It’s perhaps fitting that the 5th edition of Judith Merril’s S-F (or “SF”, depending on the year), which featured Richard Powers’ final cover for the series, includes what I think is the best set of stories featured by any volume in the series.
My favorites are Cordwainer Smith’s “No, No, Not Rogov!”, Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon”, Clifford Simak’s “A Death in the House”, and J.G. Ballard’s “The Sound Sweep”. Smith’s stories are remarkable in terms of the consistency and clarity of the future “world” he fashioned, the philosophical and religious undertones that subtly underlie particularly his latter tales, and ultimately, the sense of wonder indelibly imparted by the sheer originality inherent to his universe. Character development, while present to a degree, is secondary to plot and theme, but given Smith’s skill as a writer, this does not at all detract from his stories.
As for Powers’ cover art, well, what can one say? Unlike some of the prior volumes in this series it’s quite busy, what with spacecraft, a gas giant world, a robot (is it a robot?!) and particularly a human-like figure enveloped in flaming bluish-white tendrils. (Close inspection reveals that he has tendrils rising from his forehead. For those in the know, could he be a Slan?)
Powers’ fifth and last appearance for this series is a truly fitting finale.
Open the book, and you’ll encounter…
Introduction “(The 5th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F”), Essay by Judith Merril
“The Handler”, by Damon Knight,
from Rogue, August, 1960
“The Other Wife”, by Jack Finney,
from The Saturday Evening Post, January 30, 1960
“No Fire Burns”, by Avram Davidson,
from Playboy, July, 1959
“No, No, Not Rogov!” [The Instrumentality of Mankind series], by Cordwainer Smith [Paul M. Linebarger],
from If, February, 1959
“The Shoreline at Sunset”, by Ray Bradbury,
from A Medicine for Melancholy
“The Dreamsman”, by Gordon R. Dickson,
from Star Science Fiction No. 6
“Multum in Parvo”, by Jack Sharkey,
from The Gent, December, 1959
“Flowers for Algernon”, by Daniel Keyes,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April, 1959
““What Do You Mean … Human?”“, Essay by John W. Campbell, Jr.,
from Astounding Science Fiction, September, 1959
“Sierra Sam”, Essay by Ralph Dighton,
specifically for this volume
“A Death in the House”, by Clifford D. Simak,
from Galaxy Science Fiction, October, 1959
“Mariana”, by Fritz Leiber
from Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, February, 1960
“An Inquiry Concerning the Curvature of the Earth’s Surface and Divers Investigations of a Metaphysical Nature”,
by Roger Price, specifically for this volume
“Day at the Beach”, by Carol Emshwiller,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August, 1959
“Hot Argument” [Poor Willie series], by Randall Garrett,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1960
“What the Left Hand Was Doing”, by Darrell T. Langart [Randall Garrett],
from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1960
“The Sound Sweep”, by J.G. Ballard [Variant of “The Sound-Sweep”,
from Science Fantasy, #39, February, 1960], specifically for this volume
“Plenitude”, by Will Worthington [Will Mohler],
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November, 1959
“The Man Who Lost the Sea”, by Theodore Sturgeon,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1959
“Make a Prison”, by Lawrence Block,
from Science Fiction Stories [UK] #8, January, 1959
“What Now, Little Man?”, by Mark Clifton,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December, 1959
“Me”, Poem by Hilbert Schenck [as by Hilbert Schenck, Jr.],
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August, 1959
“The Year’s S-F, Summary and Honorable Mentions”,
Essay by Judith Merril
(variant of The Year’s S-F, Summation and Honorable Mentions (The 5th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F))
So, what else?
Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Published Variants of This Book (Six by golly, that’s awfully jolly!)