Search Results for: "terry carr"

One From the Bucket List: The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection edited by Allan Kaster

Comments 0 Comment

The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection (Infinivox, November 21, 2021). Cover by Maurizio Manzieri I’ve been reading and writing about Year’s Best volumes for decades, and I’ve covered a lot of them, including anthologies by Terry Carr, Don Wollheim, Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss, Gardner Dozois, Jonathan Strahan, Rich Horton, Neil Clarke, and many others. So I hope you can appreciate what a pleasure it was to receive a copy of Allan Kaster’s The Year’s Top…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home by James Tiptree, Jr.

Comments 7 comments

Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home (Ace Books, 1973). Cover by Chris Foss Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home was the debut collection from one of the most important science fiction writers of the 20th Century, James Tiptree, Jr (the well known pseudonym of Alice B. Sheldon). Tiptree published half a dozen additional collections during her lifetime, and several very important volumes gathering her best short fiction have been assembled since her death, most notably Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (Arkham House,…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Invaders of Earth edited by Groff Conklin

Comments 2 comments

Invaders of Earth (Tempo, September 1962). Cover artist unknown Before his untimely death in 2016, Bud Webster was Black Gate‘s poetry editor and one of our finest columnists. He wrote a number of Who? columns on forgotten SF writers for our print issues, and thoughtful pieces on selling books at conventions for our website. In his paean to the science fiction anthologies of his youth, Anthopology 101: Reflections, Inspections and Dissections of SF Anthologies, Bud wrote fondly about the great…

Read More Read More

Science Fiction is a Small Community

Comments 10 comments

The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1953, edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty (Frederick Fell, 1953). Cover art uncredited. Two weeks ago I bought a handsome copy of The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1953, edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty, from a seller on eBay. As I carefully opened the package, I noticed the return address said “Stephen E. Fabian.” Huh. Like, Stephan Fabian, the artist? Naturally I did what any of you would have…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Nebula Award Stories 17 edited by Joe Haldeman

Comments 0 Comment

Nebula Award Stories 17 (Ace Books, 1985). Cover by Jeffrey Ridge I’ve covered a few noteworthy anthologies here in the last few weeks, including Isaac Asimov’s surprising Tin Stars, and Donald A. Wollheim’s excellent 1989 Annual World’s Best SF. It’s sharpened my appetite for good anthologies, and when I found Nebula Award Stories 17 in a small collection of vintage paperbacks I bought in eBay last month, I knew I’d found my next weekend read. The Nebula Awards anthologies have…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: The 1989 Annual World’s Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

Comments 8 comments

The 1989 Annual World’s Best SF (DAW, 1989). Cover by Jim Burns Most SF readers are familiar with Gardner Dozois’ legendary Year’s Best Science Fiction series, which ran for three and a half decades from 1984 to 2018, and helped shape modern perceptions of short SF. But it was by no means the first Year’s Best in science fiction, and in the early days, wasn’t even my favorite. No, back in the 80s I preferred the annual anthologies by Terry…

Read More Read More

Life, Death, and Different Kinds of Men: Algis Budrys’ Rogue Moon

Comments 4 comments

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys; First Edition: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1960. Cover art Richard Powers. (Click to enlarge) Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys Fawcett Gold Medal (176 pages, $0.35 paperback, 1960) Cover art Richard Powers Algis Budry’s 1960 novel Rogue Moon is an unusual book. It’s relatively short, even for SF novels of its era. It’s heavily character focused. And while it deals with a fascinating mystery concerning an alien artifact, on the Moon, it’s also about the bureaucracy behind…

Read More Read More

The Art of Author Branding: The Ace Robert Silverberg

Comments 32 comments

The Ace Robert Silverberg: skewed titles and unclutterd art. The Seed of Earth, The Silent Invaders, Recalled to Life, Next Stop the Stars, Collision Course and Stepsons of Terra. All from 1977. Covers by Don Punchatz If you cruised the bookstore and supermarket racks in the 70s and 80s for science fiction paperbacks, Robert Silverberg was everywhere. I mean, everywhere. It wasn’t just that he was enormously productive — that was certainly true. But his books remained in print, or were returned to…

Read More Read More

Vintage Treasures: Imaginary Lands edited by Robin McKinley

Comments 8 comments

Imaginary Lands (Ace Books, 1985). Cover by Thomas Canty By 1985 Robin McKinley was already a star. Her breakout novel The Blue Sword (1982) was a nominee for both the Mythopoeic Award and the Newbery Medal, and two years later The Hero and the Crown (1984) won the Newbery Medal, one of the most coveted accolades in children’s literature. If there was a hotter new writer in the field at the time, I can’t think of her. In 1982 Ace Books had…

Read More Read More

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Amazons!, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Comments 4 comments

The World Fantasy Award was established in 1975 as part of the World Fantasy Convention. Seen as a fantasy version of the Hugo and the Nebula Awards (neither of which are strictly for science fiction), the nominees and winners are selected by a panel of judges, although currently, two positions on the ballot are opened up to nominations from members of the World Fantasy Convention. The Anthology/Collection Award was presented from 1977, when it was won by Kirby McCauley for…

Read More Read More