Black Gate

R.A. Lafferty is one of the finest short story writers our genre has seen, and “Nine Hundred Grandmothers,” a compact masterpiece originally published in the February 1966 issue of IF magazine, is one of the best short stories ever written. The tale of an asteroid miner who can’t stop himself from asking the deep questions, and what happens when he comes across a strange and ancient race of aliens who remember how life began, it’s funny, thought provoking, and totally, totally unique. A description you could apply to much of Lafferty’s output, now that I think about it.

Nine Hundred Grandmothers, Lafferty’s first collection, was published as an original paperback in Terry Carr’s legendary Ace Science Fiction Special line in 1970, and it contained much of his finest work, including “Slow Tuesday Night,” “Snuffles,” and “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne.” The front cover (above left) was by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon; the back cover is above center. It was reprinted in paperback by Ace in January 1982 with a new cover by Charles Mikolaycak (above right). While the Ace Special edition was first, the 1982 paperback is actually the more rare of the two, and highly sought by collectors.

Here’s the blurb from the inside front cover of the 1970 edition, with brief but tantalizing descriptions of some of the stories within.

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Clifford D. Simak has been experiencing something of a renaissance recently, thanks chiefly to David W. Wixon, editor of the six-volume Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak from Open Road Media. That’s a delightful series, and it makes Simak’s previous collections largely superfluous. But nonetheless, I still find myself compelled to track down the last few missing titles to complete my Simak collection.

Right now, the most elusive is The Best of Clifford D. Simak, edited by Angus Wells. It was published in paperback by Sphere in 1975 with a knockout wraparound cover by Eddie Jones.

Simak had two Best Of collections in the US, Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak (Paperback Library, 1972) and Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (Berkley, 1978). Those contain the classic tales you’d generally expect, including “Huddling Place,” “The Ghost of a Model T,” “All the Traps of Earth,” “Skirmish,” and his masterpiece “The Big Front Yard.”

Angus Wells’ The Best of Clifford D. Simak is a different beast. It skips all the stories I mentioned above, and contains instead an eclectic mix of stories, including a handful of his early pulp tales and two Hugo nominees, “The Thing in the Stone” and “The Autumn Land.” Needless to say, it’s highly prized among Simak collections — yours truly included.

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SF Signal editor John DeNardo has been writing some fine articles for Kirkus Reviews recently — like February’s Speculative Fiction Books You Can’t Miss, and The Best of the Best of 2015. I’ve been browsing through some of his earlier articles, and particularly enjoying his 6-part series on How to Start Reading Science Fiction from 2011. Here’s a snippet from Part 4: Short Stories, which packs in some terrific recommendations for SF readers old and new.

Just like snacks, SF/F anthologies — collections of stories by a variety of authors — come in an assortment of flavors.

Some great anthologies for folks starting down the road of science fiction include Science Fiction 101 edited by Robert Silverberg; The Science Fiction Hall of Fame series, edited by various editors; The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction edited by Arthur B. Evans, et. al.; and The Secret History of Science Fiction edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel — all these offer fantastic, well-rounded selections of stories.

A handful of retrospective anthologies offer editors’ picks for best stories. Popular ones include Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction series, the longest-running retrospective series in print… The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year series edited by Jonathan Strahan; [and] The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Year’s Best Fantasy series edited by Rich Horton…

Sometimes anthologies are centered on a common theme… Anthologies don’t necessarily need a theme to be good. Some notable unthemed anthologies include Lou Anders’ Fast Forward series; George Mann’s The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction series; Sharyn November’s Firebirds series; and Jonathan Strahan offers Engineering Infinity, Life on Mars, as well as the Eclipse series of sf/f. Top-notch fiction abounds!

Read the complete article here.