SF: The Year's Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy: 2nd Annual Volume

The Year's Best S-F (Merril) #2

by Judith Merril (Editor)

CONTENTS:
THE MAN WHO LIKED LIONS - by John Bernard Daley
THE COSMIC EXPENSE ACCOUNT - by C. M. Kornbluth
THE FAR LOOK - by Theodore L. Thomas
WHEN GRANDFATHER FLEW TO THE MOON - by E. L. Malpass
THE DOORSTOP - by R. Bretnor
SILENT BROTHER - by Algis Budrys
STRANGER STATION - by Damon Knight
EACH AN EXPLORER - by Isaac Asimov
ALL ABOUT “THE THING” - by Randall Garrett
PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER, THEY SPELL MONSTER - by Ray Russell
DIGGING THE WEANS - by Robert Nathan
TAKE A DEEP BREATH - by Roger Thorne
GRANDMA’S LIE SOAP - by Robert Abernathy
COMPOUNDED INTEREST - by Mack Reynolds
PRIMA BELLADONNA - by J. G. Ballard
THE OTHER MAN - by Theodore Sturgeon
THE DAMNEDEST THING - by Garson Kanin
ANYTHING BOX - by Zenna Henderson

THE YEAR’S S-F
Summation and Honorable Mention
by Judith Merril

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Anthologies

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Josephine Juliet Grossman

aka Cyril Judd (with C.M. Kornbluth)

Judith Josephine Grossman (Boston, Massachusetts, January 21, 1923 - Toronto, Ontario, September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist.

Although Judith Merril's first paid writing was in other genres, in her first few years of writing published science fiction she wrote her three novels (all but the first in collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth) and some stories. Her roughly four decades in that genre also included writing 26 published short stories, and editing a similar number of anthologies.

Reviews

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

7+ Not the best collection of short SF-fiction out there, but certainly very entertaining. The editor notes in her afterword that the theme of communication is central, and it is! Another theme I noticed is the idea of returning to earth after being in space or encountering alien life. There is a notion here of such encounters (in a way communication too) changing a person, so fitting in in the old world is not easy. In 'Silent Brother' by Algis Budrys the returning astronauts take something with them that has changed them for the better, but a counterpoint is the Asimov story 'Each an explorer' that I read as a teenager and found scary like a horror story then. The explorers here visit a strange ecosystem and are changed in ways they themselves cannot be certain about. It's still a horrifying idea. The theme of inadvertently losing the qualities that give human beings advantage over other creatures, also appears in 'Grandma' Lie Soap' - that warns about the unintended consequences of technology (same as we now see how the use of smartphones changes our concentration and even our empathy). On the other hand there's the great final story 'Anything Box' by Zenna Henderson - who seems to be the best author in every collection I encounter. It's a shame her werk is forgotten by many, as she shows that small scale, personal, emotional stories were possible even in the 'golden age of SF'. Also she just writes extremely well. Here a child needs her 'anything box' to escape from cruel reality and the teacher doesn't understand this. People are also changed by psychiatric and psychological intervention, as in Sturgeons' 'The other man', where a psychiatrist uses a new technology when his ex asks him to help her abusive spouse. The therapy has unintended consequences. Oh, this collection also contains the first published story by J.G. Ballard - it's about botany and singing orchids. A bit too experimental to my taste, and at the end I had a hard time knowing what was going on. 'The cosmic expense account' shows what happens when a reader takes the work of an author all too seriously, and there's a fun time travel tale in 'Compounded interest', but it's not very deep. All in all an interesting collection that I enjoyed reading.

[Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories and novellas, with a nifty poem version of The Thing (aka. Who Goes There?) thrown in for good measure, this felt like an improvement over the first collection in the previous year and there are some highlights here, interestingly not always from those you would expect it the most. 

For example the Asimov story is ok, but it isn't a stand-out here, much better is the story by the unfairly comparatively unknown Zenna Henderson, the only woman writer on the anthology who with her story Anything Box presents what is probably the most emotionally affecting of the stories here. Other highlights are Damon Knight's subtly horrific Stranger Station and Theodore Sturgeon's mesmerism/psychiatry fantasy The Other Man.

