The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 24

by Edward L. Ferman (Editor), Bob Leman (Contributor), Michael Shea (Contributor)

Since its founding, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has been acclaimed as one of the pinnacles of the field, the source of fantastic fiction of the highest literary quality. Now the magazine known to its readers as "F&SF" celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a spectacular anthology of the best recent work from the magazine.

Included are stories from major writers like Bruce Sterling, John Crowley, and Harlan Ellison. Also here are award-winners like Ursula K. Le Guin's Nebula-winning "Solitude," Maureen F. McHugh's Hugo-winning "The Lincoln Train," and Elizabeth Hand's Nebula- and World Fantasy Award-winning "Last Summer at Mars Hill."

The fiftieth anniversary collection for the most distinguished magazine of the science fiction and fantasy world.

Contents:

Introduction by Edward L. Ferman
Window by Bob Leman
The Fire When It Comes by Parke Godwin
Books: The Secret Language of Science Fiction by Algis Budrys
Wives by Lisa Tuttle
The Alien Mind by Philip K. Dick
Spidersong by Susan C. Petrey
Out There Where the Big Ships Go by Richard Cowper
Films and TV: Lost Rewards by Baird Searles
The Curse of the Mhondoro Nkabele by Eric Norden
The Autopsy by Michael Shea
The Sipple by Rachel Cosgrove Payes
The Wud by Mike DeSimone
Conkew by Pat Cadigan
The Fleffel by Bruce Berges
untitled by Mary C. Pangborn
untitled by Sebastian Robinson
A Day at the Fair by Neal Barrett, Jr.
The Most Illuminatingly Doleful and Instructively Affecting Demise of Flo, Late of Upper Blooton by Russell M. Griffin
The Word I Invented by Isaac Asimov
The Pusher by John Varley
The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch

Genres: Anthologies, Short Stories

311 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Edward Ferman (born 1937) was an American science fiction and fantasy fiction editor and magazine publisher.

Ferman is the son of Joseph W. Ferman, and took over as editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1964 when Avram Davidson, due to his residence in various Latin American locales with unreliable postal delivery, could no longer practically continue editing; on the masthead, Joseph Ferman was listed as editor and publisher for Edward Ferman's first two years. Edward Ferman would take on the role of publisher, as well, by 1970, as his father gradually retired. He remained as editor until 1991 when he hired his replacement, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He remained as publisher of the magazine until he sold it to Gordon Van Gelder in 2000. While Ferman was the editor, many other magazines in the field began to fold or were shortlived, and his magazine, along with Analog, was one of the few which maintained a regular schedule and sustained critical appreciation for its contents.

From 1969-1970, he was the editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction's sister publication Venture Science Fiction Magazine. Together, the Fermans had also edited and published the short-lived nostalgia and humor magazine P.S. and a similarly brief run of a magazine about mysticism and other proto-New Age matters, Inner Space.

Ferman received the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor three years in a row, from 1981 through 1983. F&SF had previously won several other Hugos under his editorship, which had been famously conducted, at least in the last decade of his tenure, from a table in the Ferman family's Connecticut house. He edited or co-edited several volumes of stories from F&SF and co-edited Final Stage with Barry N. Malzberg. It is probable that he also ghost-edited No Limits for or with Joseph Ferman, an anthology drawn from the pages of the first run of Venture.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_L..."

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notable for containing 'Autopsy' by Michael Shea which was recently adapted for an episode of del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.

Also an interesting essay by Isaac Asimov on his influence on thought regarding robotics.

[Ogden Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "A Day at the Fair". That was an interesting story and created world. I was surprised to see "Brave Little Toaster" in the collection. I seem to recall that was later made into a children's movie. Spidersong was perhaps the best written of the stories. Or maybe the creepy "The Autopsy" by Michael Shea. Oh yeah, and "The Curse of the Mhondoro Nkabele" by Eric Norden was funny.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this at random because the cover shows a winged horse. Big mistake. There aren't any winged horses in here. I'm never reading any other anthology edited by Ferman ever again.

