This was my backup book for quite a while. I kept it on my cell phone and read a few pages here and there, when I got stuck in waiting rooms and such. This is probably not the ideal way to read it, and might be the reason why I can't really recall any exceptional stories. Some were decent and a few were quite redundant and not worth the time. It seems to me like the editor tried to pick a variety of styles and genres rather than collect "the best", since I doubt this is really the best of F&SF,

Great to read up the decades (1950's into the 2000's) and see styles change. Definitely worth it for that. Also for Harlan Ellison's 'Jeffty is Five', and 'The Lincoln Train' by Maureen F. McHugh -- loved loved loved that one. Also good, 'Have Not Have' by Geoff Ryman, 'The People of Sand and Slag' by Paolo Bacigalupi. And personally, absolutely hated 'Attack of the Giant Baby' by Kit Reed and 'Echo' by Elizabeth Hand. Bleargh! But your mileage may vary.

Really cool book. I liked how it started with stories written in the 50s and went up the 00s and started with old school sci fi stories to cyber punk but the last couple of stories were depressing as shit. I saw the movie based off of "all you zombies" and i still cant figure that shit out.

A few weeks ago, I read a short-story collection of recent works from big-name authors that caused me to reflect on what I looked for in the short story. I came to the conclusion that my childhood addiction to Year's Best anthologies left me looking for strange, creative, and memorable stories from a variety of authors, from the neophyte to grand masters. The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 2 goes one better. Rather than restricting itself to the last year, Van Gelder was free to

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 2, edited by Gordon Van Gelder, brings together 432 pages of stories from throughout the magazine's illustrious history. This was more a matter of revisiting some classics than discovering new favorites, but that doesn't make it any less of a must-read.Surprisingly, a lot of the stories contained here are of the comic variety. Even more surprisingly, they are a strong bunch of stories. The Third Level by Jack Finney is a fun tale of portals thro...

I read only several of the stories in full; skipped the rest after reading the beginning. Not a single one excited me at least that much to recommend it. Maybe it's just such a genre where you have to get into a new, completely different story, start understanding it… and it ends — not worthwhile as for me.

The second volume of the very best of fantasy and science-fiction is still excellent but not quite as good as its predecessor. The stories are more easily divided into two distinct categories, the slapstick or humorous and the dystopian. Some stories, like “rat “ which deals with the drug trade and “echo” which features a woman in a declining World definitely caught my attention. Others were familiar and rather welcome for it. A few like the featured story by Robert a Heinlein just weren’t terri...

I've been reading the stories in this one for several years now, but finally finished the last one recently. I was a bit surprised at how many of the stories I 'just didn't like' especially since this anthology is "The Very Best of...", but there were a lot of very good stories too, so I'll give those a shout out."The Third Level" by Jack Finney"The Anything Box" by Zenna Henderson (actually blogged about this one back in 2017: https://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/2... "The Bone Woman" by Charles...

3.48 average... I'll round up to 4.This collection finishes a lot stronger than it starts. (No, I don't think that decades past were devoid of great fiction; I just don't think that all the older selections here were as strong as they could've been.) Still, there are some real gems here - and overall, this collection gives a good overview of the breadth of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's editorial selection.*** “The Third Level” by Jack Finney (1952)Well, I liked this better than Fin...

A combination of hits and misses, but much more in the "miss" column than the first volume. World building seems to be a necessity for this genre but the short story format really doesn't lend well to it.

One of the sadder things about the science fiction and fantasy genre is that readers often overlook older stories and novels, choosing to chase new releases instead. This anthology, edited by Gordon Van Gelder, seeks to right that wrong by reprinting stories that were originally published between 1956-2011. (For the most part, they're closer to 1956.)Some of the stories are hilarious, some are great, some aren't. This anthology is an excellent way to get to know great authors from the decades pa...

(I got a copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)3.5 stars for this collection of 27 stories, some of which are funny and grotesque, some others dark and disturbing.Strangely, I didn't feel that much of a connection with a lot of those. Maybe I've become picky after a few disappointing experiences with anthologies recently, or maybe I tend to expect more definite endings; I regularly got the feeling that this or that story was interesting (because of its theme and/or

A bit of context for the 4 star rating: I don't find short stories satisfying as a general rule, I tend to prefer my stories on the larger side of huge, but what I do like them for is that they sometimes introduce me to writers I might not otherwise have read. If someone manages to interest me in a handful of pages, they are worth further investigation. This book delivered more than a dozen names for me to add to my Goodreads bookshelf, which makes it fantastic as far as I'm concerned. Just a so...

This anthology has been a pleasure to read. It compiles some of the best stories published in Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine during over 65 years and the result is a well-balanced and highly enjoyable mixture of old and more recent stories; of classic and less known tales (although all of them are by really well-known authors); of stories I had already read and of stories which were new to me; of deep, dark, sad, light and funny works.I didn’t care for all the stories, of course, but I didn’...

3.5 stars.A slightly obsessed fan of Stephen King I will admit that I read this anthology solely for his story. There are a lot of stories in this anthology so I will try to narrow it down to just the ones that either stuck with or annoyed me. The ones I liked:The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates. by Stephen King: I really loved this one but that was unsurprising. It's King, it has a Twlight Zone Feel, and I loved the premise of it. The Third Level by Jack Finney: This one also reminded

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.5 of 5What can one possibly say about something titled "The Very Best of..." when it's covering stories from what is arguably the very best magazine publishing fantasy and science fiction stories? Well...you know it's probably pretty darned good!There have been over thirty "Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction" anthologies, collecting years and decades worth of stories published between the pages of the magazine and there's even...

Like all collections of short stories, some you absolutely love, and some leave you somewhat cold. However, it's very interesting to read short stories that have subsequently been made into movies, or are classics of their time, or show and author at the top of their form.

It's impossible to give an accurate, play by play rating of every story in this volume. While some didn't spark my interest or challenge my assumptions, others did very well. Others struck that perfect emotional resonance, all the speculative beauty and meaning of modern fiction through the lens of what humanity can be and might become.

What a collection! Filled with classic stories from SF masters and those we really should know, these tales contain people you like and people you fear. There is the ultimate in reality TV and a traditional fairy tale, hard SF and classic Heinlein, and some which were more tongue-in-cheek. There are what ifs, imaginative children, a giant baby, and a boy who never grows up, an unexpected alien invasion, a new kind of pay-it-forward, the magic and sadness of love, and inept magic users.Not only d...

This is an excellent collection of short fiction. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction began publication in 1949 and this new book published in 2014 marks the 65th anniversary year. We have 27 stories in this collection first published in the magazine between October 1952 and May/June 2011. Most if not all of these stories have already appeared in collections or anthologies (including ones from the magazine itself) over the years, or Year's Best collections, but that does not diminish the s...