World's Best Science Fiction Third Series

World's Best Science Fiction #3

by Donald A. Wollheim (Editor), Philip K. Dick (Contributor), Dannie Plachta (Contributor)

The annual series of the WORLD'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION, providing the only up-to-date selection in paperbacks of the most exciting s-f, gains in stature and acclaim with each year.

In their third edition, the editors have chosen a dozen fascinating tales of strange worlds and peoples - inclusing two new novelettes by s-f senstation Roger Zelazny, and a memoralbe complete novella about a time traveler's quest for the historic Christ, here published for the first time in America.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction

285 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Donald 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

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm beginning to think that the problem with 60s science fiction is it's seeming irresistible tendency to turn stories into parables, usually with a Biblical flavour to them. And that is not a good thing.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020 partial reread. A good to great anthology. 3 5-star stories, another that would round up to a 5, and a very good Lafferty. Some misses for me, but the highs are stratospheric.
Standout stories:
● Day Million • short story by Frederik Pohl. Wow. 5 stars! https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781451...
● We Can Remember It for You Wholesale • novelette by Philip K. Dick. https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/d...
Douglas Quail really, *really* wants to go to Mars. And become an undercover agent for Interplan. After a visit to Rekal, Inc., he gets the first of several nasty shocks. 5 stars!
● Light of Other Days • [Slow Glass] • short story by Bob Shaw. 4.5 stars. A classic. His best short. https://www.sccollege.edu/Faculty/JIs...
● Nine Hundred Grandmothers • short story by R. A. Lafferty. One of the Old Master's more accessible stories. 4+ stars.

The rest:
● The Wings of a Bat • novelette by Pauline Ashwell. A pet pteranedon at a mid-Cretaceous mining station. 3.5 stars
● Tried and abandoned: the two Zelaznys and the Aldiss. I've never cared for the Moorcock. The others weren't read this time.

Here's the go-to review, by Emily: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Complete TOC and story details: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?5...

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another World’s Best SF collection that does not disappoint! I think the last sentence of the last story, “For a Breath I Tarry,” will stay with me for a very long time. My thoughts about the others:
“We Can Remember It for You, Wholesale”: As you know, this is the story the movie Total Recall is based on. However, I hadn’t previously read it. In hindsight, its inclusion in this book is justified. I can well imagine how it caught the eye of the filmmaker. Of course the movie is much more action-y, but the short story is worth reading for the very details in which it differs from the film.

“ Light of Other Days”: Everything I’ve tried to write about this story betrays the impact of the ending. Suffice to say, I liked it.

“The Keys to December”: In the far future, people are sometimes engineered to conform to a particular planet if the parents are poor enough to sell their offspring to a developer. A group of youngsters are suddenly planetless when the one they were bound for is unexpectedly destroyed. They buy a new planet and begin to conform it to their needs, raising the question of whether they are playing god to its current inhabitants which might or might not be sentient. This is very emotional and far-reaching.

“Nine Hundred Grandmothers”: Our narrator is on a foreign world and discovers the inhabitants might have a very valuable secret. This is another one I don’t want to spoil for you at all, but it was very thought-provoking. Although, the ending isn’t as much of a pay-off as I would have liked.

“Bircher”: In a future in which surveillance robots are everywhere and crimes are very, very few, an “unsolvable” murder lands in the lap of the chief of police. This futuristic murder mystery is captivating and also made me think that time is not too far off. Whether that is a positive thing or not is probably a valid question although I’m not sure Walde meant to raise it.

“Behold the Man”: Michael Moorcock is a genius. His protagonist, Karl Glogauer, goes back in time to witness the life of Jesus with some pretty disastrous (If you happen to be a Christian) results. If you’re not a Christian, you might find it as hilarious and probable as I did.

“Bumberboom”: I did not understand this story at all. I read the first few pages without retaining any of it. I think most of the problem was the language, both of the narration and the dialogue. I skipped the rest because after reading through those pages again, I still didn’t know what they were talking about and also my head hurt.

“Day Million”: I just read this story in a “Best of Frederik Pohl” anthology. Here’s what I had to say then: How much will human beings differ from us in the far, far future? Here is one imagining. -- This was very short and quite poetic.

