The Best Science Fiction of the Year 4

by Terry Carr (Editor), William Tenn (Contributor), Ursula K. Le Guin (Contributor)

When Terry Carr says these 10 science-fiction stories are the best of the year...you better believe it!

We Purchased People, Frederik Pohl: A strange love story of a man and woman whose bodies belonged to the aliens...but whose hearts belonged to each other!

The Hole Man, Larry Niven: Explorers on Mars found a city...abandoned but somehow still functioning!

Born With the Dead, Robert Silverberg: A haunting tale of a man who followed the woman he loved...beyond the gates of death!

The Author of the Acacia Seeds, Ursula K. Le Guin: Of course there are no aliens on Earth...or are there?

On Venus, Have We Got A Rabbi, William Tenn: The First Interstellar Neozionist Conference really had a problem--a delegation from Rigel was seeking admittance. But are giant cockroaches...really Jewish?

-PLUS-

Dark Icarus, Bob Shaw
If the Stars Are Gods, Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
The Engine at Heartspring's Center, Roger Zelany
Pale Roses, Michael Moorcock
A Little Something For Us Tempunauts, Philip K. Dick
On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi, William Tenn
The Engine at Heartspring's Center, Roger Zelazny
If the Stars Are Gods, Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
Honorable Mentions - 1974, Terry Carr
The Science Fiction Year (1974), Charles N. Brown

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 12, 1975

About the author

Carr was born in Grants Pass, Oregon. He attended the City College of San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley from 1954 to 1959.

Carr discovered science fiction fandom in 1949, where he became an enthusiastic publisher of fanzines, which later helped open his way into the commercial publishing world. (He was one of the two fans responsible for the hoax fan 'Carl Brandon' after whom the Carl Brandon Society takes its name.) Despite a long career as a science fiction professional, he continued to participate as a fan until his death. He was nominated five times for Hugos for Best Fanzine (1959–1961, 1967–1968), winning in 1959, was nominated three times for Best Fan Writer (1971–1973), winning in 1973, and was Fan Guest of Honor at ConFederation in 1986.

Though he published some fiction in the early 1960s, Carr concentrated on editing. He first worked at Ace Books, establishing the Ace Science Fiction Specials series which published, among other novels, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin.

After conflicts with Ace head Donald A. Wollheim, he worked as a freelancer. He edited an original story anthology series called Universe, and a popular series of The Best Science Fiction of the Year anthologies that ran from 1972 until his death in 1987. He also edited numerous one-off anthologies over the same time span. He was nominated for the Hugo for Best Editor thirteen times (1973–1975, 1977–1979, 1981–1987), winning twice (1985 and 1987). His win in 1985 was the first time a freelance editor had won.

Carr taught at the Clarion Workshop at Michigan State University in 1978, where his students included Richard Kadrey and Pat Murphy.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

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). 1975 was the fourth year that each edited their own volume, with their picks of the best of 1974. None of the stories overlapped this year. I preferred Carr's book again this year, though both are pretty good. Carr included good stories from Michael Moorcock, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Philip K. Dick, William Tenn, Gordon Eklund & Gregory Benford, and Frederik Pohl. I believe my favorite was Roger Zelazny's The Engine at Heartspring's Center.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Antología con varios títulos nominados y premiados.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Viajeros del tiempo (publicación original: The Best Science Fiction of the Year 4, 1975) es una antología de relatos de ciencia ficción seleccionados por Terry Carr (que además de la introducción firma unos breves prólogos a cada obra) a partir del material de distintas revistas y antologías publicadas en el año 1974. La edición en español tiene cuatro relatos menos que la original, sus temas son muy diversos y para nada centrados en los viajes en el tiempo (excepto un caso), no se equivoquen ustedes.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Hugo Barine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo mejor: El Autor de las Semillas de Acacia y Otros Extractos del Diario de la Sociedad de Zoolingüistas de Ursula K. LeGuin

