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| Doubleday 1970 |
1. "Nightfall", Isaac Asimov
2. "A Martian Odyssey", Stanley G. Weinbaum
3. "Flowers for Algernon", Daniel Keyes
4/5. (tied) "Microcosmic God", Theodore Sturgeon,
"First Contact", Murray Leinster
6. "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", Roger Zelazny
7-10. (tied) "The Roads Must Roll", Robert A. Heinlein,
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves", Lewis Padgett,
"Coming Attraction", Fritz Leiber,
"The Cold Equations", Tom Godwin
11. "The Nine Billion Names of God", Arthur C. Clarke
12. "Surface Tension", James Blish
13. "The Weapon Shop", A. E. van Vogt
14/15. (tied) "Twilight", John W. Campbell,
"Arena", Fredric Brown
Another 11 stories fill out the rest of the book. As editor, Silverberg adjusted the top 15 winners to better balance the book's representation of sf authors in the last half century. The book essentially gives an idea of what sf writers in 1969 considered the most "classic" sf shorts of the preceding 40 years and are presented (mostly) in order of publication.
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| Avon 1971 |
"A Martian Odyssey", Stanley G. Weinbaum (Wonder Stories, July 1934)
"Twilight", John W. Campbell (Astounding Stories, Nov 1934)
"Helen O'Loy", Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1938)
"The Roads Must Roll", Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940)
"Microcosmic God", Theodore Sturgeon (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1941)
"Nightfall", Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science-Fiction, Sept 1941)
"The Weapon Shop", A. E. van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1942)
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves", Lewis Padgett (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb 1943)
"Huddling Place", Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1944)
"Arena", Fredric Brown (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1944)
"First Contact", Murray Leinster (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1945)
"That Only a Mother", Judith Merril (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1948)
"Scanners Live in Vain", Cordwainer Smith (Fantasy Book, Vol. 1, No. 6, 1950)
"Mars is Heaven!", Ray Bradbury (Planet Stories, Fall 1948)
"The Little Black Bag", Cyril M. Kornbluth (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1950)
"Born of Man and Woman", Richard Matheson (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Summer 1950)
"Coming Attraction", Fritz Leiber (Galaxy Science Fiction, Nov 1950)
"The Quest for Saint Aquin", Anthony Boucher (New Tales of Space and Time, 1951)
"Surface Tension", James Blish (Galaxy Science Fiction, Aug 1952)
"The Nine Billion Names of God", Arthur C. Clarke (Star Science Fiction Stories, 1953)
"It's a Good Life", Jerome Bixby (Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2, 1953)
"The Cold Equations", Tom Godwin (Astounding Science Fiction, Aug 1954)
"Fondly Fahrenheit", Alfred Bester (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Aug 1954)
"The Country of the Kind", Damon Knight (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Feb 1956)
"Flowers for Algernon", Daniel Keyes (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1959)
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes", Roger Zelazny (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov 1963)
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| Wonder Stories, July 1934, Frank R. Paul |
“A Martian Odyssey” (Stanley G. Weinbaum, 1934)
Jarvis, a member of a Martian exploration team, becomes stranded when his rocket crash lands far from his base. While heading back on foot, he rescues an ostrich-like alien from a black, tentacled creature and earns its trust. After naming his new friend “Tweel”, Jarvis allows Tweel to escort him on a days-long odyssey home. On the way, they encounter various Martian life-forms, including animated grasslands, silicon-based creatures who spend their lives building small pyramids, and a predatory creature which uses mental visions to lure its victims (Tweel’s original attacker). They later encounter a race of barrel-shaped creatures who gather surface detritus and sacrifice it to their giant underground grinding wheel. Near the grinding wheel is a strange crystal which apparently heals through some kind of radiation. The barrel creatures chase Jarvis and Tweel to the surface and are about to kill them when they are saved by the sudden arrival of an Earth ship. Tweel returns to his own people, while Jarvis reveals that he now possesses the healing crystal worshiped by the barrel creatures.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Stories, Nov 1934, Elliott Dold |
