# Good Sci-Fi anthologies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342 "2013-08-15T19:53:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/1 "2013-08-15T19:53:26Z")
Not wanting to hijack this thread: > **[What classic sci-fi should I read next?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=699443)** > > As a huge sci-fi nerd, I’m always looking to fill in gaps in my experience of “the classics”. Here’s what I’ve read so far that I consider “classics,” with \*'s by my faves \*Dune-Chapterhouse:Dune (I have no interest in the prequels, but may get... What anthologies of sci-fi short stories would you recommend? I used to have several about 30 years ago but I lost them in a horrible blimp accident. The horrible blimp threw them out when we where divorced. 😉 I want to find some of these old anthologies of short stories again. I have most Bradbury, I have most Heinlein, so I don’t need those. Asimov was a good editor of some of these collections, but I don’t dig him as a writer. I have **50 Short Science Fiction Tales by Asimov & Conklin**. I have Richard Matheson’s **I am legend**. That is about it on the shelf now. No novels, collections of short stories. Recommendations please. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/2 "2013-08-15T20:09:04Z")
The “Nebula Awards” series, most especially Nebula Awards Number Two (wonderful collection!) Lesser known, but quite good, are the “Stellar” series, Stellar 1, 2, 3, and 4, edited by Judy-Lynn Del Rey. Of the old Groff Conklin anthologies, I highly recommend “Science Fiction Terror Tales.” Yow! You will lose sleep! **Recommended for horror/terror fans ONLY!** How are you on “New Age” weird stuff? Michael Moorcock’s “Best From New Worlds 4” is one of my faves, but, fair warning, the stuff is not classical science fiction. It’s screwy, experimental, quirky, and different. But if that’s yer cuppa, it doesn’t get better than this. Just checked, and all of these are available on Amazon, and not too expensive. Many are priced at “$0.01” plus shipping. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/3 "2013-08-15T20:10:21Z")
Healy and McComas “Adventures in Time and Space” is the classic anthology of Golden Age stories - though pretty old now, anyone who reads sf should have read all these. There are a number of Hugo Award anthologies which are also great. There are Nebula Award anthologies also, but the first Hugo ones have more stuff collected in one place. There are many best of the year anthologies also. I’ve fallen behind on them, so I don’t know which of the current ones are best. There are tons of collections of stories by single authors - there are collected works of Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein. I suspect used book stores with good sf collections are a good source - I’ve got hundreds of collections and anthologies from the '50s to the '70s which I concentrate on. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/4 "2013-08-15T21:09:21Z")
_[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol 1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_One,_1929%E2%80%931964)_ (which I recommended in the other thread). Seriously, I’m surprised it took three posts to mention this. It’s generally regarded as the best one-volume collection of classic SF short stories. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/5 "2013-08-15T21:25:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol 1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_One,_1929%E2%80%931964)_ (which I recommended in the other thread). > > Seriously, I’m surprised it took three posts to mention this. It’s generally regarded as the best one-volume collection of classic SF short stories. I agree. Ballantine/Del Rey published a series of paperbacks devoted to “The Best of” an individual author, which are generally quite good. [Here’s a look at the series](http://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/Ballantine+Best+Of), and [Here’s a look at a representative sample (_The Best of L. Sprague de Camp_) at Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Best-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/0345254740/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376601557&sr=1-2&keywords=best+of+l+sprague+de+camp). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/6 "2013-08-15T21:47:42Z")
Asimov’s _100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories_ Ellison’s _Again, Dangerous Visions_ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/7 "2013-08-15T23:08:58Z")
Ellison’s _Dangerous Visions_ Terry Carr’s _Best Science Fiction of the Year_ Series Gardner Dozois’s _Year’s Best SF_ Judith Merrill’s _Year Best Science Fiction_ _The Other Side of the Clock_ by Philip Van Doren Stern, a great collection of time travel/alternate world anthologies, including Stern’s short story “The Greatest Gift,” which few here have read, but everyone know about (it was made into an _extremely_ popular movie). _Great Science Fiction Stories_ by Cordelia Titcomb Smith. I assume Smith was a pseudonym, this is probably the best short collection of Golden Age Science Fiction (other than the Hall of Fame books), which came later and had some of the same stories. Single author anthologies: _San Diego Lightfoot Sue_ by Tom Reamy _The Persistence of Vision_ by John Varley _The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories_ by Gene Wolfe. Del Rey published a great series of _The Best Of_ anthologies in the early 70s. Authors included Cordwainer Smith, Frederick Brown, Henry Kuttner, and Cyril Kornbluth. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/8 "2013-08-15T23:29:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I agree. > Ballantine/Del Rey published a series of paperbacks devoted to “The Best of” an individual author, which are generally quite good. [Here’s a look at the series](http://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/Ballantine+Best+Of), and [Here’s a look at a representative sample (_The Best of L. Sprague de Camp_) at Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Best-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/0345254740/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376601557&sr=1-2&keywords=best+of+l+sprague+de+camp). Thank you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/9 "2013-08-16T00:18:19Z")
[The Ascent of Wonder](http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ascent-Wonder-Evolution-Hard/dp/0312855095) and [The Science Fiction Century](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Fiction-Century-David-Hartwell/dp/0312863381) are two I like. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/10 "2013-08-16T01:30:05Z")
minor nitpick/query: Can a “single author collection” be an anthology or does the very word imply multiple authors? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/11 "2013-08-16T02:47:32Z")
I’m pretty sure (like Indiana Jones – “pretty sure”) that the word “anthology” does not include collections of stories by a single author. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/12 "2013-08-16T03:19:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Ballantine/Del Rey published a series of paperbacks devoted to “The Best of” an individual author, which are generally quite good. [Here’s a look at the series](http://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/Ballantine+Best+Of), and [Here’s a look at a representative sample (_The Best of L. Sprague de Camp_) at Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Best-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/0345254740/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376601557&sr=1-2&keywords=best+of+l+sprague+de+camp). > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Del Rey published a great series of _The Best Of_ anthologies in the early 70s. Authors included Cordwainer Smith, Frederick Brown, Henry Kuttner, and Cyril Kornbluth. Pocket Books did a similar series. Their series included Poul Anderson, Harry Harrison, Damon Knight, Keith Laumer, Barry N. Malzburg, Mack Reynolds, and Robert Silverberg. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/13 "2013-08-16T04:24:16Z")
Thanks to all who have replied. I will look into these later tonight from work. Time to go. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/14 "2013-08-16T04:33:13Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Ellison’s _Dangerous Visions_ Ditto on this, and there was an even better follow-up _Again Dangerous Visions_, that was 2 volumes in paperback. \* Carcinoma Angels\*. Now there’s a story. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/15 "2013-08-16T05:16:46Z")
I’ll second the Gardner Dozois best of anthologies, which are done every year. Stephen R Donaldson collected 27 short stories in [Strange Dreams](http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Dreams-Stephen-R-Donaldson/dp/0553371037). Many of these are fantasy rather than science fiction, but there are many brilliant stories in there. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/16 "2013-08-16T05:35:37Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Ditto on this, and there was an even better follow-up _Again Dangerous Visions_, that was 2 volumes in paperback. And there’s a third book that’s due to be released any time. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/18 "2013-08-17T22:40:58Z")
I asked a question about the Orbit anthologies, and I’ve really enjoyed tracking them down in used bookstores. 75% great, 20 percent good, with a few stinkers thrown in. I’ve picked up library volumes for $1.00 or less. [Orbit thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=312567) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/19 "2013-08-17T23:24:16Z")
If you’re including shared worlds anthologies, I’d say the Wild Cards novels are worth looking into. If we’re allowed to include collections of short stories by a single author, then Spider Robinson’s Callahan collections are worth a read. Unless you hate Spider Robinson, in which case, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/20 "2013-08-18T01:05:36Z")
I think Ellison’s\*\*\* Partners In Wonder\*\*\* is worth a read, if only for the interaction between Harlan and some other great SF writers. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342/21 "2013-08-18T02:32:29Z")
_Major Ingredients: The Selected Stories of Eric Frank Russell_, edited by Rick Katze. Russell is absolutely wonderful. His _Men, Martians and Machines_ is a collection of four novellas set on board a ship with a mixed human and Martian crew. (The Martians are chess-crazed octopoids, and are one of my favourite alien races.) _Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939)_ through _Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 25 (1963)_ are good collections edited by Asimov and Greenberg. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-sci-fi-anthologies/666342.md?page=2)