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Cover art: Richard V. Corben
Blurb: “
THE 1977
ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST SF EDITED BY DONALD A.
WOLLHEIM
Editor Donald Wollheim is a true pioneer of science fiction. In 1943 he was responsible for the first SF anthology (now a rare collector's item and he may have produced more exceptional collections since that time than any other present-day editor. THE 1977 ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST SF continues the tradition of quality that he has established and presents the finest works of the past year by some of the most gifted authors writing in the genre. Some of the tales included are:
Appearance of Life by Brian W.
Aldiss. The Korlevalulaw... their name conjures up pictures of gods and demons. We know that they were in-human. We know that they had abandoned the written word by the time they lorded over the star lanes. What we don't know is what became of them. Some have supposed that they
committed some kind of racial suicide; while others postulate a mammoth galactic civil war that totally annihilated their species.
Yet no one is sure
..at least not until one intrepid explorer visits their
dark and ancient
museum on planet Norma.
There he
finds the aliens' secret and something more foreboding than anyone had imagined...
Natural
Advantage by
Lester
del
Rey.
Star Captain Anthor Sef sighed heavily and put down the trinoculars.
Over his short snout and just above his third eye was a bulging forehead that ached painfully. The anti-matter cloud was definitely heading for solar system G.
That's why the aliens had to
be warned. Research had determined that their rocketry was primitive... their language incomprehensible ...and their vision only binary. But by the Ancient Dust, thought Anthor, if there was a way of helping this race of beings called humans—he'd find it!
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr. "I suppose,"
Lorimer said,
"it's
possible that in
some sense we are not here." That doesn't sound too clear, but, then again, nothing had seemed totally real to the trio of astronauts since they had gone through the time warp. One moment they'd been gliding in the blank void of space talking with mission control; the next saw their tiny craft hurtled three hundred years into the future. The possibility of rescue seemed remote, until a giant ship paced them and urged them to enter.
But who-or what-was inside? Was this an Earth vessel...or a machine from beyond the stars? They didn't have to wait long for the answers....
These and other stories - on subjects ranging from cantankerous computers to troublesome time machines —make THE 1977 WORLD'S BEST SF a truly memorable volume.