“The Wings of a Bat”: A team of folks goes back to the Cretaceous Era for an undisclosed cause. The team doctor has a fear of Pterodactyls, but when a sick baby pterodon is placed on his desk, he has no choice but to treat it. This was similar to most any adopted-wild-animal story except with an SF twist.

“Amen and Out”: This is another one that’s hard to explain without revealing things that one doesn’t know until the end. It is also another one where the future might not be too far off from now, particularly as regards the “portable shrines.” I’m not sure what to think about the whole thing because it seemed to be making two different comments about humanity. I’m also pretty sure they conflict.

“For a Breath I Tarry” is, again, the last story and very memorable. The world is devoid of humans but being rebuilt by robots. One robot takes it into his circuits to try to understand humanity. The result is a revelation. Loved, loved, loved it.

On the whole, this collection seems to have fewer stories, but most were longer than one expects from a short story anthology. A couple could probably be called novellas. I think any SF fan could find something he or she liked, which is probably good. I recommend this.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the third of the best-sf-of-the-year volumes co-edited by Carr and Wollheim, and was one of the best of the run. It was published in 1967 and included their picks of the best short fiction of 1966. Among others, it contains Day Million by Frederik Pohl, Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty, the terrific slow-glass story by Bob Shaw, Light of Other Days, -two- great stories by Roger Zelazny, The Keys to December and For a Breath I Tarry, and my all-time favorite Philip K. Dick, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. My favorite was Michael Moorcock's iconic (literally) novella, Behold the Man. 1966 was a great year for sf!

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5 (collated rating: Good)

Philip K. Dick. Roger Zelazny. Bob Shaw. Michael Moorcock. R. A. Lafferty. Seldom do I say that a “best of” anthology includes a large number of the best stories of the year. From PKD’s artificial memories to Bob Shaw’s slow glass, World’s Best Science Fiction: 1967 (1967) contains both fascinating [...]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was my bedtime reading for a month or so, and very good bedtime reading it was. Some stories are only a couple of pages, while others are much longer, and they are all good and not dated at all, despite this book being published over 50 years ago.

There are stories in this collection from Michael Moorcock, Frederik Pohl, Philip K. Dick, and two stories by Roger Zelazny, among others. I had read the story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” just a few days before I saw the movie trailer for Total Recall (2012) and said, “Wait a minute…” (Indeed, that film is based on this story, and is a remake of Total Recall (1990), which I never saw.) “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” by R. A Lafferty is a great story, as is “Amen and Out” by Brain W. Aldiss. “The Keys to December” by Roger Zelazny is very good, but the best story is the other selection from Zelazny, “For a Breath I Tarry”.

I loved reading this book of short stories from the world of science fiction; what more can I say?

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first science fiction experience when I was 9. I've been hooked ever since. It's the reason I read all the New Wave science fiction I could get my hands on at the public library as a kid. My favorite is "For a Breath I Tarry," though they're all wonderful. I've read this book many, many times since.

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction to this volume of science fiction stories from 1966 mentions that there was a tendency to longer stories in the field, perhaps because many of the ideas required more fleshing out. And while the quality is as always somewhat uneven, 1966 seems to have been a good year for science fiction.

“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Phillip K. Dick is of course the story on which the movie Total Recall was based. See my earlier review of that. Ordinary office worker Douglas Quail dreams of Mars, but knows he will never be able to go. Especially with his wife’s constant reminders. But a company named Rekal promises that they can implant false memories of having taken a trip to Mars, complete with a subplot where he’s a secret agent, and souvenirs of his supposed voyage.

Except that to the horror of the Rekal workers, when they try to implant the new memories, it turns out Quail has real memories of being a secret agent on Mars, memories that Interplan had erased. Now that he kind of remembers them, Quail has become a danger that cannot be ignored.

There’s a final twist that the movie skipped in favor of more action.

“Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw has a young married couple go shopping for “slow glass” in a picturesque part of Scotland. Slow glass lets light through very slowly, so what it shows now happened some years ago. Imagine having a view of nature even in your dismal city apartment that’s good for a decade!

