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Annual World's Best SF #1
The 1972 Annual World's Best SF
THE BEST OF THE WORLD'S SCIENCE FICTION
Following the tradition of the many best-selling anthologies of fine science fiction he is noted for, Donald A. Wollheim selects for DAW Books those fantastic tales which in his opinion warrant being considered the best and most memorable science fiction published in the past year.
Here is R.A. Lafferty with a fabulous fragment of Something From Beyond.
Here is Stephen Tall with a desperate expedition to answer an entire world's S.O.S.
Here is Joanna Russ with an unforgettable glimpse into a future we never intended to create.
Here are wonder, science, fantasy, and marvel - packed into fourteen of the best.
"Introduction" Donald A. Wollheim
"The Fourth Profession" Larry Niven
"Gleepsite" Joanna Russ
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" Stephen Tall
"The Sharks of Pentreath" Michael G. Coney
"A Little Knowledge" Poul Anderson
"Real-Time World" Christopher Priest
"All Pieces of a River Shore" R.A. Lafferty
"With Friends Like These..." Alan Dean Foster
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" Leonard Tushnet
"Timestorm" Eddy C. Bertin
"Transit of Earth" Arthur C. Clarke
"Gehenna" K.M. O'Donnell
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" Harlan Ellison
"Occam's Scalpel" Theodore Sturgeon
Following the tradition of the many best-selling anthologies of fine science fiction he is noted for, Donald A. Wollheim selects for DAW Books those fantastic tales which in his opinion warrant being considered the best and most memorable science fiction published in the past year.
Here is R.A. Lafferty with a fabulous fragment of Something From Beyond.
Here is Stephen Tall with a desperate expedition to answer an entire world's S.O.S.
Here is Joanna Russ with an unforgettable glimpse into a future we never intended to create.
Here are wonder, science, fantasy, and marvel - packed into fourteen of the best.
"Introduction" Donald A. Wollheim
"The Fourth Profession" Larry Niven
"Gleepsite" Joanna Russ
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" Stephen Tall
"The Sharks of Pentreath" Michael G. Coney
"A Little Knowledge" Poul Anderson
"Real-Time World" Christopher Priest
"All Pieces of a River Shore" R.A. Lafferty
"With Friends Like These..." Alan Dean Foster
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" Leonard Tushnet
"Timestorm" Eddy C. Bertin
"Transit of Earth" Arthur C. Clarke
"Gehenna" K.M. O'Donnell
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" Harlan Ellison
"Occam's Scalpel" Theodore Sturgeon
306 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
4 people are currently reading
111 people want to read
About the author
Donald A. Wollheim
295 books34 followersDonald Allen Wollheim was a science fiction writer, editor, publisher and fan. He published his own works under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell.
A member of the Futurians, he was one of the leading influences on the development of science fiction and science fiction fandom in the 20th century United States.
In 1937, Wollheim founded the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. The first mailing was distributed in July of that year and included this statement from Wollheim: "There are many fans desiring to put out a voice who dare not, for fear of being obliged to keep it up, and for the worry and time taken by subscriptions and advertising. It is for them and for the fan who admits it is his hobby and not his business that we formed the FAPA."
Wollheim was also a member of the New York Science Fiction League, one of the clubs established by Hugo Gernsback to promote science fiction. When Wollheim published a complaint of non-payment for stories against Gernsback, Gernsback dissolved the New York chapter of the club.
Wollheim's first story, "The Man from Ariel," was published in the January 1934 issue of Wonder Stories when Wollheim was nineteen. Wollheim was not paid for the story and when he began to look into the situation, he learned that many other authors had not been paid for their work, publishing his findings in the Bulletin of the Terrestrial Fantascience Guild. Gernsback eventually settled the case with Wollheim and other authors out of court for $75, but when Wollheim submitted another story to Gernsback, under the pseudonym "Millard Verne Gordon," he was again not paid. One of Wollheim's short stories, "Mimic" was made into the feature film of the same name, which was released in 1997.
He left Avon Books in 1952 to work for A. A. Wyn at Ace Books. In 1953 he introduced science fiction to the Ace lineup, and for 20 years edited their renowned sf list. Ace was well known for the Ace Doubles series which consisted of pairs of books, usually by different authors, bound back-to-back with two "front" covers. Because these paired books had to fit a fixed total page-length, one or both were usually heavily abridged to fit, and Wollheim often made many other editorial alterations and title changes — as witness the many differences between Poul Anderson's Ace novel War of the Wing-Men and its definitive revised edition, The Man Who Counts. It was also during the 1950s he bought the book Junk by William S. Burroughs, which, in his inimitable fashion, he retitled Junkie.
In 1965 Wollheim published an unauthorized Ace edition of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien in three volumes — the first mass-market paperback edition of Tolkien's epic. This was done because Wollheim believed the Houghton Mifflin hardcover editions failed to properly assert copyright. In a 2006 interview, Wollheim's daughter claimed that Tolkien had angered her father by saying that his magnum opus would never be published in so ‘degenerate a form’ as the paperback book. However, Tolkien had previously authorized a paperback edition of The Hobbit in 1961, and eventually supported paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings and several of his other texts. In any case, Ace was forced to cease publishing the unauthorized edition and to pay Tolkien for their sales following a grass-roots campaign and boycott by Tolkien's U.S. fans. In 1993 a court found that the copyright loophole suggested by Ace Books was incorrect and their paperback edition found to have been a violation of Tolkien's copyright under US law.
After leaving Ace he founded DAW Books in 1971, named by his initials, which can claim to be the first mass market specialist science fiction and fantasy fiction publishing house. In later years, when his distributors, New American Library, threatened to withhold distribution of Thomas Burnett Swann's Biblical fantasy How are the Mighty Fallen (1974) because of its homosexual con
A member of the Futurians, he was one of the leading influences on the development of science fiction and science fiction fandom in the 20th century United States.
In 1937, Wollheim founded the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. The first mailing was distributed in July of that year and included this statement from Wollheim: "There are many fans desiring to put out a voice who dare not, for fear of being obliged to keep it up, and for the worry and time taken by subscriptions and advertising. It is for them and for the fan who admits it is his hobby and not his business that we formed the FAPA."
Wollheim was also a member of the New York Science Fiction League, one of the clubs established by Hugo Gernsback to promote science fiction. When Wollheim published a complaint of non-payment for stories against Gernsback, Gernsback dissolved the New York chapter of the club.
Wollheim's first story, "The Man from Ariel," was published in the January 1934 issue of Wonder Stories when Wollheim was nineteen. Wollheim was not paid for the story and when he began to look into the situation, he learned that many other authors had not been paid for their work, publishing his findings in the Bulletin of the Terrestrial Fantascience Guild. Gernsback eventually settled the case with Wollheim and other authors out of court for $75, but when Wollheim submitted another story to Gernsback, under the pseudonym "Millard Verne Gordon," he was again not paid. One of Wollheim's short stories, "Mimic" was made into the feature film of the same name, which was released in 1997.
He left Avon Books in 1952 to work for A. A. Wyn at Ace Books. In 1953 he introduced science fiction to the Ace lineup, and for 20 years edited their renowned sf list. Ace was well known for the Ace Doubles series which consisted of pairs of books, usually by different authors, bound back-to-back with two "front" covers. Because these paired books had to fit a fixed total page-length, one or both were usually heavily abridged to fit, and Wollheim often made many other editorial alterations and title changes — as witness the many differences between Poul Anderson's Ace novel War of the Wing-Men and its definitive revised edition, The Man Who Counts. It was also during the 1950s he bought the book Junk by William S. Burroughs, which, in his inimitable fashion, he retitled Junkie.
