A decade or two ago you still could buy class SF/Fantasy paperbacks at near-cover prices (or less!). These days, certain Sf/Fantasy paperbacks once published for less than $4 fetch $20 plus on eBay or other online sellers. This is especially true of the Ballantine series of fantasy books from writers such as Arthur Machen, Clark Ashton Smith, and others, published in the 1970s and 1980s. It’s also true for the DAW “Best Of” anthologies, from Fantasy, Horror, and SF.
It’s also true, as I recently learned, of the multi-volume series from DAW Books with the titles, “Isaac Asimov Presents the Greatest SF Stories.” These books were published from 1979 to 1992. Each volume collected the “best of” stories published in the years 1939 through 1963 (25 volumes in all). Although I have some of the books in DAWs other anthologies, I’d never come across Asimov’s series. This changed when I found volumes 10 and 11, both in near pristine condition, and each available for the shockingly low price of $3.99.
You might consider this a victory of significant proportions, given that some books are sold online for many times that amount. That is, until you look for the other 23 books in the series and realize that trying to collect them all would leave a massive dent in anyone’s wallet. Then again, I’m a haphazard collector; I simply shrugged when I saw those prices from online seller: if I come across any other of the volumes in this series, I might (or might not) buy them, but I’m not on the hunt for unknown conditions available only online.
Volume 10 was published in August 1983 and contained stories from 1948 by writers like Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, A. E. van Vogt, Judith Merril, Ray Bradbury, John D. MacDonald, and others.
Volume 11 was published in March 1984 and contained stories from 1949 by writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Clifford D. Simak, C. M. Kornbluth, Theodore Sturgeon, and others.
It’s strange, then, to look at the table of contents and see in each book the majory of authors listed are notable names, giants even in the field of science fiction. These were stories written almost a century ago. Fast forward to a amere handful of years prior to the present, and almost no authors in current anthologies are memorable writers. Whatever happened to the field of science fiction? Will any current writers in the SF/Fantasy field be relevant, or even remembered, 80-100 years from now?
