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Annual World's Best SF #19
The 1990 Annual World's Best SF
Features award-winning stories by such authors as Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg, Lisa Tuttle, Orson Scott Card, and J.G. Ballard
341 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Donald A. Wollheim
297 books36 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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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 25, 2025
The closing volume in the long-standing DAW Wollheim Annual World's Best:
Alphas • (1989) • novelette by Gregory Benford
-a middling tale of a stranded astronaut sucked through a disastrous tunnel-hole through the center of Venus. Figures it's an alien civilization breaking universal code and dissecting the planet for their own dubious use. With language and style on the darker side of 'dull', a fascinating concept drawn thin.
The Magic Bullet • (1989) • novelette by Brian Stableford
-murder mystery techno-thriller where 'the body' is a scientist experimenting on immortality with rats. For humans however, the experiment proves more dangerous than expected.
North of the Abyss • (1989) • novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
-Egyptian death-lore combines mythology and a shitty husband on holiday. Solid average-level Aldiss, but feels as though the waters run a bit dry on this here River Styx.
Chiprunner • (1989) • short story by Robert Silverberg (variant of Chip Runner)
-stellar short story from the ever-prolific Silverberg. A therapist takes on a young patient who believes he's able to shrink to sub-atomic levels and fully live inside the lower depths of a microchip. And to get there, he goes on a hunger strike to get closer to a life he feels he's destined to lead. A strange and oddly-touching tale.
Abe Lincoln in McDonald's • (1989) • short story by James Morrow
-I was dubious of reading Morrow after his tepid novel, 'This Is The Way The World Ends', but this odd slipstreamer has President Lincoln acquiring a time machine and visiting the future to see if his Emancipation Proclamation was worth it. Surreal ending makes it one of the memorable tales in the annual.
Death Ship • (1989) • short story by Barrington J. Bayley
-I'm not sure there is another SF writer who recklessly toys with time travel like Bayley. Unsound logic uncapped, Bayley has fun with this tale of two engineers shortening the lengths of time travel in an experimental hyper drive death-ship. Toss in humorous one-dimensional characters and sadly the tale loses some speed as a result, however, conceptually it's a psychlone headf**k that shows Barrington climaxes his SF tales with outright fantastical horror.
In Translation • (1989) • short story by Lisa Tuttle
-perhaps the best tale in the collection. Aliens land on Earth, but not in the manner one may expect. The visitors are merely blurs of reality - distortions that appears vague and insubstantial as ghosts yet never linger. Nobody has a clear clue at what they really want from Earth. However, humans volunteer on a project to communicate with them, and if accepted, are designated to either be a 'translator' or a 'whore.' The rest examines several broken souls who try to find solace and meaning in their otherworldly visitors instead of their own kind. Tuttle's short stories are always on the high shelf, whether horror or SF or somewhere in between.
A Sleep and a Forgetting • (1989) • short story by Robert Silverberg
-a communicator is developed between humans and ghosts of the past. Tepid and long-winded. Horrible dialogue. Silverberg could be the most polarizing short story writer, and his two stories in this collection prove it quite clearly.
Not Without Honor • (1989) • novelette by Judith Moffett - Mickey Mouse Club plays a big role in this gassy tale about a Mars colony visited by rat-fink aliens wearing Mickey Mouse ears. A saccharine tale that is so sweetly earnest at portraying 'being good' that by the end, all I really wanted to do was go on a mugging spree. SF for the AARP monthly circa 1989.
Dogwalker • (1989) • novelette by Orson Scott Card
-salty little tale about a boy with a crystal computer brain and a high-IQ who is hired by a middleman to get a Federal Officers passwords in order to hijack VISAs for his client's new identities. However, the dialogue is juvenile (not in a fun way), complete with enough forced quips and insults to make you eat glass. However the ending was sweetly sublime.