The future isn’t all rosy. Women can still get fired for getting pregnant, which has happened to the young wife, and the husband’s poetry income isn’t going to get them into a house. Plus, they’ve come to the realization that neither of them is keen on having a child. But slow glass will give them something pretty to look at while being miserable.

The local man that sells slow glass out of his cottage seems nice enough, if a touch eccentric. But there’s something wrong with the family seen through his picture window. “Light passes both ways.”

“The Keys to December” by Roger Zelazny starts by having Jarry Dark born as the result of genetic engineering to work for a mining company on a non-Earthlike planet. But he and several thousand other prospective employees are stuck on Earth when that planet’s sun goes nova. Jarry’s smart, and he and the other world-orphans eventually make enough money to consider “terraforming” an uninhabited planet so that they can live there.

As Jarry periodically wakes from suspended animation to check on the progress of the climate transformation, he discovers something alarming. The changes to the planet’s ecosystem have triggered human-type intelligence in one of the native species. But even more drastic changes are to come, and the natives might not survive those. Jarry’s faced with an ethical dilemma.

“Nine Hundred Grandmothers” by R.A. Lafferty I’ve written about before. When a space entrepreneur discovers that the people of Proavitus do not die of old age, simply getting smaller and sleepier, he realizes this is a key to learning how the universe began. Or would be, if he could convince the oldest ones to tell him!

“Bircher” by A.A. Walde is a murder mystery set in a future where murder is almost unknown because the police are so good at catching the perpetrators. So when an impossible corpse shows up, it’s a threat to the police commissioner’s job. The title is a bit of a clue, as the case ties back into the long-defunct John Birch Society. This isn’t a fair play mystery, as several important bits of information are gathered offscreen and then revealed at the climax.

One thing about the story that seems too plausible is the government tracking everyone by their credit cards.

“Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock was understandably somewhat controversial in its time. Karl Glogauer is a follower of Carl Jung who wants to have proof of the historical Jesus, as he wants to believe in Christianity. So when he gets a shot at using a time machine, Glogauer jumps at the chance. But as Glogauer arrives in ancient Palestine and attempts to locate Jesus, he learns that he may in fact have to become the Messiah himself.

The story uses the best available historical research of the time, but steps away from full commitment to “realism” by for example using the modernized/Westernized names of people. Some bits of fulfilled prophecy are coincidence, others directly invoked by Glogauer, and some turn out to have been made up later once Glogauer was dead.

Content note: anti-Semitism, bullying, torture, crucifixion.

“Bumberboom” by Avram Davidson is set in the far future, after the Great Gene Shift has separated humans into various humanoid species. (No one knows what the original humans looked like anymore, though some subgroups are quick to advocate for their own phenotype.) The wanderer Mallian realizes that the crew pushing around the title piece of artillery, also called a “Juggernaut”, have long lost any knowledge of how to make it work. He exploits that fact, but can he do any better with the lost technology?

Part of the Statue of Liberty shows up, but without a modern human to cry “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you!” (Planet of the Apes, 1968) it is just an object of speculation.

“Day Million” by Frederik Pohl was published in men’s magazine Rogue, so could get away with some prurient subject matter. The plot is paper-thin, “boy meets girl” but it takes place on Day Million, so the boy is a cyborg and the girl is genetically male, among other strangeness of the far future. Mr. Pohl points up the existence of intersex people even in 1966, and asks the reader if their own lives wouldn’t seem strange and impossible to their distant ancestors. It’s less of a story and more of an attempt to really put the “speculative” in speculative fiction.

“The Wings of a Bat” by Paul Ash is set in the distant past as the doctor of a time-traveling mining camp is asked to take care of a sick pterodactyl. The doctor is a grump who is not a veterinarian and particularly dislikes pterodactyls. But everyone else in the camp dotes on Fiona, so try he must. More or less heart-warming ending.

“The Man from When” by Dannie Platcha is a short shocker about the cost of time travel. Cute, but not particularly good.

“Amen and Out” by Brian W. Aldiss has people consulting “the gods” in shrines either at home or on their backs. The gods give advice and admonishment, but are often cryptic or unhelpful. Several people get advice on a single day, which results in one of the immortals the government keeps not exactly imprisoned leaving the compound where he’s kept. Turns out this immortal has more to do with the gods than was first apparent.

