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World's Best Science Fiction #6
World's Best Science Fiction 1970
"An excellent anthology, packed with fine stuff and including many good stories originally published outside the science fiction magazines." - Fantasy & Scince Fiction.
This acclaim was typical of many fine reviews of last year's compilation of the WORLD'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION, and it is equally applicable to the current volume, in which nearly half of the stories will be new even to regular readers of the American science fiction magazines.
Here are stories of space exploration, strange human societies of tomorrow, adventures in the far future and compelling visions of world apocalypse. These are the finest stories of modern science fiction, a rich treasury of wonder to stay in your memory while the future continues to become the present.
Contents:
A Man Spekith by Richard Wilson
After the Myths Went Home by Robert Silverberg
Death by Ecstasy by Larry Niven
One Sunday in Neptune by Alexei Panshin
For the Sake of Grace by Suzette Haden Elgin
Your Haploid Heart by James Tiptree, Jr.
Therapy 2000 by Keith Roberts
Sixth Sense by Michael G. Coney
A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
And So Say All of Us by Bruce McAllister
Ship of Shadows by Fritz Lieber
Nine Lives by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Big Flash by Norman Spinrad
This acclaim was typical of many fine reviews of last year's compilation of the WORLD'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION, and it is equally applicable to the current volume, in which nearly half of the stories will be new even to regular readers of the American science fiction magazines.
Here are stories of space exploration, strange human societies of tomorrow, adventures in the far future and compelling visions of world apocalypse. These are the finest stories of modern science fiction, a rich treasury of wonder to stay in your memory while the future continues to become the present.
Contents:
A Man Spekith by Richard Wilson
After the Myths Went Home by Robert Silverberg
Death by Ecstasy by Larry Niven
One Sunday in Neptune by Alexei Panshin
For the Sake of Grace by Suzette Haden Elgin
Your Haploid Heart by James Tiptree, Jr.
Therapy 2000 by Keith Roberts
Sixth Sense by Michael G. Coney
A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
And So Say All of Us by Bruce McAllister
Ship of Shadows by Fritz Lieber
Nine Lives by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Big Flash by Norman Spinrad
349 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Donald A. Wollheim
254 books27 followersDonald 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 29, 2022
TOC and story details: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?5...
2020 reread: For a 50-year-old anthology, this is still impressive. As always, some stories weren't to my taste. Editors Donald A. Wollheim (1914-1990) and Terry Carr (1937-1987) are both long-gone, as are many of the authors. Tempis fugit.
Standouts:
● Nine Lives (1969) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018). Le Guin struts her SF writing chops in this classic story: a tenclone on a geologically-unstable mining planet. A mining disaster shows that plain old homo saps still have an edge. Best story in the anthology. Wonderfully well-written. 5 stars! I've reread it many times. Online copy: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625...
● A Boy and His Dog (1969) • novella by Harlan Ellison (1934-2018). Won the 1970 Nebula. Runner-up for the 1970 Hugo for best novella. A classic Ellison dystopia that I've read a number of times over the years. Not reread, but I'm guessing it would come in around 4 stars if I had. The comments here, at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... are interesting. Online copy of an old pb: https://www.scribd.com/document/35917... (view full-screen to read).
● Death by Ecstasy • [Gil Hamilton] • (1969) • novella by Larry Niven. The first Gil Hamilton story, and it holds up well. Original title was "The Organleggers," and if you've read much Niven, you've likely seen it. 3.7 stars. Not online legally, sfaict [=so far as I can tell].
● For the Sake of Grace (1969) • novelette by Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015). An Arabian-flavored future world, where the status of women is, well, not high. The 12-year-old daughter of a nobleman applies to take the Poet's exam. If she fails, the penalty is solitary confinement for life. This is not a subtle story, but it worked for me. 3.5 stars. Not online, sfaict.
● The Big Flash (1969) • novelette by Norman Spinrad. A heavy-metal hair band, sponsored by a major aerospace corporation, inadvertently(?) starts nuclear Armageddon. More plausible than it sounds, but still pretty grim. 3+ stars. Not online, sfaict.
I didn't reread the Silverberg or the early Tiptree stories (or any of the others not mentioned here). The Panshin was OK, and Leiber's "Ship of Shadows" is, well, very odd. Though it does have a cool ship's cat!
