I’ve read The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. What are some other good short story sci fi anthologies?
Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions
Both edited by Harlen Ellison. Probably the best collection of short stories in Sci-Fi
For authors who are more contemporary than those in the Hall of Fame , I’d suggest Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology , edited by Bruce Sterling. It came out in the 1980’s and makes a great intro to SF’s cyberpunk movement. Sterling discusses the movement in a preface to the book.
From 1987, there’s Tales From the Spaceport Bar. It’s a mix of science fiction, fantasy, some horror and comic stories. “Unicorn Variation” by Roger Zelazny, won a Hugo IIRC. Out of print, probably, but easy to find on used book sites, or check your local used bookstores.
Gardner Dozois has been editing annual “year’s best science fiction” collections for twenty years now. There’s also a “best of the best” collection out this year.
The original “must-have” anthology of science fiction is Adventures in Time and Space. It used to be available only in hardcover, although exscerpted editions appeared in paperback. They finally printed the whole thing in trade paperback in the mid-1970s (and reprinted it a little later). I don’t think it’s in print now, but it’s well worth gettiing, because it contains some of the best 30s and 40s SF, including about for that were the basis of movies (or at least related to them), including John Campbell’s Who Goes There? (The Thing), Farewell t the Master( The Day the Earth Stood Still), The Twonky, and a story by Raymond F. Jones that’s awfully similar to the one that became the opening chapter of This Island Earth.
You don’t say which edition of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame you have, but I strongly recommend Volume I (short stories) and volumes IIA and IIB (novellas). You can ignore volumes III and IV, which are disappointments.
Back in the 1960s the Science Fiction Book Club gave away as a premium a two-volume bound set of A Treasury of Great SCience Fiction which served as an intro to SF for a lot of people, including me.
I also liked ** The Best of The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy**, edited by FASF’s legendary Edward Furman, and a volume called, I think, Tomorrow’s Children, with stories about remarkable SF kids. It includes Jerome Bixby’s famous “It’s a Good Life”.
Sadly, I think almost all of these are out of print. A lot of the anthologies I see now are of brand new stories written for that book, rather than collections of previously-published works.
The various Nebula Award anthologies are good. They have the best stories for a given year, voted on by SF writers.
Anthologies have fallen on hard times, though. Other than “Best of the Year” anthologies, it’s rare to find any reprint anthologies being published. Original anthologies are still being done as a promotional tool, but the current ones, though entertaining, are often forgettable.
If you’re looking for single-author collections, you should look for San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy, The Persistance of Vision by John Varley, and anything by Harland Ellison.
I’ve also like *Before the Golden Age * by Asimov. Any other suggestions? I do tend to see a lot of SF anthologies in used bookstores. I’m looking for stuff that I can read on a 90 minute train commute every day each way.
Better yet: The Hugo Winners anthologies are the best, as voted on by the fans. In my experience, the Hugos almost always have better taste than the Nebulas.
Early volumes of the Hugo Winners were edited by Asimov, with commentary by him on each of the stories, which is a nice plus.
In the '50s and '60s Groff Conklin edited a boatload of anthologies, all of which are very good. I’m sure they are all out of print, but if you see any in a used book store get them.
I echo Cal’s suggestions., except that the F&SF anthologies before Ed Ferman (by Avram Davidson, Robert P Mills, and the immortal Anthony Boucher) are also excellent. The earlier Judith Merrill best of the year anthologies are good also - the later ones are heavily New Wave, so how you like them depends on what you feel about the New Wave. She always tried to include good sf and fantasy from more mainstream sources, which is interesting. Old and probably hard to find anthologies from Galaxy are good also. Fred Pohl did two from Worlds of If. I have them, but I don’t remember ever seeing them in used book stores.
I don’t see too many recent anthologies except best of the year ones. With the departure of Elwood, all the original anthologies seem to be on a theme - a shared world or something.
I’ve accumulated so many anthologies that I had to sort them out to their own bookcase. Gahd this stuff piles up. (I’m social phobic; I don’t go to library much)
All of the above, plus…
The Donald Wollheim Annual World’s Best SF books are great, too. He started them in the Sixties with Terry Carr, and continued until his death in 1990. Many are still available used, the SFBC issued them.
Carr also did the Universe series. Harry Harrison did a bunch too.
Marvin Kaye has edited some delightful books, although his tend to be more on the fantasy/horror side.
A more recent series is the Mammoth Book(s) Of, by various editors.