THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION.

by Edward L. Ferman

Since its founding, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has been acclaimed as one of the pinnacles of the field, the source of fantastic fiction of the highest literary quality. Now the magazine known to its readers as "F&SF" celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a spectacular anthology of the best recent work from the magazine.Included are stories from major writers like Bruce Sterling, John Crowley, and Harlan Ellison. Also here are award-winners like Ursula K. Le Guin's Nebula-winning "Solitude," Maureen F. McHugh's Hugo-winning "The Lincoln Train," and Elizabeth Hand's Nebula- and World Fantasy Award-winning "Last Summer at Mars Hill."The fiftieth anniversary collection for the most distinguished magazine of the science fiction and fantasy world. 13 Introduction (The Best From Fantasy & Science The Fiftieth Anniversary Anthology) essay by Gordon Van Gelder15 Last Summer at Mars Hill (1994) novella by Elizabeth Hand64 Maneki Neko (1998) shortstory by Bruce Sterling81 No Planets Strike (1997) shortstory by Gene Wolfe92 Sins of the Mothers (1997) shortstory by Sharon N. Farber [as by S. N. Dyer ]106 The Finger (1995) shortstory by Ray Vukcevich112 Lifeboat on a Burning Sea (1995) novelette by Bruce Holland Rogers140 Gone (1996) shortstory by John Crowley154 First Tuesday (1996) shortstory by Robert Reed172 The Fool, the Stick, and the Princess (1998) shortstory by Rachel Pollack183 A Birthday (1995) shortstory by Esther M. Friesner200 Sensible City (1994) shortstory by Harlan Ellison209 All the Birds of Hell (1998) novelette by Tanith Lee233 We Love Lydia Love (1994) novelette by Bradley Denton258 Paul and Me (1997) shortstory by Michael Blumlein275 Have Gun, Will Edit [Plumage from Pegasus] (1996) shortstory by Paul Di Filippo280 Forget Luck [Tony Manetti] (1996) shortstory by Kate Wilhelm294 Quinn's Way (1997) novelette by Dale Bailey326 Partial People (1993) shortstory by Terry Bisson329 The Lincoln Train (1995) shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh344 Another Fine Mess (1995) shortstory by Ray Bradbury353 Solitude [Hainish] (1994) novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin

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

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Edward Ferman (born 1937) was an American science fiction and fantasy fiction editor and magazine publisher.

Ferman is the son of Joseph W. Ferman, and took over as editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1964 when Avram Davidson, due to his residence in various Latin American locales with unreliable postal delivery, could no longer practically continue editing; on the masthead, Joseph Ferman was listed as editor and publisher for Edward Ferman's first two years. Edward Ferman would take on the role of publisher, as well, by 1970, as his father gradually retired. He remained as editor until 1991 when he hired his replacement, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He remained as publisher of the magazine until he sold it to Gordon Van Gelder in 2000. While Ferman was the editor, many other magazines in the field began to fold or were shortlived, and his magazine, along with Analog, was one of the few which maintained a regular schedule and sustained critical appreciation for its contents.

From 1969-1970, he was the editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction's sister publication Venture Science Fiction Magazine. Together, the Fermans had also edited and published the short-lived nostalgia and humor magazine P.S. and a similarly brief run of a magazine about mysticism and other proto-New Age matters, Inner Space.

Ferman received the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor three years in a row, from 1981 through 1983. F&SF had previously won several other Hugos under his editorship, which had been famously conducted, at least in the last decade of his tenure, from a table in the Ferman family's Connecticut house. He edited or co-edited several volumes of stories from F&SF and co-edited Final Stage with Barry N. Malzberg. It is probable that he also ghost-edited No Limits for or with Joseph Ferman, an anthology drawn from the pages of the first run of Venture.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_L..."