Surrender • (1989) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
-Shepherd is always solid. And this tale is solid, if not, somewhat 'rushed', reaching too high for an epiphany well out of reach (b/c of word count, who knows). Experimental drugs were used on a hidden community of natives in the Guatemalan jungles. Of course, these devolving humans only come out at night, and suddenly the grade-B veneer of a vampire film drags the story to a rushed and rather-easy climax.
War Fever • (1989) • novelette by J. G. Ballard
-for one moment, I thought Ballard was going to fully realize a utopian tale about war and rebellion. By the end, the answer is clearly I WAS WRONG. Solid stuff.
Uneven Best-Of as you may be able to tell, but these Wollheims are crucial in seeing the vast bends and sways of the genre within three decades of speculative short fiction (1972-1990). And they're all affordable on the online market too.
Alphas • (1989) • novelette by Gregory Benford
-a middling tale of a stranded astronaut sucked through a disastrous tunnel-hole through the center of Venus. Figures it's an alien civilization breaking universal code and dissecting the planet for their own dubious use. With language and style on the darker side of 'dull', a fascinating concept drawn thin.
The Magic Bullet • (1989) • novelette by Brian Stableford
-murder mystery techno-thriller where 'the body' is a scientist experimenting on immortality with rats. For humans however, the experiment proves more dangerous than expected.
North of the Abyss • (1989) • novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
-Egyptian death-lore combines mythology and a shitty husband on holiday. Solid average-level Aldiss, but feels as though the waters run a bit dry on this here River Styx.
Chiprunner • (1989) • short story by Robert Silverberg (variant of Chip Runner)
-stellar short story from the ever-prolific Silverberg. A therapist takes on a young patient who believes he's able to shrink to sub-atomic levels and fully live inside the lower depths of a microchip. And to get there, he goes on a hunger strike to get closer to a life he feels he's destined to lead. A strange and oddly-touching tale.
Abe Lincoln in McDonald's • (1989) • short story by James Morrow
-I was dubious of reading Morrow after his tepid novel, 'This Is The Way The World Ends', but this odd slipstreamer has President Lincoln acquiring a time machine and visiting the future to see if his Emancipation Proclamation was worth it. Surreal ending makes it one of the memorable tales in the annual.
Death Ship • (1989) • short story by Barrington J. Bayley
-I'm not sure there is another SF writer who recklessly toys with time travel like Bayley. Unsound logic uncapped, Bayley has fun with this tale of two engineers shortening the lengths of time travel in an experimental hyper drive death-ship. Toss in humorous one-dimensional characters and sadly the tale loses some speed as a result, however, conceptually it's a psychlone headf**k that shows Barrington climaxes his SF tales with outright fantastical horror.
In Translation • (1989) • short story by Lisa Tuttle
-perhaps the best tale in the collection. Aliens land on Earth, but not in the manner one may expect. The visitors are merely blurs of reality - distortions that appears vague and insubstantial as ghosts yet never linger. Nobody has a clear clue at what they really want from Earth. However, humans volunteer on a project to communicate with them, and if accepted, are designated to either be a 'translator' or a 'whore.' The rest examines several broken souls who try to find solace and meaning in their otherworldly visitors instead of their own kind. Tuttle's short stories are always on the high shelf, whether horror or SF or somewhere in between.
A Sleep and a Forgetting • (1989) • short story by Robert Silverberg
-a communicator is developed between humans and ghosts of the past. Tepid and long-winded. Horrible dialogue. Silverberg could be the most polarizing short story writer, and his two stories in this collection prove it quite clearly.
Not Without Honor • (1989) • novelette by Judith Moffett - Mickey Mouse Club plays a big role in this gassy tale about a Mars colony visited by rat-fink aliens wearing Mickey Mouse ears. A saccharine tale that is so sweetly earnest at portraying 'being good' that by the end, all I really wanted to do was go on a mugging spree. SF for the AARP monthly circa 1989.
