Talk:The Annual World's Best SF

Notability
The series may be notable (I hope it is). But I am having trouble finding sources. Ditto for the individual tomes, many of which fail GNG. @Cunard - anything you can do to help? This can take a while, given how many volumes there are. The individual volumes have information about awards won by the individual stories, but not about reception of the volumes themselves. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 04:11, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Hi. Here are some sources about Annual World's Best SF: The 1972 Annual World's Best SF:  The review notes: "Out of 14 stories, 11 are from the U.S. and 2 are from England. The remaining story is from Belgium. I would like to see a broader spectrum of stories, more translated from non-English languages. I would also like to see more Soviet science fiction included. Other than that, The 1972 Annual World's Best SF is a brilliant collection. Buy this book. It will expand your mind better than any drug will."  The review notes: " There is only one complaint I have about this collection of excellent stories. Wollheim and Saha do not have a true representation of the world's best SF. Out of 14 stories, 11 are from the U.S. and 2 are from England. The remaining story is from Belgium. I would like to see a broader spectrum of stories, more translated from non-English languages. I would also like to see more Soviet science fiction included. Other than that, The 1972 Annual World's Best SF is a brilliant collection. Buy this book. It will expand your mind. better than any drug will." Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions one review. 

The 1973 Annual World's Best SF:  The review notes: " Wollheim's collection consists of 10 first-class stories, including work by Poul Anderson, Michael Coney, Phyllis MacLennon and Frederik Pohl. Anderson's "Goat Song" is a gem and concerns a future in which a computer was originally built to help govern a world grown too complex. Gradually as its program of self-expansion progressed, more and more of the decision-making functions were handed over to it. People were happy to be relieved of the responsibility and could see for themselves how much better things were functioning. Centuries after all authority had been abandoned to the machine a wild minstrel from the hills tempts the computer with an offer to convince the people it is god. The conflict of the purely analytical and the emotional and spiritual forces is brilliantly done and the denouement is Pohl at his poetic best." <li> The small review notes: "Comparisons are odious, but I think I liked the Wollheim anthology best of all. There's not a loser in the bunch. The best stories here are The Man Who Walked Home, by the mysterious James Tiptree, Jr., and Vernor Vinge's Long Shot."</li> <li> The small review notes: "If it were indeed the best there would be reason for snarling complaint, for it is no more than competent middle of the road material with only two stories, Changing Woman, by W. Macfarlane and Willie's Blues, by Robert Tilley, rising above bland professional competence."</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions two reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1974 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "The 1974 Annual World's Best SF. Edited by Donald A. Wollheim. Daw Books. $5.95. Wollheim's been around a while, too. In 1943, he put together the first hard cover science fiction anthology, a task he has carried out with exuberance ever since. His viewpoint today, and one I share, is that this category of fiction has usually been misunderstood, par- ticularly by new writers who promptly set about restructuring the form without bothering to consult those who really know its parameters the habitual science reader."</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions four reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1975 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "With perhaps one exception, all the stories that Wollheim has chosen contain explicit or implicit assurances that they are taking place in some recognizable variant of the reader's own universe. ... But the story I liked best in the Wollheim book, “The Bleeding Man” by Craig Strete (reprinted from Galaxy) shows that a writer can mix a standard laboratory setting with American Indian myths d la Carlos Castaneda, and still come up with something fresh and moving."</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions seven reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1976 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The article notes: "A Rip Van Winkel who went to sleep only five years ago and woke up today would recognize the names of a mere two of the authors represented in Donald A. Wolheim's 1976 Annual World's Best SF (Daw Books, $1.50), so rapidly has the science-fiction field been changing. ... But the other seven stories are all good, and Wolheim is be congratulated for bringing us once more a core sample of today's best science fiction."</li> <li> The article notes: "Wollheim's collection is in the running for Longest Title of the Year if nothing else. Donald A. Wollheim Presents the 1976 Annual World's Best SF (DAW Books, 304 pages, $1.50) He offers 10 stories, most of them from newer writers such as George R. R Martin, P J. Plauger and Michael Bishop."</li> <li> The small review notes: "In general, this is a strong collection and yet, as usual. it is roundly outclassed by its two rivals, Donald A. Wollheim's Annual World's Best SF and Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year. the latter consistently the best of "the Bests." The 25 stories they reprint between them demonstrate overwhelmingly that 1976 was indeed a vintage year for short SF."