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the title, it's really the editors' picks of the best stories they published from 1993 to 1998. Many of these I've previously read. As you will see, many are award winners. I've added links to stories available online. Despite the all-star cast, many of these stories weren't quite to my taste. Often a problem (for me) with F&SF stories. Hence the 3 star overall rating, despite some truly outstanding stories. Good anthology, particularly if you are a fan of F&SF magazine.
TOC: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?3...
X = no online copy found
==
X • Last Summer at Mars Hill • (1994) • novella by Elizabeth Hand. Won World Fantasy and Nebula Awards. Well-written story of fairies (sort of) at a rundown summer village on the coast of Maine. 3 stars, well-written but depressing.
• Maneki Neko • (1998) • short story by Bruce Sterling. 6 stars! One of his very best. Locus award winner, Runner-up for Hugo. http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...
X • No Planets Strike • (1997) • short story by Gene Wolfe. Hugo Award nominee. Circus act on an alien planet. Cute short SF, 3 stars, well-written but depressing.
X • Sins of the Mothers • (1997) • short story by Sharon N. Farber [as by S. N. Dyer]. Wildflower meets her son, who she gave up for adoption shortly after his birth. Now he's a rich asshole Rock star, and he wants something from her. Good, but hasn't aged well 3+ stars.
X • The Finger • (1995) • short story by Ray Vukcevich. Fantasy superpower: flipping the Finger! 3 stars.
X • Lifeboat on a Burning Sea • (1995) • novelette by Bruce Holland Rogers; won Nebula Award. Good early AI story, 3 stars
X • Gone • (1996) • short story by John Crowley. Won Locus, nominated for Hugo and Sturgeon Awards. Alien mothership drops "Elmer" household robots. Huh, 2.5 stars
X • First Tuesday • (1996) • short story by Robert Reed. President Perez is coming to dinner, virtually, at every dinner table in the nation. Sharp & clever bit of prognostication. 4+ stars, high marks.
• The Fool, the Stick, and the Princess • (1998) • short story by Rachel Pollack, https://www.rachelpollack.com/writing... Cute fractured fairy tale: the Fool gets the Princess. Nice, 3.5 stars
X • A Birthday • (1995) • short story by Esther M. Friesner. Won Nebula, nominated for Hugo Award. A young woman who follows the virtual life of her aborted daughter. Eh, 2.5 stars.
X • Sensible City • (1994) • short story by Harlan Ellison. Two bad cops, convicted murderers, encounter an uncanny green Thing. Eh, 2.5 stars.
X • All the Birds of Hell • (1998) • novelette by Tanith Lee. Well-written, surrealistic but gloomy story of a future Ice Age. 3 stars
X • We Love Lydia Love • (1994) • novelette by Bradley Denton. Rock star fantasy stuff. Still pretty good, but didn't hold up to reread. 2.5-ish stars
• Paul and Me • (1997) • short story by Michael Blumlein. Three encounters with Paul Bunyan in the North country. Revisionist portrait of the folk hero. 3.5 stars. Backstory: https://www.blackgate.com/2019/10/28/...
X • Have Gun, Will Edit • [Plumage from Pegasus] • (1996) • vignette by Paul Di Filippo. Entertaining riff on an old writer's saw re the competition. 4 stars?
X • Forget Luck • (1996) • short story by Kate Wilhelm. Just how lucky are you? An aging professor and the FBI want to know... Clever, 3+ stars
X • Quinn's Way • (1997) • novelette by Dale Bailey. The circus is coming to a tiny WV town, Two boys sneak out to see it... Gritty stuff, 2.5 stars
• Partial People • (1993) • vignette by Terry Bisson. https://books.google.com/books?id=0jp... VERY short, entertaining, slight. 3 stars?
• The Lincoln Train • (1995) • short story by Maureen F. McHugh. Won Hugo and Locus Awards, nominated for Nebula. https://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content.... Southerners are being deported to Oklahoma Territory after the War. Grim but sort-of hopeful too. 3 stars.
X • Another Fine Mess • (1995) • short story by Ray Bradbury. Of course it's about Laurel & Hardy! Details are here, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-x... (scroll down), and he sold the story to F&SF. Fine nostalgia-piece set in a black and white L.A. 4 stars.
X • Solitude [Hainish] • (1994) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin. Won Nebula, nominated for Hugo and Locus awards. A girl, a boy and their mother, living in a damaged world among damaged people. They all get by, somehow. 6 stars!
----
A good review online: http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2015...

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been a number of books with The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction as part of the title. This was their fiftieth anniversary anthology, published in 1999. All of the stories had appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in the years 1993 - 1998.

There are twenty or twenty-one stories here, depending on what you consider Paul Di Filippo's "Plumage from Pegasus." Di Filippo has had a humor column titled "Plumage from Pegasus" in F&SF since 1994. Each entry in this series is a sort of short story. In his "Introduction" to this book, Gordon Van Gelder refers to "Plumage from Pegasus" as a "farcical...column."

The particular "Plumage from Pegasus" column reprinted here is titled "Have Gun, Will Edit." It begins with quotes from noted science fiction authors Larry Niven and Arthur C. Clarke saying in praise of other writers that they should have had those other writers assassinated to remove the competition. "Have Gun, Will Edit" tells about a hitman whose job is to injure or kill successful authors to benefit competing authors. The funniest passage begins with the hitman talking to an author who is hiring him. (To understand this, you have to know that "SFWA" stands for "Science Fiction Writers of America"):

"I'm an independent contractor, a freelancer. Just like you."

