Sat 5 Dec 2020
Diary Review: ORBIT SCIENCE FICTION September-October 1954.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Magazines , Reviews[9] Comments
ORBIT SCIENCE FICTION. September-October 1954. Vol. 1, No. 4. Overall rating: 2 stars.
ALFRED COPPEL “Last Night of Summer.†The study of reactions to knowledge of Earth’s sudden destruction in a burst of flames. (4)
Comment: According to my view at the time, this was a best story in this issue. Reprinted in The End of the World, edited by Donald A. Wollheim (Ace, paperback, 1956) and Catastrophes!, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh (Fawcett Crest, pb, 1981).
MICHAEL SHAARA “Death in the House.†A creature from a flying saucer disguises itself as a dog. (1)
Comment: Reprinted in Uncollected Stars, edited by Piers Anthony, Martin H. Greenberg, Barry N. Malzberg & Charles G. Waugh (Avon, pb, 1986). I suspect that this was due more to Shaara’s name value on the cover more than the quality of the story. (I could be wrong about this.)
JAMES E. GUNN “Danger Past.†Sabotage of a time machine leads to murder. (2)
Comment: As of last year, at 95 years old, Gunn was still active as a published writer. This story, however, has never been collected or reprinted.
MAX DANCEY “Me Feel Good.†Child from asteroid has strange powers. (0)
Comment: “Dancey†was one of several pen names used by author Peter Grainger. Others include Robert Flint Young and Peter Cartur. Under these various names he has thirteen SF tales to his credit, appearing between 1947 and 1974.
IRVING E. COX “No More the Stars.†A conspiracy to escape Earth’s oppression is broken up but does not fail. Quite familiar. (2)
Comment: Cox was the author of several dozen short stories between 1951 and 1965. This one has never been reprinted or collected in the US.
AUGUST DERLETH “The Thinker and the Thought.†A thinking machine mirror its inventor’s thoughts. (0)
Comment: Collected in Harrigan’s File (Arkham House, hardcover, 1975). I don’t know much about Tex Harrigan, the leading protagonist in this collection, but one online source says that he was a newspaperman who continually runs “up against strange inventions and curiously weird-science occurrences.†I do not seem to have been much impressed by this one.
ALAN E. NOURSE “The Image of the Gods.†Colonists of Baron IV find help from the natives in their struggle against Earth’s dominion. (3)
Comment: Reprinted in The Counterfeit Man: More Science Fiction Stories (David McKay, hardcover, 1963) and still in print electronically today.
PHILIP K. DICK “Adjustment Team.†[Novelette] An error in timing allows Fletcher to see the underlying reality of his existence, maintained by outsiders. Weak ending. (3)
Comment: First collected in The Book of Philip K. Dick (Daw, paperback, 1973) as well as several later collections. I do not believe that anything Dick ever wrote has not been reprinted or collected.
MILTON LESSER “Intruder on the Rim.†[Novelette] A husband-wife team of reporters are sent to Pluto’s moon and uncover a plot by the military in charge to take over the solar system. (1)
Comment: Lesser eventually changed his name legally to Stephen Marlowe; under this name he is well known as the author of many mystery and suspense novels. I do not believe any of his SF tales are at all memorable. This one has never been collected or reprinted in the US.
December 5th, 2020 at 8:00 pm
Orbit only lasted 5 issues in 1953 and 1954 and was part of the big SF and crime fiction digest magazine boom. But as this issue shows there was no way the new magazines could consistently publish quality fiction. There were just too many of them packing the newsstands and not enough good writers.
December 5th, 2020 at 9:58 pm
One thing I didn’t do in my diary notes back in 1967 was to identify the editors of the older SF magazines such as this one. I will be doing that from now on. In any case, it was Donald Wollheim who was in charge of this one, and no, I don’t think he had nearly enough money to compete with the big boys at ASTOUNDING, F&SF and GALAXY.
Nor, as you say, Walker, were there enough good writers o go around.
December 5th, 2020 at 8:40 pm
Coppell was a staple in PLANET and later penned a couple of best selling thrillers as well as SF.
Harrigan as I recall was in the vein of UNKNOWN, a hard drinking reporter with a penchant for odd stories.
Shaara was another SF digest staple who made good.
Lesser is best known for his Johnny Havoc series in SF about a secret agent who can take over others bodies. As Marlowe he is another who not only cracked the best seller list after abandoning Chet Drumm and paperback originals, but wrote several international prize winners and a couple of NY Times Notable Books of the Year, including SUMMITT, THE MAN WITH NO SHADOW, COLOSSUS (a biographical novel of Goya), and THE LIGHTHOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD about Edgar Allan Poe.
December 5th, 2020 at 10:00 pm
You’re quite right. There were some good writers in this issue, but for the most part, these were far from their best stories. The best work from Dick, Marlowe, Shaara, Gunn, Nourse, and Coppell were well in their futures.
December 6th, 2020 at 12:49 am
David: I think you meant Milton Lesser is known in SF for his John Hastings series. Johnny Havoc was a pint-sized private eye featured in four PBO mysteries by John Jakes in the 60s.
December 6th, 2020 at 1:00 am
Yes, Lesser wrote two John Hastings novels, Secret of the Black Planet (1952)
and Son of the Black Chalice (also 1952), but I think David was thinking of his series of Johnny Mayhem short stories. None of the above were more than ordinary space opera, but all of them are fun to read.
December 6th, 2020 at 5:55 am
Bill Crider was a big fan of those Johnny Mayhem stories. I have an ebook collection of them but haven’t gotten around to reading it.
December 6th, 2020 at 5:56 am
I did read SECRET OF THE BLACK PLANET and thought it was okay at best.
December 6th, 2020 at 11:19 pm
Yes, Johnny Mayhem, though I did also read the Hastings books.