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Post by sean on Jul 28, 2008 9:16:14 GMT
The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction number 11Edited by Robert P. Mills. First published in the uk 1964 (but (c)Mercury Press 1960,1961,1962) (Panther, May 1966) BLURB (outside and in): A superb collection of stories by the most brilliant exponents of science fiction and fantasy...
For example: ISAAC ASIMOV who provides a delightfully witty explanation of how a computer can win a war...
...or KURT VONNEGUT Jr with his terrifying description of a world where everyone is, finally, equal...
...or CLIFFORD SIMAK who writes about aliens who arrive from space bearing the most wonderful gift for mankind - a universal cure for disease...
... or AVRAM DAVIDSON who records the hilarious results of a young adman's discovery of a family that unfailingly mirrors future trends...
Not to mention stories by such masters as POUL ANDERSON, JAY WILLIAMS, GORDON R. DICKSON, JODY SCOTT and many others. _______________
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is justly regarded as the world's best. Its contributors include regualr sf writers as well as distinguished 'mainstream' authors. This new anthology is the eleventh in the series. There are fourteen contributers, some are world famous, others are new to the field: but all share one thing in common - their stories are memorable. Contains:The Sources of the Nile - Avram Davidson Somebody to Play With - Jay Williams The Machine that Won the War - Isaac Asimov Go for Baroque - Jody Scott Time Lag - Poul Anderson Shotgun Cure - Clifford D. Simak The One Who Returns - John Berry The Captivity - Charles G. Finney Alpha Ralpha Boulevard - Cordwainer Smith Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut Jr The Haunted Village - Gordon R. Dickson Always good to see a Cordwainer Smith story - he almost always came up with something interesting. Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' is one hell of a story, grim and poetic, one of the few SF shorts he wrote - most of his collected short fiction is mainstream, and by the time he started on novels he rarely wrote anything shorter - with exceptions such as 'The Big Space Fuck' for Harlan Ellison's 'Dangerous Visions' anthology (a collection, in its various volumes, I'm concerned to say I no longer have a copy of). Someone made 'Bergeron' into possibly the worst piece of shit film I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. I mean, it doesn't even read like it might make good viewing. I dunno, some people.
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Post by Calenture on Jul 28, 2008 11:04:32 GMT
The Year's Best Science Fiction No.4... I'd be interested to see the three previous volumes of this, as this one (as far as I can recall) contains some pretty good stuff... The Year's Best Science Fiction # 2
Ed' by Harrison and AldissSphere, 1969-70. Introduction - Harry Harrison Budget Planet - Robert Sheckley Appointment on Prila - Bob Shaw Lost Ground - David I Masson The Rime of the Ancient SF Author, or Conventions and Recollections - J R Pierce The Annex - John D McDonald Segregationist - Isaac Asimov Final War - K M O'Donnell 2001 - selected reviews - Lester del Rey, Samuel R Delany, Ed Emshwiller, Leon E Stover Golden Acres - Kit Reed Criminal in Utopia - Mack Reynolds One Station of the Way - Fritz Leiber Sweet Dreams, Melissa - Stephen Goldin To the Dark Star - Robert Silverberg Like Young - Theodore Sturgeon Afterword - The House that Jules Built - Brian Aldiss Proving that the 'grocer's apostrophe' was around even way back then... Afraid I can't synopsise these, it's been so long. But if I read the book now, I'd probably start with the Kit Reed story, as I remember his Chicken Soup from New Terrors 1. The John D Macdonald story - which I guess predates Airport (or was it Hotel?) But not Travis McGee, who'd been around since 1964, I think. A number of old timers here, like Sheckley - whose characters typically inhabited shacks in run-down towns transplanted from Westerns to Mars. Love these late 60s/early 70s laboratory photo covers, which don't seem to have dated a bit, although I admit they can be a touch anonymous seen en masse. I have volume 3, but can't find it immediately.
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Post by sean on Jul 28, 2008 11:17:16 GMT
Thanks for posting that, Rog. Looks like a good'un.
Kit Reed would be the chap behind 'Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater', I guess. Never read the book, but loved the title!
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Post by sean on Jul 28, 2008 11:24:48 GMT
Just found this when googling around, quite interesting in a 50s sf kind of way... I have got to get one of Cyril Kornbluth's hovering ashtrays!