Dogwalker • (1989) • novelette by Orson Scott Card
-salty little tale about a boy with a crystal computer brain and a high-IQ who is hired by a middleman to get a Federal Officers passwords in order to hijack VISAs for his client's new identities. However, the dialogue is juvenile (not in a fun way), complete with enough forced quips and insults to make you eat glass. However the ending was sweetly sublime.
Surrender • (1989) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
-Shepherd is always solid. And this tale is solid, if not, somewhat 'rushed', reaching too high for an epiphany well out of reach (b/c of word count, who knows). Experimental drugs were used on a hidden community of natives in the Guatemalan jungles. Of course, these devolving humans only come out at night, and suddenly the grade-B veneer of a vampire film drags the story to a rushed and rather-easy climax.
War Fever • (1989) • novelette by J. G. Ballard
-for one moment, I thought Ballard was going to fully realize a utopian tale about war and rebellion. By the end, the answer is clearly I WAS WRONG. Solid stuff.
Uneven Best-Of as you may be able to tell, but these Wollheims are crucial in seeing the vast bends and sways of the genre within three decades of speculative short fiction (1972-1990). And they're all affordable on the online market too.
Read
March 9, 2017With this one, I’m officially halfway done! Nine Annual World’s Best Sfs down, nine to go.
"Alphas" (Gregory Benford)
Mysterious aliens have come to Venus and are doing some kind of massive secret construction project there. Great concept. Shame the actual story was a thirty page long physics word problem with a totally unengaging protagonist who spends most of the story just falling through a very long hole. This might actually be my least favorite story of the 90+ stories I’ve read from this series. Sorry Greg.
"The Magic Bullet" (Brian Stableford)
A genetics professor’s mice have been firebombed, and he’s been shot – so what did he find out that was worth killing him for? Turns out, the formula for female immortality. ONLY female immortality. The execution kept me from totally loving this – it was essentially two long monologues explaining the context for what happened and then what actually happened – but I still liked it a lot.
"North of the Abyss" (Brian W. Aldiss)
A man on vacation in Egypt visits an ancient temple looking for a small moment of transcendence in his incredibly crappy life. Hmm. There were things I loved about this one and things I pretty much hated. Beautifully written, if a little bit over-reliant on flowery metaphors, well-paced and tense, and the overall concept was really cool. But there was a whole chunk of the story where you’re led to believe the protagonist did something he didn’t do, in a way that felt incredibly cheap and manipulative to me. And I’m sick of reading about the inner lives of middle-aged men who fucked up their marriages and families by being incredibly self-involved and emotionally stunted, only to realize it too late. Like, I get it already.
"Chiprunner" (Robert Silverberg)
Loved it. A therapist specializing in eating disorders starts seeing a teenaged boy obsessed with computers who is starving himself because – well, it’s actually super unclear what’s really happening. Either he’s slipping into a meditative state, or he’s astrally projecting, or he’s delusional. But what he’s doing, or thinks he’s doing, is shrinking his consciousness down so small that he can send it down to the atomic level, and he thinks the only way he can reach the levels below that is to starve himself until he disappears. Aside from the hilariously small capacity of the microchips they talked about, something about this felt very modern to me.
"Abe Lincoln in McDonald's" (James Morrow)
With a name like that it’s going to be amazing or absolutely terrible. To be honest I was expecting terrible, and was pleasantly surprised. Lincoln takes a little trip into 2009 to check out what would happen if he decided to end the war with a truce and let slavery continue to exist in the south. And it’s horrifying. Not horrifying in the way where it shows you brutal torture and misery – it just shows a version of the modern world where it’s completely accepted that people can be property. Just super unsettling.
"Death Ship" (Barrington J. Bayley)
Earth is engaged in perpetual war, the main characters are engineers from one faction who’ve designed a ship that they hope to use to manipulate the future on behalf of their glorious cause, and long story short, there’s no such thing as free will. Meh. See above re: middle-aged men who fucked up their marriages and families by being incredibly self-involved and emotionally stunted only to realize it too late.
