Among the many collections out there from FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION magazine — and believe me, there are many — you may want to grab THE VERY BEST OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION: SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY above all others. Not only does it serve as a great example of the mag’s history, but a history of the genre in general.
Edited by Gordon Van Gelder, who’s steered the periodical for 13 years, the book contains 23 of its most famous stories. Picking that few from among thousands had to be a mammoth undertaking, and he admits as much in his introduction, saying you have to cut somewhere, however painful.
He picked well, because the contents are sheer pleasure, full of classics that feel as comfortable as an old sweater. Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon” is required reading in many a middle school, and yet it still holds heartbreaking power today, even with its ending known. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is another, only for this, Van Gelder went with the lesser-known, oddball “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” instead.
Ray Bradbury’s special touch of simple innocence graces “All Summer in a Day,” in which Venusian children react with glee with a seven-year rain ceases, and the sun shines, but only for an hour. Another author whose style in unmistakable is Harlan Ellison, here with the ever-experimental “The Deathbird.” I can’t say it’s ever made much sense to me, but it’s enjoyable all the same from the perspective of being a boundary-pusher.
And can you believe with all the trees killed to make just one complete set of Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER, that the whole thing stemmed from a single, 44-page story? That original is reprinted here, serving as a bridge between Golden Agers like Alfred Bester, Kurt Vonnegut and Theodore Sturgeon, and modern-day masters like Neil Gaiman, Jeffrey Ford and Ted Chiang. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Sixteen Original Works by Speculative Fiction’s Finest Voices
- Eclipse One: New Fantasy and Science Fiction
- The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One
- Bradbury, Asimov among TV’s MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION
- Science Fiction America: Essays on SF Cinema