</li> <li> The small review notes: "Among the good stories from the Wollheim volume are Joan D. and Vernor Vinge's adventure tale of a post-barbaric future world, "The Peddler's Apprentice;" Brian M. Stableford's new evolutionary system in "The Engineer and the Executioner;" and Richard Cowper's semi-mystical tale. "The Custodians," which leads to Armageddon."</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions seven reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1976 Annual World's Best SF and The 1977 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The article notes: "Another not-very-valuable "best" anthology on bookstore shelves now is The 1976 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald Wollheim. (DAW books, $1.50, 304 pages.) Wollheim is inclined toward fantasy and experimental writing, which should not be palmed off on the unsuspecting as science fiction. Only John Brunner's The Protocols of the Elders of Britain deserves inclusion in a science fiction anthology. Wollheim's 1977 Annual World's Best SF. (DAW books, $ 1.75, 280 pages) newly available in paperback, is a bit better. He has tried harder, his introduction and notes hint, to find science fiction stories, and there are a couple of real successes:"</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1977 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The article notes: "The 1977 Annual World's Best SF," edited by Donald A. Wollheim. Daw Books. ... Wollheim chooses stories which are enjoyable to read, which open your mind to wider horizons, and above all, which are indeed among the best available for the year. Today, now that science fiction has become "respectable", many writers use it as a medium in which to express their literary merit rather than to tell a good story. Ho-hum. But not so in this collection of the years Ten Best. Nowhere does the pace slacken. The ideas are as varied as the ten minds which created them and it is a delightful book into which you may dip for a few moments at a time rather than taking on the longer task of reading a novel."</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions four reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1978 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The article notes: "Donald A. Wollhelm, the venerable editor of DAW books, tops the best-of-the-year sweepstakes with The 1978 Annual World's Best SF (DAW, $1.95), one of the three anthologies purporting to contain the best short science fiction of the previous year. Wollheim, whose previous best-of-the-year collec- tions guaranteed excellent reading, surpassed himself this year. Half of the 10 selections were winners or nominees for the prestigious 1977 Nebula Award, presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America, and the Hugo Award, bestowed by fans in worldwide balloting."</li> <li> The review notes: " Personally, I found Wollheim's "World's Best" a shade better than the "Best of the Year" by Carr—shade, that is, as in the distinction between black and midnight. The Wollheim collection contains the new Harlan Ellison tale, "Jeffty is Five," which will win the Nebula this year and may even cop a Hugo."</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions six reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1979 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "﻿The same thing can be said for Donald A. Wollheim's "The 1979 Annual World's Best SF" (DAW Books, $2.25), the most prestigious of the several annual "best" re-print anthologies. Gathering from a broad set of sources (Universe 8 in one case), Wollheim and his assistant, Art Saha, have included C.J. Cherry's poignant "Cassandra," Greg Bear's "Scattershot," whose opening sentence is "The Teddy Bear spoke excellent Mandarin"; James Tiptree Jr.'s "We Who Stole the Dream," which makes moody thematic sense of an action plot, and seven other top-flight stories, including John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision," which is not simply among the best SF of the past year but a candidate for literary permanence."</li> <li> The review notes: " Editor Donald A. Wollheim's introduction to The 1979 Annual World's Best SF (Daw, dist. by NAL; May 1979; pap. $2.25) grapples with the question of sf's current direction. Although Wollheim acknowledges the popularity of disaster stories and Star Wars, he suggests that in general today's sf tends to be more serious and speculative, preoccupied with "concern for the why and whither of human progress." The stories in this anthology, all by well-known authors, reflect Wollheim's view and combine entertainment with speculation. Recommended."</li> <li>Starlog Future Life Magazine reviews the book.</li> <li>Science fiction book review index, 1974–1979 mentions five reviews.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1980 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li>Starlog Future Life Magazine reviews the book. The review notes: "The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF ($2.25 in paperback from DAW) is a striking accomplishment even for him. The tone of this collection is calmer, less spectacular and more contemplative than Carr’s and it possesses a unity that's hard to accomplish in such assemblages.</li> <li>Booklist 1979 - 1980: Vol 76 Index lists the book.