Best of
Anthologies

1984

Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature


Alberto ManguelPedro Antonio de Alarcón - 1984
    Alberto Manguel has selected 72 fantastic tales from life on the edge of the twilight zone, with stories from Marguerite Yourcenar, Herman Hesse, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, and many, many more. This is a collection of irresistible masterpieces, many of which have never before appeared in the English language.Fantastic literature Manguel writes in his introduction, makes use of our everyday world as a facade through which the undefinable appears, hinting at the half-forgotten dreams of our imagination. Unlike tales of fantasy, fantastic literature deals with what can be best defined as the impossible seeping into the possible, what Wallace Stevens calls black water breaking into reality. Fantastic literature never really explains everything, it thrives on surprise, on the unexpected logic that is born from its own rules.Contents:House taken over by Julio CortázarHow love came to Professor Guildea by Robert S. HichensClimax for a ghost story by I.A. IrelandThe mysteries of the Joy Rio by Tennessee WilliamsPomegranate seed by Edith WhartonVenetian masks by Adolfo Bioy CasaresThe wish house by Rudyard KiplingThe playground by Ray BradburyImportance by Manuel Mujica LáinezEnoch Soames by Max BeerbohmA visitor from down under by L.P. HartleyLaura by SakiAn injustice revealedA little place off the Edgware Road by Graham GreeneFrom "A School Story" by M.R. JamesThe signalman by Charles DickensThe tall woman by Pedro Antonio de AlarcónA scent of mimosa by Francis KingDeath and the gardener by Jean CocteauLord Mountdrago by W. Somerset MaughamThe sick gentleman's last visit by Giovanni PapiniInsomnia by Virgilio PiñeraThe storm by Jules VerneA dream (from The Arabian Nights Entertainments)The facts in the case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan PoeSplit second by Daphne du MaurierAugust 25, 1983 by Jorge Luis BorgesHow Wang-Fo was saved by Marguerite YourcenarFrom "Peter and Rosa" by Isak DinesenTattoo by Jun'ichirō TanizakiJohn Duffy's brother by Flann O'BrienLady into fox by David GarnettFather's last escape by Bruno SchulzA man by the name of Ziegler by Hermann HesseThe Argentine ant by Italo CalvinoThe lady on the grey by John CollierThe queen of spades by Alexander PushkinOf a promise kept by Lafcadio HearnThe wizard postponed by Juan ManuelThe monkey's paw by W.W. JacobsThe bottle imp by Robert Louis StevensonThe rocking-horse winner by D.H. LawrenceCertain distant suns by Joanne GreenburgThe third bank of the river by João Guimarães RosaHome by Hilaire BellocThe door in the wall by H.G. WellsThe friends by Silvina OcampoEt in sempiternum pereant by Charles WilliamsThe captives of Longjumeau by Léon BloyThe visit to the museum by Vladimir NabakovAutumn Mountain by Ryūnosuke AkutagawaThe sight by Brian MooreClorinda by André Pieyre de MandiarguesThe pagan rabbi by Cynthia OzickThe fisherman and his soul by Oscar WildeThe bureau d'echange de maux by Lord DunsanyThe ones who walk away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuinIn the penal colony by Franz KafkaA dog in Durer's etching "The Knight, Death and the Devil" by Marco DeneviThe large ant by Howard FastThe lemmings by Alex ComfortThe grey ones by J.B. PriestleyThe feather pillow by Horacio QuirogaSeaton's aunt by Walter de la MareThe friends of the friends by Henry JamesThe travelling companion by Hans Christian AndersenThe curfew tolls by Stephen Vincent BenetThe state of grace by Marcel AyméThe story of a panic by E.M. ForsterAn invitation to the hunt by George HitchcockFrom the "American Notebooks" by Nathaniel HawthorneThe dream by O. Henry

The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisGreg Bear - 1984
    A. Lafferty295 • Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann316 • In the Islands • (1983) • shortstory by Pat Murphy329 • Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee348 • Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear371 • Her Furry Face • (1983) • shortstory by Leigh Kennedy387 • Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee419 • The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe426 • The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin452 • Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan467 • Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel486 • Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons522 • Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge546 • Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson571 • Honorable Mentions: 1983 • essay by Gardner Dozois

Sword and Sorceress


Marion Zimmer BradleyJennifer Roberson - 1984
    I hop to avoid either and to entertain you while I'm doing it."Here she has succeeded!

The New Oxford Book of War Poetry


Jon Stallworthy - 1984
    Jon Stallworthy's classic and celebrated anthology spans centuries of human experience of war, from Homer's Iliad, through the First and Second World Wars, the Vietnam War, and the warsfought since. This new edition, published to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, includes a new introduction and additonal poems from David Harsent and Peter Wyton, among others. The new selection provides improved coverage of the two World Wars and the Vietnam War, and newcoverage of the wars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Best Science Fiction of the Year 14


Terry CarrCharles L. Harness - 1984
    

That's What She Said: Contemporary Poetry and Fiction by Native American Women


Rayna Green - 1984
    That's What She Said provides an opportunity to become acquainted with a unique, exciting body of work.

A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection by North American Indian Women


Beth Brant - 1984
    We are a nation. We are alive.

