For this installment, we look at a selection of tales from The Best Fantasy Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1985), edited by Edward L. Ferman.

“Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal,” a novelette by Robert Aickman

First published in F&SF, February 1973
Read the story in the original magazine here

A young girl records her travels in Italy, where she and her family are hosted by a Contessa. At a soirée she meets a hauntingly enchanting suitor, and after a nocturnal encounter, she begins to experience a strange transformation. This vampire tale was the first winner of a World Fantasy Award for short fiction. The prose is elegant and seemed convincingly of its intended 1830s setting.

Rating: *** (Good)
[Click the images for the Best versions.]

F&SF, June 1963. Cover by Emsh

“Green Magic,” a short story by Jack Vance

First published in F&SF, June 1963
Read the story in the original magazine here

The protagonist finds some papers of a presumably deceased relative and becomes interested in green magic. He summons a sprite who advises him to investigate no further — but of course, he perseveres until he reaches the realm where green magic is practiced…

Rating *** (Good)

F&SF, January 1965. Cover by Mel Hunter

“Four Ghosts in Hamlet,” a novelette by Fritz Leiber

First published in F&SF, January 1965
Read the story in the original magazine here

A small theatrical company tours provincial England, and through the point of view of one of the actors, we learn about the gossipy details of many of its members: Gilbert Usher, known as the Governor, is the actor/manager, Francis Farley Scott, the vain lead actor with ideas beyond his station, Guthrie Boyd, the alcoholic but otherwise dependable veteran, Billy Simpson, the one man props department, and Monica, the actress on whom our narrator has a crush. As for our narrator, he modestly tells us that he won’t bother telling us his own name – but others call him Bruce.

Superstition runs rife among some of the ladies in the troupe (including Monica), and during a performance of Hamlet, Guthrie, who plays the ghost, goes missing. And yet, the ghost takes the stage as scheduled – but when Guthrie is found dead backstage, the question is: who stood in as the ghost? Was it Guthrie’s own ghost, or the ghost of Shakespeare himself? Or is there another possibility?

This is an excellent story, redolent of Fritz Leiber’s love of the theatre, and perhaps a tribute to his own father, an noted actor of stage and screen, who had once toured with a Shakespearean acting company.

Rating: ****+ (Excellent to Great)

F&SF, May 1958. Cover by Emsh

“Gorilla Suit,” a short story by John Shepley

First published in F&SF, May 1958
Read the story in the original magazine here

Toto the gorilla reads a newspaper advertisement (just shuddup and accept this) for a one day job: promoting the movie Road to Bali. A man with a gorilla suit, or an actual gorilla accompanied by a handler, is required. Toto figures he’ll have the jump on all other applicants, and hopes to meet Dorothy Lamour if he lands the job. First, he’ll have to escape from the zoo. But what if there’s another formidable applicant for the job – an actual gorilla inside a gorilla suit? The premise is hilarious, and the story certainly delivers in laughs and entertainment value.

Rating **** (Excellent)

F&SF, September 1981. Cover by Barbara Berger

“Mythago Wood,” a novelette by Robert Holdstock

First published in F&SF, September 1981
Read the story in the original magazine here

The first person narrator is Stephen, who, still not twenty years old, reluctantly returns home from service in the Second World War. His reluctance stems from a troubled relationship with his distant father, who disappeared into the nearby woods for long periods, drove his mother to suicide and all but ignored his two boys. Upon his return, Stephen finds that his elder brother, Christian, seems to have inherited their late father’s obsession with the woods. He’d heard that Christian had married, but Guiwenneth, the wife, has disappeared.

Christian is behaving strangely, and there is no clue to what is going on, either from him, or from their father’s incomprehensible notes. Inevitably, the story draws us into those mysterious woods, where a strange vortex that interacts with the human unconscious exists … as do beings called mythagos – some of whom are armed and dangerous.

I loved the woodland setting of this story, because dark woods have always been the setting of some of our favorite myths and fantasies, from Snow White to Robin Hood and Siegfried. The pace of the story (and I haven’t read the novel, by the way) is leisurely until near the end, but the pervading aura of mystery and perhaps danger kept me engrossed for the duration.

Rating ****+ (Excellent to Great)

F&SF, April 1951. Cover by George Salter

“Narapoia,” a short story by Alan Nelson

First published in What’s Doing in April 1948, and reprinted in F&SF, April 1951
Read the story in the original magazine here

Narapoia is an anagram of paranoia, and it’s the unusual condition that afflicts Dr. Departure’s latest patient, McFarlane: instead of a feeling that he is being followed, he suffers from a feeling that he is following someone else! The shrink becomes more deeply involved in this case than he perhaps should have, and McFarlane’s delusion is not the only bizarre and amusing inversion in this clever short.

Rating ***+ (Very Good)

The Best Fantasy Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction collects 40 tales spanning 34 years of the magazine’s history, from 1950 to 1984.

It contains excellent tales by Walter Tevis, Joanna Russ, Lucius Shepard, Charles Beaumont, J. G. Ballard, Robert Sheckley, Parke Godwin, Avram Davidson, Tom Reamy, Harlan Ellison, Jack Finney, Theodore Sturgeon, John Kessel, Thomas Burnett Swann, Ron Goulart,y Thomas M. Disch, John Collier, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Alfred Bester, R. A. Lafferty, Larry Niven, Sterling E. Lanier, Richard Matheson, Kim Stanley Robinson, and many others.

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Piet Nel is an administrator for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Fiction Group on Facebook, where these reviews first appeared. He lives in South Africa. See all of his short fiction reviews for Black Gate here.