This was dreadful. You have to be a sci-fi fan that has read just everything ever published since 1930 in order to get half of this. Other stuff was just in poor taste, or dreadfully dull. There is very little fo recommend here.

Selections:

* "Introduction" by Our Editor. Explains why non-fiction is included here, says that this all in fun, and boasts about the magazine anthology series.
* "Windows" by Bob Leman. Although not exactly the same scenario, this is basically Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven!" Set in the 1980s.
* "The Fire When It Comes" by Parke Godwin. This was his first published story with the mag, and man -- does it show. This dreary, predictable, sexist novella is basically Ghost, but a lot worse.
* "From Competition 22: Anecdotes in the Style of a SF Writer" compiled by Our Editor. Oh, for Chrissakes ...
* "Books: The Secret Language of Science Fiction" by Algis Budrys. I think this was a review of Julian May's The Many-Colored Land. It could be a rant against what today we would call fan fiction. I'm not sure. I am sure that it sucks.
* "Wives" by Lisa Tuttle. Soft porn is just soft porn, no matter how you try to dress up up.
* "The Alien Mind" by Philip K. Dick. This very short, sharp story can be found in many other, better anthologies than this one. Unlike most of the other selections, this was originally published in a high school newspaper. Our Editor's introduction explains why. WARNING: Innocent cat killed.
* "Spidersong" by Susan C. Petrey. This was included as a kind of eulogy to Petrey, who died in 1980. Heavily musical, but predictable, story of a species of music-obsessed spiders. One accidentally gets imprisoned in a lute.
* "From Competition 23: Unwieldy SF Titles" compiled by Our Editor. Create the worst SF title you can think of, in 50 words or less. One of the winners is Harlan Ellison, who sometimes knew how to laugh at himself.
* "Out There Where the Big Ships Go" by Richard Cowper/John Middleton Murray, Jr. Story that takes forever to get to the damn point.
* "Films and TV: Lost Rewards" by Baird Searles. Non-fiction article compiling the author's favorite little seen movies and TV shows. He mentions they can only be seen on late-night local TV stations. Now, you can just look them up on YouTube, or at least Google.
* "From Competition 24: Author/Title Misprints" compiled by Our Editor. Funny only to hard-core sci-fi fans.
* "The Curse of the Mhondoro Nkabele" by Eric Norden. This has not aged well. It's borderline racist, and milks the one joke for far too long. And why the fuck would you think that someone killing your dog would be FUNNY? This is disgusting.
* "The Autopsy" by Michael Shae. I think I know why Our Editor included this. He thought, "It must be good. I can't understand it." Boring, rambling and pointless.
* "From Competition 25: Short Poems About SF Animals" compiled by Our Editor. As far as I know, none of the animals in the poems appear in any previous sci-fi stories or novels. One of the poems was by Pat Cadigan.
* "A Day at the Fair" by Neal Barrett, Jr. This is a surprisingly good story set on a planet called Far. This reads like the first in a series, but I'm not sure there was ever a sequel to this.
* "The Most Illuminatingly Doleful ..." by Russell Griffen. Death was never so funny in this poem set to teach children not to electrocute themselves.
* "Science: The Word I Invented" by Isaac Asimov. The Good Doctor recounts coming up with the word "robotics" when he was only 21 years old, and lists the most common questions he gets about robots.
* "The Pusher" by John Varley. Weird. I think it was meant to be a love story ... but it hasn't aged well.
* "From Competition 26: Imaginary Collaborations" compiled by Our Editor. It's supposed to be funny, but is mostly tiresome. Again, Pat Cadigan was a contestant.
* "The Brave Little Toaster: A Bedtime Story For Small Appliances" by Thomas M. Disch. This is perhaps the best known story in this collection. Since it's first appearance in 1981, this novella been reprinted a jillion times, in much better anthologies than tnis one. This story was also the inspiration for the 1987 film of the same name.

[Ed]

ISFDB 35717. OCLC 10691490.