The 1974 Annual World's Best SF. edited by Donald A. Wollheim
The 1974 Annual World’s Best SF
RATED 75% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 3.7 / 5
10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 4 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 0 DNF
The introduction to even a mediocre “Best of the Year Anthology” is a form of time travel. Editors and reader obsess about the demise, irrelevance, or irrevocable transformation of Science Fiction like a man stuck in a time loop. Wollheim is definitely in muck with the New Wave style of SF, throwing punches and justifying the value of mere “escapist fiction.”
Other Volumes of Wollheim’s Annual World’s Best SF Reviewed on this Blog
Unfortunately much of what is included in this anthology isn’t all that exciting. There is quite a bit of average work by writers who can do better - Harlan Ellison, Clifford Simak, and R A Lafferty - with Ellison’s story seduced by New Wave experimentation.
Thankfully the two long novellas included are classic science fiction and worthy of inclusion on My All Time Great List:
Doomship (1973) • novella by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. Pertin has volunteered for an important space mission that will result in his certain death. He travels by a “transporter” that makes a perfect copy of the person across the galaxy and lets the original person go home. On board the ship, we follow a crazy set of characters were race against time while being slowing killed by radiation, terrorism, and gravity forces. Suspenseful and visceral, with wide-scale “sense of wonder.” You really feel the intensity and pain of this one.
Death and Designation Among the Asadi • (1973) • novella by Michael Bishop. An anthropologist decides to live alone amongst the Asadi, a race of mute gray-skinned aliens. The story then slowly rolls out as the anthropologist goes about his work, slowly learning about the strange beings while also experiencing extreme isolation. This is an enthralling slow-pace epistolary novella that immerses the reader in a very alien environment.
The 1974 Annual World’s Best SF is rated 75% positive
10 Stories : 2 great / 4 good / 3 average / 1 poor / 0 DNF
A Suppliant in Space • (1973) • novelette by Robert Sheckley
Good. A criminal banished to float forever in space, miraculously lands on a planet and becomes part of a first-contact negotiation with humans.
Parthen • (1973) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
Average. The aliens are here and now all the girls are pretty, leading men to abandon everything while still being happy about it.
Doomship • [Cuckoo] • (1973) • novella by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson
Great. Pertin has volunteered for an important space mission that will result in his certain death. He travels by a “transporter” that makes a perfect copy of the person across the galaxy and lets the original person go home. On board the ship, we follow a crazy set of characters were race against time while being slowing killed by radiation, terrorism, and gravity forces. Suspenseful and visceral, with wide-scale “sense of wonder.” You really feel the intensity and pain of this one.
Weed of Time • (1970) • short story by Norman Spinrad (variant of The Weed of Time)
Good. After eating an alien plant brought back to earth, our protagonist experiences all moment of his life concurrently.
A Modest Genius • (1973) • short story by Вадим Шефнер? (trans. of Скромный гений? 1963) [as by Vadim Shefner]
Good. Light romantic science fiction about a fantastic inventor and the women in his life. Very cute.
The Deathbird • (1973) • novelette by Harlan Ellison
Average. A science fictional retelling of Satan, Man, and God set in the far future. That would be interested except the structure of the story is broken and messed with as if it was part of a classroom discussion. Trying too hard to be creative and not succeeding.
Evane • (1973) • short story by E. C. Tubb
Poor. A pretty pedestrian story about a man who is alone on a seed ship with a robot companion and starts to come apart emotionally.
Moby, Too • (1973) • novelette by Gordon Eklund
Good. A whale is born with telepathy and intelligence. It chooses to try to understand human beings, even as they slowly die out.
Death and Designation Among the Asadi • (1973) • novella by Michael Bishop
Great. An anthropologist decides to live alone amongst the Asadi, a race of mute gray-skinned aliens. The story then slowly rolls out as the anthropologist goes about his work, slowly learning about the strange beings while also experiencing extreme isolation. This is an enthralling slow-pace epistolary novella that immerses the reader in a very alien environment.
Construction Shack • (1973) • short story by Clifford D. Simak
Average. The warm readability of Simak is here, as astronauts discover why Pluto “really” isn’t a planet.