Bien, piola o ya, igual: Nacidos con los Muertos de Robert Silverberg, Ligeras Acotaciones sobre los Temponautas de Philip K. Dick y En Venus Tenemos un Rabino de William Tenn

No pasan la prueba del tiempo, clase B y meh: Nosotros, los Comprados de Frederik Pohl ,El Hombre del Agujero de Larry Niven, Icaro de las Tinieblas de Bob Shaw y El Centro del Resorte Primordial de Roger Zelazny

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to love these Terry Carr anthologies as a kid, haven’t read them in decades. Pretty sure my tastes have totally flipped over and are opposite from how I felt when I was young but for what it is worth this was my current impression in a rough ranking order:

Excellent

Robert Silverberg, Born with the Dead
Michael Moorcock, Pale Roses
Gordon Eklund & Gregory Benford, If the Stars are Gods

Very Good

Roger Zelazny, The Engine at Heartspring’s Center
Philip K. Dick, A Little Something for Us Tempunauts
Ursula Le Guin, The Author of the Acacia Seeds
William Tenn, On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi

Good

Frederik Pohl, We Purchased People

Okay (at least they’re short)

Larry Niven, The Hole Man
Bob Shaw, Dark Icarus

[Juan Portolés · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me lo compré por Úrsula K. Le Guin y su relato es de los que más me ha gustado.
Quitando del segundo, que me ha parecido muy flojo me han sorprendido bastante. No me suelen emocionar mucho los libros de relatos pero estos son lo suficientemente cortos como para que me guste ese rollo.
Muchas ideas muy originales. Los poemas de animales o el rabino de Venus muy buenos

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buenos relatos de ciencia ficción, destaca la gran imaginación de Ursula K. Le Guin, cuyos libros y relatos deprimentes no me gustan, pero este relato vale mucho la pena.
El único relato pésimo del libro es el cuento de F. Pohl, un autor que debe ser olvidado.

[Tim Ganotis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any collection of short stories is bound to be hit or miss. This collection was more misses than hits. A few good stories, but several that just dragged on and on.

[Anim macqq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenidos varios, otros no tanto. Me gustaron el de Le guin y el de zelazny. El de Tenn también estaba interesante.

[Kelly Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rereading a bunch of the old paperback SF that I have another dozen boxes of to go through and get rid of most of. The mid-70's had some good stuff; this collection isn't necessarily what we regard as the best of then nowadays, but it does contain some stories that have endured. The Larry Niven is a short, relatively forgettable one - not part of any of his series. The Ursula LeGuin is one I had forgotten, and I really rather like it. There's a funny William Tenn that has been anthologized in Jewish science fiction. And there's "If the Stars are Gods," which is on one level an alien-contact story, and then there's another that's barely noticeable, that maybe many people miss entirely, that though it sounds like it's taking place on our Moon and Earth, in fact it's not quite ours, it's an alternate.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1951611.html


This was one of the sf anthologies that made a huge impression on me as a teenager, and I think about half of the ten stories fully retain their magic for me - "We Purchased People" by Fred Pohl, "The Hole Man" by Larry Niven, "The Author of the Acacia Seeds [etc]" by Ursula Le Guin, "A Little Something For Us Tempunauts" by Philip K. Dick, and "If The Stars Are Gods" by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford. (And the other five aren't bad either.) God be with the days when you could credibly do a Year's Best SF with only ten stories, though. Also notable that there is only one woman (Le Guin) of the ten, which I hope would be impossible today.

[Diego Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viajeros del tiempo (1976) (en inglés The best science fiction of the year N°4 (1976)) es un libro de cuentos de varios autores con temática de ciencia ficción.
Ninguno de los cuentos me resultó lo suficientemente bueno como para destacarlo, aunque como casi siempre sucede con la ciencia ficción, hay ideas ingeniosas y novedosas, en las que tal vez faltó oficio narrativo para confeccionar mejores cuentos.

[bluetyson]

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4 by Terry Carr (1975)

[Ed]

ISFDB 4166. OCLC 2012995.