In 1965 Wollheim published an unauthorized Ace edition of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien in three volumes — the first mass-market paperback edition of Tolkien's epic. This was done because Wollheim believed the Houghton Mifflin hardcover editions failed to properly assert copyright. In a 2006 interview, Wollheim's daughter claimed that Tolkien had angered her father by saying that his magnum opus would never be published in so ‘degenerate a form’ as the paperback book. However, Tolkien had previously authorized a paperback edition of The Hobbit in 1961, and eventually supported paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings and several of his other texts. In any case, Ace was forced to cease publishing the unauthorized edition and to pay Tolkien for their sales following a grass-roots campaign and boycott by Tolkien's U.S. fans. In 1993 a court found that the copyright loophole suggested by Ace Books was incorrect and their paperback edition found to have been a violation of Tolkien's copyright under US law.
After leaving Ace he founded DAW Books in 1971, named by his initials, which can claim to be the first mass market specialist science fiction and fantasy fiction publishing house. In later years, when his distributors, New American Library, threatened to withhold distribution of Thomas Burnett Swann's Biblical fantasy How are the Mighty Fallen (1974) because of its homosexual con
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May 19, 2020Daw collectors book #4
"The 1972 Annual World's Best SF" is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, the initial volumes in a series of nineteen. It was one of two follow-up volumes to the previous year's World's Best Science Fiction: 1971 edited by Wollheim and Terry Carr.
The Wollheim/Saha title was first published in paperback by DAW Books in May 1972, followed by a hardcover edition issued in July of the same year by the same publisher as a selection of 'the Science Fiction Book Club'. For the hardcover edition the original cover art of John Schoenherr was replaced by a new cover painting by Frank Frazetta for Ace Books.
Cover artist John Schoenherr
"The Fourth Profession" was nominated for the 1972 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" was nominated for the 1972 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Contents:
"Introduction" (Donald A. Wollheim)
"The Fourth Profession" (Larry Niven)
"Gleepsite" (Joanna Russ)
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" (Stephen Tall)
"The Sharks of Pentreath" (Michael G. Coney)
"A Little Knowledge" (Poul Anderson)
"Real-Time World" (Christopher Priest)
"All Pieces of a River Shore" (R. A. Lafferty) (Originally published in 1970)
"With Friends Like These . . ." (Alan Dean Foster)
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" (Leonard Tushnet)
"Timestorm" (Eddy C. Bertin)
"Transit of Earth" (Arthur C. Clarke)
"Gehenna" (K. M. O'Donnell)
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" (Harlan Ellison) (Originally published in 1970)
"Occam's Scalpel" (Theodore Sturgeon)
"The 1972 Annual World's Best SF" is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, the initial volumes in a series of nineteen. It was one of two follow-up volumes to the previous year's World's Best Science Fiction: 1971 edited by Wollheim and Terry Carr.
The Wollheim/Saha title was first published in paperback by DAW Books in May 1972, followed by a hardcover edition issued in July of the same year by the same publisher as a selection of 'the Science Fiction Book Club'. For the hardcover edition the original cover art of John Schoenherr was replaced by a new cover painting by Frank Frazetta for Ace Books.
Cover artist John Schoenherr
"The Fourth Profession" was nominated for the 1972 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" was nominated for the 1972 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Contents:
"Introduction" (Donald A. Wollheim)
"The Fourth Profession" (Larry Niven)
"Gleepsite" (Joanna Russ)
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" (Stephen Tall)
"The Sharks of Pentreath" (Michael G. Coney)
"A Little Knowledge" (Poul Anderson)
"Real-Time World" (Christopher Priest)
"All Pieces of a River Shore" (R. A. Lafferty) (Originally published in 1970)
"With Friends Like These . . ." (Alan Dean Foster)
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" (Leonard Tushnet)
"Timestorm" (Eddy C. Bertin)
"Transit of Earth" (Arthur C. Clarke)
"Gehenna" (K. M. O'Donnell)
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" (Harlan Ellison) (Originally published in 1970)
"Occam's Scalpel" (Theodore Sturgeon)
June 13, 2021
After several years of collaboratively editing their World's Best annual anthologies of their picks for the best short science fiction stories published in the previous year, Terry Carr and Wollheim began editing separate annual anthologies in 1972. Wollheim had left Ace to found DAW Books, and Carr's series appeared from Ballantine Books (before their line was renamed Del Rey Books). Two of the stories appeared in both books, The Fourth Profession by Larry Niven and Occam's Scalpel by Theodore Sturgeon. After that I would give the nod to Carr's book, which had several of my favorite classic stories, but DAW did have some good ones, such as the ones by Alan Dean Foster, Michael G. Coney, R.A. Lafferty, and Stephen Tall's terrific The Bear With A Knot on His Tail. My favorite was One Life Furnished in Early Poverty by Harlan Ellison.
January 5, 2025
The longstanding Wollheim DAW series starts with the year 1972, and while this is a varied collection of SF, the potential of the genre seems scattered, as if eating a dinner entirely made up of appetizers. If for anything, the UK authors transcend the Americans in originality and execution, relying less on the pulp structures that formed the post-Golden American age. Overall, not as form-shattering a collection as New Worlds or Quark (ed. Sam Delaney), but overall a solid representation of the hard, soft, campy and the strange.
"The Fourth Profession" Larry Niven : entertaining if not mildly annoying tale of an alien monk who visits a dive bar and peddles off pills that do wonders re-wiring the human brain, and ultimately, the soul. Has the feel of an episode of 'Cheers' written for Amazing Stories.
"Gleepsite" Joanna Russ : Russ throws all cohesion out the window with this odd and beautifully unsettling tale of an insectoid/human hybrid tempting two female twins who work at a mall. Visions of grandeur juxtapose a volatile outside-Earth, and Russ teases us with a godly transcendence akin to a drug peddler with demon wings. Worth a re-read. Classic.
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" Stephen Tall : as soapy an opera one could ask for. Tall takes it purely for the pulps here, and visitors to a planet on the verge of destruction try to save glob-like aliens who convoy in funky jeeps to and from domed buildings. Has all the SF candy one desires, but even though this novella gets dissed, I didn't mind it for its earnest aim for the feelgood.
"The Sharks of Pentreath" Michael G. Coney : oddly bittersweet. An English seaside town is ripe with tourists. Only these tourists are not physically present. They are holidaying virtually, and clumsy box-like robots become the visitor's eyes, ears, and mouths. This shouldn't work as it aims to be tooth-achingly poignant, but at the end, Coney achieves his sentimental sweep in a fine, desolate fashion.
"A Little Knowledge" Poul Anderson : I think this was the first Poul Anderson short story I've ever read. Sadly, not looking forward to the next.
"Real-Time World" Christopher Priest : slowburn panic and dread on an un-chartered moon base. What moon this is...Priest never truly tells us. Instead he fashions this story as a warning in panic and speculation. Brilliantly rendered, Priest details the discourse between a staff succumbing to their own madness and tempting evacuation before the mission is complete. Also, a timely tale of the news feed. What we don't know on Earth, sometimes doesn't hurt us elsewhere.
"All Pieces of a River Shore" R.A. Lafferty - obtuse, near-brilliant, typical Lafferty. A search for the 'longest painting in the world' reveals more details of an American river than one could expect. How far back in time do the details go? Funny, reading a Lafferty tale is like drinking moonshine, and this proves no different.
"With Friends Like These..." Alan Dean Foster - silly. Aliens try to convince Earthlings to join the fight against the evil Ops.
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" Leonard Tushnet - Yiddish SF in comic form. It's more of a warning against greed and immortality. Clunky and too long, but quite original at its core. Could easily find its way in an anthology of witch stories...or better yet, in one of Richard Davis' DAW horror anthologies.
"Timestorm" Eddy C. Bertin - interesting in how Bertin throws the whole kitchen at us, but achieves so little. If you really want to read another time-travel deal focused on JFK's assassination, then you may get something from this one.
"Transit of Earth" Arthur C. Clarke - perhaps one of Clarke's finest shorts. The Magnificent Desolation.
"Gehenna" K.M. O'Donnell - more of a play with time and setting, but not much more than that. It's clever if not a bit dull. Barry Malzberg leaves his cynicism aside in this one.
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" Harlan Ellison - some back in the day really would want Harlan to go back in time and coach his former child-self to make the right choices. If for anything, it's a story known for its Americana bittersweet, and proves that beneath all those scales of curmudgeonry, Harlan really did have a heart. Solid.
"Occam's Scalpel" Theodore Sturgeon - is there any other short-story writer more frustrating than Sturgeon? Poorly structured and the dialogue runs its mouth far too long. However, the whole scheme of creating an alien race to control the environment is a fairly unique take. Pairs well with the much darker and grim, 'The Autopsy' by Michael Shea.
"The Fourth Profession" Larry Niven : entertaining if not mildly annoying tale of an alien monk who visits a dive bar and peddles off pills that do wonders re-wiring the human brain, and ultimately, the soul. Has the feel of an episode of 'Cheers' written for Amazing Stories.
"Gleepsite" Joanna Russ : Russ throws all cohesion out the window with this odd and beautifully unsettling tale of an insectoid/human hybrid tempting two female twins who work at a mall. Visions of grandeur juxtapose a volatile outside-Earth, and Russ teases us with a godly transcendence akin to a drug peddler with demon wings. Worth a re-read. Classic.
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" Stephen Tall : as soapy an opera one could ask for. Tall takes it purely for the pulps here, and visitors to a planet on the verge of destruction try to save glob-like aliens who convoy in funky jeeps to and from domed buildings. Has all the SF candy one desires, but even though this novella gets dissed, I didn't mind it for its earnest aim for the feelgood.
"The Sharks of Pentreath" Michael G. Coney : oddly bittersweet. An English seaside town is ripe with tourists. Only these tourists are not physically present. They are holidaying virtually, and clumsy box-like robots become the visitor's eyes, ears, and mouths. This shouldn't work as it aims to be tooth-achingly poignant, but at the end, Coney achieves his sentimental sweep in a fine, desolate fashion.
"A Little Knowledge" Poul Anderson : I think this was the first Poul Anderson short story I've ever read. Sadly, not looking forward to the next.
"Real-Time World" Christopher Priest : slowburn panic and dread on an un-chartered moon base. What moon this is...Priest never truly tells us. Instead he fashions this story as a warning in panic and speculation. Brilliantly rendered, Priest details the discourse between a staff succumbing to their own madness and tempting evacuation before the mission is complete. Also, a timely tale of the news feed. What we don't know on Earth, sometimes doesn't hurt us elsewhere.
"All Pieces of a River Shore" R.A. Lafferty - obtuse, near-brilliant, typical Lafferty. A search for the 'longest painting in the world' reveals more details of an American river than one could expect. How far back in time do the details go? Funny, reading a Lafferty tale is like drinking moonshine, and this proves no different.
"With Friends Like These..." Alan Dean Foster - silly. Aliens try to convince Earthlings to join the fight against the evil Ops.
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" Leonard Tushnet - Yiddish SF in comic form. It's more of a warning against greed and immortality. Clunky and too long, but quite original at its core. Could easily find its way in an anthology of witch stories...or better yet, in one of Richard Davis' DAW horror anthologies.
"Timestorm" Eddy C. Bertin - interesting in how Bertin throws the whole kitchen at us, but achieves so little. If you really want to read another time-travel deal focused on JFK's assassination, then you may get something from this one.
"Transit of Earth" Arthur C. Clarke - perhaps one of Clarke's finest shorts. The Magnificent Desolation.
"Gehenna" K.M. O'Donnell - more of a play with time and setting, but not much more than that. It's clever if not a bit dull. Barry Malzberg leaves his cynicism aside in this one.
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" Harlan Ellison - some back in the day really would want Harlan to go back in time and coach his former child-self to make the right choices. If for anything, it's a story known for its Americana bittersweet, and proves that beneath all those scales of curmudgeonry, Harlan really did have a heart. Solid.
"Occam's Scalpel" Theodore Sturgeon - is there any other short-story writer more frustrating than Sturgeon? Poorly structured and the dialogue runs its mouth far too long. However, the whole scheme of creating an alien race to control the environment is a fairly unique take. Pairs well with the much darker and grim, 'The Autopsy' by Michael Shea.
December 9, 2014
Nice anthology, four stories are absolutely terrific in here. Joanna Russ' "Gleepsite" and Barry Malzberg's "Gehenna" are landmarks in the genre, and could be taught at university level. (The Russ already is, the Malzberg probably is not, although Samuel R. Delany says he does teach Malzberg now and then). Gleepsite is Russ' unique phantasmagorical science fiction, requiring multiple readings and still not yielding everything. Complex, strange, thoughtful - the usual from her, really. The Malzberg is a Rashomon-style relationship story in NYC, exquisite.
Also of note are Christopher Priest's "Real Time World" and R. A. Lafferty's "All Pieces of a River Shore". The Priest story is simply well-written character drama in an SF'nal setting; the Lafferty is a great short story about a river mural preserved through time and in pieces. These were both authors I have always been meaning to read, but never got to - now they are on the must-read list based on the strength of these stories.
There's a good Sturgeon, and a good Ellison story in here, but neither is incredibly remarkable. The rest is just not that great, but really none of the stories are clinkers. Wollheim was a great editor, I wish the line he founded had not turned over completely to romantic fantasy as it has. (Not the editor's fault - that's the market these days).
Well worth picking up at a used store.
Also of note are Christopher Priest's "Real Time World" and R. A. Lafferty's "All Pieces of a River Shore". The Priest story is simply well-written character drama in an SF'nal setting; the Lafferty is a great short story about a river mural preserved through time and in pieces. These were both authors I have always been meaning to read, but never got to - now they are on the must-read list based on the strength of these stories.
There's a good Sturgeon, and a good Ellison story in here, but neither is incredibly remarkable. The rest is just not that great, but really none of the stories are clinkers. Wollheim was a great editor, I wish the line he founded had not turned over completely to romantic fantasy as it has. (Not the editor's fault - that's the market these days).
Well worth picking up at a used store.
June 3, 2024
Average rating: 4.14/5 stars.
A solid anthology—the first ever DAW anthology! Whereas the stories wavered in the middle, the ending was a wild flourish! I especially liked Christopher Priest, Michael G Coney, Arthur C Clarke, and Barry N Malzberg.
”The Fourth Profession” by Larry Niven - 5/5
A bartender takes a bunch of alien pills that teach him things through memories. Solid, flowing prose that kept the story moving forward. I love how it felt like you didn’t know who was the good guys or bad guys—the government or the aliens. A fun ride full of suspense and a little 70s charm.
”Gleepsite” by Joanna Russ - 3.5/5
A hazy short story that oozes with interpretation. It’s not very long—a mere 4-5 pages—but it’s got a lot of interesting elements hidden inside.
The basic idea is a traveling saleswoman who lives in a hellish, semi-post-apocalyptic world where the air is acid and only 3% of the world’s male population remains. The saleswoman sells an illusionary device that creates daydreams to a pair of middle-aged twins. At the end. The saleswoman becomes a bat. No joke.
I think there’s a lot to interpret from Russ’s story. Themes of illusion and escapism are right there on the cusp of this venture. That said, I wasn’t blown away by it. It’s competent, and I think I’m getting what she’s saying, but the prose is so darn opaque that I can’t see truly what she was getting at. Is it a ‘me’ issue? Probably. But that’s doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Still, not a bad story.
