ANALOG READERS' CHOICE

These ten stories and an editorial, arranged chronologically, are the result of polling Astounding/Analog readers on ""what I would most like to see in a new and important anthology."" Three tales are established classics: Tom Godwin's powerful stowaway dilemma, ""The Cold Equations""; Eric Frank Russell's tongue-in-cheek prisoner-of-war yarn, ""Plus X""; and Clifford D. Simak's brilliant backwoods alien-contact story, ""The Big Front Yard."" Others are almost as conspicuous: Heinlein's ""Requiem""; Zelazny's avenging-robot disquisition, ""Home is the Hangman""; and Orson Scott Card's child-warrior yarn, ""Ender's Game,"" which has appeared in several recent collections. There are, too, some not-quite-golden oldies: Raymond Z. Gallun's flawed but affecting tale of a Martian astronomer, ""Old Faithful""; Lester del Rey's robot female in love, ""Helen O'Loy""; one of L. Sprague cle Camp's hilarious ""Probability Zero"" yarns; and a rather feeble John W. Campbell editorial asking what the term ""human"" means. And there's a piece from loan D. Vinge about life on chilly Titan, given some point by the recent Voyager fly-by. Quality material, mostly, but often over-familiar--and lacking the spice that one or two odd, quirky, or daring pieces would have provided.