...

Hearing this, he perked up a little. "A freelancer. Why, of course. Quite understandable. Why I suppose you people even have your own trade organization something like the Ess-Eff-Double-You-Ay?"

"Not quite so vicious. But yes, we do."


The title "Have Gun, Will Edit" is a variation on the title of an old (1957-1963) Western television series about a gunman for hire, Have Gun, Will Travel.

The other twenty entries include a number of stories that won or were nominated for awards:

"Last Summer on Mars Hill"
won World Fantasy Award and Nebula Award

"Maneki Neko"
won Locus Award, nominated for Theodore Sturgeon Award and Hugo Award

"No Planets Strike"
nominated for Hugo Award

"Lifeboat on a Burning Sea"
won Nebula Award

"Gone"
won Locus Award, nominated for Hugo Award and Theodore Sturgeon Award

"A Birthday"
won Nebula Award, nominated for Hugo Award

"All the Birds of Hell"
nominated for Locus Award

"The Lincoln Train"
won Hugo Award and Locus Award, nominated for Nebula Award and Sidewise Award

"Solitude"
won Nebula Award, nominated for Hugo Award and Locus Award

[I have arbitrarily listed any of the top five highest rated stories in any Locus Award category as a Locus Award nominee.]

That is a very impressive list.

My favorite stories here are "Maneki Neko," "Lifeboat on a Burning Sea," "All the Birds of Hell," 'We Love Lydia Love," "Quinn's Way," "The Lincoln Train," and "Solitude." There is actually only one story in this book that I think is not good.

I don't want to discuss each story in this anthology but here are some random observations:

In the introduction to the book, Gordon Van Gelder states:

This book, then, collects many of the best fantasies we've published in the last five years. They range from speculative SF stories to fairy tales...."

So clearly Van Gelder regards science fiction as a branch of fantasy. I think that there is some overlap between the two, but I don't agree with Van Gelder's conclusion.

"A Birthday" is a fine story but it is incredibly depressing and, as I write this in 2017, it seems not all that unlikely.

Tanith Lee's story "All the Birds of Hell" is not only good as a story but it is also written beautifully.

I like Kate Wilhelm's story "Forget Luck" but I think that the sequel, "The Happiest Day of Her Life" (F&SF October-November, 1999) is even better.

There have been so many fantasy stories set in circuses and carnivals that the reaction to another one should be, "Not again!" However, my reaction to Dale Bailey's "Quinn's Way" is "Excellent!"

I don't share Ray Bradbury's overwhelming affection for Laurel and Hardy but Bradbury almost convinces me.

Ursula K. Le Guin must have written a bad story at some point. "Solitude" certainly isn't that story, however.

Maureen F. McHugh's "The Lincoln Train" is wonderful.

[Renee Babcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology was published in 1999 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It's not a retrospective anthology, since all the included stories were published in the 90s (and I do with there had been more representation from across the decades). Still, a very fine set of stories, and only two didn't hold any interest for me. My favorite story was Ursula LeGuin's Solitude, set in ghe Hainish universe. Her shorter fiction in that universe is some tremendous reading, as one book I highly high recommend is her collecgion Four Ways to Forgiveness. I also particularly liked Elizabeth Hand's Last Summer at Mars Hill. Interestingly these two stories opened and closed the book. If you like high quality F/SF, this is a good anthology to have.

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was when I reached the THIRD STORY ABOUT AGING BABY BOOMER HIPPIES ENCOUNTERING THE FANTASTIC in this anthology that I decided that perhaps it wasn't for me (and promptly quit reading it). That and stories about abortion seem to be the theme of the magazine in the 90s.

John Crowley and Gene Wolfe had some decent stories, but the standout by far was Tanith Lee's "All the Birds of Hell," a creepy post-apocalyptic-ice-age story set in a Soviet-style bureaucracy and revolving around two frozen bodies preserved in a dacha.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent selection of late 1990's stories from the magazine. I was familiar with several, but some were new to me. Certainly all were worth this special 50th Anniversary Anthology.

[L. Shosty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad story in this book.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally good anthology, and indicative of what you get when you read the magazine. Nothing really stood out to me, maybe with the exception of Esther Friesner's "A Birthday", which maybe hits harder due to current events.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like short stories. I read of few of these, and still don't like short stories. I borrowed it for the Ellison, but it's nothing special. I quit.

[Unidragonfrag · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these I couldn't get into at all (even the Ray Bradbury one, which disappointed me) but gotta say.. 'All the Birds of Hell' by Tanith Lee was great. Beautiful and scary. I do now have a few authors I need to look other books up of.