Four Complete Novels


Frank Herbert - 1984
    Herbert's novels are the work of a speculative intellect with few rivals in modern science fiction. Frank Herbert used his science fiction novels to explore complex ideas involving philosophy, religion, psychology, politics and ecology. The underlying thrust of his work was a fascination with the question of human survival and evolution.Contents: Whipping Star [Jorj McKie] (1970) / novel by Frank Herbert: In the far future, humankind has made contact with numerous other species: Gowachin, Laclac, Wreaves, Pan Spechi, Taprisiots, and Caleban, and has helped to form the ConSentiency to govern among the species. After suffering under a tyrannous pure democracy, the sentients of the galaxy find the need for a Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) to slow the wheels of government, thereby preventing it from legislating recklessly. BuSab is allowed to sabotage and harass the governmental, administrative, and economic powers in the ConSentiency. Private citizens must not be harassed, and vital functions of society are also exempt. The Dosadi Experiment [Jorj McKie] (1977) / novel by Frank Herbert: Sent to the planet Dosadi to investigate the vicious, fearsome human and Gowachin societies there, prior to their destruction, Jorj X. McKie is captured by a ruthless woman whose plan to escape Dosadi involves her changing bodies with McKie. The Santaroga Barrier (1968) / novel by Frank Herbert: Santaroga seemed to be nothing more than a prosperous farm community. But there was something, different, about Santaroga. Santaroga had no juvenile delinquency, or any crime at all. Outsiders found no house for sale or rent in this valley, and no one ever moved out. No one bought cigarettes in Santaroga. No cheese, wine, beer or produce from outside the valley could be sold there. The list went on and on and grew stranger and stranger. Maybe Santaroga was the last outpost of American individualism. Maybe they were just a bunch of religious kooks. Or maybe there was something extraordinary at work in Santaroga. Something far more disturbing than anyone could imagine. Soul Catcher (1972) / novel by Frank Herbert:Katsuk, a militant Native American student, kidnaps 13-year-old David Marshall,the son of the US Undersecretary of State. The two flee into the deepest wilds of the Pacific Northwest, where they must survive together as teams of hunters try to track them. David begins to feel a growing bond of respect for his captor, even as he struggles to escape. What the boy does not know, however, is that he has been chosen as an innocent from the white world for an ancient sacrifice of vengeance. And Katsuk may be divinely inspired . . . or simply insane.

Murder Ink: Revived, Revised, Still Unrepentant Perpetrated by Dilys Winn


Dilys Winn - 1984
    A revised edition of Murder Ink with plentiful new material.

An Economic Theorist's Book of Tales


George A. Akerlof - 1984
    Economic theory has traditionally relied upon a tacit and 'classical' set of assumptions that have gradually acquired a life of their own in defining how economists write and how they justify economic models. Similarly, these assumptions have acquired an autonomous character: they guide the way economists think about the world. In consequence, consideration of alternative assumptions has become taboo. These essays are substantively and stylistically novel because they break these taboos and bring new assumptions into economic theory. The papers apply this adventurous approach to a wide range of issues - from insurance markets and trade in underdeveloped countries to unemployment and discrimination. Some of the essays derive the implications for economic markets of costly asymmetric information. Others explore the findings of other social sciences such as anthropology, psychology and sociology.

Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union


Tatyana Mamonova - 1984
    Women scientists, workers, artists and intellectuals of all ages and ethnic backgrounds and from all parts of the Soviet Union report on their experiences as workers, mothers, daughters and dissidents.

Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront The Race Issue In A Universal Church


Lester E. Bush - 1984
    

Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space


Isaac Asimov - 1984
    Herein are answered questions which have plagued loyal readers for decades, including: What is the truth about the mysterious menace of Sumatra? What occurs when Holmes must pursue an extra-terrestrial? Stories by authors: Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, Philip Jose Farmer; Sterling Lanier, Gene Wolfe, Edward Wellen and others, for your amusement and edification.(back cover)Introduction: Sherlock Holmes / Isaac Asimov --The Adventure of the devil's foot / Arthur Conan Doyle --The Problem of the Sore Bridge among others / Philip Jose Farmer --The Adventure of the global traveler / Anne Lear --The Great dormitory mystery / F.N. Farber --The Adventure of the misplaced hound / Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson --The Thing waiting outside / Barbara Williamson --A Father's tale / Sterling E. Lanier --The Adventure of the extraterrestrial / Mack Reynolds --A Scarletin study / Philip Jose Farmer --Voiceover / Edward Wellen --The Adventure of the metal murderer / Fred Saberhagen --Slaves of silver / Gene Wolfe --God of the naked unicorn / Richard Lupoff --Death in the Christmas hour / James Powell --The Ultimate crime / Isaac Asimov.

Election Day 2084: A Science Fiction Anthology on the Politics of the Future


Isaac Asimov - 1984
    Seventeen stories deal with political campaigns, the media, conventions, multiple governments, conspiracies, political machines, and leaders of the future.

Hopi Coyote Tales: Istutuwutsi


Ekkehart Malotki - 1984
    Complete with English translations and original Hopi transcriptions on facing pages and a bilingual glossary. Hopi Coyote Tales is important to an understanding of the Hopi language and folklore. To nomadic hunters such as the Navajo, who competed with him on the open range, Coyote was by turns a formidable trickster, a demonic witchperson, and a god. As sedentary planters, the Hopis tended to reduce Coyote to the level of a laughable fool. In these tales Coyote is a friendly bumbler whose mistakes teach listeners what tricks to avoid. Time after time he is hurt or killed for failing to understand a situation correctly. The collection is as amusing as animal fables should be, as simply told, and as instructive.Published as a companion volume to Father Berard Haile's Navajo Coyote Tales, Hopi Coyote Tales is a valuable contribution to cross-cultural studies.