The story relies on the hippie drug culture of the 1960s either lasting, or being recreated some centuries hence.

“For a Breath I Tarry” by Roger Zelazny (again) also takes on religious themes. After Man has vanished from the world, the mighty computers Solcom and Divcom argue about which of them should be in charge. They agree to a contest. If Frost, the greatest servant of Solcom, can be tempted into serving Divcom, then Solcom will relinquish his claim to sovereignty.

But what can tempt Frost? As it happens, he (and the pronoun is deliberate) is interested in understanding the nature of Man. But in order to understand Man, do you not have to become him?

There’s a lot going on in this story, and it will reward discussion with other readers.

Overall, this is a strong collection with a high proportion of excellent stories. While the best of them have been anthologized elsewhere, having them together might be a reason to track this particular volume down.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume gathers the "world's best" science fiction short stories from 1966. Really, it gathers some very good ones written in English. Wollheim and Carr had a good eye for quality stories. They also go for variety here, so that not just one kind science fiction gets represented. There are a few classics in the collection, and some others less well-known. The collection starts with a classic, Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," a brilliant tale of implanted memories and their effects. Next is another classic, Bob Shaw's "Light of Other Days," which introduced his "slow glass" concept, a glass that light takes years to pass through, so that one can have the same scene in a window, gradually changing. It is a marvelous idea put to great effect. Roger Zelazny's first story in the collection, "The Keys to December" represents some of Zelazny's best writing, which I contend was his 1960s short fiction. He never wrote better than these stories. "The Keys to December" is a smart story about love and loss, but also about the ethics of terraforming. The next story is R.A. Lafferty's "Nine Hundred Grandmothers," another classic. Lafferty's schtick was writing science fiction as if Flann O'Brien had written science fiction. The result is brilliant, funny, weird, and looks like no other science fiction. "Bircher," the only published fiction by A.A. Walde (a pseudonym), tells an intriguing tale of the investigation of a murder by a jaded and world-weary chief detective of the future, when murder is almost impossible to get away with. The ending of the story is disappointing because it relies on too many coincidences. Michael Moorcock's "Behold the Man" is another of the classics. It tells the tale of a man traveling back in time searching for the historical Jesus, only to find that he becomes the Jesus he is searching for. Next is Avram Davidson's "Bumberboom," an amusing though not deep story of the far future when nearly all technology has been lost and society has gone medieval in weird, quasi-fantastical ways. Then, we get another classic, Frederik Pohl's "Day Million." It's another of Pohl's think-pieces, half story and half essay that leaves the reader pondering many things about cultural assumptions. Paul Ash (real name Pauline Ashwell) gives us "Wings of a Bat," the closest to hard science fiction in this collection. A group of time-traveling engineers adopt a pterodactyl as a pet. It gives us a strange sort of "Lassie" moment in the second half of the story. Dannie Plachta's "The Man from When" is a piece of flash fiction, meaning that it is really a kind long joke. Brian W. Aldiss, one of my favorite sf authors, gives us an interesting, daft, and thoughtful story of the future when the machines are basically ruling the humans with "Amen and Out." This is one of several Aldiss stories, and stories in this collection, that take on the question of what the exact relationship between humans and machines is. Ending the collection is Zelazny again with another of his superior 60s short stories - "For a Breath I Tarry." It takes place in the far future, after humanity has disappeared, and only the machines are left. Zelazny, however, tells the story as if it were a myth. It is part "Book of Job," part Wandering Jew, part "Doctor Faustus," all about a machine determined to discover the essence of humanity. One can tell that I do not think all of the stories qualify as "best" of 1966 science fiction. I can think of some others that should be in here. However, it does contain several of the genuine best stories - Dick, Pohl, Lafferty, Moorcock, Shaw, both Zelazny stories - and some that are very good - Aldiss and Walde - and none that are less than entertaining.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

You ever read a book, and it's so familiar (but in a vague kind of way) that you think you may have read it 20 years ago? Yeah -- this is that kind of book. I may have originally read this when I lived in England -- or that most (if not all) of the stories here have appeared in so many other anthologies that it FEELS as if this was a re-read.