"In Translation" (Lisa Tuttle)
Aliens have come to Earth to settle down. They can’t really be seen clearly, only as a vague haze of impressions; their intentions are totally unclear; and they can’t be spoken to directly, only by channeling through human interpreters who don’t know what they’re saying when they translate. Our hero is obsessed with them, and does everything he can to try to know them. A cool metaphor for wanting what we can’t have, but something about it didn’t quite gel for me. Wait a sec – this protagonist was a YOUNG man who fucked up his marriage by being incredibly self-involved and emotionally stunted, only to NEVER realize it. Geez, is the editor of this anthology trying to tell us something?
"A Sleep and a Forgetting" (Robert Silverberg)
Someone accidentally invents a machine that makes it possible to communicate with random people in the past one at a time and for unpredictable intervals. Turns into a neat take on the temptation to play god, especially when there won’t be any personal consequences for you. I liked the other Silverberg story more (I was surprised to see two stories from the same author in here) but I wouldn’t kick this one out of bed.
"Not Without Honor" (Judith Moffett)
Meh. Aliens who’ve been watching old TV broadcasts from Earth come by dressed up as Mouseketeers looking for the original (long-dead) host of the program. The payoff for this is incredibly unsatisfying: they wanted to bring him back home in order to inspire the youth of their species to stop being wantonly destructive, because he had such a genuine and inspiring personality. It was just a little ridiculous, with a heavy dose of “kids today just don’t underSTAND, the modern world is just so INSINCERE!”
"Dogwalker" (Orson Scott Card)
Despite an irritating overuse of made-up future street slang, plus a hilariously innocent concept of what the future of computer security would look like, I liked this quite a bit. A man who was shot in the head as a kid was saved by being given a half-computerized brain, and is also stuck in his nine year old body; he’s now a street-level hacker who teams up with a former pimp to hack into a federal computer system. There were a lot of stories in this anthology that fizzled out near the end, but this one actually kinda got to me. It can be difficult to read a Card story objectively these days, but after all there’s a reason he got famous in the first place.
"Surrender" (Lucius Shepard)
This is the third Shepard story I’ve read as I’ve been doing this project, and he’s officially got his hooks in me. His writing is magical, while also being so incredibly depressing that you feel bad for getting anything other than despair out of it. The stories try to convince you that the world is an ugly violent place with nothing beautiful left in it, while the writing itself is so beautiful that it both subverts that message and also makes it stand out more starkly. I might be a little drunk. Anyways, this story is about a war journalist who stumbles onto an experimental facility full of mutated vampires in a South American jungle. Yes, really.
"War Fever" (J.G. Ballard)
A never-ending war in Beirut turns out to be an intentionally cultivated pocked of war in a world that has otherwise achieved total peace. A creepy concept, but the actual story felt naive at several points, and I didn’t think the ultimate payoff really worked.
Favorites: Chiprunner, Abe Lincoln in McDonald's, Surrender
"Alphas" (Gregory Benford)
Mysterious aliens have come to Venus and are doing some kind of massive secret construction project there. Great concept. Shame the actual story was a thirty page long physics word problem with a totally unengaging protagonist who spends most of the story just falling through a very long hole. This might actually be my least favorite story of the 90+ stories I’ve read from this series. Sorry Greg.
"The Magic Bullet" (Brian Stableford)
A genetics professor’s mice have been firebombed, and he’s been shot – so what did he find out that was worth killing him for? Turns out, the formula for female immortality. ONLY female immortality. The execution kept me from totally loving this – it was essentially two long monologues explaining the context for what happened and then what actually happened – but I still liked it a lot.
