First published in 1986, this Genre Anthology has one story for each of the six decades Analog had been in print. This was also editor Stanley Schmidt's tenth and last Analog Pulp Magazine anthology.
Works in this anthology:
- "Twilight", by Don A. Stuart (1934)
- "Far Centaurus", by A.E. van Vogt (1944)
- "The Dead Past", by Isaac Asimov (1956)
- "Sleep No More", by James H. Schmitz (1965)
- "Of Mist And Grass And Sand", by Vonda N. McIntyre (1973)
- "Emergence", by David R Palmer (1981)
Tropes appearing in this work:
- After the End: "Emergence", a Novelette by David R Palmer, takes place after a combined nuclear and biological apocalypse.
- The All-Concealing "I":
- In "Far Centaurus", by A.E. van Vogt, Bill narrates the events of his trip through space to the Local Stars.
- In "Twilight", by Don A. Stuart, the first and last narrator of this story isn't clearly defined, just that they're a friend to Jim Bendell.
- "Best Of" Anthology: This anthology, by editor Stanley Schmidt, chooses one story from each of the six decades Analog had been in print to represent the best stories Analog ever published.
- Epistolary Novel: In "Emergence", by David R Palmer, the storytelling relies on a very distinct character voice, where the premise of the Novella is a preteen genius who is keeping a journal of events, leaving out words to make her sentences more concise.
- Evolutionary Levels: In "Emergence", the Novella by David R Palmer, the protagonist (and many others) are mankind's next evolutionary step; Homo post hominem, a race of humans that will naturally take over from Homo sapiens. There are Russians who detest that idea so much that they’re willing to render the entire planet uninhabitable by both species.
- Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue: In "Far Centaurus", by A.E. van Vogt, none of the four space explorers are described, nor is much detail about the ship given.
- Framing Device: In "Twilight", by John W. Campbell:
- The unnamed friend of Jim Bendell is visiting, and Jim tells him a story about a hitchhiker that he found.
- Jim Bendell picked up a hitchhiker, who tells him a story about Time Travel.
- Future Slang: In "Far Centaurus", by A.E. van Vogt, the four space explorers learn that the common tongue they had spoken has gradually changed and shifted, altering over time. The one example given (since their translator studied middle period American for years to be ready to help them), "Yes" is more commonly pronounced "Yeih".
- Lightspeed Leapfrog: In "Far Centaurus", a Short Story by A.E. van Vogt, a group of four are trying to be the first to reach Alpha Centauri, but along the way somebody up and goes and discovers Faster-Than-Light Travel, making their effort entirely pointless.
- Novelette:
- "The Dead Past", by Isaac Asimov
- "Emergence", by David R Palmer
- "Of Mist And Grass And Sand", by Vonda N. McIntyre
- "Twilight", by Don A. Stuart
- One-Word Title:
- "Emergence", the Novella by David R Palmer.
- "Twilight", by Don A. Stuart
- Our Wormholes Are Different: In "Far Centaurus", a Short Story by A.E. van Vogt, advanced science has determined that "bachelor stars" are able to get rid of nearby matter by shunting it away in space-time. The characters use this fact to travel back in time to before their journey into space and return home to their time period.
- Pen Name: For this Anthology, John W. Campbell's "Twilight" is published under the name Don A. Stuart.
- The Slow Path: In "Far Centaurus", a Short Story by A.E. van Vogt, the protagonists are travelling to the Centarus system to prove a Sleeper Starship is capable of travelling the vast distances of interstellar space. However, they neglected the progress of science on Earth, and discover that there's already people who have been there for generations.
- Switching P.O.V.: In "Twilight", by Don A. Stuart, the perspective starts in the perspective of the unnamed friend, shifts into Jim Waters Bendell's perspective, then into Ares Sen Kenlin's perspective. As the story draws to an end, we switch back into Jim's perspective and then the unnamed friend's perspective.
- Teen Genius: In "Emergence", the Novella by David R Palmer, all members of Homo post hominem are smarter than human average, including Candy (11), and Adam (13).
- Tele-Frag: In "Sleep No More", a Short Story by James H. Schmitz, Telzey is being chased by a teleporting monster that homes in on her thoughts. She finds that by imagining a location, she can trick it into appearing there. So she projects the mental image of a cave in a nearby cliff. Except there isn't a cave in the cliff, and the monster materialises in solid rock.