”The Bear with the Knot on His Tail” by Stephen Tall - 2/5
You may see the score and wince. The story wasn’t written poorly, mind you. It was just too sappy and trite. The same kind of story that you’ve seen a hundred times: an alien world about to be destroyed—and humans can’t save them—but they can save their progeny!
The prose was serviceable. The character work wasn’t bad, even if each character felt so . . . one-dimensional, sappy, juvenile, and cheesy. For me, the lack of creativity throughout the main plot wasn’t enough to make it a worthwhile story, let alone “The World’s Best SF”. Add-on the fact that the writing had too many unnecessary asides and meaningless padding, and you get a story that annoys instead of entertains or invokes rumination.
”The Sharks of Pentreath” by Michael G Coney - 5/5
Whereas the last story lacked any depth, this one was teeming with it. A world where people are placed into tubes and frozen for periods at a time to curb overpopulation. A world where tourism is usually done through remote-controlled robot analogs. A world where, like modern beachside towns, the people work to keep the tourists happy while they live their lives swamped in nostalgia.
This one was great—my favorite of the collection so far—and it solidifies my appreciation of Coney as a writer. I especially loved the relationship between the main lead and his wife. The lesson of love and marriage really makes this story special to me. I’m a sucker for romance in my SF.
”A Little Knowledge” by Poul Anderson - 2/5
This one was whatev’. Another story that didn’t really feel like it had a lot going on. A bunch of dudes are trying to make a spaceship armada for less technologically advanced race, and getting paid big for it. The whole time, a seemingly submissive alien captive snivels and cries—and then there’s an obvious twist if you ask me.
Not terrible, not great. Not even mediocre. Very ambivalent about this one, especially for the first story I’ve read from Poul Anderson.
”Real-Time World” by Christopher Priest - 5/5
Mind-bending New Wave SF at its best. An experiment where the controller is the only one who knows it’s an experiment . . . or does he?
This is what makes science fiction so interesting, fun, and so damned readable.
”All Pieces of a River Shore” by R. A. Lafferty - 4/5
A fun, albeit partly inane, story by the one and only R. A. Lafferty! No one has the same style or flavor as him. Here’s a man who isn’t afraid to write an entire run-on sentence-paragraph containing things that the main character collects!
Story follows a Native American man who loves collecting things. The man becomes obsessed with an Americana novelty of a long moving painting that doesn’t seem to be a painting.
Full of random thoughts, asides, and flavor, this story is like eating a fruity cereal with strawberry milk—saccharine sweet, odd-tasting, but something you just can’t hate if you have the tastebuds for it.
”With Friends Like These” by Alan Dean Foster - 3/5
Aliens go release exiled humanity to defeat a greater evil posed against the galaxy. Kinda fun, even if the prose feels a bit juvenile.
”Aunt Jennie’s Tonic” by Leonard Tushnet - 5/5
This was fun! A great, unreliable narrator discovering secret miracle-drugs all with a vibrant Yiddish flair.
”Timestorm” by Eddy C Bertin - 3.5/5
Not bad, but I felt like the whole story was a bit long for the eventual—and very obvious—reveal. Could have been something more, but instead it was a pulpy, time-travel story with a trite ending.
”Transit of Earth” by Arthur C Clarke - 5/5
A melancholic short story about an abandoned man watching the Earth transit across the Sun. The transit only happens once every hundred years and the man catalogs his last hours of oxygen watching the Earth pass by.
Potent while never being melodramatic, this story is another example of why Clarke is considered one of the Three Grandfathers of science fiction, and in my humble opinion, the best.
”Gehenna” by Barry N. Malzberg - 5/5
A very sad story of four interconnected people all living their lives. I don’t know if this is inherently science fiction—and if so, it’s very soft SF—but it is effective, efficient, and well-executed. Easy among the best of this collection.
”One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty” by Harlan Ellison - 5/5
I think this is the first Ellison story I’ve ever actually liked! A cool recursive time-travel piece about a man who visits his bullied self in the past. Without the usual . . . “Ellisonisms” I usually find in his work, this work actually made me appreciate him!
”Occam’s Scalpel” by Theodore Sturgeon - 5/5
A man, down on his luck despite everything going for him, realizes the mob boss he’s been working for . . . might be an alien. Maybe?
I liked how this one might or might not be SF, all depending how you interpret it!
A solid anthology—the first ever DAW anthology! Whereas the stories wavered in the middle, the ending was a wild flourish! I especially liked Christopher Priest, Michael G Coney, Arthur C Clarke, and Barry N Malzberg.
”The Fourth Profession” by Larry Niven - 5/5
A bartender takes a bunch of alien pills that teach him things through memories. Solid, flowing prose that kept the story moving forward. I love how it felt like you didn’t know who was the good guys or bad guys—the government or the aliens. A fun ride full of suspense and a little 70s charm.
”Gleepsite” by Joanna Russ - 3.5/5
A hazy short story that oozes with interpretation. It’s not very long—a mere 4-5 pages—but it’s got a lot of interesting elements hidden inside.
The basic idea is a traveling saleswoman who lives in a hellish, semi-post-apocalyptic world where the air is acid and only 3% of the world’s male population remains. The saleswoman sells an illusionary device that creates daydreams to a pair of middle-aged twins. At the end. The saleswoman becomes a bat. No joke.
I think there’s a lot to interpret from Russ’s story. Themes of illusion and escapism are right there on the cusp of this venture. That said, I wasn’t blown away by it. It’s competent, and I think I’m getting what she’s saying, but the prose is so darn opaque that I can’t see truly what she was getting at. Is it a ‘me’ issue? Probably. But that’s doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Still, not a bad story.
”The Bear with the Knot on His Tail” by Stephen Tall - 2/5
You may see the score and wince. The story wasn’t written poorly, mind you. It was just too sappy and trite. The same kind of story that you’ve seen a hundred times: an alien world about to be destroyed—and humans can’t save them—but they can save their progeny!
The prose was serviceable. The character work wasn’t bad, even if each character felt so . . . one-dimensional, sappy, juvenile, and cheesy. For me, the lack of creativity throughout the main plot wasn’t enough to make it a worthwhile story, let alone “The World’s Best SF”. Add-on the fact that the writing had too many unnecessary asides and meaningless padding, and you get a story that annoys instead of entertains or invokes rumination.
”The Sharks of Pentreath” by Michael G Coney - 5/5
Whereas the last story lacked any depth, this one was teeming with it. A world where people are placed into tubes and frozen for periods at a time to curb overpopulation. A world where tourism is usually done through remote-controlled robot analogs. A world where, like modern beachside towns, the people work to keep the tourists happy while they live their lives swamped in nostalgia.
This one was great—my favorite of the collection so far—and it solidifies my appreciation of Coney as a writer. I especially loved the relationship between the main lead and his wife. The lesson of love and marriage really makes this story special to me. I’m a sucker for romance in my SF.
”A Little Knowledge” by Poul Anderson - 2/5
This one was whatev’. Another story that didn’t really feel like it had a lot going on. A bunch of dudes are trying to make a spaceship armada for less technologically advanced race, and getting paid big for it. The whole time, a seemingly submissive alien captive snivels and cries—and then there’s an obvious twist if you ask me.
Not terrible, not great. Not even mediocre. Very ambivalent about this one, especially for the first story I’ve read from Poul Anderson.
”Real-Time World” by Christopher Priest - 5/5
Mind-bending New Wave SF at its best. An experiment where the controller is the only one who knows it’s an experiment . . . or does he?
This is what makes science fiction so interesting, fun, and so damned readable.
”All Pieces of a River Shore” by R. A. Lafferty - 4/5
A fun, albeit partly inane, story by the one and only R. A. Lafferty! No one has the same style or flavor as him. Here’s a man who isn’t afraid to write an entire run-on sentence-paragraph containing things that the main character collects!
Story follows a Native American man who loves collecting things. The man becomes obsessed with an Americana novelty of a long moving painting that doesn’t seem to be a painting.