"North of the Abyss" (Brian W. Aldiss)
A man on vacation in Egypt visits an ancient temple looking for a small moment of transcendence in his incredibly crappy life. Hmm. There were things I loved about this one and things I pretty much hated. Beautifully written, if a little bit over-reliant on flowery metaphors, well-paced and tense, and the overall concept was really cool. But there was a whole chunk of the story where you’re led to believe the protagonist did something he didn’t do, in a way that felt incredibly cheap and manipulative to me. And I’m sick of reading about the inner lives of middle-aged men who fucked up their marriages and families by being incredibly self-involved and emotionally stunted, only to realize it too late. Like, I get it already.
"Chiprunner" (Robert Silverberg)
Loved it. A therapist specializing in eating disorders starts seeing a teenaged boy obsessed with computers who is starving himself because – well, it’s actually super unclear what’s really happening. Either he’s slipping into a meditative state, or he’s astrally projecting, or he’s delusional. But what he’s doing, or thinks he’s doing, is shrinking his consciousness down so small that he can send it down to the atomic level, and he thinks the only way he can reach the levels below that is to starve himself until he disappears. Aside from the hilariously small capacity of the microchips they talked about, something about this felt very modern to me.
"Abe Lincoln in McDonald's" (James Morrow)
With a name like that it’s going to be amazing or absolutely terrible. To be honest I was expecting terrible, and was pleasantly surprised. Lincoln takes a little trip into 2009 to check out what would happen if he decided to end the war with a truce and let slavery continue to exist in the south. And it’s horrifying. Not horrifying in the way where it shows you brutal torture and misery – it just shows a version of the modern world where it’s completely accepted that people can be property. Just super unsettling.
"Death Ship" (Barrington J. Bayley)
Earth is engaged in perpetual war, the main characters are engineers from one faction who’ve designed a ship that they hope to use to manipulate the future on behalf of their glorious cause, and long story short, there’s no such thing as free will. Meh. See above re: middle-aged men who fucked up their marriages and families by being incredibly self-involved and emotionally stunted only to realize it too late.
"In Translation" (Lisa Tuttle)
Aliens have come to Earth to settle down. They can’t really be seen clearly, only as a vague haze of impressions; their intentions are totally unclear; and they can’t be spoken to directly, only by channeling through human interpreters who don’t know what they’re saying when they translate. Our hero is obsessed with them, and does everything he can to try to know them. A cool metaphor for wanting what we can’t have, but something about it didn’t quite gel for me. Wait a sec – this protagonist was a YOUNG man who fucked up his marriage by being incredibly self-involved and emotionally stunted, only to NEVER realize it. Geez, is the editor of this anthology trying to tell us something?
"A Sleep and a Forgetting" (Robert Silverberg)
Someone accidentally invents a machine that makes it possible to communicate with random people in the past one at a time and for unpredictable intervals. Turns into a neat take on the temptation to play god, especially when there won’t be any personal consequences for you. I liked the other Silverberg story more (I was surprised to see two stories from the same author in here) but I wouldn’t kick this one out of bed.
"Not Without Honor" (Judith Moffett)
Meh. Aliens who’ve been watching old TV broadcasts from Earth come by dressed up as Mouseketeers looking for the original (long-dead) host of the program. The payoff for this is incredibly unsatisfying: they wanted to bring him back home in order to inspire the youth of their species to stop being wantonly destructive, because he had such a genuine and inspiring personality. It was just a little ridiculous, with a heavy dose of “kids today just don’t underSTAND, the modern world is just so INSINCERE!”
"Dogwalker" (Orson Scott Card)
Despite an irritating overuse of made-up future street slang, plus a hilariously innocent concept of what the future of computer security would look like, I liked this quite a bit. A man who was shot in the head as a kid was saved by being given a half-computerized brain, and is also stuck in his nine year old body; he’s now a street-level hacker who teams up with a former pimp to hack into a federal computer system. There were a lot of stories in this anthology that fizzled out near the end, but this one actually kinda got to me. It can be difficult to read a Card story objectively these days, but after all there’s a reason he got famous in the first place.