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Post by dem bones on Jul 29, 2008 7:59:07 GMT
Mike Ashley (ed.) - The Mammoth Book Of Science Fiction (Robinson, 2002) Pete Rozycki Mike Ashley - Introduction: The Next Step
Eric Brown - Ulla, Ulla Peter F. Hamilton - Deathday Greg Egan - The Infinite Assassin Damon Knight - Anachron Connie Willis - Firewatch Robert Reed - At The 'Me' Shop Kim Stanley Robinson - Vinland The Dream Robert Sheckley - A Ticket To Tranai Philip K. Dick - The Exit Door Leads In Mark Clifton - What Have I Done? Frank Lillie Pollock - Finis George C. Wallis - The Last Days Of Earth Geoffrey A. Landis - Approaching Perimelasma Colin Kapp - The Pen And The Dark H. Chandler Elliott - Inanimate Objection Michael Swanwick - The Very Pulse Of The Machine Keith Roberts - High Eight Brian W. Aldiss - Shards John Morressy - Except My Life 3 Eric Frank Russell - Into Your Tent I'll Creep Clifford D. Simak - A Death In The House Stephen Baxter - RefugiumBlurb Can you see the future? Some strange things are going to happen ....
The best science fiction writing challenges our imagination, pushing it to extreme limits. In this anthology of stories containing some of the best science fiction produced over the past 50 years, 20 leading authors of the genre ask the question "What if ...?" and give their own fascinating versions of the changes that will happen in the centuries to come.
In ULLA, ULLA Eric Brown recounts the first manned Martian expedition and discovers H. G. Wells may have been right after all.
Geoffrey A. Landis takes us into the depths of a black hole in APPROACHING PERIMELASMA.
In THE INFINITE ASSASSIN Greg Egan polices the dimensions, seeking those who are taking over their alternate selves.
Is the ultimate Utopia heaven or hell? Robert Sheckley finds out in A TICKET TO TRANAI.
If you found a dying alien in your backyard, what would you do? Clifford D. Simak tells us in A DEATH IN THE HOUSE.
These and other stories make this one of the most entertaining and thought provoking SF anthologies in light years.[/i] Not sure if I'll ever get around to reading it, but here's another thrill-packed juicy one from Mike Ashley and those lovely people at Constable & Robinson, the home of niceness!
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Post by sean on Jul 29, 2008 10:37:51 GMT
Blimey, Dem, what's this? More SF? The Sheckley story is a treat, almost a novella if I remember rightly, and I've never met an Aldiss story I haven't liked. Oh and on the martian front, I used to have a three legged cat called Ulla. Lovely little feral thing. Big cute eyes and f**k**g HUGE teeth. _______________ The Best from Fantasy and SF 12th seriesEdited by Avram Davidson. First published in uk 1965, but (c) Mercury press 1961/2/3 (Panther 1967) BLURB (outside and in): A superb collection of stories...
From J.G. BALLARD a strange, haunting tale of an onrushing horde, and a garden which stood in its path, filled with crystal flowers...
THEODORE L. THOMAS's four page gem about a man who is put through a road accident under hypnosis... just echoes... and echoes... and echoes... in the mind... forever...
BRIAN ALDISS weaves a magic tale of the far future in which Earthmen are the last great adventurers, yet they can only carry on by losing other attributes that are more highly praised throughout the galaxy.
EDGAR PANGBORN is smitten by wanderlust and finds a most wonderful thing in the forest outside the city wall
...FROM THE PAGES OF THE HUGO-WINNING S*I-F* MAG _______________
Shut your eyes, open Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction at any page and whatever the story - and whoever the author: Aldiss, Goulart, Ballard, Blish, Pangborn, and way on down the line - ALL SYSTEMS GO!
So find yourself a comfortable position, pour yourself a drink, light a cigarette... and get set for thirteen sometimes chilling, sometimes black, sometimes hallucinatory, but always exhilirating, excursions across the HORIZONS OF THE FUTURE.
