The Best Science Fiction Stories and Novels: Ninth Series is a 1958

1958 in literature

The year 1958 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in United States.*First volume of The Civil War by Shelby Foote is published....

 anthology of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short stories edited by T. E. Dikty

T. E. Dikty

Thaddeus Maxim Eugene Dikty was one of the earliest science fiction anthologists.He started the first "Best of the Year" anthologies, called The Best Science Fiction, which ran from 1949 until 1957. In 1953, he married writer Julian May, and in 1957 the two started an editorial service for...

. The stories had originally appeared in 1956 and 1957 in the magazines Astounding, If

If (magazine)

If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. Quinn hired Paul W. Fairman to be the first editor, but early circulation figures were disappointing, and Quinn fired Fairman after only three issues. Quinn then took over the...

, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Venture Science Fiction Magazine

Venture Science Fiction Magazine

Venture Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, first published from 1957 to 1958, and revived for a brief run in 1969 and 1970. Ten issues were published of the 1950s version, with another six in the second run. It was founded in both instances as a companion to The...

, Satellite and Science Fiction Stories.

Contents

• The Science-Fiction Year, by T. E. Dikty
  T. E. Dikty
  Thaddeus Maxim Eugene Dikty was one of the earliest science fiction anthologists.He started the first "Best of the Year" anthologies, called The Best Science Fiction, which ran from 1949 until 1957. In 1953, he married writer Julian May, and in 1957 the two started an editorial service for...
  
  
• "2066: Election Day, by Michael Shaara
  Michael Shaara
  Michael Shaara was an American writer of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. He was born to Italian immigrant parents in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University in 1951, and served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne division...
  
  
• "The Mile-Long Spaceship, by Kate Wilhelm
  Kate Wilhelm
  Kate Wilhelm is an American writer whose works include science fiction, mystery, and fantasy.- Career :Wilhelm was born in Toledo, Ohio....
  
  
• "The Last Victory, by Tom Godwin
  Tom Godwin
  Tom Godwin was an American science fiction author. Godwin published three novels and thirty short stories. His controversial hard SF short story "The Cold Equations" is a notable example of the mid-1950s science fiction genre.-Novels:...
  
  
• "Call Me Joe, by Poul Anderson
  Poul Anderson
  Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
  
  
• "Didn’t He Ramble, by Chad Oliver
  Chad Oliver
  Symmes Chadwick Oliver was an American science fiction and Western writer and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin...
  
  
• "The Queen’s Messenger, by John J. McGuire
  John J. McGuire
  John Joseph McGuire was an American author of science fiction.He usually wrote with H. Beam Piper.-Shorts:* "Hunter Patrol"...
  
  
• "The Other People, by Leigh Brackett
  Leigh Brackett
  Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...
  
  
• "Into Your Tent I’ll Creep, by Eric Frank Russell
  Eric Frank Russell
  Eric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...
  
  
• "Nor Dust Corrupt, by James V. McConnell
• "Nightsound, by Algis Budrys
  Algis Budrys
  Algis Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names "Frank Mason", "Alger Rome", "John A. Sentry", "William Scarff", and "Paul Janvier."-Biography:...
  
  
• "The Tunesmith, by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
  Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
  Lloyd Biggle, Jr. , was a musician, author, and internationally known oral historian.-Biography:Biggle was born in 1923 in Waterloo, Iowa. He served in World War II as a communications sergeant in a rifle company of the 102nd Infantry Division; during the war, he was wounded twice...
  
  
• "Hunting Machine, by Carol Emshwiller
  Carol Emshwiller
  Carol Emshwiller is an American writer of avant garde short stories and science fiction who has won prizes ranging from the Nebula Award to the Philip K. Dick Award. Ursula K...
  
  
• The Science-Fiction Book Index, by Earl Kemp
  Earl Kemp
  Earl Kemp is an American science fiction editor, critic, and fan who won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for Who Killed Science Fiction, a collection of questions and answers with top writers in the field. In 2011 a book edition of Who Killed Science Fiction was published by The Merry...
  
  

Reception

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...

 unhappily dismissed this anthology as an "assembly of the tedious, trite and ill-reasoned," excepting only Anderson's story as "firstrate" and the short pieces from Emshwiller, Oliver and Russell as "good (if far from 'best')". Damon Knight

Damon Knight

Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

singled out the Anderson and Emshwiller stories as "first-rate," dismissing the remainder as "mostly dead-level puzzles of melodramas, each one grayly blending into a hundred similar stories you have read and mildly enjoyed."