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1981 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "Selections in The 1981 Annual World's Best SF, chosen by Donald A. Woolheim and Arthur W. Saha (DAW: $2.50), roam the far reaches of the expanding sf universe. I don't agree with Woolheim/ Saha's apparent bias toward philosophical thematic considerations over such strictly literary values as symbol, metaphor, characterization, etc. But where they're strong, they're strong. These stories ponder the relationship of creativity to death, the solipsistic powers of the mind, the unnaturalness of nonviolence, the psi and telekinesis, all from fresh angles. An ennui-of-immortality tale reads like diluted Borges, a shared-dream saga has a "Close Encounters" ring. There's nothing hackneyed about the rest."</li> <li> The review notes: "This year's volume in this series features stories that, in the words of knowledgeable editor Wollheim, concern "the crises and futures of Earth and humanity rather than ... far-flung galactic concepts of colonized worlds and alien beings." Despite this similarity, the stories are imaginatively, stylistically, and thematically versatile, including everything from Norman Spinrad's "Prime Time," an examination of futuristic entertainment, to Bob Leman's eerie tale of disappearances, "Window." Reasonably priced, this volume is suitable for sf and leisure reading collections."</li> <li> The review notes: "The 1981 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim, with Arthur W. Saha (DAW, $2.50). Along with Terry Carr's similar selection, this anthology gathers the best short stories of the year. John Varley checks in with "Beatnik Bayou," further explorations of a fu- ture where one can change roles, age, even sex; Howard Waldrop offers this year's Nebula award-winner, "The Ugly Chickens," in which it seems that the Dodo isn't quite dead; and George R.R. Martin recounts a supernatural tale of space terror in "Nightflyers.""</li> <li>Booklist 1981 - 1982: Vol 78 Index lists the book.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1982 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The article notes: "Since 1977, Donald Wollheim has been keeping us up-to-date on the current state of sci-fi with his Annual World's Best SF. The 1982 edition, as with others past, is a delight to absorb since the functional aspects of the genre are incorporated with the problems facing us now and perhaps later. The mandatory lessons of youth are explored in the entry "Out Of Everywhere" by James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon); a forceful threat for peace is made and carried through in "The Last Day Of Christmas" by David J. Lake; and in "Polyphemus" by Michael Shea, an adventurous story of love and honor culminates in the spellbinder of the year."</li> <li> The review notes: "The 1982 Annual World's Best SF (DAW. $2.95) ed. Donald A. Wollheim. The title isn't just hype: this is an immensely enjoyable collection. "The Pusher" is a solid John Varley story about an astrogator's troubling shore leaves on an Earth that ages 30 years for every deep-space voyage that he makes. Other highpoints are Michael Kube-McDowell's "Slac//"—a fine example of linguistic sf—and Jayge Carr's "Blind Spot," in which an obsessed human doctor learns a painful lesson about alien ecology and the nature of art."</li> <li> The review notes: "The 1982 Annual World's Best Sf, edited by Donald A. Wollheim, with Arthur W. Saha (DAW, $2.95). The generations pass; a best of the year anthology without a single story by any of the Founding Fathers, '50s Satirists, or '60s New Wavers. The most familiar figures here are James Tiptree Jr. and John Varley; in Varley's story "The Pusher," a man returns after six months' of near speed of light travel to find that his baby daughter has grown up, and now has a husband and a wife-times change, as the star traveler notes. Other stories are by Somtow Sucharitkul, who was this year's Campbell award winner for best new writer, C.J. Cherryh, and the up and coming Michael Shea."</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1983 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The small review notes: "Also worth tasting are the imaginative tales in The 1983 Annual World's Best S-F (DAW: $2.95), gathered by Donald A. Wollheim. An obsession with video games is wonderfully satirized in "Peg-Man" by Rudy Rucker; unemployed robots unite in Frederik Pohl's "Farmer on the Dole"; "Written in Water" by Tanith Lee finds the last woman on Earth with a surprise in her garden."</li> <li> The small review notes: "Getting a jump on this year's field is "The 1983 Annual World's Best SF." edited by Donald Wollheim (DAW Books, $2.95 paperback). The majority of this year's stories, of course, have not been published yet, but Wollheim gives a good sampling of the top stories from 1982 and late 1981."</li> <li>Locus 1983: Vol 16 Index lists the book in the "Appendix B: Book Reviews" section.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1984 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "Over all, the quality is high. Ironically those stories that are closest in theme to 1984 are also the least successful. Tanith Lee's "As Time Goes By" is a remarkable time-paradox story whereas Fred Pohl's "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair" is frightening, yet predictable. A good choice for fans of short SF, and great adventure reading for the cottage."</li> <li> The review notes: "The lack of writing of that caliber in "The 1984 Annual World's Best SF," edited by Donald A. Wollheim (DAW, $2.95 paperback), makes readers wonder whether the short story is still the genre's most powerful form. But the Nebula Award winners were announced about the same time the anthology was released last month, and when only one winning story Greg Bear's "Blood Music" appears in the book, it prompts more questions about Wollheim's choices than anything else. "Blood Music," which won the Nebula for best short story, is a tour de force, a tale of genetic engineering gone awry, for better or worse. But nothing else matches it on more than one level. The three selections from the old masters generally are disappointing."