable authorial voice that alternates between whimsy and pretension.
The Hole on the Corner • (1967) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
Average. Homer arrives home one day to his perfect house and finds alternate versions of himself. Some of monstrous. This is supposed to be quirky fun.
The Food Farm • (1967) • short story by Kit Reed
Average. An obese woman literally cannot stop eating and is sent to a camp where she is forced to loose weight. An obsession with a musician turns the tables on her self image and the future of the camp.
Full Sun • (1967) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
Good. In a world where cities give human everything they could want, a man and his robot trundler go hunting a werewolf out in the dangerous wilds.
