Fan tas
Hall of fame
Books by ROBERT SILVERBERG
Valentine PontifexLord of DarknessWorld of a Thousand ColorsMajipoor ChroniclesLord Valentine's CastleDying InsideThe Book of SkullsThe Stochastic ManNightwingsShadrach in the Furnace
Books Edited by ROBERT SILVERBERGWITH MARTIN H. GREENBERGThe Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction MasterpiecesThe Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science FictionThe Arbor House Treasury of Great Science FictionShort Novels
Other Books Edited by MARTIN H. GREENBERGThe Arbor House Celebrity Book of the Greatest StoriesEver Told(with Charles G. Waugh)The Arbor House Treasury of Great Western Stories(with Bill Pronzini)The Arbor House Celebrity Book of Horror Stories(with Charles G. Waugh)Tomorrow, Inc.-SF Stories about Big BusinessRun to Starlight: Sports through Science Fiction
Fantas
Hall of Fame
Compiled by ROBERT SILVERBERG and MARTIN H. GREENBERG
ARBOR HOUSE New York
Copyright © 1983 by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole orin part in any form. Published in the United States of America byArbor House Publishing Company and in Canada by Fitzhenry& Whiteside, Ltd.
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 83-48721
ISBN: 0-87795-521-2
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
This book is printed on acid free paper. The paper in this bookmeets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committeeon Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council onLibrary Resources.
This page constitutes an extension of the copyright page.
"The Woman of the Wood," by Abraham Merritt. Copyright © 1926 by Abraham Merritt. Copyright renewed 1954 by Abraham Merritt. Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc.
"The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan," by Clark Ashton Smith. Copyright © 1932 by Popular Fiction Company; copyright renewed by the author. Reprinted by permission of the agents for the author's estate and Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022.
"The Valley of the Worm," by Robert E. Howard. Copyright © 1934 by Popular Fiction Publishing Company for Weird Tales, February 1934. Re-printed by permission of Glenn Lord, agent for the Robert E. Howard heirs.
"Black God's Kiss," by C.L. Moore. Copyright © 1934, renewed 1961 by C.L. Moore. Reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.
"The Silver Key," by H.P. Lovecraft. Copyright © 1937 by Popular Fiction Publishing Company; copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022.
"Nothing in the Rules," by L. Sprague de Camp. Copyright © 1939 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc. Copyright renewed 1966 by L. Sprague de Camp. Reprinted by permission of the author.
"A Gnome There Was," by Henry Kuttner. Copyright © 1941, renewed 1969 by Catherine Moore Kuttner. Reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.
"Snulbug, "'by Anthony Boucher. Copyright © 1941 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
"The Words of Guru," by C.M. Kornbluth. Copyright © 1941 by Albing Publications. Reprinted by permission of Robert P. Mills, Ltd.
"Homecoming," by Ray Bradbury. Copyright © 1946, renewed 1973 by Ray Bradbury. Reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.
"Mazirian the Magician," by Jack Vance. Copyright © 1950 by Jack Vance. Reprinted by permission of Kirby McCauley, Ltd.
"0 Ugly Bird!," by Manly Wade Wellman. Copyright © 1951 by Mercury Press. From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of Kirby McCauley, Ltd.
"The Silken Swift," by Theodore Sturgeon. Copyright © 1953 by Mercury Press. From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of Kirby McCauley, Ltd.
"The Golem," by Avram Davidson. Copyright © 1955 by Mercury Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.
"That Hell-Bound Train," by Robert Bloch. Copyright © 1958 by Mercury Press. From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of Kirby McCauley, Ltd.
"Kings in Darkness," by Mich
ael Moorcock. Copyright © 1962 by Michael
Moorcock. Reprinted by permission of Wallace & Sheil Agency, Inc.
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes," by Harlan Ellison. Copyright © 1967 by Harlan Ellison. Reprinted with permission of, and by arrangement with, the author and the author's agent, Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., New York. All rights reserved.
"Gonna Roll the Bones," by Fritz Leiber. Copyright © 1967 by Harlan Ellison. Reprinted by permission of Robert P. Mills, Ltd.
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," by Ursula K. Le Guin. Copyright © 1973, 1975 by Ursula K. Le Guin. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Virginia Kidd.