This is a review of the paperback, under the revised title World's Best Science Fiction: Third Series. This included illustrations by Jack Gaughan, which appear with the title of each selection. You can currently find this at the Internet Archive.

Selections:

* "Introduction" by Our Co-editors. This time around, there's a wail about the lack of short stories in 1966 because of the rise in novels, but then there is a claim that they found some of the best sci-fi stories ever. There is no mention of non-English writers.
* "We Can Remember For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick. This now-classic story about a man wanting to travel to Mars was the basis for the 1990 movie Total Recall. Has some nice twists and turns.
* "Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw. This story appears in a lot of sci-fi anthologies, for good reasons. It's not only an emotional slow burn, it's also a great example of hard sci-fi in the description of slow glass.
* "The Keys to December" by Roger Zelazny. Also found in other anthologies, this is the story of thousands of humans mutated into catforms to survive in a certain planet, which explodes unexpectedly before any colonists arrive. The mutants find another planet and destroy all life on it so they can survive. One of those species fights back. Absolutely brutal, brilliant stuff.
* "Nine Hundred Grandmothers" by R. A. Lafferty. One of his better stories -- although that's not saying much. Lafferty sets up a great premise, but delivers no payoff, leaving the reader feel cheated.
* "Bircher" by A. A. Walde. The introduction explains that this is Walde's first published story ... and man, does it show. There's far too much going on that gets in the way of telling the story of who killed an unidentified teenager. The only interesting bit is that Walde describes punks before there were punks.
* "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock. A German born English man travels back in time to meet Jesus Christ. Tedious Nebula award winning novella, although now considered a classic. Because of the subject matter, it's considered controversial.
* "Bumberboom" by Avram Davidson. I accidentally read the sequel to this, "Basilisk", first. Both fantasy parodies are way too long and incredibly dull.
* "Day Million" by Frederick Pohl. The happiest love story you'll ever read ... also, one of the best things Pohl ever wrote.
* "The Wings of a Bat" by Paul (actually, Pauline) Ash. A mining unit goes back in time, including a cranky doctor with no love for animals. And then he gets stuck caring for a baby Ptorodactyl (or species like one.) This was partly based on the works of legendary biologist Konrad Lorenz.
* "The Man From When" by Dannie Plachta. This very short story about a time traveler is more like a joke than a story.
* "Amen and Out" by Brian W. Aldiss. A cute sci-fi story set in the UK where immortal people become personal gods to regular people. One of the happiest things Aldiss ever wrote.
* "For a Breath I Tarry" by Roger Zelazny. The human species is wiped out, but machines have taken over rebuilding the Earth ... and getting on each other's last nerves. Our Protagonist is named Frost, who seems to act as Job. It's a lot better than how I've described it, and a nice way to end the anthology. It leaves a good taste in your mouth ... so to speak.

[Austin Beeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction to this collection discusses the trend towards longer narratives within science fiction. It was based on the idea that the sciences fictionalized were more in the social science arena and therefore required longer to work out. Looking back on this collection with the hindsight of more than fifty years, these longer stories do not seem to be anything special. Later best of the year collections would be dominated by novellas that would have been published as a novel in earlier times.

That aside, this collections contains three incredibly well known stories and one truly great story. “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale,” “Behold the Man,” and “Light of Other Days” have stood the test of time, but the least well known “Light of Other Days” is the only true classic in my book

World’s Best Science Fiction 1967 is rated 79%.

8 good / 3 average / 1 poor.

"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick

Good. The story from which “Total Recall” is based. A great idea with a solid story wrapped around it. A man wishes to travel to Mars, but can’t afford it. What he can afford is to submit to a procedure that will allow him to remember a trip that never happened.

"Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw

Good. This is a delicate heart-rending tale of a couple who stop to buy ‘slow glass’ which allow the viewer to see past moment. A true classic

"The Keys to December" by Roger Zelazny

Good. A group of people customized to work on another planet (Catform) run into terraforming complications when the planet they are changing may have intelligent life.

"Nine Hundred Grandmothers" by R. A. Lafferty

Average. Asteriod miners with usual names meet a race of people who maybe never die.