A man from the year 3059 travels 7 million years into the future and discovers that mankind has conquered the entire solar system and destroyed all other competitive life. Science has advanced mankind to power levels equivalent to near omnipotence. However, most scientific knowledge has been lost and the remaining vestiges of mankind are slowly dying out in a universal haze of ennui. Man has lost his sense of curiosity and life is maintained by machines. Lamenting this sad twilight of mankind, the time traveler programs one of the machine to try to seek out and restore the curiosity that Man has lost, and then heads back to his own time. On the way back, he lands in the 20th Century and tells a local farmer his tale.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1938, Charles Schneeman |
Annoyed with the limitations of their female mechanical servant, a doctor named Phil and his engineer roommate Dave purchase an android equipped with emotions, hoping that this added element will allow it to serve them more efficiently. The android, dubbed Helen O'Loy (after Helen of Troy), is activated and then left in front of a television set while the men go off to work. Phil does not return for several days due to a work trip, but when he does, he learns that television shows have instilled in Helen a great romantic passion for Dave (who had activated her in the first place). Dave has become frustrated at Helen's attempts to please him as a wife, and eventually moves out to run a fruit ranch. Phil remains with Helen but realizes she still pines for Dave. When Phil phones Dave to tell him that he and Helen have decided to wipe Helen's memory, Dave changes his mind and accepts Helen as his wife. Many years later, Dave dies of old age, at which point Helen asks Phil to have her buried alongside her husband's body (after she has deactivated herself).
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940, Hubert Rogers/Charles Schneeman
"The Roads Must Roll" (Robert A. Heinlein, 1940)
Mass transit is effected by people-moving conveyor belts (“roads”) which criss-cross the country at high speeds (reaching over 100 mph). When a mentally-unstable engineer named Van Kleek organizes a revolt amongst the workers, the union workers cause one of the roads to suddenly stop (which leads to many casualties). The Chief Engineer, Gaines, eventually makes his way to a meeting with Van Kleek. By preying on Van Kleek’s psychological weaknesses, Gaines eventually disarms Van Kleek, and the “rolling roads” are restored back to normal service.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1941, Charles Schneeman |
A misanthropic genius scientist named Kidder establishes a research lab on a remote island off New England. Somehow, he manages to create life in cellular form. Using his knowledge of biochemistry, he then comes up with a radiation treatment which speeds up the metabolism of lifeforms under its rays. Kidder then creates an artificial environment where he uses his ray on his new life-form, thus causing it to propagate at high speed and evolve into a full-scale civilization which he dubs the "Neoterics". Acting as the Neoterics' "god", he forces them (under penalty of death) to invent new technologies for him, with which he uses to gain wealth to further fund his research. Although Kidder's only desire is to be left alone on his island, his banker, an unscrupulous man named Conant, wants to use Kidder's mysteriously-derived technology for personal gain. Using hired thugs, Conant appropriates highly-efficient energy technology from Kidder and builds a power transmission plant on Kidder's island. Using the plant's power beams to control the detonation of devastating bombs placed around the country, Conant holds the U.S. government ransom. When Conant decides to drop bombs on Kidder's lab, Kidder hurriedly has his Neoterics invent an impenetrable shield to protect the island. After this shield also cuts off the transmission beams from the island power plant (disabling the ransom bombs), Conant is arrested and put into an insane asylum. However, the island's shield remains intact, and the narrator fears what might emerge from the island one day if the dome ever comes down.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, Sept 1941, Hubert Rogers |
"Nightfall" (Isaac Asimov, 1941)
