Philip Jose Farmer. The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World.
Originally in : New Dimensions I
Inventive love story, in which overcrowding leads to people living only one day in seven, spending the rest in suspended animation. For Tom Pym Wednesday seems to hold more for him, including the promise of true love.
Robert Silverberg. Good News from the Vatican.
Originally in : Universe 1
A new Pope is being chosen. Will the white smoke herald the first robotic pontiff?
James Tiptree Jr. I’ll Be Waiting for You When the Swimming Pool is Empty.
Originally in : Protostars.
Hugely entertaining ironic romp. Young Cammerling, a nice Terran Boy, takes a year out, and finds himself on Godolphus Four.
Upon landing he is treated to the site of a huge battle, in which the opposing armies show no mercy. Being a nice Terran boy he decides to spend some time on the planet and to teach the warring factions the errors of their ways. Over a few years he gradually raises the denizens of the planet to a more civilised state, without, like, imposing on them external customs and mores.
David M. Locke. The Power of the Sentence.
Originally in : Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1971.
Harry Harrison. The Wicked Flee.
Originally in : New Dimensions I
Thomas N. Scortia. When You Hear the Tone.
Originally in : Galaxy, January 1971
Theodore Sturgeon. Occam’s Scalpel.
Originally in : IF Science Fiction, August 1971
Any tyro short SF writers should read this as an example of a master story-teller at work. It would prove difficult to describe the story without spoiling the story, so I won’t do that (Terry Carr in the Best Science Fiction of the Year 1 gives away a little too much in his intro), but suffice to say that in a short story Sturgeon keeps the reader off balance as the story twists and turns to a far from expected conclusion.
Burt K Filer. Hot Potato.
Originally in : The Many Worlds of Science Fiction
Harlan Ellison and A. E. van Vogt. The Human Operators.
Originally in : Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1971
A Lentini. Autumntime.
Originally in : Galaxy, November 1971
Ultra short. A young boy and his family go on a day trip to see a real tree.
Poul Anderson. A Little Knowledge.
Originally in : Analog, August 1971.
Three humans with no qualms about kidnap, spacecraft theft, illegal technology transfer or the arms trade, find the low-tech weapons of the oh-so polite Trillian race a most attractive proposition.
But they, like me, failed to spot the scientific kink in the rug over which they will trip.
W Macfarlane. To Make a New Neanderthal.
Originally in : Analog, September 1971.
R. A. Lafferty. The Man Underneath.
Originally in : IF Science Fiction, January 1971
B. Alan Burhoe. Ornithanthropus.
Originally in : IF Science Fiction, November 1971
Larry Niven. Rammer
Originally in : Galaxy, November 1971.