However, no story feels more revolutionary, fantastical and revelatory than J.G. Ballard's Prima Belladonna, his first science fiction story. In a sea of psychic powers and nuts and bolts spaceship stories his creation points the way to a controversial future. This would come to be known as New Wave Science Fiction and would mainly be irking conservatives in the 60s, suddenly you have golden women with insect eyes... not eyes like the eyes of insects but eyes which are insects, you have plants which play classical music, you have sex and weirdness and psychological depth and just plain feeling of the alien. J.G. Ballard is a prophet of the future of Science Fiction and Judith Merril was his John the Baptist.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

320 pages of fantastic stories and scientific Mysteries. The Dell first edition is the best copy. Not all the stories are amazing though. Some are bland and empty with little to do with fantasy. But all of them are well written and enjoyable

[CONNIE BALTHROP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were good, but they are not politically correct. You need to remember how old these stories are.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1957 volume contains speculative fiction stories from magazines published in roughly the previous year, hand-picked by the editor to represent the best the field had to offer at the time. (I’ve previously reviewed the fifth annual, which switched the title from “Greatest” to “Best.”) It contains eighteen stories and articles, beginning with “The Man Who Liked Lions” by John Bernard Daley (an unusual person spends the day at the zoo; he isn’t too impressed with the human visitors) and finishing with “The Anything Box” by Zenna Henderson (a teacher notices that one of her students has an imaginary box of wonders–or is it imaginary?)

“The Anything Box” is the best story in the collection–Ms. Henderson was a first-grade teacher herself, and it shows in her descriptions of the students and their personalities. And also in the dialogue of Alpha, the teacher kids won’t remember fondly at all, even while she prides herself on the discipline she inflicts. The use of imagination, and its perils, are well-represented here.

Also of interest: “All About ‘The Thing'” by Randall Garrett, a summary in rhyme of the classic John W. Campbell story “Who Goes There?” Ms. Merril mentions in her introduction to the next piece, “Put Them All Together, They Spell Monster” by Ray Russell, how disappointed she was that Hollywood in the Fifties decided to go with sci-fi creature features for their movies, instead of thoughtful SF like “Destination Moon.” The piece itself is a parody of the plots of monster movies, with a bit of extra spice because it first appeared in Playboy. (No actual sex or naughty words.)

“Grandma’s Lie Soap” by Robert Abernathy takes a fantastical premise–a soap that prevents the user from telling untruths, and follows it to a logical conclusion, only to present a new dilemma in the last paragraphs, one that perhaps makes the main character’s actions more dangerous than he’d thought.

Theodore Sturgeon’s “The Other Man” should be talked about a bit. An abused woman asks her ex-boyfriend, now a renowned psychiatrist, to treat her awful husband. The story has a unique take on the habit abusive people have of suddenly being the most loving, wonderful person you fell in love with before going back to being abusive. The therapy works, but something of value might have been lost in the process.

Many of the stories have the theme of communication, with others or with oneself. In the afterword, Judith Merril notes that the previous year’s stories had been marked by cynicism and pessimism, while this crop is somewhat more hopeful. She also notes that the pressure for conformity in the greater society led to more use of science fiction and fantasy as metaphors for current events and social ills.

I have not even mentioned several famous writers who got their works in; Isaac Asimov, J.G. Ballard (his first published story!), Algis Budrys, Damon Knight, C.M. Kornbluth and Mack Reynolds. Their stuff is pretty good too.

Be aware that there is period sexism in the stories, (all the authors but Zenna Reynolds were white men) and some ethnic stereotyping.

Overall, a fine collection, worth picking up if you see it–also check your library for this or later volumes.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first couple stories, the lions one and "The Far Look" amateurish and hokey--the latter more a poem than a story, and a sappy one at that (the premise could've only come out of the pre-space flight era). Merril seems to want to show how omnivorous she is, so we get a poem from somebody's newsletter and something she found in crayon on a rock in Wales. Only two really good stories were "Grandma's Lie Soap" by one Robert Abernathy and Zenna Henderson's "The Anything Box"--with the great line: "I never knew a person so serenely unaware of essentials and so sensitive to trivia." I think I'd've liked that story even better though if the girl at the end had refused to take back the box from the teacher--with the sadness of maturity.