Contents
Introduction 9 The Masque of the Red Death EDGAR ALLAN POE 13
An Inhabitant of Carcosa AMBROSE BIERCE 21
The Sword of Welleran LORD DUNSANY 26
The Women of the Wood A. MERRITT 42
The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan
CLARK ASHTON SMITH 76
The Valley of the Worm ROBERT E. HOWARD 86
Black God's Kiss C. L. MOORE 110
The Silver Key H. P. LOVECRAFT 143
Nothing in the Rules L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP 157 A Gnome There Was HENRY KUTTNER 191
Snulbug ANTHONY BOUCHER 221 The Words of Guru C. M. KORNBLUTH 239
Homecoming RAY BRADBURY 248
Mazirian the Magician JACK VANCE 263
O Ugly Bird! MANLY WADE WELLMAN 282 The Silken Swift THEODORE STURGEON 296
The Golem AVRAM DAVIDSON 318 That Hell-Bound Train ROBERT BLOCH 325
Kings in Darkness MICHAEL MOORCOCK 341
Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes HARLAN ELLISON 375
Gonna Roll the Bones FRITZ LEIBER 399
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
URSULA K. LE GUIN 424
Introduction
THE PHENOMENON of the science fiction convention-a gathering of readers and writers for the mutual exchange of ideas and general social amusement-goes back nearly fifty years. Originally they were small-scale events held in obscure meeting rooms, but currently the annual World Science Fiction Convention is a major happening with six or seven thou-sand attendees, and most of the best-known writers are present and remarkably accessible to their readers. It is at the World Science Fiction Convention that the Hugo award has been presented each year since 1953, honoring the best stories of the year as determined by vote of the convention's members.
When the writers of science fiction founded their own professional organization, the Science Fiction Writers of America, in 1965, a second award structure developed: the annual Nebula award, chosen by vote of the writers them-selves and presented at a formal meeting that has taken on many of the aspects of a full-scale convention, though it is limited only to those who are professionally involved with science fiction. When the Science Fiction Writers of America was a few years old, sentiment developed for a kind of retroactive Nebula award to honor great stories that had been published prior to SFWA's founding; and so the members were polled for nominations for a Science Fiction Hall of Fame, to include the best s-f stories of the preNebula period. It was my privilege to edit the volume that contained the winning short
stories (The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, Dou‑
bleday & Co., 1970.) A later Hall of Fame volume, edited by Ben Bova, contained the winning stories of novelette and novella length, which had intentionally been excluded from the first book.
And now, following the example of the science fiction world, the readers of fantasy fiction have begun holding their own conventions, presenting their own annual awards, and-inevitably-creating their own Hall of Fame to celebrate the classic stories of that genre.
I would not care to get entangled in any extensive effort to draw definitional boundaries between science fiction and fantasy. I have my own rough idea of the differences between the two fields, which is operationally useful in an abstract sort of way, but I know (and so does everyone else who has tried to draw these distinctions) that even the best definition is likely to break down into illogicality and inconsistency under close examination. The furthest I will venture is to say that science fiction is that branch of fantasy which generally deals in extrapolations of the consequences of technological development, and which attempts to stick fairly rigorously to known or theoretically possible scientific concepts. Fantasy is a much broader field of fiction that is less firmly bound to the tyranny of fact, and for the purposes of any given story is permitted to assume nearly any idea as plausible, though it is desirable for the author to elicit a suspension of disbelief through the plausible development of a basically unlikely notion. Thus I tend to think of stories about spaceships, robots, computers and the like as science fiction, and of stories about vampires, werewolves, angels and such as fantasy. But I can illustrate the impossibility of making any of these definitions stick for long by telling you that I myself recently wrote a story ("Basileus") in which a computer was used to generate angels. Fantasy? Science fiction?
Be that as it may, the readers of fantasy seem to have a
fairly clear idea most of the time of what they consider fantasy to be, and at the annual conventions that they have held since 1975 they have presented the World Fantasy Award-a statuette of the fantasy master H. P. Lovecraft-to recognize the year's outstanding work in their field. These award-winning stories have been collected in a series of anthologies.
And now the members of the World Fantasy Conventions of 1981 and 1982 have voted on a Fantasy Hall of Fame, which, like the corresponding science fiction volume, takes in those masterpieces that were published before the inception of their annual award program. Because of my involvement in developing and creating the Hall of Fame volumes for the Science Fiction Writers of America, I was asked-along with my in-valuable and indefatigable collaborator in many anthologies, Martin H. Greenberg-to assemble the book for publication (on Halloween, the traditional time for holding the World Fantasy Convention! ). Ballots were distributed asking the convention members to name their favorites, elaborate tabulation processes were performed, and here at last we have, in one volume, the finest stories of all time.
The finest of all time? A presumptuous statement, perhaps-considering that fantasy is perhaps the oldest of all the branches of imaginative literature, that it goes back at least as far as the Gilgamesh legend of Mesopotamia and perhaps back to the tales that were told in the caves of Altamira and Lascaux. But the Cro-Magnon fantasy stories, alas, are not at the moment accessible to us, and for the purposes of this volume we also thought it best to ignore such things as classical mythology, Grimm's Fairy Tales, A Thousand and One Nights and such other works which are undeniably master-pieces of fantasy but which were not quite what everyone had in mind for this particular book. What we have, really, is the Hall of Fame of modern fantasy, a specialized field of fiction that has certain special delights well known to all its aficionados. It is those aficionados who chose these stories: a panel
of hundreds of experts, to whom ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night are just as familiar as computers and robots, and are, perhaps, somewhat more plausible.
-Robert Silverberg Oakland, California May 1, 1983
The Masque of
the Red Death
by EDGAR ALLAN POE
THE "RED DEATH" has long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal-the redness and the horror of blood. There...
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