</li> <li> The review notes: "Portraying a far future where the creatures of the sea have inherited the earth, Robert Silverberg's lovely, haunting "Homefaring" leads a particularly stellar collection of ten stories, including a brilliantly terrifying gem by Frederik Pohl ("Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair') and Don Sakers's lyrical "The Leaves of October." Strong entries by Isaac Asimov, Tanith Lee, Greg Bear, Rand B. Lee, Joseph H. De- laney, Thomas Wylde, and Mary Gentle make this a significant purchase for most libraries."</li> <li> The excerpt notes: "This particular {annual issue} boasts a notable stellar list of contributors. . . . The subjects of the stories are varied and seem to have been chosen for their individual merits and not any common bond they might share. Wollheim has assembled one of the best anthologies I have ever read. Each story is unique and extraordinarily entertaining. I heartily recommend this book as being worthwhile to a broad range of reading interests."</li> <li> The small review notes: "This year there are three. The Wollheim volume is the most traditional of the crop. That doesn't mean that its 10 stories are bad, just that they are not terribly exciting. The Carr volume — for years the best of the best-of-the-years also has 10 stories, and is a more than adequate collection."</li> <li> The small review notes: "The 1984 Annual World's Best SF. ed. by Donald A. Wollheim (DAW.  $2.95). This is one anthology that lives up to its cover-copy, offering the best recent magazine fiction, and wisely combining entries by established favorites (Asimov) with work by emerging talents (Mary Gentle). Among the best this year: Thomas Wylde's "The Nanny," a superbly crafted variation on the "Last Man on Earth" theme."</li> <li> The review notes: "The 1984 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim (DAW, $2.95). In 1943 Don Woll- heim published the first science fiction paperback (The Pocket Book of Science Fiction), and so inaugurated a distinguished career as an sf editor and publisher. His annual collection of the best short sf, along with the similar volumes of Gardner Dozois and Terry Carr, almost always include the year's prize winners. As a case in point, this year's edition leads off with Greg Bear's Nebula-winning, "Blood Music," and includes powerful stories by such newer writers as Joseph Delaney, Mary Gentle, and Don Sakers, as well as fine work by established figures like Robert Silverberg and Tanith Lee."</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1985 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "Wollheim instead has relied mostly on oddities, but it redeems itself with Lucius Shepard's "Salvador," a hair-raising story about a possible "next Vietnam and its psychologically shattered veterans that recalls early Harlan Ellison."</li> <li> The review notes: "Leading the pack is The 1985 Annual World's Best SF (Daw, $3.95) edited by Donald A. Wollheim, who has been responsible for the genre's most consistently enjoyable yearly anthologies. Best of the lot is Press Enter by John Varley, with some subtle but terrifying speculation about a secret CIA-like organization which uses computers to cause suicides among undesirables."</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1986 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois (Bluejay Books, $10.95; cloth, $19.95); The 1986 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha (DAW, $3.50). After some time in a steady but uneventful orbit, the science fiction short story has really taken off again during the past year or so. Lucius Shepard, Connie Willis, and Howard Waldrop have established themselves as new masters; old pros like Robert Silverberg, Avram Davidson, and Harlan Ellison are again working in shorter forms; and the Cyberpunks—Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Lewis Shiner, John Shirley—alone or in collaboration have been at their most dazzling when most compact. This year has already seen or will see masterly story collections by many of these writers, but for a swoop across the whole field one can do no better than these two anthologies. Dozois' huge collection remains unrivalled for sheer volume, as well as for its editor's informed account of the year in sf and for his succinct biographical headnotes. Wollheim's more slender, and cheaper, annual selects only 10 stories and so may seem more manageable. But both are essential because only two stories are duplicated—Shepard's "The Jaguar Hunter" and Silverberg's "Sailing to Byzantium. The latter has already won a Nebula, while the former is but one in a series set in Central America by perhaps the most exciting new story writer of them all."</li> <li> The article provides one sentence of coverage about the subject. The article notes: "Donald Wollheim has released The 1986 Annual World's Best SF (Daw, $4.50) with winners by Lucius Shepard ("The Jaguar Hunter" - a mystical encounter with a woman/panther), Robert Silverberg ("Sailing To Byzantium" - a hedonistic future Earth containing only replicas of ancient cities) and Jayge Carr ("Webrider" - a stunning breakthrough in instantaneous space travel)."