"Surrender" (Lucius Shepard)
This is the third Shepard story I’ve read as I’ve been doing this project, and he’s officially got his hooks in me. His writing is magical, while also being so incredibly depressing that you feel bad for getting anything other than despair out of it. The stories try to convince you that the world is an ugly violent place with nothing beautiful left in it, while the writing itself is so beautiful that it both subverts that message and also makes it stand out more starkly. I might be a little drunk. Anyways, this story is about a war journalist who stumbles onto an experimental facility full of mutated vampires in a South American jungle. Yes, really.
"War Fever" (J.G. Ballard)
A never-ending war in Beirut turns out to be an intentionally cultivated pocked of war in a world that has otherwise achieved total peace. A creepy concept, but the actual story felt naive at several points, and I didn’t think the ultimate payoff really worked.
Favorites: Chiprunner, Abe Lincoln in McDonald's, Surrender
October 16, 2023
This anthology was the last of the years best Donald A. Wolheim did before his death. It collects 12 stories from 11 different authors published in 1989.
Sidenote – what is it with yearly anthologies and their names? This has 1990 in the title but covers stories from 1989. Other anthologies are just numbered, which doesn’t help at all with figuring out which year it covers. For example, there exists a The Best Science Fiction of the Year 6, a Year’s Best SF 6 and a The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 6 covering stories from the years 1976, 2000 and 2020. There must be a more userfriendly way to name these collections.
With that little rant out of the way, the stories presented here are from highly regarded well established authors at the time – like Robert Silverberg and J. G. Ballard – and a few names that were relatively newcomers to the field – Lucius Shephard and Judith Moffett.
The fiction starts of with “Alpha” by Gregory Benford which was merely so-so in my opinion, but still a decent start with some hard sf. We continue with “The Magic Bullet” by Brian Stableford about a professor who discovers a way to achieve immortality in mice. Just only female mice. Robert Silverberg has two stories in this collection and the first is “Chiprunner” – a strange and very sad story about a young boy with an eating disorder. He is obsessed with computers and through therapist sessions (the story is told from the therapists point of view) he reveals that he wants to shrink himself to the atomic level so he can become one with the computer chips. Even though the story is more metaphorical than literal, it still has a clear science fiction feel to it. The second Silverberg story “A Sleep and a Forgetting” deals with the sort of time travel that only allows for communication to the past not travel. Here someone ends up talking to Ghengis Khan – and maybe end up changing history.
“Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s” by James Morrow is to be taken quite literally in what happens, but not without something deeper to say about slavery and racism. “In Translation” by Lisa Tuttle tells a story about a man who becomes so obsessed with visting aliens that he forgets all the human relationships around him. “Not Without Honor” by Judith Moffett also deals with visiting aliens and they are apparently mostly interested in the old TV show The Mickey Mouse Club.
Orson Scott Card delivers a classic cyberpunk tale in “Dogwalker” in a high tense plot involving clever ways to deduct peoples passwords. The anthology ends with “War Fever” by J. G. Ballard about a terrible war that never ends, but with a macabre reveal at the end. Without spoiling too much, it reminded me a good deal about a famous story by Scott Card.
In conclusion, mostly a decent collection of stories, but nothing really stellar or stories that I see myself coming back to. Could be either Wollheim’s selection or that 1989 wasn’t a particular amazing year. But looking at a list of stories from 1989 sorted by citations, there are several very popular stories that Wollheim have omitted.
Originally published on https://shortsfreviews.com
Sidenote – what is it with yearly anthologies and their names? This has 1990 in the title but covers stories from 1989. Other anthologies are just numbered, which doesn’t help at all with figuring out which year it covers. For example, there exists a The Best Science Fiction of the Year 6, a Year’s Best SF 6 and a The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 6 covering stories from the years 1976, 2000 and 2020. There must be a more userfriendly way to name these collections.