Having 6 suns, the people of the planet Lagash never experience night. However, a scientist named Aton predicts that a solar eclipse will plunge the planet into total darkness for the first time in 2050 years, kicking off a social and technological apocalypse which will take 2000 years from which to recover from (after which the cycle will repeat itself). At the scientist’s observatory, a news reporter named Theremon expresses skepticism, while a cultist named Latimer claims that the phenomenon is a religious miracle predicted in the cult’s famous “Book of Revelations”. A psychologist named Sheerin claims that the mental strain caused by Aton's inconceivable “darkness” will prompt the citizenry to light their cities on fire in order to drive off the night (although this will also cause the collapse of their civilization). While these men discuss the approaching doom in the Aton’s observatory, cultists begin wreaking havoc in the nearby city in preparation for their “rapture”. When the eclipse becomes total, the witnesses are shocked to discover that their sky is filled with tens of thousands of stars (where they had only expected a half dozen). The unexpected realization that their planet is only a tiny part of a much larger universe drives them all mad.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1942, William Timmins |
In the harmonious village of Glay, built in homage to the Empress Isher, a "weapons shop" suddenly appears. A law-abiding man named Fara (who holds the Empress in high esteem) becomes angry at this affront to the power of the Empire and confronts the store owner. However, after being briefly interrogated by the store owner and his colleague, Fara is soon ejected from the premises. In the following days, events occur which ruin his town reputation and destroy his relationship with his rebellious son. Eventually, his son moves away to a more urban area, and becomes caught in a plot which causes Fara to lose his repair shop to a rival. With his life in ruins, his "friends" suggest to Fara that he go back to the weapon shop to purchase a gun, presumably to commit suicide with. He goes to the shop where he is sold a gun, but then taken on a bizarre journey where he learns that his revered Empire has been behind thousands of swindles against its own citizens, and that the weapon shops (spread throughout the Empire) are a secret resistance group aiming to open the eyes of the Empire's most devoted citizens and arm them with weapons with which to fight for their individual rights. Now fully convinced of the weapon shops' cause (which is shared by his helpful friends), Fara gladly uses his new gun to stand his ground against the local constables.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb 1943, Kolliker |
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), 1943)
- One million years in the future, a scientist puts a few of his son's old toys in a box and tests his time machine by sending the box back in time to 1942. It doesn't return, so he sends another box to the late 19th century. This too doesn't return and the scientist soon loses interest.
- In 1942, a boy named Scotty discovers the box and the toys it contains. He and his younger sister Emma begin playing with the toys and begin to see reality in unexplained ways (he can solve puzzles in a way which makes no sense). Scotty's father invites a psychologist over, who proposes that somehow the toys are teaching the children how to think by using non-Euclidean geometry and applying unconventional symbolism.
- In the late 19th century a young girl plays with some of the "magic toys" she had discovered in a box one day, and tells her Uncle (Lewis Carroll) strange stories, as well as a bizarre nonsense song ("Jabberwocky"). She explains that the nonsense rhyme reveals "a way out". Her Uncle promises to put her stories and the song in a book.
- In 1942, Scotty and Emma discover Carroll's book (Through The Looking-Glass), and using verses from "Jabberwocky", uncover a method by which they can open a way to another dimension. They depart to a more advanced level of existence (one more natural to the adults of one million years in the future), leaving their confused parents behind.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science Fiction, July 1944, A. Williams |
In the year 2117, the people of Earth have stopped living in crowded cities ("huddling places") and instead occupy individual family estates isolated from one another in the countryside. Although many younger people do travel to other planets, at a certain age they always return to their family estates to live out their lives. A retired doctor named Webster soon recognizes this psychological syndrome as an extended form of agoraphobia, but keeps it as a secret. One day, he is needed off-planet to save the life of a Martian friend (and a renowned interplanetary philosopher). At first afraid to leave his estate, he eventually resolves to go to Mars due to pressure from the government. However, when his transport to the spaceport arrives, his robot attendant sends the car away without telling its master, assuming that Webster would never have wanted to leave his home. Webster realizes that he is a prisoner of his own "huddling place".
