The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 11th Series

by Robert P. Mills (Editor)

This anthology contains: The Sources of the Nile by Avram Davidson; Somebody to Play With by Jay Williams; Softly While You're Sleeping by Evelyn E. Smith; The Machine That Won the War by Isaac Asimov; Go For Baroque by Jody Scott; Time Lag by Poul Anderson; George by John Anthony West; Shotgun Cure by Clifford D. Simak; The One Who Returns by John Berry; The Captivity by Charles G. Finney; Alpha Ralpha Boulevard by Cordwainer Smith; Efficty; E=MC2 by Rosser Reeves; Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; and The Haunted Village by Gordon R. Dickson.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Anthologies

254 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Stephen Simmonds]

1960s, with names like Simak, Asimov, Avram Davidson.
Some psychedelia and poor attitudes interfere with enjoyment. Mostly historical interest.

[John Bruni]

This was not a good anthology. I was disappointed in every story except for two, and I didn't even read one of them. (I've read "Harrison Bergeron" before, so I didn't need to go over it again.) However, the one remaining story is worth the entire book. "Go for Baroque" by Jody Scott is an amazing tale. At first it seems like a humorous take on a patient whimsically tricking his shrink into becoming the patient, but by the time it's over, it's actually awe inspiring to see how sinister it got. Imagine an episode of Hogan's Heroes. Then think about how an actual psyop works, and you'll get why this story had such an impact on me.

The rest of the stories? Eh, the didn't do it for me, not even Asimov's, and he usually delivers. Not even Gordon R. Dickson, and I like his short work a lot. Ah well.

[David Grierson]

Sometimes I find it fun to pull an classic like this one off the bargain table in a second hand book shop and thumb through it. The style of writing from this era gives it away. Some are clunky. Some not so good. Still, for me an interesting mix of fantasy and SF and on balance I preferred the SF.

I am not going to recommend it. If you want a quick fix of short stories and you are not into the history side of SF and Fantasy then this is probably not for you. Go modern.

[Tbfrank]

This anthology contains 13 short stories and two poems from 1960-61. The most notable entries in this collection is Cordwainer Smith's "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," "Softly While You're Sleeping" by Evelyn E. Smith, "Shotgun Cure" by Clifford Simak, and "The Machine that Won The War" by Isaac Asimov, probably in that order.

[Leslie Holm]

Stories from the best authors during the golden age of Science Fiction - Anderson, Asimov, Vonnegut, Simak . . . You can't go wrong here.

[Lawrence]

http://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2017/11...

[Michael]

These are a selection of stories that have seen print in the long running Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction still running today. This collection was published in the early sixties. The content of the stories is quite broad ranging from traditional sci-fi to weird horror. Highlights for me were Avram Davidson's The Source of the Nile, eco-satire Somebody to Play With by Jay Williams proving that sci-fi was burning the ecological warning beacons half a century ago and The Machine That Won the War by Isaac Asimov - simple but genius.

[boocia]

a very good amount of spec fic that belnded fantasy and science fiction, as opposed to individually, SF short stories and fantasy short stories. Robert P. Mills definitely seemed to lean into the horror-surreal in building this collection.