2020 reread: For a 50-year-old anthology, this is still impressive. As always, some stories weren't to my taste. Editors Donald A. Wollheim (1914-1990) and Terry Carr (1937-1987) are both long-gone, as are many of the authors. Tempis fugit.
Standouts:
● Nine Lives (1969) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018). Le Guin struts her SF writing chops in this classic story: a tenclone on a geologically-unstable mining planet. A mining disaster shows that plain old homo saps still have an edge. Best story in the anthology. Wonderfully well-written. 5 stars! I've reread it many times. Online copy: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625...
● A Boy and His Dog (1969) • novella by Harlan Ellison (1934-2018). Won the 1970 Nebula. Runner-up for the 1970 Hugo for best novella. A classic Ellison dystopia that I've read a number of times over the years. Not reread, but I'm guessing it would come in around 4 stars if I had. The comments here, at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... are interesting. Online copy of an old pb: https://www.scribd.com/document/35917... (view full-screen to read).
● Death by Ecstasy • [Gil Hamilton] • (1969) • novella by Larry Niven. The first Gil Hamilton story, and it holds up well. Original title was "The Organleggers," and if you've read much Niven, you've likely seen it. 3.7 stars. Not online legally, sfaict [=so far as I can tell].
● For the Sake of Grace (1969) • novelette by Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015). An Arabian-flavored future world, where the status of women is, well, not high. The 12-year-old daughter of a nobleman applies to take the Poet's exam. If she fails, the penalty is solitary confinement for life. This is not a subtle story, but it worked for me. 3.5 stars. Not online, sfaict.
● The Big Flash (1969) • novelette by Norman Spinrad. A heavy-metal hair band, sponsored by a major aerospace corporation, inadvertently(?) starts nuclear Armageddon. More plausible than it sounds, but still pretty grim. 3+ stars. Not online, sfaict.
I didn't reread the Silverberg or the early Tiptree stories (or any of the others not mentioned here). The Panshin was OK, and Leiber's "Ship of Shadows" is, well, very odd. Though it does have a cool ship's cat!
June 11, 2021
The 1970 volume of Carr & Wollheim's annual anthology of their picks of the best short science fiction stories of the prior year was one of the, well, best. The book this year was once again pleasently illustrated by Jack Gaughan and John Schoenherr. 1969 was a great year for the field; even NASA won a Hugo Award presented at World Con for the Best Moon Landing Ever. Among the most memorable stories in the book are For the Sake of Grace by Suzette Haden Elgin, After the Myths Went Home by Robert Silverberg, Your Haploid Heart by James Tiptree, Jr., Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber (for the cat lovers), Death By Ecstasy by Larry Niven (a Gil Hamilton mystery novella), and The Big Flash by Norman Spinrad (which proves that rock'n'roll is here to stay). My favorite, of course, is A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison, even though it's no longer regarded as being in good taste (sorry).
August 20, 2021
We were calling them The Sixties before we even left the decade behind, as this anthology containing only science fiction stories published in 1969 makes very clear. There are even two whole women in the Table of Contents (three, if you count Tiptree, but nobody knew she was Alice then).
The World's best, though? Only if you are content with a world limited to the United States and England...
Contents adapted with thanks from the Wikipedia entry for this volume.
"A Man Spekith" (Richard Wilson)
The Last Man off Earth, and his unheard, unsuspected mechanical companion, try to hold onto a bygone planet's entire culture. Verbose and morose—an inauspicious beginning to the collection.
"After the Myths Went Home" (Robert Silverberg)
I did not remember this particular Silverberg, out of the hundreds he penned during his most prolific period, but it is a trenchant (if again overly woeful) testament to the powers and purposes of myth.
"Death by Ecstasy" (Larry Niven)
Nowadays, of course, we just use our phones for brain stimulation, but this early entry in Niven's Known Space series concerns a more direct, albeit cruder, method: a wire run straight to the pleasure centers of the brain. Do this to mice, give them control of the stimulation, and they'll pleasure themselves to death. Do it to humans... well, we're a lot stronger and smarter than mice.
Aren't we?
This is also the story that introduces us to Gil the Arm, of the ARM (the Amalgamated Regional Militia, that is; Earth's global police force, in charge of hunting down black-market organleggers):
It also shows a certain tentative recognition that women might actually be human beings:
As influential as this story has been, it might actually be one of the world's best for the year.
"One Sunday in Neptune" (Alexei Panshin)
If the question is "Science or Man," I think the answer has to be "yes." As the wording implies, though, women do not exist in Panshin's Neptune.