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science Fiction, June 1944, A. Williams |
"Arena" (Fredric Brown, 1944)
Outside the orbit of Pluto, an Earth armada confronts an alien fleet bent on mankind's destruction. On the outskirts of the battle lines, an Earth man named Carson and one of the alien Outsiders are each plucked from their fighters and placed in an artificial domed environment by a godlike being. The being tells them that the massive battle about to take place will ultimately result in both races' destruction. In order to save one of the races, the being has decided that a lone representatives from each of the two races will fight a duel (won through courage and intelligence) which will decide the surviving race. In the domed environment, Carson discovers that an invisible force wall prevents him from engaging the spherical, tentacled Outsider (dubbed the "Roller" by Carson) in hand-to-hand combat. After a period of exchanging thrown projectiles with the Roller, a weak and dehydrated Carson eventually deduces that the barrier only prevents conscious beings from passing through it. He then knocks himself out with a stone, angling his body so that it falls into the other side of the barrier. Woken up by tentative attacks by the Roller, he immediately kills it with a hand-made knife. He then wakes up back in his ship, and soon learns that the enemy fleet has been mysteriously destroyed.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science Fiction, May 1945, William Timmins |
"First Contact" (Murray Leinster, 1945)
While exploring a nebula in deep space , the Earth ship LLanvabon detects an alien ship. The Llanvabon's captain is concerned that if the aliens are hostile, they might follow the Llanvabon back to Earth to invade it. He assumes the aliens may have similar concerns about their own planet and believes that this state of distrust requires that only one ship will survive this encounter. Eventually, the two craft establish inter-ship communication, and the Llanvabon's crew learn that the aliens appear to have the same worries as themselves. Neither ship may leave this encounter without suspicion of the other, and both are hesitant to destroy the other. During the ensuing standstill, Tommy, the Llanvabon's communications officer, eventually comes up with a plan to allow both ships to survive. The two crews proceed to disable weapons and tracking systems on their own ships, after which they exchange ships. This allows both ships to return home in an alien ship without fear of being followed or destroyed. The two crews promise to meet again, hopefully in peace. Later, Tommy tells his captain that the aliens are just as "humane" as himself, and that he had spent some time exchanging dirty jokes with one of the aliens before their parting.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science Fiction, June 1948, Alejandro |
"That Only a Mother" (Judith Merril, 1948)
While her husband Hank is away on assignment, a pregnant woman named Margaret worries about the rising rate of mutant babies being born (affected by atomic radiation). In several letters to her husband, she expresses excitement after the child's eventual birth and praises the newborn's beautiful face and advanced intelligence. When Hank finally returns home, he is horrified to discover that their child has no limbs, although Margaret seems to be in denial of this fact.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Fantasy Book, Vol. 1, No. 6, Jack Gaughan |
"Scanners Live in Vain" (Cordwainer Smith, 1948)
Due to an unexplained deep space malady called "the Great Pain" (possibly depression from sensory deprivation), humans need to be kept in a "sleep state" while in their spaceships. However, a crew is still necessary for the ships to function. To combat the Great Pain, these crew members are made into "habermen", in which connections between their brains and their senses (except for vision) are severed. Body functions are monitored and regulated through mechanical attachments. Because this transformation causes the haberman crew to resemble robots more than humans, most of them are created from criminals. However, one class of haberman, "Scanners", act as pilots and law enforcement. These Scanners (drawn from heroic volunteers of the Haberman process) are sometimes also allowed to "cranch", that is, use artificial means to briefly re-stimulate their senses so that they can re-experience physical sensations and real emotions.