Full of random thoughts, asides, and flavor, this story is like eating a fruity cereal with strawberry milk—saccharine sweet, odd-tasting, but something you just can’t hate if you have the tastebuds for it.
”With Friends Like These” by Alan Dean Foster - 3/5
Aliens go release exiled humanity to defeat a greater evil posed against the galaxy. Kinda fun, even if the prose feels a bit juvenile.
”Aunt Jennie’s Tonic” by Leonard Tushnet - 5/5
This was fun! A great, unreliable narrator discovering secret miracle-drugs all with a vibrant Yiddish flair.
”Timestorm” by Eddy C Bertin - 3.5/5
Not bad, but I felt like the whole story was a bit long for the eventual—and very obvious—reveal. Could have been something more, but instead it was a pulpy, time-travel story with a trite ending.
”Transit of Earth” by Arthur C Clarke - 5/5
A melancholic short story about an abandoned man watching the Earth transit across the Sun. The transit only happens once every hundred years and the man catalogs his last hours of oxygen watching the Earth pass by.
Potent while never being melodramatic, this story is another example of why Clarke is considered one of the Three Grandfathers of science fiction, and in my humble opinion, the best.
”Gehenna” by Barry N. Malzberg - 5/5
A very sad story of four interconnected people all living their lives. I don’t know if this is inherently science fiction—and if so, it’s very soft SF—but it is effective, efficient, and well-executed. Easy among the best of this collection.
”One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty” by Harlan Ellison - 5/5
I think this is the first Ellison story I’ve ever actually liked! A cool recursive time-travel piece about a man who visits his bullied self in the past. Without the usual . . . “Ellisonisms” I usually find in his work, this work actually made me appreciate him!
”Occam’s Scalpel” by Theodore Sturgeon - 5/5
A man, down on his luck despite everything going for him, realizes the mob boss he’s been working for . . . might be an alien. Maybe?
I liked how this one might or might not be SF, all depending how you interpret it!
September 26, 2022
Some very good stories, some okay ones and some I couldn't even finish. Most of these year anthologies are like this, so this is par for the course.
I really liked Christopher Priest's "Real-Time World" and Arthur C. Clarke's "Transit of Earth". I thought Alan Dean Foster's "With Friends Like These...", Barry Malzberg's "Gehenna" and Harlan Ellison's "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" were good stories. Malzberg's wasn't his best but it was pure Malzberg, so fun to read. I thought Poul Anderson's "A Little Knowledge" was cute.
Of the others, mostly they were meh, ugh, or I couldn't finish them.
I really liked Christopher Priest's "Real-Time World" and Arthur C. Clarke's "Transit of Earth". I thought Alan Dean Foster's "With Friends Like These...", Barry Malzberg's "Gehenna" and Harlan Ellison's "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" were good stories. Malzberg's wasn't his best but it was pure Malzberg, so fun to read. I thought Poul Anderson's "A Little Knowledge" was cute.
Of the others, mostly they were meh, ugh, or I couldn't finish them.
January 23, 2020
3.5/5 (collated rating: Good)
The 1972 Annual World’s Best SF, ed. Donald A. Wollheim (1972) doesn’t feel like a “best of” collection. The majority of the contents are unspectacular space operas and hard SF in the Analog vein. Amongst the chaff, a few more inventive visions shined through—in particular, Joanna Russ’ mysteriously gauzy and stylized experiment replete with twins and dream machines; Michael G. Coney’s evocative overpopulation story about tourist robots; Christopher Priest’s “factual” recounting of human experimental subjects that isn’t factual at all; and Barry Malzberg’s brief almost flash piece about differing perspectives all tied together by the New York metro.
On the whole, I give it a solid recommendation [...].
For the full story by story review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
The 1972 Annual World’s Best SF, ed. Donald A. Wollheim (1972) doesn’t feel like a “best of” collection. The majority of the contents are unspectacular space operas and hard SF in the Analog vein. Amongst the chaff, a few more inventive visions shined through—in particular, Joanna Russ’ mysteriously gauzy and stylized experiment replete with twins and dream machines; Michael G. Coney’s evocative overpopulation story about tourist robots; Christopher Priest’s “factual” recounting of human experimental subjects that isn’t factual at all; and Barry Malzberg’s brief almost flash piece about differing perspectives all tied together by the New York metro.
On the whole, I give it a solid recommendation [...].
For the full story by story review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
January 8, 2011
We moved last summer across the country, selling our home after 40 years in Memphis. Getting rid of the stuff we'd accrued started with our library. Goodwill in Memphis received hundreds and hundreds of books from our library, including an awful lot of SF. The SF we kept, other than a dozen or so seminal works, is all short story collections. The "____Annual World's Best SF" series is part of that. I kept the 1972, '73, '74 & '76 editions for our new library.
Donald Wollheim was editor of these 4 books and I applaud his prefaces and intros. I've reread these books in the last few months and have been reminded once more how prescient some of those writers were back there almost 40 years ago. I'd be surprised if any of these are still available today, but if you do run across any of this series, you'd be well advised to give it a read. You won't be disappointed,
Donald Wollheim was editor of these 4 books and I applaud his prefaces and intros. I've reread these books in the last few months and have been reminded once more how prescient some of those writers were back there almost 40 years ago. I'd be surprised if any of these are still available today, but if you do run across any of this series, you'd be well advised to give it a read. You won't be disappointed,
December 27, 2020
I appreciate Wollheim's taste, and the fact that he doesn't feel the need to write a big salutary intro. for each story but rather a pointed paragraph.
"The Fourth Profession" Larry Niven ... long, but interesting, prob. the only thing from Niven that I'll like. I particular like the exploration of the 'knowledge pill' that the woman took.
"Gleepsite" Joanna Russ ... even in small doses I just don't get Russ. Sorry.
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" Stephen Tall ... poignant, but flawed ending "We complement each other like salt and vinegar." (Says one man of the one he knows will always have his back on a tough mission.)
"The Sharks of Pentreath" Michael G. Coney... not sure of the science (social or physical) but the poignancy of the main story is cute.
"A Little Knowledge" Poul Anderson ... the cost of hubris, and of not actually getting to know the 'natives' respectfully
"Real-Time World" Christopher Priest ... wheels within wheels? hmm.... "In the developed countries, pollution was the main problem, with interracial conflict a close second."
"All Pieces of a River Shore" R.A. Lafferty ... too long for the punchline, but still a fun read; gotta love reading the bit about the professor in Rolla, Missouri, which is where we're living now & I'm reading this book from the university library ;)
"With Friends Like These..." Alan Dean Foster ... one of the first appearances of one of this popular and prolific author's most famous stories
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" Leonard Tushnet ... too long, and protag too stupid to deserve the more 'realistic' happy ending
"Timestorm" Eddy C. Bertin ... I believe this is the only "world" story promised by the title; it's from Belgium; interesting at first but ends with a question TT has asked many times before
"Transit of Earth" Arthur C. Clarke ... no bad guys, just a brave astronaut and hard science
"Gehenna" K.M. O'Donnell ... yup, we're all doomed, no matter what version of reality we're in
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" Harlan Ellison... reads like a memoir, as if the cocky bantam has decided to explain why he often acted like a jerk.
"Occam's Scalpel" Theodore Sturgeon ... Well, maybe. Or maybe there's a whole 'nother thing going on.
I realize from this particular sampler that I want to consider reading more Lafferty & Priest. I also will read more of Wollheim's collections, as he didn't have any real clunkers here, or anything besides the Russ that was overly experimental or dark or shocking.
I only recommend it omnivorous and insatiable fans of the form, though.
"The Fourth Profession" Larry Niven ... long, but interesting, prob. the only thing from Niven that I'll like. I particular like the exploration of the 'knowledge pill' that the woman took.
