Speculiction delivers the first review of The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 2, “a welcome retrospective of one of the genre’s bastions.”

Fantasy & Science Fiction, published since 1949, is one of the most recognized and long-lasting magazine in the speculative fiction field.  Racking up an incredible list of awarded authors and stories in the decades that have passed, in 2009 they gleaned their backlists and produced The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: 60^th Anniversary Anthology.  The number of stories qualifying for the moniker spilling over, in 2014 the magazine decided to publish a second group of stories as ‘the very best of’, naming it Volume 2.  The first an all-star anthology, the second, alsoedited by Gordon van Gelder, possesses just as much impact, history, and sheer enjoyability, and is a welcome retrospective of one of the genre’s bastions.

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In the end, The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 2 is every bit as good as the (unofficially named) first volume. The history of the magazine Fantasy & Science Fiction brimming with quality, award-winning stories, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could put out a third volume equally as impressive.  Covering the decades the magazine has been in publication (and centuries, 20th and 21st), as well as the breadth of sub-genres speculative fiction boasts, it’s a welcome retrospective, as much as an appreciated effort to keep the quality stories from the history of the genre in print.  Individual readers will inevitably bounce off some stories and fall helplessly in love with others, but each will remain well written, and for the ideas instilled, unique.

For the rest of the review which includes coverage of every story, visit Speculiction.

For more info about The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 2, visit the Tachyon page. 

Cover by Thomas Canty

Design by Elizabeth Story