One day, a man named Adam Stone discovers a way for mankind to traverse space without the need for hibernation or a haberman crew (by shielding passengers and crew with "expendable" life, such as oysters). At an emergency meeting, the Scanners decide that the abolishment of haberman crews will result in chaos amongst humanity, and that such a development will cause Scanners to "live in vain" (they will have no purpose). A Scanner named Parizianski is elected to assassinate Stone. However, a Scanner named Martel arrives at the meeting in a cranched state, and in such a state realizes that the Scanners are contemplating murder for selfish reasons. He races to Stone's apartment and warns him of the danger he is in. When Parizianski arrives, Martel kills Parizianski (by overloading his "circuits") but loses consciousness in the struggle. When he wakes up, he finds that his body has been restored to a normal, non-haberman state, and learns that Stone's plan will involve the rehabilitation of the Scanners back into normal humans. In fact, Scanners will continue in their roles as honored space pilots. Martel also learns that the authorities believe that Parizianski died from an "overload" triggered by happiness over this news.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Planet Stories, Fall 1948 |
"Mars is Heaven!" (Ray Bradbury, 1948)
In 1960, an armed expedition to Mars (mankind's third) discovers what appears to be a Wisconsin town from 1926. Soon dead relatives and friends of the astronauts begin appearing, urging their guests not to question this "gift from God". The crew members disperse to join their individual families (all previously-thought long-dead). That night, when Captain John Black lies down to sleep in his parents' house, he begins to suspect that he and his crew are being deceived and divided through telepathic means so that the Martians can destroy their armed invaders more easily. When he tries to leave the room, he is killed. The next morning, the townspeople hold a funeral for the entire crew of the space ship, now all deceased.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science Fiction, July 1950, Edd Cartier |
"The Little Black Bag" (Cyril M. Kornbluth, 1950)
In the 25th century, a doctor accidentally sends his medical bag back in time to the 20th century. There, it is discovered by a drunk named Full, formerly a doctor himself, but now considered a quack. Full discovers that the futuristic instruments in the bag allow him to work "miracles" and uses its properties to rehabilitate his status in life. Along the way he is joined by Angie, another "colleague" from the gutter who dreams of getting rich through the bag's powers. Full eventually tells Angie that he plans to turn the bag over to the Surgeon General so that mankind can benefit from this unknown technology. However, Angie disagrees with this altruistic plan and kills the doctor with a knife from the bag. An agent in the 25th century is then alerted to the fact that the contents of the missing medical bag has been used for homicidal purposes and promptly disables it remotely. When Angie next uses one of the bag's instruments in a "demonstration" to a client she is trying to swindle, she is unintentionally killed.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Born of Man and Woman: Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Chamberlain Press 1954 |
"Born of Man and Woman" (Richard Matheson, 1950)
A roughly-phrased diary of a creature chained up in a cellar describes its fearful relationship with its human parents. One day, when the parents have a party, the creature tries to emerge but is beaten back to the cellar. In another incident, the creature is discovered by the family cat and kills it. Further beaten, it vows vengeance on its parents someday.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1950, Paul Callé |
"Coming Attraction" (Fritz Leiber, 1950)
In a dystopic future NYC dotted with radiation zones caused by an ongoing war with Russia, a visiting Englishman saves a masked woman from some street punks who try to scare her with their armored car. In thanks, she asks him to meet her later in the evening. In the meantime, the Englishman muses on how masks have become a normal standard for women's fashion in America, sometimes to hide ugliness and sometimes to lure beauty-seekers. That night, the two of them go to a club named "Heaven", where she asks the Englishman to help her escape to England. She tells him that her partner (a wrestler who wrestles women) beats her after he loses bouts. Her partner eventually shows up at the club and threatens the girl. When the Englishman knocks down the wrestler, the girl attacks the Englishman and comforts her lover. The Englishman unmasks the girl to reveal the face of a pathetic self-victim.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| New Tales of Space and Time 1951, Lawrence H. Hoffman |
"The Quest for Saint Aquin" (Anthony Boucher, 1951)
In a post-apocalyptic world ruled by the Technarchy, religion is outlawed. However, the Catholic Church exists in secret. One day, a priest named Thomas is given a mission to seek out the body of a deceased evangelist named Aquin in order to qualify him as a saint (Aquin's body is rumored to have not decayed). In his search for Aquin, Thomas rides a "robass", a mechanical ass which has the ability to speak. During the journey, the robass tests Thomas' beliefs and tries to dissuade him from completing his mission. When Thomas eventually finds Aquin, it turns out that Aquin is a deactivated robot. The robass tells Thomas that Aquin is considered a holy being amongst his own kind and will help Thomas become the new Pope. Thomas prays for guidance.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
“Surface Tension” (James Blish, 1952)
- I. Mankind settles other planets by seeding them with human "germ cells"
which are custom-designed to produce "adapted humans" which can then
survive in otherwise hostile environments. However, when a seed ship
crashes on the swamp planet of Hydrot, the technicians realize that they
will soon starve to death. Nonetheless, before they do, they initiate
the seeding process, using their own germ cells as seeds for the new
planetary "pantropes" (adapted humanoids). Although these new humans
will hatch as fully-grown, intelligent humanoids, they will also need to
be microscopic in size in order to thrive in the swamp biosphere.
