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The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: 18th Series
Shaffery Among the Immortals (1972) Frederik Pohl
The Deathbird (1973) Harlan Ellison
The Animal Fair (1972) Alfred Bester
The Problem of Pain (1973) Poul Anderson
Is It the End of the World? (1972) Wilma Shore
Sooner or Later or Never Never (1972) Gary Jennings
Thus Love Betrays Us (1972) Phyllis MacLennan
A Different Drummer (1971) Raylyn Moore
Birdlime (1971) B.L. Keller
The Bear with the Knot on His Tail (1971) Stephen Tall
Born to Exile: Alaric the Minstrel (1971) Phyllis Eisenstein
The Deathbird (1973) Harlan Ellison
The Animal Fair (1972) Alfred Bester
The Problem of Pain (1973) Poul Anderson
Is It the End of the World? (1972) Wilma Shore
Sooner or Later or Never Never (1972) Gary Jennings
Thus Love Betrays Us (1972) Phyllis MacLennan
A Different Drummer (1971) Raylyn Moore
Birdlime (1971) B.L. Keller
The Bear with the Knot on His Tail (1971) Stephen Tall
Born to Exile: Alaric the Minstrel (1971) Phyllis Eisenstein
296 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
1 person is currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Edward L. Ferman
635 books7 followersEdward Ferman (born 1937) was an American science fiction and fantasy fiction editor and magazine publisher.
Ferman is the son of Joseph W. Ferman, and took over as editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1964 when Avram Davidson, due to his residence in various Latin American locales with unreliable postal delivery, could no longer practically continue editing; on the masthead, Joseph Ferman was listed as editor and publisher for Edward Ferman's first two years. Edward Ferman would take on the role of publisher, as well, by 1970, as his father gradually retired. He remained as editor until 1991 when he hired his replacement, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He remained as publisher of the magazine until he sold it to Gordon Van Gelder in 2000. While Ferman was the editor, many other magazines in the field began to fold or were shortlived, and his magazine, along with Analog, was one of the few which maintained a regular schedule and sustained critical appreciation for its contents.
From 1969-1970, he was the editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction's sister publication Venture Science Fiction Magazine. Together, the Fermans had also edited and published the short-lived nostalgia and humor magazine P.S. and a similarly brief run of a magazine about mysticism and other proto-New Age matters, Inner Space.
Ferman received the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor three years in a row, from 1981 through 1983. F&SF had previously won several other Hugos under his editorship, which had been famously conducted, at least in the last decade of his tenure, from a table in the Ferman family's Connecticut house. He edited or co-edited several volumes of stories from F&SF and co-edited Final Stage with Barry N. Malzberg. It is probable that he also ghost-edited No Limits for or with Joseph Ferman, an anthology drawn from the pages of the first run of Venture.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_L..."
Ferman is the son of Joseph W. Ferman, and took over as editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1964 when Avram Davidson, due to his residence in various Latin American locales with unreliable postal delivery, could no longer practically continue editing; on the masthead, Joseph Ferman was listed as editor and publisher for Edward Ferman's first two years. Edward Ferman would take on the role of publisher, as well, by 1970, as his father gradually retired. He remained as editor until 1991 when he hired his replacement, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He remained as publisher of the magazine until he sold it to Gordon Van Gelder in 2000. While Ferman was the editor, many other magazines in the field began to fold or were shortlived, and his magazine, along with Analog, was one of the few which maintained a regular schedule and sustained critical appreciation for its contents.
From 1969-1970, he was the editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction's sister publication Venture Science Fiction Magazine. Together, the Fermans had also edited and published the short-lived nostalgia and humor magazine P.S. and a similarly brief run of a magazine about mysticism and other proto-New Age matters, Inner Space.
Ferman received the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor three years in a row, from 1981 through 1983. F&SF had previously won several other Hugos under his editorship, which had been famously conducted, at least in the last decade of his tenure, from a table in the Ferman family's Connecticut house. He edited or co-edited several volumes of stories from F&SF and co-edited Final Stage with Barry N. Malzberg. It is probable that he also ghost-edited No Limits for or with Joseph Ferman, an anthology drawn from the pages of the first run of Venture.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_L..."
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 28, 2021
This eighteenth volume of the long-running annual anthology series collects magazine editor Ferman's picks of the best from F&SF's 1968 issues. The writers include Harry Harrison, Sonya Dorman, Robert Sheckley, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., and J.G. Ballard. There's a funny Ron Goulart, Muscadine, and my favorite title is That High-Up Blue Day That Saw the Black Sky-Train Come Spinning by David R. Bunch. My favorite story is Final War which was published under Barry N. Malzberg's pseudonym K.M. O'Donnell. There are a handful of cartoons by Gahan Wilson (there are a couple of doctors standing in the background next to a bed where another heroic looking doctor is waving a crucifix at Dracula who is hovering over a sickly looking patient in the bed, and one of them is telling the other, "Well I guess that pretty well takes care of my anemia diagnosis."), and my Ace paperback edition has a neat green cover with a dinosaur in a window that recedes into infinity with a neat astronomical background; I believe the artist was Dean Ellis. A fine but outstanding volume in the series.
October 27, 2025
"The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D" by J. G. Ballard
4/10
Poorly written (hard to follow) and uninteresting. The characters don't make sense.