This one's short, and not especially memorable, I'm afraid.
"For the Sake of Grace" (Suzette Haden Elgin)
Elgin was a pioneering author of linguistically-focused SF, and founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (per Wikipedia). Her first published short story involves low-bandwidth interstellar communication and a patriarchal, poetry-obsessed society.
It ends as it had to end, as it should end.
"Your Haploid Heart" (James Tiptree, Jr.)
A very human alien biology is at issue here—just the sort of thing Tiptree was best at, and another story in this anthology that might actually have been among the "world's best."
"Therapy 2000" (Keith Roberts)
As prediction, of course, this story entirely misses the mark—but as a commentary on the relentless intrusion of mass media into our lives... well, I can understand why Travers would go to such lengths to shut out the noise.
"Sixth Sense" (Michael G. Coney)
What if being telepathic—being able to know what others think and feel—changes absolutely nothing about human nature?
"A Boy and His Dog" (Harlan Ellison)
Ellison's raw and brutal masterpiece of post-apocalyptic fiction—if you're not triggered by something about this story, there's not much hope left for you. I had forgotten myself just how brutal this one is. And it ends... well, it ends as it needed to end, man, but that don't mean (doesn't mean, Albert) that I have to like it.
"And So Say All of Us" (Bruce McAllister)
Curing Robert's schizophrenia with a plan that's so crazy, it just might work. I'm pretty sure that science has left this story behind... thank goodness.
"Ship of Shadows" (Fritz Leiber)
Spar works in a bar, in a blur, in a bubble—eyes fuzzed, toothless and oppressed, but at that Spar's luckier than many aboard Windrush. And all is made clear and sharp, in the end.
This one's a classic of surreal SF, and my favorite story in this anthology.
"Nine Lives" (Ursula K. Le Guin)
Maybe the science isn't quite up-to-date anymore, but the fiction sure is, in this powerful tale by the late, great Le Guin about a tenclone and their interaction with two lonely singletons.
"The Big Flash" (Norman Spinrad)
The Four Horsemen were nothing more than a cheap closing act for an L.A. nightclub—at least to start with.
A natural endpoint for the book—and this isn't the first collection I've read for which Spinrad's cynical tale of psychedelic cooptation has served as finale.
*
But so... was this the very best the whole world had to offer, in 1969? Nah, I can't believe that. But World's Best Science Fiction 1970 was pretty good, all in all—yeah, baby, I still dig it.
The World's best, though? Only if you are content with a world limited to the United States and England...
Contents adapted with thanks from the Wikipedia entry for this volume.
"A Man Spekith" (Richard Wilson)
The Last Man off Earth, and his unheard, unsuspected mechanical companion, try to hold onto a bygone planet's entire culture. Verbose and morose—an inauspicious beginning to the collection.
"After the Myths Went Home" (Robert Silverberg)
I did not remember this particular Silverberg, out of the hundreds he penned during his most prolific period, but it is a trenchant (if again overly woeful) testament to the powers and purposes of myth.
"Death by Ecstasy" (Larry Niven)
Nowadays, of course, we just use our phones for brain stimulation, but this early entry in Niven's Known Space series concerns a more direct, albeit cruder, method: a wire run straight to the pleasure centers of the brain. Do this to mice, give them control of the stimulation, and they'll pleasure themselves to death. Do it to humans... well, we're a lot stronger and smarter than mice.
Aren't we?
This is also the story that introduces us to Gil the Arm, of the ARM (the Amalgamated Regional Militia, that is; Earth's global police force, in charge of hunting down black-market organleggers):
Gilbert Hamilton. Born of flatlander parents, in April, 2093, in Topeka, Kansas. Born with two arms and no sign of wild talents.This is pretty sophisticated worldbuilding, really—interlocking various science-fictional extrapolations, including an overpopulated Earth; asteroid mining; psychic powers (within limits); strong cultural shifts; organ transplantation and its legal (and illegal) consequences; and the aforementioned electronic brain stimulation, among others. "Death by Ecstasy" also manages to deliver a mystery, involving an unexplained (or too easily-explained, perhaps) death.
—p.57
It also shows a certain tentative recognition that women might actually be human beings:
"Taffy is a person, not an episode, not a symbol of anything, not just a pleasant night."