- Some time in the future, two micro-humanoids named Lavon and Shar meet in their underwater castle to discuss a strange metal shell with mysterious writing on it (actually a history left behind by the now-deceased technicians). Their people have been able to translate the writing, but the words referring to other universes and "stars" have no meaning. However, their allies the alien "Protos" fear the history plate, because its knowledge may make man greater than themselves. When Lavon impulsively decides to throw the plate away, a Proto happily disposes of it for them.
II. Still wondering about the idea of "other universes", Lavon decides
to try and pierce "the sky" (the surface of their pond). When he emerges above water for the first
time, he experiences air for the first time. However, his body is not
designed for breathing (or sunlight) so he is forced to quickly descend
back underwater. - III. After Lavon recovers from his brief exposure to "space", he has his people begin building a "spaceship" which will allow for the exploration of the theorized worlds beyond the sky (surface of the water). However, some of the people under Lavon's rule feel that this project is a waste of time.
- IV. In time, a two-inch
space-ship (land-crawler) is built, and Lavon leads an expedition up the
sand bank to reach beyond "the sky". Once on the beach, they realize
that yet another sky lies above the space they have just breached. As
night falls, they are stunned to see stars filling the night sky.
- V. After evading some bizarre monsters (possibly insects or frogs), the ship soon reaches another pool of water and descends into the world contained in it. There, they save a woman from some Eaters (who race had been driven to extinction in Lavon's own world/water body long ago). Lavon tells her that mankind can overcome their environments with brains and cooperation. He and Shar also consider the exploration of the "space" above the newly-discovered sky.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| The Nine Billion Names of God, Harbrace Paperbound Library 1967 |
Monks at a Tibetan lamasery borrow a supercomputer for three months and program it to print out the nine billion possible names for God derivable from a 9-letter combination. Two technicians are sent to Tibet to oversee the computer's function. One of them learns that the monks believe that once these names have been printed out, "God's purpose will be achieved", after which the end of existence will arrive. They are skeptical, but when the computer finally finishes its task, they look up to see the stars winking out.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Science Fantasy Sept 1955, Quinn |
"It's a Good Life" (Jerome Bixby, 1953)
In the town of Peaksville, everyone lives in fear of upsetting a young 3-year old boy named Anthony, a mutant with omnipotent powers. At birth, Anthony had whisked the entire town away into a void (or possibly destroyed everything beyond its borders). Although Anthony is not "evil", he is telepathic, and when he attempts to help people (who think or say discomforting sentiments) using his powers, the result is frequently disastrous. At the same time, when something or someone makes him unhappy, he destroys it with a thought. Out in the fields, Anthony has a better relationship with the wildlife, who have very simple wants. One night, during a birthday party, a man named Dan has too much to drink and expresses less than perfectly-happy thoughts. He is immediately killed by Anthony. The rest of Peaksvilles' citizens continue to hope that someday Anthony will grow up and be more mature with his powers.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| Astounding Science Fiction, August 1954, Frank Kelly Freas |
"The Cold Equations" (Tom Godwin, 1954)
On the way to a nearby planet to deliver precious medical supplies, the pilot of a spaceship discovers a stowaway, an 18-year old girl who had impulsively sneaked aboard in order to visit her brother, believing that she would only get fined for her transgression. Unfortunately, the pilot knows that he must jettison her into space, otherwise the ship will not have enough fuel to complete a safe landing on the planet below. Understandably shocked, the girl writes letters to her parents and has a last radio conversation with her brother before she steps into the airlock and is jettisoned.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1954, Nick Solovioff |