"Bircher" by A. A. Walde

Good. A murder occurs in a future where robot surveillance is everywhere. Not very original but comfortable SF murder mystery

"Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock

Good. A man who is versed in Carl Jung travels in search of the historical Jesus and then things spiral out of control.

"Bumberboom" by Avram Davidson

DNF. A note that I wrote while in high school reads, “Like everything by Avram Davidson, this is unreadable.” Apparently I still think so.

"Day Million" by Frederik Pohl

Good. A snarky, tongue-in-cheek tale of dating and society a million years in our future.

"The Wings of a Bat" by Paul Ash

Good. A time-traveling doctor is conscripted to care for a baby pteradactyl.

"The Man from When" by Dannie Plachta

Good. A cute short-short of a story that stars with alcohol and an explosion, but ends with alcohol and a wry joke.

"Amen and Out" by Brian W. Aldiss

Average. The collection starts to wear thin with this tale of supercomputers as religion.

"For a Breath I Tarry" by Roger Zelazny

Average. A fairy-tale-like story of super-robots competing on the earth after the age of Man is over.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

1967 was a damn good year for science fiction. When you've got a PKD story ("We can remember it for you wholesale") and that's probably not even one of the top three stories, you're in business. In addition to the inspiration for Total Recall, this collection has the amazing short short "The Man from When" by Dannie Plachta, which might be the punchiest story I've ever read--and definitely one of the best punchlines. Michael Moorcock's "Behold the Man" is a great story about making a myth into reality (in this case, Jesus Christ). "Bircher" by AA Walde takes a new tack on the police procedural, and I really dug that, too. Honestly, I liked all the stories here except the dual dose of Zelazny that I once again found dull as a phonebook. Sorry, folks, I'm just not the target audience.

I'm a bit of a throwback, preferring the styles here--rough, still wearing pulp on their sleeve--to a lot of the polished, exacting stories written today. So when I wanted to start trying to read more fiction again, this was a perfect fit. Definitely a little gem of a book if you run into it.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with any anthology, the stories vary in quality. But for this volume which covers the best short science fiction of 1966, there were enough 5-star stories to rate the whole anthology 5-stars.

5-star stories:
+ "The Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw
+ "Day Million" by Frederik Pohl
+ "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock
+ "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick
+ "The Keys to December" by Roger Zelazny

4-star stories:
+ "Amen and Out" by Brian W. Aldiss
+ "For a Breath I Tarry" by Roger Zelazny
+ "Nine Hundred Grandmothers" by R. A. Lafferty
+ "Bumberboom" by Avram Davidson
+ "Bircher" by A. A. Walde

3-star stories:
+ "The Wings of a Bat" by Pauline Ash (as Paul Ash)
+ "The Man From When" by Dannie Plachta

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) In 1967, I was 11 and just discovering the joys of the SF short story in the SF maagzines, beginning with classic authors like Bradbury, Clarke, and Asimov. But by 1967, the "new wave" of science fiction was in full swing and I was soon reading stories by JG Ballard, Michael Moorcock, Philip K Dick and Judith Merril. Revisiting this collection after some 50 years, I found a great variety of stories, some traditional, some new-wavish. About half of them are still enjoyable, but the real find here is Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock, about a man who time-travels back to the time of Jesus Christ. That story hit me like a freight train when I was a kid and it still packs a punch.

[Cheryl]

Now, it's not actually on openlibrary yet. But I expect it will be, so this is the best tag for it.

[Perry Middlemiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second of the anthologies of best sf stories of 1966 that I’m reading as research for a future podcast episode. Twelve stories, of which I thought six were better than average: “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick; “Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw; “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” by R. A. Lafferty; Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock; “Day Million” by Frederik Pohl; and “The Wings of a Bat” by Pauline Ashwell. Only two stories by women and all, bar the Pohl, from the usual major American and British prozines. This is a rather safe, conservative anthology which really only gives a one-sided view of science fiction in 1966. It’s saving grace lies in being the first US publication of the Moorcock novella, which would subsequently lead to its winning a major award the following year. R: 3.0/5.0

[Duncan Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts and finishes strong. The stories in the middle are meh.