The 1976 Annual World's Best SF

Annual World's Best SF #5

by Donald A. Wollheim (Editor), George R.R. Martin (Contributor), Lisa Tuttle (Contributor)

Contents:

Introduction, essay by Donald A. Wollheim
Catch That Zeppelin!, shortstory by Fritz Leiber
The Peddler's Apprentice, novelette by Joan D. Vinge and Vernor Vinge
The Bees of Knowledge, novelette by Barrington J. Bayley
The Storms of Windhaven, novella by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle
The Engineer and the Executioner, novelette by Brian Stableford
Allegiances, novella by Michael Bishop
Child of All Ages, shortstory by P. J. Plauger
Helbent 4, novelette by Stephen Robinett
The Protocols of the Elders of Britain, shortstory by John Brunner
The Custodians, novelette by Richard Cowper

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Short Story Collection

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1976

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

[Craig · Rating 3 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). 1976 was the fifth year that each edited their own volume, with their picks of the best of 1975. Two of the stories overlapped this year and appeared in both books, Child of All Ages by P.J. Plauger and The Storms of Windhaven by Lisa Tuttle and George R.R. Martin. I preferred Carr's book again this year, though both are pretty good. Wollheim also included good stories from Michael Bishop and Stephen Robinett. I believe my favorite was Fritz Leiber's Catch That Zeppelin!.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a George R.R. Martin novella (co-written with Lisa Tuttle) that was so good I was almost compelled to read Game of Thrones. Almost.

Writing this years later, that's all I can remember about this one.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, chosen by somebody (probably David A. Wollheim) to be the best stories in the grand old year of 1976.

I grabbed this because my physical TBR list was looking a bit slim and I wasn't particularly vibing with any of the ones I had left, so, as I sometimes do, I grabbed a random short story collection that I'd already read from a shelf. This particular one I read so long ago that I wasn't routinely reviewing everything I read. A lot has happened in that time, and although it's not the first time I've noticed this issue but man, sometimes print can be hard to read, and my copy of this book is harder than most, with teeny dark letters spaced not very far apart. I'm not holding it against the book, I just wanted to complain about it. Aging sucks, do not recommend.

As for the stories, well, every short story collection is a mix of hits and misses and ones that are only okay and two of us will likely not agree on which is which of these. But in this one... honestly, not all that many hits. I liked the Vinge story, "The Peddler's Apprentice" (revisiting it was part of the reason I chose this book over others), although it wasn't spectacular. The story "Child of All Ages" by P.J. Plauger was also an interesting look at an immortal character. Everything erlse? There were a few that were okay, "The Custodians" by Richard Cowper, and "Hellbent 4" by Stephen Robinett were fine. Most of the rest were kind of a slog for not particularly memorable stories. Maybe if the print-size issue wasn't so bad I wouldn't have been annoyed so much by being stuck long uninteresting stories, but it was and I was.

My baseline for rating a collection of short stories is usually 3 stars. I think two stars is appropriate for this one.

[Christopher K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection here with a more fantasy blend than in past collections; but that’s not a negative.
Spoiler free here is a breakdown of my experience with these stories.
Catch That Zeppelin! By Leiber - fun quick little story
The Peddlers Apprentice By Vinge and Vinge one of the more fantasy leaning stores but a great read and in the top 3 for me.
The Bees of Knowledge by Bayley- A wild fantasy/pulpy/ecological sci fi story, not for everyone but I really liked it.
The Storms of Windhaven by Martin and Tuttle - had lots of potential but ultimately fell a little flat for me, sci fi lite, with more fantasy elements, which is ok; the characters and story were lacking.
The Engineer and the Executioner by Stableford - amazing short sci fi, this is the good stuff . Top 3 for this collection.
Allegiances by Bishop - another one that fell flat, historical sci fi in a way, and it wasn’t for me.
Child of All Ages by Plauger I wasn’t familiar with the author but really enjoyed this one, and it’s that really good short sci fi that makes you think, loved it.
Hellbent 4 by Robinett A quirky little story about an impatient and irreverent AI and a space time paradox- what’s not to love ?
The Protocols of the Elders of Britain by Brunner A bit of a conspiracy sci fi exploration into past and present and it wasn’t amazing , but I did enjoy it - perhaps if I was from the UK some of his finer points may have hit different ?
The Custodians by Cowper The final story and one that really needed on a crazy conclusion. In my top 3 , and one that is a great example of what short sci fi can do’s in just a few pages.

[Michael crage · Rating 2 out of 5]

SF to me means science fiction, not low grade fantasy. The only reason it got two stars is that there was a couple pretty good SF stories and one good fantasy story. The rest of the storis were garbage. But since the shutdown with the coronavirus, and the library being closed. I am reading whatever I can find laying around. My brother-in-law was a SF & Fantasy fan and left several pocket book around. Otherwise I would have read all of three or four stories and just a page or two of the rest.

[Earl Truss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't read fantasy so I skipped more than the first half of the book. The remaining stories were out-dated or just not enjoyable. However there one decent story (Child of All Ages) and one outstanding one (The Custodians).

[JJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has some really great short stories. The lead story by Fritz Leiber is something special. A fair few authors I hadn’t heard of before that I’ll now be looking up!

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection of short stories that hold up well with time. Wollheim's collections are typically good - I recommend it and other in the series.

[Liz]

Catch That Zeppelin, Fritz Leiber - Big fat meh. You'd expect a story called 'Catch That Zeppelin' which features alternate-reality Hitler not to take place almost entirely over the course of a conversation in a restaurant, but you'd be wrong.

The Peddler's Apprentice, Joan D. Vinge & Vernor Vinge - Oh, I totally loved this one. I already knew I liked Vernor Vinge, and then he goes and does a post-collapse pseudo-fantasy future sci fi story? You're speaking my language, V.V. I'll have to see what Joan D. Vinge did on her own, too.

The Bees of Knowledge, Barrington J. Bayley - I really dug the narrator's voice, and of course this is a story about bees so it automatically appeals to me, but somehow it didn't totally pull me in. I'd read more by this author, though.

The Storms of Windhaven, George R.R. Martin & Lisa Tuttle - This is the sort of thing I love: take a basic what-if concept and extrapolate a whole world from it, down to the finest detail. In this case, "what if humans lived on a planet of tiny islands only accessible via wings belonging to a privileged few?" I got very absorbed in this one.

The Engineer & the Executioner, Brian Stableford - Eerie. I'm not sure if we are supposed to sympathize with the engineer or revile him as a mass murderer. Maybe both. Either way, this was definitely interesting and evocative, although it begins with a lengthy, expository conversation just like the first story.

Allegiances, Michael Bishop - I paused this one halfway through, at which point I was totally in love with it. An unabashedly Southern post-decline story! With kudzu! But I didn't really dig the ending. I still enjoyed the writing enough that I'll seek out more stories by this author- especially because he also wrote Death and Designation Among the Asadi!

Child of All Ages, P.J. Plauger - Small, quiet, perfect story about a girl- or woman? - who is immortal, but who always looks 8 or 9. You see this a lot in vampire stories, but I like this version much more. She isn't evil at all, just trying to survive in a world which insists that she 'belong' to an adult, even though she is over 2000 years old.

Helbent, Stephen Robinett - Charmingly bitchy robot has to save dumb humans from themselves. This one is really funny and kinda weirdly touching.

The Protocols of the Elders of Britain, John Brunner - The government conspiracy parts of the X-Files meets 1984 in Thatcher's Britain, via an innocent computer programer caught in the middle of it all. I really liked this one, but the terrible revelations of government misconduct are almost... quaint, from a cynical 2014 perspective.

The Custodians, Richard Cowper - I'll just say, monastery where a monk has a sacred responsibility to predict the future... and wow, did I not see that ending coming. Awesome.

Favorites: The Peddler's Apprentice, The Storms of Windhaven, Child of All Ages, The Custodians. I actually liked almost all of these though, with the exception of the first one.

[Lance Schonberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Left by the bedside, this took me a long time to get through. Any "best of" is going to a snapshot in time and a single person's vision. That vision won't always match your own.

And this one doesn’t consistently for me, which is okay. I like getting tastes of other people’s visions and used to love this series of annual anthologies (along with others) when I was younger. Part of that may be that I was closer in time to some of them, but when I look back these days, a lot of 70s SF, especially the later experimental and new wave stuff, falls flat for me. While I liked some of the stories in this volume, most of it dropped neatly into the “falls flat” bucket.

Other years in the series were certainly better to my reading, but I could probably find volumes I enjoyed less, too. It’s hard, when you read something that’s this old, filled with things that may have been on the edge of the genre at the time (or not), to gloss over that historical piece of things. There are stories I might have loved here when I was a teenager, but I’m not a teenager anymore and haven’t been for a long time. I’ve had several decades of reading since, several decades of familiarity with things that became old and tired tropes even though they didn’t start out that way.

Overall rating: 2.5 stars. If I’m honest, that last half star is due to nostalgia. The stories were fine, the writing generally good, but there really wasn’t anything in this volume that gave me that old sense of wonder I used to get all the time reading short SF. Part of that may be that I’ve read too much of it now to easily get that sense of wonder, and part of it might be that most of this work just doesn’t work for me in a modern sense. The sense of wonder is still out there, it’s just harder to find than it used to be and I didn’t find any here.

Doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying, though.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last work in this series that I still have in my library (unless I've missed something!). I recall how much I enjoyed receiving each one of the books in this series (I think I purchased these works through the Science-Fiction Book Club). In this volume, Fritz Leiber, one of my faves among sci-fi authors, is represented. A nice addition to the series. . . .

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great collection of stories, some quite poignant. Interesting to read some old George R.R. Martin (with Lisa Tuttle as lead) and compare with what I've seen watching Game of Thrones. Allegiances by Michael Bishop was especially good.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of D.A. Wollheim's Annual World's Best SF editions are good. For years I kept my eyes open for them.

[Ed]

ISFDB 34902. OCLC 6621308.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished "The Engineer & the Executioner" on 11/6/16. Good stuff.
Finished "Allegiances" on 12/26/16. Enjoyable.