I do like a book that tells you to pour yourself a drink and light up a cigarette... Contains:Test - Theodore L. Thomas Please Stand By - Ron Goulart Who's In Charge Here? - James Blish Three for the Stars - Joseph Dickinson My Dear Emily - Joanna Russ The Gumdrop King - Will Stanton The Golden Horn - Edgar Pangborn The Singular Events which Occurred in the Hovel on the Alley off of Eye Street - Avram Davidson A Kind of Artistry - Brian W. Aldiss Two's a Crowd - Sasha Gilien The Man Without a Planet - Kate Wilhelm The Garden of Time - J.G. Ballard Hop-Friend - Terry Carr I'm a bit vague about this one, so I've added it to the pile for another read, but I can say that it contains possibly the most beautiful, delicate (okay, not attributes often sought here!) story that Ballard has ever written.
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Post by sean on Aug 8, 2008 8:54:05 GMT
Jumping forward the best part of a decade... The Best from Fantasy and Scienc Fiction (22nd series)Edited by Edward L. Ferman. First published 1978 (Ace 1978) BLURBS (outside and in): WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN...
Isaac Asimov... Robert Bloch... Ray Bradbury... Algis Budrys... Frederik Pohl... John Varley... Tom Reamy... and many more fine writers in this best from the best,
THE BEST FROM FANTASY AN SCIENCE FICTION
Featuring the Hugo Award winning novella 'San Diego Lightfoot Sue'!
"...we have here for the first time a completely representative BEST FROM F&SF, a book that will give you the feel of the total magazine and, we think, add to your pleasure." - from the Introduction _______________
Why this book is different from all the others in the series.
We are proud to present, in this twenty-second volume in a series, a dozen of the best stories from the last three years, ranging from Harvey Jacobs' funny 1,600-word sf piece 'Dress Rehersal' to Tom Reamy's tragic 16,000-word award winnig fantasy 'San Diego Lightfoot Sue.'
However, regular reader of F & SF know that there is somewhat more to the magazine than the fiction... We refer specifically to Isaac Asimov's long-running science column, Algis Budrys on books, and Baird Searles on films. We have also included a poem by Ray Bradbury and a sampling from the F & SF competitions,... And so we have here for the first time a completely representative BEST FROM F & SF. - from the introduction by Edward L. Freman Contains:Introduction - Edward L. Freman The Hertford Manuscript - Richard Cowper From Competition 2: Blurbs in Excess A Case of the Stubborns - Robert Bloch Books: Where We Are and Where We Came From - Algis Budrys From Competition 4: Story Leads from the Year's Worst Fantasy and SF My Boat - Joanna Russ In the Bowl - John Varley From Competiton 6: Bawdy Sf Limericks This Offer Expires - Liz Hufford Films: The Fantastic Ten - Baird Searles The Women Men Don't See - James Tipree Jr The Ghastly Priest Doth Reign - Manly Wade Wellman From Competiton 7: A Lexicon from an Alien Language Dress Rehearsal - Harvey Jacobs San Diego Lightfoot Sue - Tom Reamy Verse: Out of Dickinson by Poe - Ray Bradbury Sanity Clause - Edward Wellen Science: Thinking About Thinking - Isaac Asimov From Competition 8: Near-Miss SF Titles Mute Inglorious Tam - Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All - R. Bretnor I'm not too keen on this one for a number of reasons. Firstly, the addition of such an ammount of non-fiction material breaks the book up too much. The competitions are generally supposed to be humorous, and generally the miss 'funny' by several light years. Also, this dates from after the last great sparking of really interesting SF (although this is only my opinion, but I think Pulphack and Steve thought along roughly the same lines). Unfortunately, the majority of the stories found here are just not very interesting. The Bloch tale is okay, as is the Tipree and the Pohl/Kornbluth (who was already long dead by the time it was published). That's about it.
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Post by sean on Aug 9, 2008 10:19:33 GMT
New Writings in SF - 20Edited by John Carnell. First published 1972 (Corgi 1972) BLURBS (outside and in): NEW WRITIBGS IN SF 20
featuring stories by Grahame Leman, Colin Kapp, Robert P. Holdstock, H. A. Hargreaves, Dan Morgan and Michael G. Coney.
NEW WRITINGS IN SF
brings to lovers of science fiction strange, exciting stories - stories writtlen especially for the series by international authors.