"Gleepsite" Joanna Russ ... even in small doses I just don't get Russ. Sorry.
"The Bear with the Knot on His Tail" Stephen Tall ... poignant, but flawed ending "We complement each other like salt and vinegar." (Says one man of the one he knows will always have his back on a tough mission.)
"The Sharks of Pentreath" Michael G. Coney... not sure of the science (social or physical) but the poignancy of the main story is cute.
"A Little Knowledge" Poul Anderson ... the cost of hubris, and of not actually getting to know the 'natives' respectfully
"Real-Time World" Christopher Priest ... wheels within wheels? hmm.... "In the developed countries, pollution was the main problem, with interracial conflict a close second."
"All Pieces of a River Shore" R.A. Lafferty ... too long for the punchline, but still a fun read; gotta love reading the bit about the professor in Rolla, Missouri, which is where we're living now & I'm reading this book from the university library ;)
"With Friends Like These..." Alan Dean Foster ... one of the first appearances of one of this popular and prolific author's most famous stories
"Aunt Jennie's Tonic" Leonard Tushnet ... too long, and protag too stupid to deserve the more 'realistic' happy ending
"Timestorm" Eddy C. Bertin ... I believe this is the only "world" story promised by the title; it's from Belgium; interesting at first but ends with a question TT has asked many times before
"Transit of Earth" Arthur C. Clarke ... no bad guys, just a brave astronaut and hard science
"Gehenna" K.M. O'Donnell ... yup, we're all doomed, no matter what version of reality we're in
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" Harlan Ellison... reads like a memoir, as if the cocky bantam has decided to explain why he often acted like a jerk.
"Occam's Scalpel" Theodore Sturgeon ... Well, maybe. Or maybe there's a whole 'nother thing going on.
I realize from this particular sampler that I want to consider reading more Lafferty & Priest. I also will read more of Wollheim's collections, as he didn't have any real clunkers here, or anything besides the Russ that was overly experimental or dark or shocking.
I only recommend it omnivorous and insatiable fans of the form, though.
October 3, 2025
Plot twists, unique premises, open-ended and ambiguous endings galore! After reading the 1972 anthology I realize I have a couple of possibly unpopular opinions, 1) open-ended/ambiguous endings are awesome and 2) scifi short stories are just as essential, if not more essential than, as scifi novels. My faves:
The Fourth Profession (Larry Niven): a bartender encounters an alien who has every neurochemically altering drug possible
Gleepsite (Joanna Russ): at best, cryptically dreamlike, and at worst, incoherent and a tough read, postapocalypse without men
The Sharks of Pentreath (Michael G. Coney): humans take 'shifts' between wakefulness and hibernation to manage overpopulation, and also a love story; a derivative of "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World" by Philip Jose Farmer
A Little Knowledge (Poul Anderson): arrogant spacemen get a taste of their own medicine
Real-Time World (Christopher Priest): proto-theory on 'fake news', complete with graph
All Pieces of a River Shore (R.A. Lafferty): a man collects the pieces of a miles long artwork that seems infinitely detailed
With Friends Like These... (Alan Dean Foster): aliens should be careful of having humans for allies, even when they seem bucolic and offer chocolate ice cream
Aunt Jennie's Tonic (Leonard Tushnet): an old Jewish lady apparently has the elixir of life
Timestorm (Eddy C. Bertin): "The antispace/antitime fragment existed... A cyclone of partly disintegrated matter and imploding energy, at war with all the fundamental laws of nature..."
One Life, Furnished in Poverty (Harlan Ellison): a derivative of Twilight Zone's "Walking Distance"
One of the best collections in this series! So many hidden and unconventional gems...
The Fourth Profession (Larry Niven): a bartender encounters an alien who has every neurochemically altering drug possible
Gleepsite (Joanna Russ): at best, cryptically dreamlike, and at worst, incoherent and a tough read, postapocalypse without men
The Sharks of Pentreath (Michael G. Coney): humans take 'shifts' between wakefulness and hibernation to manage overpopulation, and also a love story; a derivative of "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World" by Philip Jose Farmer
A Little Knowledge (Poul Anderson): arrogant spacemen get a taste of their own medicine
Real-Time World (Christopher Priest): proto-theory on 'fake news', complete with graph
All Pieces of a River Shore (R.A. Lafferty): a man collects the pieces of a miles long artwork that seems infinitely detailed
With Friends Like These... (Alan Dean Foster): aliens should be careful of having humans for allies, even when they seem bucolic and offer chocolate ice cream
Aunt Jennie's Tonic (Leonard Tushnet): an old Jewish lady apparently has the elixir of life
Timestorm (Eddy C. Bertin): "The antispace/antitime fragment existed... A cyclone of partly disintegrated matter and imploding energy, at war with all the fundamental laws of nature..."
One Life, Furnished in Poverty (Harlan Ellison): a derivative of Twilight Zone's "Walking Distance"
One of the best collections in this series! So many hidden and unconventional gems...
August 9, 2025
Absolutely amazing first collection to start off this series. Of the twelve stories I would say only 1-2 were just ok ( none were “bad”); but some did lack the punch and polish of the other 10. Some really big names here and the little intros by Wollheim help to set the mood. I was on a quest to get all the hardback editions of this series and I am now done collecting and starting reading and this first one was a magnificent start.
December 6, 2024
Found this in a little free library. Definitely a mixed bag, with some excellent stories and some that left absolutely no impact on me. But they were all short, so even the ones I didn't enjoy didn't feel like I wasted anything. My favorite was "The Sharks of Pentreath," which I haven't seen many other folks mention.
November 24, 2018
1972 seems to have been a very good year for science fiction. The stories are a good mix, with several well known authors, and several lesser known, but overall good quality throughout.
September 3, 2020
Most stories were not to my liking. A couple were OK.
June 30, 2021
The most interesting thing about this anthology is that it shows how horribly 50 years old SF has aged...
January 1, 2025
Some hit or miss in this collection but the hits were really strong. Harlan Ellison's story One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty was the highlight.
October 4, 2014
Also published as: Wollheim's world's best SF : series one /
Here is a time capsule of what was considered to be the best SF short stories of 40 years ago. I found it to be a mixed bag - with enjoyable pieces by sf legends Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke and Theodore Sturgeon; interesting stories by Stephen Tall and R.A. Lafferty; and an incomprehensible piece by Joanna Russ.
SF SS - The fourth profession / Larry Niven -- Gleepsite / Joanna Russ -- The bear with the knot on his tail / Stephen Tall -- The sharks of Pentreath / Michael G. Coney -- A little knowledge / Poul Anderson -- Real-time world / Christopher Priest -- All pieces of a river shore / R. A. Lafferty -- With friends like these / Alan Dean Foster -- Aunt Jennie's tonic / Leonard Tushnet -- Timestorm / Eddy C. Bertin -- Transit of earth / Arthur C. Clarke -- Gehenna / Barry Malzberg -- One life, furnished in early poverty / Harlan Ellison -- Occam's scalpel / Theodore Sturgeon.
Here is a time capsule of what was considered to be the best SF short stories of 40 years ago. I found it to be a mixed bag - with enjoyable pieces by sf legends Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke and Theodore Sturgeon; interesting stories by Stephen Tall and R.A. Lafferty; and an incomprehensible piece by Joanna Russ.
SF SS - The fourth profession / Larry Niven -- Gleepsite / Joanna Russ -- The bear with the knot on his tail / Stephen Tall -- The sharks of Pentreath / Michael G. Coney -- A little knowledge / Poul Anderson -- Real-time world / Christopher Priest -- All pieces of a river shore / R. A. Lafferty -- With friends like these / Alan Dean Foster -- Aunt Jennie's tonic / Leonard Tushnet -- Timestorm / Eddy C. Bertin -- Transit of earth / Arthur C. Clarke -- Gehenna / Barry Malzberg -- One life, furnished in early poverty / Harlan Ellison -- Occam's scalpel / Theodore Sturgeon.
January 31, 2016
Really enjoyable anthology of 40+ year old sci-fi, with entries by a number of still well-known authors such as Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Alan Dean Foster, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, and Theodore Sturgeon. There are 14 stories in here, and I enjoyed every one of them. Donald Wollheim really knew what he was doing when it came to picking out quality science fiction. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the genre - don't let the age of the book steer you away.
June 17, 2012
I read this during a break from college, having obtained it from the Science Fiction Book Club, with whom I'd long maintained a membership, albeit intermittantly. Like all volumes in this series, the authors are established ones, the stories generally good. Here, my favorite was the one by Ellison.
July 10, 2007
I'm still reading it, so I don't have a comprehensive review. Thus far I've encountered essentially equal parts 'great story', 'pretty good', and 'egh'. I suppose I'll have to come back to this review once I'm finished, if that's allowed.
November 24, 2010
"You're an optimistic bleeder, aren't you?"
"Realistic, dear boy. It's being right all the time that keeps me cheerful."
"Realistic, dear boy. It's being right all the time that keeps me cheerful."
February 21, 2015
The last story, by Theodore Sturgeon, was really excellent, and the Harlan Ellison story was pretty great too!
Read
April 25, 2017Number ten in my quest to review all nineteen Annual World’s Best SF anthologies!
The Fourth Profession, Larry Niven
Well what do you know. I’ve read a few things by Larry Niven and straight-up disliked most of them, but this one was very fun. A few mysterious aliens have landed on Earth, and a bartender happens to get one of them way too drunk and is given pills that essentially give him superpowers. It’s well-paced and funny, with likable characters and surprisingly high stakes. The ending didn’t quite live up to the rest of the story, but I still liked this a lot.
Gleepsite, Joanna Russ
The editor’s intro to this one recommended reading it twice or even three times, and I’m glad it did, because it’s pretty much impenetrable on the first read – but once I figured out what was going on, it was really cool and fairly chilling. It packs a huge amount of worldbuilding and characterization into about five pages. I’d hate to spoil it so I’ll just say, it opens on a woman with bat wings pedaling dream machines in a polluted dystopian wasteland where most of the men on Earth have died, and goes all sorts of even weirder places from there.
The Bear with the Knot on His Tail, Stephen Tall
Eh. Maybe it’s just that this story is closing in on 50 years old, but it was really just a bog-standard ‘humans discover the first alien life and oh no they’re in trouble’ story. I really thought there was going to be an interesting twist at the end – I even thought I could see how they were setting it up – but nope.
The Sharks of Pentreath, Michael G. Coney
In the near-ish future, overpopulation has resulted in a system where at any given time, two-thirds of the population is kept in Matrix-style tanks and can interact with the outside world via tiny robots, and people swap out on regular schedules. The story’s about an innkeeper at a popular tourist destination who is currently in non-Matrix-mode and who is kind of a dick. I always like SF where the speculative part is just a backdrop to a character-based story, but there was something about the whole concept that just didn’t feel quite right to me - and honestly, the main character was just too much of an asshole for his ‘I learned a lesson’ moment to ring true.
A Little Knowledge, Poul Anderson
Three human criminals stranded on a planet of extremely pacifistic aliens kidnap an alien space pilot so that they can sell forbidden technology to a warrior race. I loved everything about the premise, the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot resolution, etc – but the pacing was bizarrely bad, particularly when compared to how strong everything else was. Huge exposition dumps, lengthy scenes that were interesting but had little plot importance followed by rushing through much more significant events, more exposition, etc. Still worth reading, but man, somebody should have taken a scalpel to this thing.
Real-Time World, Christopher Priest
A group of research scientists in an enclosed space station are secretly being manipulated by the people who sent them there, via carefully controlled feeds of news and information personalized for each of them. I loved this at the beginning, but then a bunch of additional SF concepts and twisty plot elements were added in, and then more, and then more. Which could have been cool, but in practice it just wound up making kind of an incoherent hash of what could have been two or even three good stories.
All Pieces of a River Shore, R. A. Lafferty
Perfect from start to finish… almost entirely. An eccentric Native American collector of Old West and Native American artifacts has run across a few impossibly detailed, several-foot-long paintings of the banks of the Mississippi River. He has a theory that there are even more of them out there, and that they might actually depict the entire span of the river when put together. I loved everything about this – but the final cymbal-crash line that explains the mystery pretty much requires you to have had personal experience with 1970s information storage technology. I had to google the story to figure out what the hell was going on, and once I did, it was like “Oh! I see, awesome!”
With Friends Like These . . . , Alan Dean Foster
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was a galactic war in which the humans, fighting on the side of the good guys, destroyed the enemy so thoroughly and terrifyingly that the rest of the galaxy forced them all back to Earth and barricaded them in there. But now the bad guys are back, so the other good guys plan to free these mythical monstrous warriors. I wasn’t mad at this, but I personally dislike the trope of ‘humans are the most exceptional race in the galaxy.’ Plus, in general I feel like 70s SF throws a lot of psychic abilities shit around when there’s no real need or justification for it, so that aspect was also annoying.
Aunt Jennie's Tonic, Leonard Tushnet
A research chemist interviews his old-country hedge-witch-style aunt in order to discover the secrets of her medicines. There was a lot I liked about this, but the main character was just too much of an idiot for me to be fully immersed in it. “I’m purposefully not writing down the parts of these processes that I think are bullshit, even though there’s no real reason not to” plus “I didn’t make any backup copies of my notes on this incredibly valuable medicine recipe” equals how the hell did you ever manage to become a research chemist in the first place.
Timestorm, Eddy C. Bertin
Did you know that changing the past in a way that you’d think would be beneficial might actually cause something terrible to happen? A guy gets transported to a future place where aliens are doing things to Earth’s past that seem bad, he stops them, oh no they were actually helping. Like the third story, this was either unoriginal at the time or feels unoriginal now that we’ve seen it a million times. And the collection of things that the aliens were manipulating was weirdly arbitrary – ensuring the birth of Hitler and the birth of… the Marquis de Sade? Really? And of course, since this was written in 1971, it opens on the assassination of JFK.
Transit of Earth, Arthur C. Clarke
Ok, well this almost made me cry. A Mars exploration mission is doomed and they’re going to run out of food/oxygen, so everyone but one man has taken suicide pills early in order to give the narrator enough time to record a rare astrological phenomenon before he dies. The story is written as a combination of his notes of the transit of Earth plus his personal reflections on life and death. It’s great. (There is also an almost completely throw-away suggestion that maybe just maybe there are also aliens on Mars, which adds absolutely nothing to the plot and probably should have been edited out.)
Gehenna, K. M. O'Donnell (aka Barry N. Malzberg)
This was gorgeous. It’s three vignettes about characters with intersecting lives – all of them go to the same party, and meeting there changes their lives in various ways, but each story also takes place in a just slightly different world. It uses parallel universes as a metaphor for how everyone’s experience of the world and their conception of themselves is totally different from what other people see. The fact that the stories are taking place in parallel universes is established at the beginning of each vignette by a device that I thought was really cool – each character takes the subway down from Times Square to get to the party, and the stations they pass are all numbered differently. (I looked up another review of this and the reviewer described it as ‘funny’ and ‘an amusing puzzle,’ which is hilarious to me – I thought “how could we have read it so differently” and then realized that that’s exactly what the story is about…)
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty, Harlan Ellison
Earlier in this project I read Jeffty is Five, also by Harlan Ellison, and this is so similar that I would have known immediately that it was the same author even if I wasn’t already aware. You can never go back to your lovingly-described childhood which specifically involves a lot of comic books and radio dramas and delicious no-longer-produced candy, but you desperately want to because your adult life is boring, but if you try to, it will have terrible consequences, because childhood is delicate and precious. This story is good on a technical level but that theme just doesn’t do anything for me at all, so I didn’t love it.
Occam's Scalpel, Theodore Sturgeon
The mysterious head of a shadowy criminal organization is about to die, and his personal doctor is worried about the right-hand man who is primed to replace him, so he goes to his brother for help… but, ooo, what kind of help? There are a couple things in this story that are awfully convenient, and it does rely on a super-genius being tricked in a way that an actual super-genius would almost certainly see through, but I liked the concept enough to overlook those things.
Favorites: Gleepsite, All Pieces of a River Shore, Transit of Earth, Gehenna
The Fourth Profession, Larry Niven
Well what do you know. I’ve read a few things by Larry Niven and straight-up disliked most of them, but this one was very fun. A few mysterious aliens have landed on Earth, and a bartender happens to get one of them way too drunk and is given pills that essentially give him superpowers. It’s well-paced and funny, with likable characters and surprisingly high stakes. The ending didn’t quite live up to the rest of the story, but I still liked this a lot.
Gleepsite, Joanna Russ
The editor’s intro to this one recommended reading it twice or even three times, and I’m glad it did, because it’s pretty much impenetrable on the first read – but once I figured out what was going on, it was really cool and fairly chilling. It packs a huge amount of worldbuilding and characterization into about five pages. I’d hate to spoil it so I’ll just say, it opens on a woman with bat wings pedaling dream machines in a polluted dystopian wasteland where most of the men on Earth have died, and goes all sorts of even weirder places from there.
The Bear with the Knot on His Tail, Stephen Tall
Eh. Maybe it’s just that this story is closing in on 50 years old, but it was really just a bog-standard ‘humans discover the first alien life and oh no they’re in trouble’ story. I really thought there was going to be an interesting twist at the end – I even thought I could see how they were setting it up – but nope.
The Sharks of Pentreath, Michael G. Coney
In the near-ish future, overpopulation has resulted in a system where at any given time, two-thirds of the population is kept in Matrix-style tanks and can interact with the outside world via tiny robots, and people swap out on regular schedules. The story’s about an innkeeper at a popular tourist destination who is currently in non-Matrix-mode and who is kind of a dick. I always like SF where the speculative part is just a backdrop to a character-based story, but there was something about the whole concept that just didn’t feel quite right to me - and honestly, the main character was just too much of an asshole for his ‘I learned a lesson’ moment to ring true.
A Little Knowledge, Poul Anderson
Three human criminals stranded on a planet of extremely pacifistic aliens kidnap an alien space pilot so that they can sell forbidden technology to a warrior race. I loved everything about the premise, the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot resolution, etc – but the pacing was bizarrely bad, particularly when compared to how strong everything else was. Huge exposition dumps, lengthy scenes that were interesting but had little plot importance followed by rushing through much more significant events, more exposition, etc. Still worth reading, but man, somebody should have taken a scalpel to this thing.
Real-Time World, Christopher Priest
A group of research scientists in an enclosed space station are secretly being manipulated by the people who sent them there, via carefully controlled feeds of news and information personalized for each of them. I loved this at the beginning, but then a bunch of additional SF concepts and twisty plot elements were added in, and then more, and then more. Which could have been cool, but in practice it just wound up making kind of an incoherent hash of what could have been two or even three good stories.
All Pieces of a River Shore, R. A. Lafferty
Perfect from start to finish… almost entirely. An eccentric Native American collector of Old West and Native American artifacts has run across a few impossibly detailed, several-foot-long paintings of the banks of the Mississippi River. He has a theory that there are even more of them out there, and that they might actually depict the entire span of the river when put together. I loved everything about this – but the final cymbal-crash line that explains the mystery pretty much requires you to have had personal experience with 1970s information storage technology. I had to google the story to figure out what the hell was going on, and once I did, it was like “Oh! I see, awesome!”
With Friends Like These . . . , Alan Dean Foster
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was a galactic war in which the humans, fighting on the side of the good guys, destroyed the enemy so thoroughly and terrifyingly that the rest of the galaxy forced them all back to Earth and barricaded them in there. But now the bad guys are back, so the other good guys plan to free these mythical monstrous warriors. I wasn’t mad at this, but I personally dislike the trope of ‘humans are the most exceptional race in the galaxy.’ Plus, in general I feel like 70s SF throws a lot of psychic abilities shit around when there’s no real need or justification for it, so that aspect was also annoying.
Aunt Jennie's Tonic, Leonard Tushnet
A research chemist interviews his old-country hedge-witch-style aunt in order to discover the secrets of her medicines. There was a lot I liked about this, but the main character was just too much of an idiot for me to be fully immersed in it. “I’m purposefully not writing down the parts of these processes that I think are bullshit, even though there’s no real reason not to” plus “I didn’t make any backup copies of my notes on this incredibly valuable medicine recipe” equals how the hell did you ever manage to become a research chemist in the first place.
Timestorm, Eddy C. Bertin
Did you know that changing the past in a way that you’d think would be beneficial might actually cause something terrible to happen? A guy gets transported to a future place where aliens are doing things to Earth’s past that seem bad, he stops them, oh no they were actually helping. Like the third story, this was either unoriginal at the time or feels unoriginal now that we’ve seen it a million times. And the collection of things that the aliens were manipulating was weirdly arbitrary – ensuring the birth of Hitler and the birth of… the Marquis de Sade? Really? And of course, since this was written in 1971, it opens on the assassination of JFK.
Transit of Earth, Arthur C. Clarke
Ok, well this almost made me cry. A Mars exploration mission is doomed and they’re going to run out of food/oxygen, so everyone but one man has taken suicide pills early in order to give the narrator enough time to record a rare astrological phenomenon before he dies. The story is written as a combination of his notes of the transit of Earth plus his personal reflections on life and death. It’s great. (There is also an almost completely throw-away suggestion that maybe just maybe there are also aliens on Mars, which adds absolutely nothing to the plot and probably should have been edited out.)
Gehenna, K. M. O'Donnell (aka Barry N. Malzberg)
This was gorgeous. It’s three vignettes about characters with intersecting lives – all of them go to the same party, and meeting there changes their lives in various ways, but each story also takes place in a just slightly different world. It uses parallel universes as a metaphor for how everyone’s experience of the world and their conception of themselves is totally different from what other people see. The fact that the stories are taking place in parallel universes is established at the beginning of each vignette by a device that I thought was really cool – each character takes the subway down from Times Square to get to the party, and the stations they pass are all numbered differently. (I looked up another review of this and the reviewer described it as ‘funny’ and ‘an amusing puzzle,’ which is hilarious to me – I thought “how could we have read it so differently” and then realized that that’s exactly what the story is about…)
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty, Harlan Ellison
Earlier in this project I read Jeffty is Five, also by Harlan Ellison, and this is so similar that I would have known immediately that it was the same author even if I wasn’t already aware. You can never go back to your lovingly-described childhood which specifically involves a lot of comic books and radio dramas and delicious no-longer-produced candy, but you desperately want to because your adult life is boring, but if you try to, it will have terrible consequences, because childhood is delicate and precious. This story is good on a technical level but that theme just doesn’t do anything for me at all, so I didn’t love it.
Occam's Scalpel, Theodore Sturgeon
The mysterious head of a shadowy criminal organization is about to die, and his personal doctor is worried about the right-hand man who is primed to replace him, so he goes to his brother for help… but, ooo, what kind of help? There are a couple things in this story that are awfully convenient, and it does rely on a super-genius being tricked in a way that an actual super-genius would almost certainly see through, but I liked the concept enough to overlook those things.
Favorites: Gleepsite, All Pieces of a River Shore, Transit of Earth, Gehenna
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