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+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 9 • Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, Tenth Series) • (1961) • essay by Robert P. Mills
- 13 • Nikita Eisenhower Jones • (1960) • novelette by Robert F. Young
- 33 • Who Dreams of Ivy • (1960) • short story by Will Mohler [as by Will Worthington]
- 50 • Mine Own Ways • (1960) • short story by Richard McKenna
- 68 • The Rainbow Gold • (1959) • short story by Jane Rice
- 80 • Crazy Maro • (1960) • novelette by Daniel Keyes
- 104 • Something • (1960) • short story by Allen Drury
- 112 • It’s a Great Big Wonderful Universe • (1960) • short story by Vance Aandahl
- 116 • Man Overboard • (1960) • novelette by John Collier
- 143 • The Blind Pilot • (1960) • short story by Nathalie Henneberg (trans. of Au pilote aveugle 1959) [as by Charles Henneberg]
- 162 • A Divvil with the Women • (1960) • short story by Eric Frank Russell (variant of Heart’s Desire 1955) [as by Niall Wilde]
- 168 • The Martyr • (1960) • novelette by Poul Anderson
- 189 • Double, Double, Toil and Trouble • (1960) • short story by Holley Cantine
- 207 • Après Nous • (1960) • short story by Avram Davidson
- 209 • Interbalance • (1960) • short story by Katherine MacLean
- 218 • Infinity • (1960) • poem by Rosser Reeves
- 222 • The Replacement • (1960) • short story by Robert Murray
- 235 • The Fellow Who Married the Maxill Girl • (1960) • novelette by Ward Moore
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.
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!
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.
Not the one I was thinking of, as it turns out, but still a striking piece of work by Edmund E.
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.
Michael, I totally agree with you on ADVISE & CONSENT. Excellent political novel! And, you’re right about the movie version, too!
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
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!
Yes, I read ADVISE AND CONSENT but never anything else by him. Was Keyes the author of Flowers for Algernon? Will look it up/
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.
“Crazy Maro” is probably Keyes’s second-best-remembered story in sf circles.
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.
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.
And attendant graft.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The spartan, if nothing special, Doubleday cover is slightly better than the busy, goofy eventual Ace cover.
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.
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…