NEW WRITINGS IN SF
is now one of the most popular and well-established series in science fiction and presents a stimulating and energetic approach to modern SF. _______________
In NEW WRITINGS IN SF-20 we have one of the most exciting collections of the series. OH,VALINDA! by Michael G. Coney is a fascinating - and sometime stomach turning! - account of the hunting of leviathan worms beneath the polar ice caps. Colin Kapp's WHICH WAY DO I GO FOR JERICHO? is the story of a wartime agent... but what a war, and what an agent! CONVERSATIONAL MODE deals with hospital treatment, and a doctor who is a computer, and in MICROCOSM we have a grisly tale of a man entombed in his own body. Dan Morgan's CANARY explores the concept of using a human being as an early warning system, and in CAIN by H. A. Hargreaves we have one of the most moving and compassionate stories ever written in the field of SF.
NEW WRITINGS IN SF-20... six superb tales edited by John Carnell. Contains:Conversationa Lmode - Grahame Leman Which Way Do I Go For Jerico - Colin Kapp Microcosm - Robert P. Holdstock Cain - Dan Morgan Oh, Valinda! - Michael G. Coney _______________ New Writings in SF. 24Edited by Kenneth Bulmer. First published 1974 (Corgi 1975) BLURB (inside - the outer one is the same as with SF 20, with only tha author's names changed): In The Ark of James Carlyle, Cherry Wilder depicts an island populated by quogs. These small creatures, not unlike baboons, wept when their mee-haw tree was cut down. But Carlyle evacuated them before their island submerged beneath the flood. And between Carlyle and the quogs there grew a strange affinity...
A Strange and Terrible Sea is the story of ten year old Sammy, who was partially paralysed: the result of a blow struck by his father in a drunken rage. Sammy read a lot of books on astronomy, and sf - but could this account for the weird repetitive dream he had each night? When he was put under observation in the Dream Research Establishment, it seemed that someone - or something - was trying to enter his mind...
Was Bamford-Taylor trying to be the New Canute? he was no tourist, visiting the time currents of Cirene merely to relish a atste of 'Time-terror'. His request to be taken back to a specific minute in time worried the skipper of the time-boat in which Bamford-Taylor was an out-of-season passenger...
David S. Garnett's Now Hear the Word brings horribly alive the resort of Sunville - a place of sanctuary for the rich and the old - while the rest of the world went to hell. Howard Felix, the Sunville reporter, tampered with his newscasts out of boredom. But the events he foretold had a disturbing way of coming true... Contains:The Ark of James Carlyle - Cherry Wilder And When I Die - Peter Linnet Three Enigmas: III. All in God's Mind - Brian W. Aldiss A Strange and Terrible Sea - Donald Malcom New Canute - Martin I. Ricketts No Certain Armour - John Kippax Now Hear the Word - David S. Garnett ________________ Eeek! I've run out of SF anthologies! So that's me done for now, unless I find any stragglers or until I pick up some more. It's been a lot of fun going through these again, and I've enjoyed re-reading several of them, and intend to read through the rest at some point. Thanks to those who also posted stuff here, and I hope that any of you with any other SF anthos will post a little bit about them if you have a few spare moments...
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Post by doomovertheworld on Jun 12, 2011 15:14:23 GMT
blurb: horror, prophecy and satire...A galactic war fought and lost because of the technical inferiority of the enemy's weapons Homo sapiens - on display in his natural habitat at an alien zoo. Homo abnegus - domesticated by a breed of intelligent Newfoundland retrievers who prize man for his stick throwing ability A Starship wrecked on the ice of a Long dead world peopled by hypnotic illusions 10 small masterpieces by Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, August Derleth, William Tenn and other top flight science fiction writerscontains: The Tinkler by Poul Anderson Superiority by Arthur C. Clarke McIlvaine's Star by August Derleth Brothers Beyond the Void by Paul W. Fairman Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful! by Stuart Friedman The Dead Planet by Edmond Hamilton Like a Bird, Like a Fish by H.B. Hickey The Gardener by Margaret St. Clair Null-P by William Penn Strange Harvest by Donald Wandrei quite a fun collection this. personal favorites in this collection are the dead planet, the gardener and brothers beyond the void.
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