The 9th Annual of the Year’s Best SF edited by Judith Merril

[james_davis_nicoll]

The most noteworthy science fiction from that memorable year, 1959 to 1963.

The 9th Annual of the Year’s Best SF edited by Judith Merril 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

If you do a "conning the con man" article, "Snow Job" by Dozois and Swanwick would be a good fit. Also "I Plinglot, Who You" by Pohl

[(Anonymous)]

Is it Isaac Asimov who wrote about a naive seeming human colonist returned from Mars to arrange trade, who, being diligently conned by his Earth liaison, proceeds to con back about ten times better? And proposes that Mars's main export will be people with this widely held skill set.

And, is my reading biased, or is there a strong tendency for a fictional colonised Mars to be quite lawless? Even human federations of a thousand star systems have Mars as a notorious crime world. Maybe it goes with corporate exploitation. "Total Recall" comes to mind, definitely the film rather than Philip K. Dick's shorter story.

[petrea_mitchell]

1963 would also be when the final switch to all-digit dialing was happening.

[jreynolds197]

I imagine that the story appearing in "The Dude" magazine was written by Jeffrey Lebowski. Must have been under a pseudonym.

[agharta75]

"Dude" was a Playboy knockoff that (as I remember) had a SF writer as its fiction editor (though the usual internet searches don't mention that).

[beamjockey]

I have not heard of The Dude but, as I have remarked before, it is one more among the incoming stream of manly men's magazines that must have raised the eyebrow of Judith Merril's postman.

[(Anonymous)]

Once upon a time there was a shop in Washington, DC called "The Plain Brown Wrapper".

80s nostalgia for 60s porn delivery?

William Hyde

[ba_munronoe]

I have that one!

"This is one of the final stories from Bester’s early prolific days; it’s better than what was to come."

Not a Bester fan?

[james_davis_nicoll]

I wish I wasn't, or the drop between The Demolished Man and Golem100 wouldn't bother me.

[dagibbs]

Wow, yeah. Demolished Man -- excellent. I remember Golem100 being almost unreadable.

[ba_munronoe]

Ouch. My condolences.

[chrysostom]

I think Stephen King did a take on the theme of that Nelson, as well.