The Best Science Fiction of the Year 1 by Terry Carr

Wheeler is convinced, and leaves on a mission to reverse this trend. Then Karl floats the theory that this creature’s natural habitat is an atmosphere similar to a badly polluted Earth, and that the deteriorating condition of the environment is part of an alien plot to terraform the Earth for its species. During this procedure Karl excises odd-looking body parts which he displays to Wheeler, while suggesting that their erstwhile boss was an alien. Karl opens the coffin and proceeds to perform an autopsy on the old man. Long story short (spoiler), Karl takes Wheeler through to a back room in the crematorium, where the coffin, rather than having been burnt, is waiting for them. There is then a long data dump giving Wheeler’s life story, which ends with the brothers deciding what they should do.Īfter the set-up the story plays out in the rest of the story, starting with Karl and Wheeler at the old man’s funeral.

Karl has concerns about what Wheeler will do with the company, and its vast wealth and influence, when he takes control. We learn that Karl is the private doctor of an exceptionally wealthy and elderly man whose designated successor is an over-achiever called Wheeler. This one opens with a man called Joe, an out of town inventor, receiving a discrete visit from his brother Karl. Wollheim for the years 1964 to 1970 previously) leads off with Occam’s Scalpel by Theodore Sturgeon ( If, July-August 1971), which in some respects reminds me of another story of his I’ve read recently, When You Care, When You Love ( F&SF, September 1962)-but I’ll come back to this at the end. The fiction in Terry Carr’s debut solo ‘Best of the Year’ volume (he co-edited a series with Donald A.

short story by George Alec Effinger ∗ ∗.The Frayed String on the Stretched Forefinger of Time

short story by Philip José Farmer ∗ ∗ ∗+.

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World A reader-friendly combination.Ĭharlie Brown, Locus #129, December 15, 1972ĭave Hartwell, Locus #125, October 27 1972 Summary: An assured solo ‘Best of Year’ anthology for 1971 from Terry Carr, whose choices seem to split pretty evenly between crowd-pleasers (Clarke’s excellent A Meeting With Medusa, Anderson’s A Queen of Air and Darkness, and the Niven), experimental and literary work (Le Guin’s Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, the Silverberg and Panshin), and humour and satire (work from Farmer, Spinrad, and Effinger, etc.).

The Best Science Fiction of the Year 1 by Terry Carr