Avram Davidson ends his editing of The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction series with this 14th volume. One of the most famous stories in this volume is J. G. Ballard’s haunting “The Illuminated Man” where the crystalizing of the world spells disaster (the Brits write the best End of the World SF!). Roger Zelazny’s “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” sends a poet to Mars to translate the story of the dying race and reveals a centuries old secret.
I also enjoyed Ron Goulart’s snarky “Into the Shop” where technology reveals its Dark Side. This 14th volume is another solid anthology in this successful series. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 3 • Time and Again (title page) • (1963) • interior artwork by Jack Gaughan
- 6 • Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 14th Series) • (1965) • essay by Avram Davidson
- 8 • Sacheverell • (1964) • short story by Avram Davidson
- 15 • Trade-In • (1964) • short story by Jack Sharkey
- 30 • The Illuminated Man • (1964) • novelette by J. G. Ballard
- 62 • A Bulletin from the Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Research at Marmouth, Mass. • (1964) • short story by Wilma Shore
- 71 • Automatic Tiger • (1964) • short story by Kit Reed
- 86 • The Court of Tartary • (1963) • short story by T. P. Caravan
- 94 • Touchstone • (1964) • short story by Terry Carr
- 108 • Thaw and Serve • (1964) • short story by Allen Kim Lang
- 118 • Nada • (1964) • short story by Thomas M. Disch
- 140 • Into the Shop • (1964) • short story by Ron Goulart
- 151 • A Rose for Ecclesiastes • (1963) • novelette by Roger Zelazny
- 190 • Olsen and the Gull • (1964) • short story by Eric St. Clair
- 197 • Dark Conception • (1964) • short story by Joe L. Hensley and Alexei Panshin [as by Louis J. A. Adams]
- 206 • The Compleat Consummators • (1964) • short story by Alan E. Nourse (variant of The Compleat Consumators)
- 211 • The House by the Crab Apple Tree • (1964) • novelette by S. S. Johnson
- 238 • The Girl with the Hundred Proof Eyes • (1964) • short story by Sharon Webb (variant of The Girl with the 100 Proof Eyes) [as by Ron Webb]
- 244 • Fred One • (1964) • short story by James Ransom
I know I read this, but I don’t remember many of the stories other than the Ballard, Zelazny, Davidson and Kit Reed. A lot of authors I never heard of-T. P. Caravan, Eric St. Clair, James Ransom, S.S. Johnson and Sharon Webb. I would have read these since I had a subscription by then.
Steve, you’re right about the more obscure writers in this anthology. I hadn’t read their stories before this 14th volume.
“T. P. Caravan” was an occasional contributor to various magazines who was, as I recall, a advertising copywriter by day job (and I should go look up his name, but I’m feeling lazy.) Eric St. Clair didn’t publish as much as his wife Margaret, I believe, but did have an occasional byline. S. S. Johnson wrote a collection of short stories as his Master’s thesis, again if I remember correctly, but as far as I know never sought to have it published…his story is a controversial one, much like Allen Kim Lang’s…I think them both very good examples of Davidson and his contributors pushing boundaries (even as with the Ballard and, more quietly, the Davidson–while the Zelazny, the Shore and the Reed stories are fully-formed work taking their premises about as far as they can go. Sharkey’s “Trade-In” and “Dark Conception” are the two stories I think might best have been left out; Ed Ferman would eventually publish “This Offer Expires” by Liz Hufford (another example of an excellent writer who would drop her Very occasional work in F&SF), which is basically the same story done vastly better; the collaboration is Trying Very Hard to shock us, and might’ve shocked Lester Maddox, but what wouldn’t. Sharon Webb, for no good reason bashful about publishing, would have a nursing career and come back to publish several stories mostly with ASIMOV’S in the latest ’70s. I wonder if “Fred One” gave a nudge to William Kotzwinkle’s thinking, and his eventual DOCTOR RAT.
You see, George, I need to get back to my own woefully unfinished review of this volume on my own blog!
Todd, when you get back to your unfinished review and finish it and post it…I’ll read it!
Nope, “Caravan” wasn’t an ad copywriter, but a college professor …unless he wrote ads early on, much as Ron Goulart and Thomas Disch, among others, did.
FictionMags Index:
Caravan, T. P.; pseudonym of Charles C. Muñoz (1926-2018) (chron.)
Happy Solution [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Other Worlds Science Stories January 1952
Last Minute [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Other Worlds Science Stories October 1952
Fish Story [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Other Worlds November 1952
Dinosaur Day [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Other Worlds April 1953
Random Sample, (vi) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction April 1953
The Cold, Cold Grave [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Other Worlds May 1953
Quarterback Sneak [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Science Stories #2, December 1953
A Stitch in Time (with Howth Castle), (ss) Science Stories #3, February 1954
The Soluble Scientist [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Universe Science Fiction #4, March 1954
Problem in Geometry, (ss) Science Stories #4, April 1954
Fission Story [John & the Evil Professor], (ss) Universe Science Fiction #9, January 1955
The Shoemaker of Lan, (na) Universe Science Fiction #9, January 1955
Moonshine, (vi) Universe Science Fiction #10, March 1955
The Immortality of Professor Bickerstaffe, (vi) Other Worlds Science Stories #15, February 1956
The Censors: A Sad Allegory, (vi) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction August 1963
The Court of Tartary, (ss) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction December 1963
Blind Date, (ss) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction April 1965
ISFDB: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?15935
WIKI in part: Muñoz was poet laureate of (Bucks County), spent five years as poetry editor of Jewish Spectator magazine, and became the official list bard to the Gunroom of HMS Surprise. His poems earned four nominations for the Pushcart Prize.
Todd, good to know!
Obituary for Charles Carroll Munoz: https://memorials.varcoethomasfuneralhome.com/charles-munoz/3435315/obituary.php
What year was this published?
Bob, THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, 14TH SERIES was published in 1965.
Most SF magazines had their ups and downs as editors change but F&SF has kept chugging along for over seventy years providing literate, entertaining stories while at the same reflecting the distinct personalities of its various editors. Another excellent anthology, George. You can’t go wrong with this one.
Jerry, you’re right: the consistency of quality of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION is legendary. These anthologies demonstrate that the cream rises.
I can’t agree with Jerry here, I think this is weaker than previous anthologies, though the Zelazny is excellent.
Rick, although there have been better anthologies in this series, Volume 14 is very readable. The Zelazny story is the best of the bunch…and a classic!
It’s a largely brilliant book, by me, and even the failures have something to recommend them, even if the collaboration almost doesn’t. (I think the Sharkey tickled Davidson as a man who had married a much younger woman.) But Davidson is still my default favorite writer, and one of the best editors of F&SF–an impressive bunch.
Except for “A Rose for Ecclesiastes,” I don’t think I ever remember seeing any of those stories before.
Jim, you’re going to enjoy THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, 14th Series when you get around to it.
I would like to see that Gaughan interior/frontispiece illo…shall look for it online (I’ve had my library-discard Dday hc, with the typically ugly cover, for some decades).