I bought these a while back with Admiral Ironbombs at Battered, Tattered, Yellowed, and Creased at the best used SF store I’ve encountered in the United States—Dawn Treader Books in Ann Arbor, MI (if you are ever in Michigan it’s worth the trip). I’m glad I don’t live there else I would have no money. I also discovered that Admiral Ironbombs doesn’t actually buy books that are battered and tattered—I do. I guess he’s more of a “collector” than me. Haha.
Enjoy some nice covers!
Has anyone read the work of Evelyn E. Smith?
Thoughts?
1. Best SF: 1970, ed. Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss (1971)
(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1971 edition)
From the back cover: “BEST SF: 1970—THE CREAM OF THE CROP. Selected from sources all over the world, some as familiar to the SF field as Galaxy and Fantasy and Science Fiction, others as unexpected as New American Review, some the very best SF stories published in 1970—in any language. For here are stories from Russia, from Poland, and from Czechoslovakia, as well as from Britain and the United States.
Slawomir Mrozek, Gleb Anfilov, Josef Nesvadba, Alvin Greenberg, Robin Scott Wilson, Jerry Farber, Robert Silverberg, Naomi Mitchison, Hayden Howard, Robert Coover, William Earls, Thomas M. Disch, Gene Wolfe, Kriss neville and K. M. O’Donnell combine to make this the most varied and successful of this unique series of annual anthologies.
2. Garbage World, Charles Platt (1967)
(Jeff Jones’ cover for the 1973 edition)
From the back cover from an earlier edition: “Kopra is a small asteroid, coated with unimaginable fifth in all shapes and forms. Its inhabitants, too, are a dirty lot, clothed in soiled rags, underfed and hungry. The garbage dump of the United Asteroid Belt Pleasure Worlds Federation, Kopra’s sole function is to receive specially package waste materials from its sister asteroids. Carefully avoided by Off-Worlders for centuries—the stench alone is enough to discourage anyone—Kopra suddenly becomes the object of extraordinary interest to Off-World government officials. And from the moment they cautiously set foot on the asteroid, they are plummeted into an adventure as bizarre as it is exciting—filled with danger and plenty of unexpected surprises…”
3. Best SF Stories From New Worlds, ed. Michael Moorcock (1965)
(Uncredited cover for the 1967 edition)
From the inside flap of a later edition: “DIP INTO THE FUTURE WITH THESE UNUSUAL SF CONCEPTS: Some have said that humanoids may be living undetected amongst us. Has it ever occurred to you that we may be the humanoids amongst them? “The Small Betrayal Detail” by Brian W. Aldiss
Space-traveling man may make over alien worlds to his own image. But to whose image was man made? And was it worth the effort? “The Keys to to December” by Roger Zelazny.
‘If it were a Martian,’ started the man from Earth, ‘then I think I would kill us.’ “The Music Makers” by Langdon Jones.
With additional treats by J. G. Ballard, John Brunner, David L. Masson and Thomas M. Disch…”
4. Unpopular Planet, Evelyn E. Smith (1975)
(Uncredited cover for the 1975 edition)
From the back cover: “VIOLENCE was the most vile and unpardonable act on earth… SEX for procreation was forbidden without proper classification… Nicholas Piggot knew the laws and abided by them—except when he drank. That’s when he got in trouble and saw blue dragons. And one night, caught between the consequences of violent action and the benevolence of his own blue dragons, he made an amazing discovery. The blue dragons were real. They were business beings from another dimension. They had a whole underground community established beneath lower Manhattan and extraordinary connections throughout the universe. But most amazing of all—they had definite plans for Nicholas Piggot…”