Best SF: 1968

Best SF: 1968

First edition cover
Author	Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss, editors
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction short stories
Publisher	Sphere Books
Publication date	1969
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	207 pp
ISBN	0-7221-4335-4
OCLC	226174718
Preceded by	Best SF: 1967
Followed by	Best SF: 1969

Best SF: 1968 (also known as The Year's Best Science Fiction No. 2) is the second on a series of annual anthologies of science fiction stories edited by Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss, first published in a British edition in January 1969 by Sphere Books. The first American (and first hardcover) edition was released later that year by Putnam, with a Berkley paperback following shortly thereafter. Severn House issued a British hardcover edition in 1977.^[1]

Contents

• "Introduction". Harry Harrison
• "Budget Planet", Robert Sheckley (F&SF 1968)
• "Appointment on Prila", Bob Shaw (Analog 1968)
• "Lost Ground", David I. Masson (New Worlds 1966)
• "The Rime of the Ancient SF Author, or Conventions and Recollections", J. R. Pierce (Fantastic 1968)
• "The Annex", John D. MacDonald (Playboy 1968)
• "Segregationist", Isaac Asimov (Abbottempo 1967)
• "Final War", Barry Malzberg (F&SF 1968)
• "2001: A Space Odyssey", Lester del Rey (review, Galaxy 1968)
• "2001: A Space Odyssey", Samuel R. Delany (review, F&SF 1968)
• "2001: A Space Odyssey", Ed Emshwiller (review, F&SF 1968)
• "Apeman, Spaceman—or, 2001’s Answer to the World’s Riddle", Leon E. Stover (review, Amazing 1969)
• "The Serpent of Kundalini", Brian W. Aldiss (New Worlds 1968)
• "Golden Acres", Kit Reed (Mister Da V. and Other Stories1967)
• "Criminal in Utopia", Mack Reynolds (Galaxy 1968)
• "One Station of the Way", Fritz Leiber (Galaxy 1968)
• "Sweet Dreams, Melissa", Stephen Goldin (Galaxy 1968)
• "To the Dark Star", Robert Silverberg (The Farthest Reaches 1968)
• "The House That Jules Built", Brian W. Aldiss (afterword)

"Final War" was originally published under Malzberg's "K. M. O'Donnell" pseudonym.^[2][3]

Reception

Joanna Russ described the anthology as "a fair mixed bag of stories, framed by an Introduction and Afterword that indirectly--and unfortunately--lead one to expect more from the stories than they manage to give." She noted that the editors' story selection "leans to the obvious and toward stories which have one good, clear, conventional idea."^[4] P. Schuyler Miller, reviewing it for Analog, found the book "down a notch" from the previous year's volume, faulting the influence of the "New Wave".^[5]

References