—Julie, p.76
As influential as this story has been, it might actually be one of the world's best for the year.
"One Sunday in Neptune" (Alexei Panshin)
If the question is "Science or Man," I think the answer has to be "yes." As the wording implies, though, women do not exist in Panshin's Neptune.
This one's short, and not especially memorable, I'm afraid.
"For the Sake of Grace" (Suzette Haden Elgin)
Elgin was a pioneering author of linguistically-focused SF, and founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (per Wikipedia). Her first published short story involves low-bandwidth interstellar communication and a patriarchal, poetry-obsessed society.
"When the females of a household take it upon themselves to upset the natural order of things and to violate the rules of decency, there is very little anyone can do."
—The Kadilh ban-Harihn, p.122
It ends as it had to end, as it should end.
"Your Haploid Heart" (James Tiptree, Jr.)
A very human alien biology is at issue here—just the sort of thing Tiptree was best at, and another story in this anthology that might actually have been among the "world's best."
"Therapy 2000" (Keith Roberts)
As prediction, of course, this story entirely misses the mark—but as a commentary on the relentless intrusion of mass media into our lives... well, I can understand why Travers would go to such lengths to shut out the noise.
"Sixth Sense" (Michael G. Coney)
What if being telepathic—being able to know what others think and feel—changes absolutely nothing about human nature?
"A Boy and His Dog" (Harlan Ellison)
Ellison's raw and brutal masterpiece of post-apocalyptic fiction—if you're not triggered by something about this story, there's not much hope left for you. I had forgotten myself just how brutal this one is. And it ends... well, it ends as it needed to end, man, but that don't mean (doesn't mean, Albert) that I have to like it.
"And So Say All of Us" (Bruce McAllister)
Curing Robert's schizophrenia with a plan that's so crazy, it just might work. I'm pretty sure that science has left this story behind... thank goodness.
"Ship of Shadows" (Fritz Leiber)
Spar works in a bar, in a blur, in a bubble—eyes fuzzed, toothless and oppressed, but at that Spar's luckier than many aboard Windrush. And all is made clear and sharp, in the end.
This one's a classic of surreal SF, and my favorite story in this anthology.
"Nine Lives" (Ursula K. Le Guin)
Maybe the science isn't quite up-to-date anymore, but the fiction sure is, in this powerful tale by the late, great Le Guin about a tenclone and their interaction with two lonely singletons.
"The Big Flash" (Norman Spinrad)
The Four Horsemen were nothing more than a cheap closing act for an L.A. nightclub—at least to start with.
A natural endpoint for the book—and this isn't the first collection I've read for which Spinrad's cynical tale of psychedelic cooptation has served as finale.
*
But so... was this the very best the whole world had to offer, in 1969? Nah, I can't believe that. But World's Best Science Fiction 1970 was pretty good, all in all—yeah, baby, I still dig it.
December 10, 2015
all of these stories are from 1969, not 1970. highlights include: larry niven's "death by ecstasy", a cool pulpy detective story that works really well despite the fact that its set amongst asteroid belt miners, probably one of sci-fi's silliest tropes; harlan ellison's "a boy and his dog", an incredibly vulgar (especially when compared with the other material here) post-nuke story, that even by 1960s sf standards is way off the sexism scale; and norman spinrad's "the big flash", about a biker/hippie rock band used to promote and sway public opinion on nuclear weapons with a wild stage show and lyrics that would be right at home on a throbbing gristle performance
November 29, 2013
Most of the stories had interesting elements. My favorites were A Boy and His Dog (twisted love story, er, not bestiality) and The Big Flash (large-scale brainwashing). I also enjoyed After the Myths Went Home, Death by Ecstasy, For the Sake of Grace, and Sixth Sense. A quote from the last story (The Big Flash) sums up the series, and kind of the whole SciFi genre, well: Oh yes, I'm a monster mother... just call me mankind.
August 15, 2019
After the Myths Went Home by Silverberg has an ending that is incredibly haunting to me.
Shelved as 'xx-dnf-skim-reference'
August 23, 2021Not my era. Skimmed, skipped, and the few I did actually read made no impression upon me.
August 2021.
August 2021.
May 5, 2023
Skipped one; wish I had skipped another but found an author new to me, Suzette Hadin Elgin
Shelved as 'own'
October 20, 2013ISFDB 55366.
June 18, 2009
Actually, I have a hard-back book club edition, but the contents are the same.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews