UNIVERSE

   ORIGINAL-ANTHOLOGY series ed Terry CARR (1971-87) and renewed by Robert SILVERBERG and Karen HABER (1990-current). This is arguably the best (and also one of the longest-lasting) of all original-anthology series in the field. Universe 1 (anth 1971) appeared while Carr was still an editor for its publisher, ACE BOOKS. Since then it has been peripatetic, the 17 vols of series 1 coming from ACE BOOKS (\#1-\#2), Random House (\#3-\#5) and DOUBLEDAY (\#6-\#17); series 2 has come from Doubleday Foundation (\#1) andBANTAM Spectra (\#2). The further titles are Universe 2 (anth 1972), \#3 (anth 1973), \#4 (anth 1974), \#5 (anth 1974), \#6 (anth 1976), \#7 (anth 1977), \#8 (anth 1978), \#9 (anth 1979), \#10 (anth 1980), \#11 (anth 1981), \#12 (anth 1982), \#13 (anth 1983), \#14 (anth 1984), \#15 (anth 1985), \#16 (anth 1986) and \#17 (anth 1987), plus The Best from Universe (anth 1984). The new series, ed Silverberg with his wife Karen Haber, is to date Universe 1 (anth 1990) and Universe 2 (anth 1992).Carr's \#1 contained Robert Silverberg's NEBULA-winning "Good News From the Vatican"; Silverberg was one of the series' most regular contributors, along with Gregory BENFORD, Gordon EKLUND, R.A. LAFFERTY, Edgar PANGBORN, Howard WALDROP, Ian WATSON and, later, Lucius SHEPARD. Benford and Eklund won a Nebula for "If The Stars Are Gods" in \#4. Gene WOLFE won a Nebula for "The Death of Dr Island" in \#3, as did Waldrop's "The Ugly Chickens" in \#10. Harlan ELLISON's "Paladin of the Lost Hour" (\#15) won a HUGO. The awards (mostly from the early years) do not truly reflect the quality of this series, which proved again that Carr was one of the outstanding editors in the field; while he knew exactly what constituted good writing, and never patronized his readership by feeding them pulp, he also never lost the popular touch. The series stopped with his death. A volume dedicated to the memory of both Carr and Universe was Terry's Universe (anth 1988) ed Beth MEACHAM. The Silverbergs' 1990 relaunch of the Universe series wasexemplary: the new \#1 is a strong collection in the Carr tradition (but much longer), with good stories from Ursula K. LE GUIN, Barry MALZBERG, Kim Stanley ROBINSON, Bruce STERLING and others.

   PN/MJE