With that little rant out of the way, the stories presented here are from highly regarded well established authors at the time – like Robert Silverberg and J. G. Ballard – and a few names that were relatively newcomers to the field – Lucius Shephard and Judith Moffett.
The fiction starts of with “Alpha” by Gregory Benford which was merely so-so in my opinion, but still a decent start with some hard sf. We continue with “The Magic Bullet” by Brian Stableford about a professor who discovers a way to achieve immortality in mice. Just only female mice. Robert Silverberg has two stories in this collection and the first is “Chiprunner” – a strange and very sad story about a young boy with an eating disorder. He is obsessed with computers and through therapist sessions (the story is told from the therapists point of view) he reveals that he wants to shrink himself to the atomic level so he can become one with the computer chips. Even though the story is more metaphorical than literal, it still has a clear science fiction feel to it. The second Silverberg story “A Sleep and a Forgetting” deals with the sort of time travel that only allows for communication to the past not travel. Here someone ends up talking to Ghengis Khan – and maybe end up changing history.
“Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s” by James Morrow is to be taken quite literally in what happens, but not without something deeper to say about slavery and racism. “In Translation” by Lisa Tuttle tells a story about a man who becomes so obsessed with visting aliens that he forgets all the human relationships around him. “Not Without Honor” by Judith Moffett also deals with visiting aliens and they are apparently mostly interested in the old TV show The Mickey Mouse Club.
Orson Scott Card delivers a classic cyberpunk tale in “Dogwalker” in a high tense plot involving clever ways to deduct peoples passwords. The anthology ends with “War Fever” by J. G. Ballard about a terrible war that never ends, but with a macabre reveal at the end. Without spoiling too much, it reminded me a good deal about a famous story by Scott Card.
In conclusion, mostly a decent collection of stories, but nothing really stellar or stories that I see myself coming back to. Could be either Wollheim’s selection or that 1989 wasn’t a particular amazing year. But looking at a list of stories from 1989 sorted by citations, there are several very popular stories that Wollheim have omitted.
Originally published on https://shortsfreviews.com
February 22, 2026
The intro is sadly sort due to DAW being in poor health, but as expected he is still the optimist when it comes to the health of sci fi writing.
Alphas - One of the coolest and unique hard sci fi short stories I’ve ever read; really wild great stuff!
The Magic Bullet - A genetic dystopian future murder mystery that is fast paced and well written, a good story to have in this collection.
North of the Abyss - more fantasy than sci fi, but not a huge deal. The flash back scenes help keep the pace moving along and the writing is decent; however the story just fell a little flat for me. It seemed the premise was great, but the execution of the story ended up being a little underwhelming.
Chiprunner - Silverberg always hits strong. A great character driven tale about pushing human bodies/ consciousness to new almost unthinkable levels.
Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s - The title says a lot; Abe comes to a not too distant future that has fallen from grace and he’s not happy with what he sees. Plus fast food. It’s was just ok.
Death Ship - good blend of fast storytelling and enough hard sci fi to make you scratch your head, but not so much that you can’t enjoy this future time travel tale.
In translation - A story about giving up a
Persons entire self to create contact with an unknown species - could it ever be worth it? Really great story.
A Sleep and A Forgetting - Time is a playground for most sci fi writers and here Silverberg is having lots of fun messing with time and reality via a space phone. Delightful stuff.
Not Without Honor - First contact mixed with Disney fan club and nostalgia for old time human fundamentals. A decent story but it didn’t wow me.
Dog walker - A cyber punk crime caper of sorts . Sadly , for me , OSC just isn’t my cup of tea, so this one was good but not great.
Surrender - Shepard is one heck of a writer in my opinion. I can see why he may not be for everyone, but this is the third or fourth story of his i have read now in these various collections- and he always delivers. It’s excellent, powerful writing that hits hard, and while the sci fi is always minimal; the story and writing make the endeavor worth the effort of reading. This story is just as excellent as his others.