</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1987 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "World's best science fiction? Well, I don't know. That's a pretty lofty claim. But this collection of stories published in various magazines and one book in 1985-86 is of generally high quality. And sharing space with such high-powered names as Roger Zelazny, Damon Knight and Robert Silverberg are a Concord man and a former Charlottean."</li> <li> The review notes: "There are two things that I especially like about the best science fiction authors — they usually have something to say and they usually say it through stories with real plots. Even though some of Wollheim's choices for this anthology are arguable (For instance, there are no selections from Analog or Twilight Zone), I must admit that something happens in all the stories in this book. What more do you want for $3.95?"</li> <li> The small review notes: "At hand are the three best sci-fi annuals, and they offer some marvelous reading. The Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha (DAW. $3.95) contains 10 selections, including what is possibly the best single story of the past several years, Lucius Shepard's novelette "R & R". Set during a vividly felt and described, utterly believable near-future Central American war, it examines the netherworld of dreams and terrors aroused in disaffected sol- diers fighting an unjust war. This collection also has fine stories by Tanith Lee and Howard Waldrop, among others."</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1988 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "Diverse and entrancing, these stories peek into strange recesses of an altered present and make forays into far futures. Worth notice are a slightly disappointing effort by Robert Silverberg; a masterful post-nuclear story by Tanith Lee; a light and whimsical tale of angelic extraterrestrials by James Tiptree, Jr., one of her last; and a potent though awkward stab by Orson Scott Card at colonialism. Pat Murphy, Pat Cadigan, and Kate Wilhelm demonstrate impressive talent in some of the anthology's finest stories."</li> <li>Book review index: a master cumulation 1985-1992: a cumulated index to more than 1,000,000 reviews of approximately 500,000 titles lists the book but it is unclear how many reviews it received.</li> <li>Booklist 1987 - 1988: Vol 84 Index lists the book. </ol></li>

<li>The 1989 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "To these top sci-fi names, the short story represents a happy opportunity to give an O. Henry twist or alternate-dimension tweak to everything from an AIDS-inspired "altruism" disease (Brin's curmudgeonly The Giving Plague, in World's Best)  ... In fact, quite a few of the 28 stories in Year's Best, 12 in Nebula 23 and 11 in World's Best focus on biological or ecological permutations.  ... Effinger's Schrodinger's Kitten (in Year's Best and World's Best) is an evocative Nebula winner that uses the literary device of parallel flashbacks to dramatize the latest theories of alternate-reality physics."</li> <li>Book review index: a master cumulation 1985-1992: a cumulated index to more than 1,000,000 reviews of approximately 500,000 titles lists the book but it is unclear how many reviews it received.</li> </ol></li>

<li>The 1990 Annual World's Best SF:<ol> <li> The review notes: "The cover of The 1990 Annual World's Best SF, depicting bubble-domed cars levitating through a city of swooping steel curves, looks like something from the Golden Age. It looks like it is going to give us what we want: good, old science fiction. But the conservatism is only a ploy. In fact, this book is much more. The stories turn the old problem- solving formula on its head. They have scope and power. They give us much more than we expect. And isn't that what we really wanted?"</li> <li> The review notes: "This 25th annual search for "the best" reaps 12 distinctive, accomplished short stories that appeared in science fiction magazines during 1989. In Gregory Benford's "Alphas," secretive aliens bore a hole through the center of Venus, and when a meddling Earthling comes too close, he learns more than he wanted to know about gravity."</li> <li> The article notes: "The 1990 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha (DAW, $4.50). The settings of the 12 stories in this book include Washington, D.C. in the year 2009, Guatemala in the not-so-distant future and the planet Venus as it undergoes reshaping by aliens. In James Morrow's "Abe Lincoln in McDonald's," Lincoln visits the future as he tries to decide whether to sign a peace treaty with the South that will allow slavery to continue. In Gregory Benford's "Alphas," aliens ignore humanity while they gut the planet Venus. And in Lucius Shephard's "Surrender," two journalists discover a strange biological experiment in a Guatemalan village."</li> <li>Book review index: a master cumulation 1985-1992: a cumulated index to more than 1,000,000 reviews of approximately 500,000 titles lists the book but it is unclear how many reviews it received.</li> </ol></li>

</ol>Cunard (talk) 11:36, 18 October 2023 (UTC)


 * @Cunard Excellent findings as always, although per NOTINHERITED one could quibble whether the series can be made notable based on reviews of individual volumes. @Siroxo who may be interested as well. <sub style="border:1px solid #228B22;padding:1px;">Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 01:37, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 * PS. I am not going to AfD this, certainly, not until I least ensure that all the reviews you found and listed above are mentioned in their respective book articles. <sub style="border:1px solid #228B22;padding:1px;">Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 01:38, 6 January 2024 (UTC)