FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #659: THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, TENTH SERIES, Edited by Robert P. Mills

Robert P. Mills’s The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Tenth Series anthology doesn’t have the fireworks of his stellar The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Ninth Series (you can read my review here), but several stories stand out. Daniel Keyes returns from the triumph of “Flowers for Algernon” with the moving story of a troubled youth with powers needed by the Future in “Crazy Maro.”

I’m a big fan of Eric Frank Russell’s work and “A Divvil with the Women” features his sly humor and cunning wit. Perhaps the best known story in this anthology is Ward Moore’s frequently anthologized “The Fellow Who Married the Maxill Girl,” a story that offers some hard choices to its characters. All in all, The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Tenth Series is a solid anthology with quality stories. GRADE: B+

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21 thoughts on “FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #659: THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, TENTH SERIES, Edited by Robert P. Mills

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    No standout classics here. I remember a few of the stories. Ward Moore’s I know I read but I can’t remember anything about it. I recall liking the John Collier. Vance Aandahl wrote a lot of stories for F&SF back in the 60’s than quit writing. Robert Young also but I don’t recall liking most of his work very much. 1960 was right around the time I started reading the sf magazines. I remember having the issue with the Ward Moore story. I can even picture the cover.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, like you, I can see the covers of books and SF magazines of that era in my mind. Those books and magazines were truly memorable!

      Reply
    2. Todd Mason

      Aandahl had a brief resurgence in the 1970s, again with F&SF. It has been a magazine for a lot of those writers who would occasionally contribute within the field.

      The “Maxill Girl” cover is one of the more striking Emshwiller portraits, as I recall.

      Reply
  2. Michael Padgett

    I don’t recall reading any of these stories, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the name Allen Drury here. Drury wrote the Pulitzer price winning novel “Advise and Consent” and a number of other novels. It was hugely popular, and was made into an excellent movie by Otto Preminger. It’s definitely one of the best political novels I’ve ever read.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Michael, I totally agree with you on ADVISE & CONSENT. Excellent political novel! And, you’re right about the movie version, too!

      Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        I was also going to mention Allen Drury. I loved ADVISE AND CONSENT when I read it, and I read at least one of the sequels. I also like reading diaries and letters, and in the ’70s I read Drury’s A SENATE JOURNAL 1943-1945, based on his work covering the Senate for the United Press, It was fascinating (to me, at least) reading about people who were just names before. IN the ’70s, Milton R. Young of North Dakota was the longest serving Republican in the Senate. Drury’s book deals with how he got there. Democrat John Moses, who was Governor, was elected to the Senate but died two months into his term (at age 59), and the Republican Governor appointed Young, who had to give up running the family farm (!), to replace him. He ended up staying in office 36 years. Moses was the shortest serving elected Senator (other than short term appointees and the like) evver.

        /end political aside

      2. george Post author

        Jeff, I agree with you and Michael on ADVISE & CONSENT. Very high on realism. Right now, Congress is grappling with all kinds of financial issues that cut across party lines. Drury would have loved all the political Pelosi and Schumer machinations!

  3. patti abbott

    Yes, I read ADVISE AND CONSENT but never anything else by him. Was Keyes the author of Flowers for Algernon? Will look it up/

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Patti, yes! Keyes wrote “Flowers for Algernon” and then expanded it into a best selling novel. And, of course, the movie was very popular, too.

      Reply
  4. Rick Robinson

    George said: “ Right now, Congress is grappling with all kinds of financial issues that cut across party lines.”
    No, the Republicans just cross their arms and say “No!” to everything. They don’t care if the country, and planet, falls apart as long as they can lie and say it’s not their fault.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, the GOP members in the Senate voted for the Infrastructure Bill. They have some skin in the game when it comes to roads and bridges.

      Reply
      1. Todd Mason

        Particularly since the Democrats have let so many state and local governments fall into Republican hands over the last 40 years, mostly by neglecting their real base, as opposed to Pelosi and Schumer’s base.

      2. george Post author

        Todd, the political pendulum swings back and forth. The Dems had control of Congress for decades. Now, the margins between the GOP and the Dems are much narrower.

      3. Todd Mason

        Neoliberalism’s hold on the Democratic Party has helped horribly diminish their chances at the state and local levels. Hence, in part, the current crisis.

  5. Todd Mason

    Holley Cantine’s sole contribution to F&SF is interesting in and of itself and because Cantine was a bit of a moverand shaker in avant-garde art and anarchist circles, engaging both with his magazine RETORT among other work. The story was also picked up by Judith Merril for THE YEAR’S BEST SF for its year. URANIA (in translation, of course), the Italian associate of F&SF, and the anarchist magazine THE MATCH! are the only other reprints on paper I’m sure of, which both is and isn’t a bit odd.

    Though any volume which leads off with a Robert F. Young story is off to a bad start, this is a solid volume in the series.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Todd, the ACE artwork on THE BEST FROM FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION is by Jack Gaughan. Not one of his better efforts, though I do like a lot of Gaughan’s artwork.

      Reply
      1. Todd Mason

        Gaughan was great. But given the instruction, Make it science-fictiony…and one wonders if the lettering is his work or not, probably not…there’s only so much one can do…

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