The 1973 Annual World’s Best SF. edited by Donald A. Wollheim. DAW, 1973
Goat Song. Poul Anderson. Originally in : The Magazine of Fantasy & Science FIction, Far
Reviewing short SF since 2000
Goat Song. Poul Anderson. Originally in : The Magazine of Fantasy & Science FIction, Far
After co-editing a Year’s Best series with Terry Carr for several years, the pair went
With the exception of the Asimov story, the remainder could all be put forward quite happily as being very good examples of short SF and worthy of their status as Hugo Winners.
The book contains the winning entry for each category from the 47th Convention in Boston,
Introduction The book contains the winning entry for each category from the 44th Convention in
US pbk (amazon.com) IntroductionThis volume followed ‘The Hugo Winners’ (1962), and four further volumes (The
Published at the same time as Vol 4, this volume contains the nine winning stories
The 1973 Hugos get a whole volume to themselves. The volume contains all four winning
I’ve had this on my shelves for goodness how many years, but have just (Feb
‘Hugo Winners Volume III’ follows (not unsurprisingly) the first two volumes of collected Hugo award-winners,
‘Hugo Winners Volume II’ followed the first collection of award-winners, but was published in two
Introduction Hugo Winners Volume II’ followed the first collection of award-winners, but was published in
Introduction Isaac Asimov introduces this first volume of Hugo winners, beginning with the 1955, 13th
It is sad to see Spectrum SF gradually slipping away from us. Despite an over-reliance on two or three authors, the quality of the fiction was generally of a very good standard. Certainly Spectrum SF 9 appears to have a more substantial fiction content than the recently launched UK magazine ‘3SF’. But did it/does it have enough to exist in a notoriously difficult part of the publishing industry?
An excellent collection of stories. Little in the way of the standard SF tropes – all near-future tales showing an at times pessimistic view of where we are heading as a race and what that will mean for humanity as a whole and individuals on a personal level. Excellent writing and with only two or three exceptions, SF of the highest order.
I am holding off on reading this volume, which I managed to get a copy of in 2002 on eBay. For the moment, here are the contents, and some story summaries for those stories read in other volumes.
The Stross novel is great fun, and Neal Asher’s story is equally enjoyable. The other stories are fine as far as they go, but they don’t really go anywhere that hasn’t been gone before.
Gardner Dozois’ A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, FictionWise, Microsoft Reader Welcome to a single
Stories by Richard Wilson, Samuel R Delany, Colin Kapp, R A Lafferty, Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Thomas M Disch, Rogert Zelazny, Andrew J. Offutt, Harlan Ellison, Ron Goulart, Keith Roberts, R A Lafferty, Larry Niven, Brian W Aldiss, D G Compton.
A ‘How to Start Reading and Enjoying Classic Short SF’. Compulsive and required reading for anyone who wants to get into what makes short SF.
The lengthy serialisation and 40+ pages for the archive (new novels, summaries of short stories) limit the space for short fiction. The Soon Lee and Lacey stories are quite short, the Eric Brown story is gently understated, leaving, for me, the David Redd story as the high point of this issue.
The longer than usual gap since my last review can now be revealed as being
All in all and interesting read, and worth the purchase if nothing else just to give an extended flavour of SF in a different culture.
A better than good collection of mostly British stories.
Continued best of luck to Paul Fraser and Spectrum SF, but how long can it go on without accepting unsolicited manuscripts and with a still relatively small ‘stable’ of writers?
The Ant-Men of Tibet. Stephen Baxter Originally in Interzone #95, May 1995. Baxter pays a
Whilst out shopping on a Saturday afternoon in Colchester recently I popped into a new
F&SF have been producing anthologies since 1952 – annual anthologies for the first quarter century,
Enjoyable stories from Keith Roberts and Mary Soon Lee, and a promising-looking novel by an author with a fine pedigree (whether rusty or not remains to be seen).
Following Stanley Schmidt’s editorial in which he muses on children’s play and the role of
With this, the third issue, we should start to be getting a feel for how this new UK magazine is shaping up. This is not quite as easy as you might expect as this issue is a mix of ‘more of the same’ and ‘less of the same’.
Another review that didn’t make the transition to the new Best SF a couple of years ago.
A review which first appeared back in 2000, but which didn’t make the migration to the Wordpress-powered Best SF a couple of years ago.