War Fever - A crazy near future where the most uncontrollable virus - war- rages in near isolation in an experimental city, and the end results are as messy and as existentially devastating as you would expect. Ballard is always consistently great in my experience.
With that being the end of my journey in the DAW Annual best series. Sadly 1990
Was the last year and DAW passed away in 1990. The amazing intros and little intros
Before each story help to make these more than just collections. This was a satisfying journey to read all these and see how the thoughts and tides changed with the decades. It’s easy for me to recommend any of this series to any sci fi fan.
Alphas - One of the coolest and unique hard sci fi short stories I’ve ever read; really wild great stuff!
The Magic Bullet - A genetic dystopian future murder mystery that is fast paced and well written, a good story to have in this collection.
North of the Abyss - more fantasy than sci fi, but not a huge deal. The flash back scenes help keep the pace moving along and the writing is decent; however the story just fell a little flat for me. It seemed the premise was great, but the execution of the story ended up being a little underwhelming.
Chiprunner - Silverberg always hits strong. A great character driven tale about pushing human bodies/ consciousness to new almost unthinkable levels.
Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s - The title says a lot; Abe comes to a not too distant future that has fallen from grace and he’s not happy with what he sees. Plus fast food. It’s was just ok.
Death Ship - good blend of fast storytelling and enough hard sci fi to make you scratch your head, but not so much that you can’t enjoy this future time travel tale.
In translation - A story about giving up a
Persons entire self to create contact with an unknown species - could it ever be worth it? Really great story.
A Sleep and A Forgetting - Time is a playground for most sci fi writers and here Silverberg is having lots of fun messing with time and reality via a space phone. Delightful stuff.
Not Without Honor - First contact mixed with Disney fan club and nostalgia for old time human fundamentals. A decent story but it didn’t wow me.
Dog walker - A cyber punk crime caper of sorts . Sadly , for me , OSC just isn’t my cup of tea, so this one was good but not great.
Surrender - Shepard is one heck of a writer in my opinion. I can see why he may not be for everyone, but this is the third or fourth story of his i have read now in these various collections- and he always delivers. It’s excellent, powerful writing that hits hard, and while the sci fi is always minimal; the story and writing make the endeavor worth the effort of reading. This story is just as excellent as his others.
War Fever - A crazy near future where the most uncontrollable virus - war- rages in near isolation in an experimental city, and the end results are as messy and as existentially devastating as you would expect. Ballard is always consistently great in my experience.
With that being the end of my journey in the DAW Annual best series. Sadly 1990
Was the last year and DAW passed away in 1990. The amazing intros and little intros
Before each story help to make these more than just collections. This was a satisfying journey to read all these and see how the thoughts and tides changed with the decades. It’s easy for me to recommend any of this series to any sci fi fan.
March 18, 2020
See my review for the 01973 issue -ditto
June 23, 2020
Donald Wollheim and I obviously differ in what we mean by "science fiction". Many of the stories were more fantasy than anything.
August 3, 2020
Took a few stories to get going but there are some surprising gems here. 1990 is now 30 years ago, sobering. Probably my favorite was Dogwalker.
February 26, 2010
Having returned from San Francisco and the annual ritual of catching up with what my friend there had been reading over the last year, I indulged in a number of science fiction books. This was Wollheim's last collection and, like the rest, is just fine.
Read
August 22, 2008Annual World's Best Science Fiction, 1990 (World's Best SF) by Donald A. Wollheim (1990)
May 27, 2013
Some decent short stories, but overall not my favorite science fiction authors.
Read
July 24, 2018Interesting that a 1990 anthology has fewer out-of-date things that fascinate me from earlier SF (from my personal golden age). But it does have some.
I enjoyed reading this - it is a "Best of", but nothing stood out as great for me.
I enjoyed reading this - it is a "Best of", but nothing stood out as great for me.
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