Forgotten Books: The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1960s -- Presented by Isaac Asimov

Although the cover says that Isaac Asimov "presents" the contents, there's no evidence of it inside: no to the book itself, no introductions to the stories and no afterwords. Maybe some other edition has them. The copyright page also lists the ubiquitous Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh.

If you're looking for a solid collection of famous novellas from the '60s, here it is. The Zelazny story forms part of My Name is Legion," in which a man who's kept evidence of his existence from being put into the worldwide computer network that tracks everyone. He's sort of a p.i. of the future who can adopt many guises. I'm a Zelazny fan, and I liked this one. But then I'm a fan of all the writers here, and of all the stories. The Farmer tale became part of the first Riverworld novel, and the Laumer is a BOLO story, one of the first, if not the very first. McCaffery's Weyr Search became part of the first Dragonriders book. Silverberg has a good one about a guy who dumps lethe-like drugs in the L. A. water system and about what happens when people begin to forget their pasts. I could go on, but why bother? If you haven't read these and the others before, they're all highly recommended. And they're highly recommended for re-reading, too.

The little snowman on the back cover is a sticker someone put on this used copy that I bought a good while ago, in case you were wondering.