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Literature / The Best From Fantasy And Science Fiction

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A series of twenty-four books produced annually from 1952 until 1974 (the last three books were published over a several year span, but still marketed as annual releases, ending in 1982). Originally edited by Anthony Boucher and J Francis Mc Comas, other editors for the series include Avram Davidson, Edward L Ferman, Robert P Mills, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Each volume consists of a dozen or more short fiction stories published by The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction since the previous "Best" volume. Also included are a few Non-Fiction essays published in the magazine about the Speculative Fiction genre.

Works republished in this Anthology:

    open/close all folders 
    First Series: (From 1949 until 1951) 

    Second Series: (1952) 

    Third Series: (1953) 

    Fourth Series: (1954) 

    Fifth Series: (1955) 

    Sixth Series: (1956) 

    Seventh Series: (1957) 

    Eighth Series: (1958) 

    Ninth Series: (1959) 

    Tenth Series: (1960) 

    Eleventh Series: (1961) 

    Twelfth Series: (1962) 

    Thirteenth Series: (1963) 

    Fourteenth Series: (1964) 

    Fifteenth Series: (1965) 

    Sixteenth Series: (1966) 

    Seventeenth Series: (1967) 

    Eighteenth Series: (1968) 

    Nineteenth Series: ( 1969 through 1970) 

    20th Series: ( 1971 through 1972) 

    21st Series: (1973) 

    22nd Series: ( 1974 through 1976) 

    23rd Edition: ( 1976 through 1979) 

    24th Series: ( 1980 through 1981) 

This Anthology provides examples of the following tropes:

  • "Best Of" Anthology: This is a series of over twenty volumes, each Anthology collecting the best stories from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction since the previous release.
  • Billed Above the Title: It is a Zig-Zagged Trope example for the 9th Series cover with Flowers for Algernon and other stories published as if it was the title, then editor Robert P Mills, then the title The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction.
  • Fishbowl Helmet: One cover for the Eighth Series volume has a squad of bubble-headed spacemen heading towards a missile-like spaceship in the background.
  • Long-Running Book Series: First published in 1952, and lasting until 1982, it's 24 volumes (called Series on the cover) of the best works published in The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction.
  • Orwellian Retcon: The Panther publication of the Eleventh Series volume removes "Softly While You're Sleeping" by Evelyn E Smith and "George" by John Anthony West.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Title: The Ninth Series volume was republished after 1968 by Ace Books with Flowers for Algernon and Other Stories on the cover, displacing the original title and adding the Tagline of "The prize-winning story behind the great movie Charly" above everything.
  • Retro Rocket:
    • The first volume's cover has a cigar-shaped spaceship flying across a cloudy alien landscape with a crescent-shaped ringed moon in the sky.
    • The Fourth Series volume's cover (1955 Doubleday version) has a tall missile-like green spaceship with huge, but thin, fins. The spaceship is sitting upright in a barren desert with tall thin mountains around it.
    • Both versions of the Fifth Series volume cover (Doubleday and Ace Books) has a different missile-like ship. The first cover has one that is plain brown with two sets of fins (small on top and large ones at the base), and is taking off from a desert. The second cover has one that is brown, but with green glass bulbs at the base, the two sets of fins are smaller and rounded, and has their landing struts fully engaged on the surface. It looks more like what an insectoid species would develop, encouraged by the insect-like mask in the bottom-left of the cover.
    • The Sixth Series volume's cover (1968 Ace Books version) has a tall missile-like white spaceship with two sets of thin fins (top and base of the ship) taking off in the background while two figures fight in the foreground on a bright white sandy desert with a nighttime sky.
    • Both versions of the ''Seventh Series'’ volume cover (Doubleday and Ace Books) have a different dart-like ships. The first cover has a white with red highlights ship in space getting repairs with a larger space station nearby giving supplies. The second cover has a conical yellow ship in the background (and three more so far they're mere smudges) and a tall white building that looks like another rocket.
    • The Eighth Series volume's cover (1959 Doubleday version) has a tall, thin white cigar-shaped spaceship in the distance, with a squad of bubble-headed spacemen heading towards it. The Ace Books 1963 version has two slightly different silver dart-shaped spaceships in the top-left background, but they're hard to see details for.
    • The Eleventh Series volume's later cover (1966 Ace Books version) has four tall dark-grey cigar-shaped rockets taking off from an alien background with only two small fins near the ejection port.
    • The Twelfth Series volume's later cover (1967 Ace Books version) has a bullet-shaped ship with no fins and a light grey hull on a very busy background.
  • Robosexual: The Doubleday cover for Eighteenth Series has a woman nearly being kissed by an obviously robotic man.
  • Shout-Out: The Ace Books 23rd Edition cover has an image that resembles "The Divine Mercy", a painting of Jesus, with a right hand raised in benediction, and the left hand revealing their heart.
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