"Fondly Fahrenheit" (Alfred Bester, 1954)
Because of his android's predilection to periodically go insane and kill people, a man named Vandaleur is forced to continually abandon planets and create new identities for himself and his android on new ones. Eventually, he finds out that the android goes berserk when a temperature of 91 degrees is exceeded in the room. In order to solve this problem, Vandaleur plots to move his android and himself to a colder climate. However, the police track them down in a manhunt and the android is destroyed. Vandaleur himself manages to escape, but after he gets a new android, the new one begins to exhibit the same murderous habits as the previous one. It seems that Vandeleur has taken on his first robot's mental issues through "psychotic projection", and is now in turn projecting psychotic thoughts onto his new android. (Throughout the narrative, the viewpoint is frequently mixed between that of Vandeleur and his android.)
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| SF: The Year's Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy 1956, Ed Emshwiller |
"The Country of the Kind" (Damon Knight, 1955)
In a society in which individuals prone to violence or anti-social behavior are treated as if they do not exist (in fact, as if they cannot even be seen), the destructive narrator travels around the world causing massive property damage (although a mental block prevents him from doing direct violence to another person). He tries to create works of "art" and place them before people, hoping that they will read his handwritten message, which states that a willingness to do violence will allow one to rule the world. However, despite his best efforts, everyone he encounters refuses to acknowledge him or his message. The story's title is a play on H.G. Wells' short story "The Country of the Blind".
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Apr 1959, Ed Emshwiller |
“Flowers for Algernon” (Daniel Keyes, 1959)
A mentally-retarded man named Charlie undergoes a surgical procedure which allows his IQ to triple. His progress is partially gauged by observing a mouse named Algernon, as both try to complete mazes in as short a time as possible. Charlie becomes a genius over the following weeks, and realizes that he has been ridiculed his whole life as a moron. Although Algernon has also gained in intelligence through a similar operation, he eventually deteriorates and dies. Charlie places flowers on Algernon’s grave, and soon also begins to lose his newly-gained intellect. In the end Charlie breaks off his journal and wishes to experience his final days away from observation, but asks that the scientists continue to place flowers on Algernon’s grave.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
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| The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov 1963, Hannes Bok |
On an expedition to Mars, an Earth poet/linguist named Gallinger is invited to examine sacred documents in one of the last refuges of the dying Martian race. After witnessing one of the Martians' sacred dances, he becomes intimately involved with Braxa, one of the temple dancers. He also learns that her race, although long-lived, has been made sterile and impotent by a plague, and is thus doomed to extinction in this generation. When Gallinger decides to bring Braxa back to Earth with him, he learns that she has gone out into the desert. He eventually finds her, and learns that she is pregnant with his child. However, she claims that an Earth-Martian child will defy their god's prophecy of racial extinction and that her fatalistic people will not allow its birth. Gallinger returns to the Martian temple with Braxa and confronts the Martian religious council, using verses from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes to demonstrate how mankind had once defied its own holy writings to reach for the stars. His argument is successful and Braxa is allowed to keep her child. Gallinger also learns that his coming and his speech had all been part of a foretold Martian prophecy. Unfortunately for Gallinger, Braxa does not love him and has only been acting out her role in the prophecy. Gallinger eventually leaves Mars alone and in tears.
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Discussion
