18 Greatest Science Fiction Stories

by Laurence M. Janifer (Editor)

Previously published as Masters' Choice in 1966; reprinted as 18 Greatest Science Fiction Stories in 1971.
Preface by Laurence M. Janifer
Liar! by Isaac Asimov
It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
The Golem by Avram Davidson
Helen O'Loy by Lester del Rey
The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin
The Dwindling Sphere by Willard Hawkins
Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein
Theory of Rocketry by C. M. Kornbluth
Don't Look Now by Henry Kuttner
Seven-Day Terror by R. A. Lafferty
Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber
Politics by Murray Leinster
Memento Homo by Walter M. Miller, jr.
The Bright Illusion by C. L. Moore
And Now the News by Theodore Sturgeon
The Custodian by William Tenn
The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Laurence M. Janifer (born Laurence M. Harris) was an American science fiction author, with a career spanning over 50 years.

Janifer was born in Brooklyn, New York with the surname of Harris, but in 1963 took the original surname of his Polish grandfather. Many of his early stories appeared under the "Larry M. Harris" byline.

Though his first published work was a short story in Cosmos magazine in 1953, his career as a writer can be said to have started in 1959 when he began writing for Astounding and Galaxy Science Fiction. He co-wrote the first novel in the "Psi-Power" series: Brain Twister, written with Randall Garrett under the joint pseudonym Mark Phillips. The novel was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960, and published in book form in 1962. Janifer's best known work is the "Survivor" series, comprising five novels and many short stories. The series follows the career of Gerald Knave as he visits (and survives to tell the tale of) planets on the outskirts of the civilized galaxy.

In addition to his career as a novelist and short story author, Janifer was an editor for Scott Meredith Literary Agency; editor/managing editor of various detective and science fiction publications; film reviewer for several magazines; and a talented pianist.

Laurence Mark Janifer's pseudonyms include: Alfred Blake, Andrew Blake, Larry M. Harris, Mark Phillips (with Randall Garrett), Barbara Wilson, Tom Beach, Robert J. Cassiday, Robert Cassiday, Lorens M. Dženifer, Renee St. Hahn, Laurance Janifer, Sir David Leeds, William Logan, Siral

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurenc...]

Reviews

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1966 anthology contains a selection of stories, each representative of one major science fiction writer, mostly from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. All classics - they are, however, not necessarily the "greatest."

Liar! by Isaac Asimov
It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
The Golem by Avram Davidson
Helen O'Loy by Lester del Rey
The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin
The Dwindling Sphere by Willard Hawkins
Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein
Theory of Rocketry by C. M. Kornbluth
Don't Look Now by Henry Kuttner
Seven-Day Terror by R. A. Lafferty
Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber
Politics by Murray Leinster
Memento Homo by Walter M. Miller, jr.
The Bright Illusion by C. L. Moore
And Now the News by Theodore Sturgeon
The Custodian by William Tenn
The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb selection of classic SF. True, most of these stories can be found in numerous other anthologies, but I think this book is a particularly well-edited anthology.

[Muzzlehatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the mass-market Tempo books edition, titled 18 GREATEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES; I got my copy in the late 70s I think, and - rare for me - read all of the stories pretty much right away. And they mostly have stuck with me - this is really a great selection and I'm not sure there's a story I dislike; I've re-read some of them a half-dozen or more times in the past four decades. Some are certainly "dated", like William Hawkins' "The Dwindling Sphere", but if one is a student or fan of the genre as a whole this ought not to matter too much - no genre dates as fast as science fiction after all. In fact the Hawkins story, though scientifically implausible, is in it's early exploration of finite resource destruction perhaps more prescient than it's essentially silly premise might indicate - and plenty of other stories here, like Bradbury's "The Veldt" have much to say about the 21st century as well.

I suppose my favorite story here is shared by many - Bixby's "It's a Good Life" - the source of a memorable Twilight Zone episode - but I like "Bright Illusion" by C.L. Moore (the only female writer included) just about as much, and it's one of the better-written stories in an anthology that is unabashedly pulpy. Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" is probably the most-anthologized work here and remains justifiably famous and powerful.

So why not 5 stars? Though the editor takes some pains to tell us that this selection is the result of a poll of SF professionals - in the mid-60s I guess as this was first published in 1966 - and he appends a brief list of the nominees - I get the sense that there were deliberate limitations put in place, which result in an anthology that would better be sub-titled "The Best American Magazine Stories from the 1940s and 1950s, Plus a Token British Story So You Don't Think We're Too Provincial". That token British story is "The New Accelerator" by H.G. Wells, originally published about 40 years before the oldest other story in the book, and it sticks out noticeably. It's not IMO one of Wells' best works and I wonder if it's here mostly to provide some levity in an otherwise pretty serious collection - and to make it easier to claim that this narrowly-focused selection is more authoritative and a better representation of the whole field's best than it really is.

Still a terrific collection for sure and while most if not all of these stories can be found in other anthologies, or online, I for one am glad to have them all here together, and I ought to remember to take this with me on my next long car trip.

[Jim Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The anthology 18 Greatest SF Stories is certainly misnamed. It’s original name, Masters’ Choice, was a better name, in that the idea for the contents was to ask a number of well known SF writers what stories they thought were the best. But then Janifer, who edited the anthology, decided that he would substitute stories in many cases, so that he’d try to include a number of stories that had not been reprinted often. This certainly diluted the volume. It also made the volume one for someone who is already familiar with a lot of SF and already owns a number of anthologies, rather than a new reader trying to become familiar with the best the field has to offer (or the field in 1966 when the anthology was published).

The result is a mixed bag, at least based on the title. It does include some very good stories: “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, “Coming Attraction” by Fritz Leiber, “Requiem” by Robert Heinlein, “The Golem” by Avram Davidson, “Liar!” by Isaac Asimov. There are also a couple of good ones that aren’t as well known but should be: “”The Custodian” by William Tenn and “Theory of Rocketry” by C.M. Kornbluth are both very good stories. And there are a couple of much admired stories that I find vastly overrated: “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin (it had an impact on me when I read it as a teen, but over the years, on rereading, I just want to yell “but nobody would design a ship like that” at the book) and “Helen O’Loy” by Lester Del Rey (who has written much better stories).

And then there were the ones I really shake my head at. For C.L. Moore, Janifer chose “The Bright Illusion,” a story that starts out well but whose last half dozen pages turn into a silly, unbelievable romance. Why pick this one when the much better “Vintage Season” and “No Woman Born” both fared better in the list of nominations from the “masters” (listed in an appendix to the book)? And for Kuttner, Janifer chose the amusing but minor “Don’t Look Now” rather than several much stronger stories.

One story that garnered three nominations (the maximum was four) was “The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever. I haven’t read this, but I’m intrigues to see a Cheever story on the list, so I plan to search for it.

So, overall, a good anthology, but there are many better ones to represent the best of the genre.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these were odd, some quite disturbing, and all of them interesting.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another of those "all time greatest science fiction stories" collections. It's good, but an sf fan will have read most of them already.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sci-fi is not my favorite genre, but I found a few in here I really enjoyed