I nearly gave up on this book, as strangely, nearly all of the interesting stories were in the second half of the book. I'm giving it 2.5 stars because it was a mixture of good and poor stories.

I've read a couple of these stories before, "Jeffty is Five" and "That Hell-bound Train". ( )

First published in 1985 as The Best Fantasy Stories (it says in the front matter). No credited editor. Many stories both famous and "undiscovered gems."

- "Far from Home" by Walter S. Tevis
- "My Dear Emily" by Joanna Russ. A vampire story with a twist.
- "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule" by Lucius Shepard
- "The Vanishing American" by Charles Beaumant
- "The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D" by J. G. Ballard
- "The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost" by Russell Kirk
- "The Accountant" by Robert Sheckley
- "The Fire When It Comes" by Parke Godwin
- "My Boy Friend's Name is Jello" by Avram Davidson
- "San Diego Lightfoot Sue" by Tom Reamy
- "Soonor or Later or Never Never" by Gary Jennings
- "Jeffy is Five" by Harlan Ellison
- "The Third Level" by Jack Finney
- "The Silken-Swift" by Theodore Sturgeon. A poetic story about a unicorn.
- "Another Orphan" by John Kessell
- "The Manor of Roses" by Thomas Burnett Swann
- "Please Stand By" by Ron Goulart
- "Downtown" by Thomas M. Disch
- "Man Overboard" by John Collier
- "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts" by Shirley Jackson (not really SF)
- "Yes, We Have No Richard" by Bruce Jay Friedman
- "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" by Stephen King
- "That Hell-Bound Train" by Robert Bloch
- "Will You Wait?" by Alfred Bester
- "Sule Sherry" by Jane Yolen
- "Not Long Before the End" by Larry Niven. ( )