...
"The People Trap" by Robert Sheckley
8/10
A wild and humorous story of overpopulation.
...
"In His Own Image" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
5/10
I like the setting, but not the story or its use of religion. (What kind of sicko puts elderly skin on an android, anyway?!)
...
"Ogre!" by Ed Jesby
7/10
Not my cup of tea, but pretty decent.
...
"Lunatic Assignment" by Sonya Dorman
?/10
This author displayed very promising writing ability here. But then the story crumbled apart before my eyes, and I don't understand its implications. One character is extremely annoying because the narrative concerning him is in the second person, saying, "you" do this, and "you" do that, when it's not you (the reader) doing these things, but the character. It was infuriating.
...
"Gifts from the Universe" by Leonard Tushnet
6/10
...
"Sundown" by David Redd
5/10
The story was very weak, and it felt weird.
...
"Beyond the Game" by Vance Aandahl
4/10
This one prominently features some of my least favorite things (sports and boys' backsides). I have no idea what its point is. Just a sadistic game of dodgeball. Not fantasy, not science fiction.
...
"Sea Home" by William M. Lee
5/10
This one takes one of my favorite things (undersea exploration) and makes it as boring as possible. It follows a character on the surface who receives very limited reports from the crew below.
...
"That High-up Blue Day That Saw the Black Sky-train Come Spinning" by David R. Bunch
5/10
It's bad enough that people get old. So why do some authors feel the need to describe the elderly in such gory detail?
...
"Muscadine" by Ron Goulart
7/10
...
"Final War" K. M. O'Donnell
7/10
I don't like military stuff, but this was actually good. It's very long-winded, however. It presents the same situation from three characters' perspectives (Hastings, the new Captain, and the First Sergeant). So it can get a bit repetitive. The First Sergeant's point of view seems to start over again mid-way through? Also, at a certain point, a Corporal inexplicably says that Hastings is dead (even though he obviously isn't). I don't see how this is in any way related to fantasy or science fiction. All I know is that it made me laugh aloud more than once, so I can't complain.
...
"I Have My Vigil" by Harry Harrison
4/10
...
"The Egg of the Glak" by Harvey Jacobs
8/10
I disliked how sexual it was, but I must admit it was very well-written and humorous.
...
I don't understand how proofreaders and whatnot can get away with leaving in so many typos and still walk away with a paycheck.
4/10
Poorly written (hard to follow) and uninteresting. The characters don't make sense.
...
"The People Trap" by Robert Sheckley
8/10
A wild and humorous story of overpopulation.
...
"In His Own Image" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
5/10
I like the setting, but not the story or its use of religion. (What kind of sicko puts elderly skin on an android, anyway?!)
...
"Ogre!" by Ed Jesby
7/10
Not my cup of tea, but pretty decent.
...
"Lunatic Assignment" by Sonya Dorman
?/10
This author displayed very promising writing ability here. But then the story crumbled apart before my eyes, and I don't understand its implications. One character is extremely annoying because the narrative concerning him is in the second person, saying, "you" do this, and "you" do that, when it's not you (the reader) doing these things, but the character. It was infuriating.
...
"Gifts from the Universe" by Leonard Tushnet
6/10
...
"Sundown" by David Redd
5/10
The story was very weak, and it felt weird.
...
"Beyond the Game" by Vance Aandahl
4/10
This one prominently features some of my least favorite things (sports and boys' backsides). I have no idea what its point is. Just a sadistic game of dodgeball. Not fantasy, not science fiction.
...
"Sea Home" by William M. Lee
5/10
This one takes one of my favorite things (undersea exploration) and makes it as boring as possible. It follows a character on the surface who receives very limited reports from the crew below.
...
"That High-up Blue Day That Saw the Black Sky-train Come Spinning" by David R. Bunch
5/10
It's bad enough that people get old. So why do some authors feel the need to describe the elderly in such gory detail?
...
"Muscadine" by Ron Goulart
7/10
...
"Final War" K. M. O'Donnell
7/10
I don't like military stuff, but this was actually good. It's very long-winded, however. It presents the same situation from three characters' perspectives (Hastings, the new Captain, and the First Sergeant). So it can get a bit repetitive. The First Sergeant's point of view seems to start over again mid-way through? Also, at a certain point, a Corporal inexplicably says that Hastings is dead (even though he obviously isn't). I don't see how this is in any way related to fantasy or science fiction. All I know is that it made me laugh aloud more than once, so I can't complain.
...
"I Have My Vigil" by Harry Harrison
4/10
...
"The Egg of the Glak" by Harvey Jacobs
8/10
I disliked how sexual it was, but I must admit it was very well-written and humorous.
...
I don't understand how proofreaders and whatnot can get away with leaving in so many typos and still walk away with a paycheck.
December 20, 2010
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has consistently been the best of the genre pulps since it began publication in 1949 by most accounts. Although I don't much like most fantasy, I generally agree, having had subscriptions on a couple of occasions (gifts from the ever-generous Rick Strong) and having purchased or borrowed many of their anthologies like this one, read during the winter break of 1982/83.
Currently reading
August 13, 2008I keep this compilation only to re-read "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester. I probably re-read this short story once every couple of years. It has a basic "Count of Monte Cristo" premise I enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews