The World's Best for 1986 contains a mix of 10 short stories, novelettes and novellas. Included is:

•vii • Introduction • essay by Donald A. Wollheim
•1 • Earthgate • (1985) • novelette by J. Brian Clarke
•41 • On the Dream Channel Panel • (1985) • shortstory by Ian Watson
•56 • The Gods of Mars • (1985) • novelette by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann and Michael Swanwick
•77 • The Jaguar Hunter • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
•101 • Sailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert Silverberg
•159 • Webrider • (1985) • shortstory by Jayge Carr
•173 • With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole • (1985) • shortstory by Harlan Ellison
•190 • The Curse of Kings • (1985) • novella by Connie Willis
•233 • Fermi and Frost • (1985) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
•248 • Pots • (1985) • novelette by C. J. Cherryh

A few comments. If you are going to pick only ten stories out of a year I expect each one to be very good to excellent. That didn't happen as there are a couple of weak stories in here, especially in comparison to the better ones. In his concise introduction and overview, editor Wolheim notes that the genre continues to have a strong influx of female readers and authors. However most of them are focused on fantasy. This book includes 3 female authors of the ten total.

The collection has a strong start with "Earthgate", a story about inter-species relationships and the creation of a stargate on Earth. I think this was the first story I have read by this British author who was active primarily in the 80's-early 90's.

The absolute strongest story in the book is Lucius Shepard's "The Jaguar Hunter." I know the editors included it since it is such a powerful story by a then new author on a meteoric rise. But it isn't science fiction and the editors knew it. I'm glad it is here though. Shepard had written several of my favorite stories in the mid 80's and now this is one more of them. A great piece of fiction set in Central America with magical realism elements.

Harlan Ellison's "With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole" is another very good piece. An angry and very bitter man has been exiled to an arctic like island on another world called Penitence Island. We don't know what he has done nor really why he is so angry and bitter. At first he thinks the solitude may help him put his rage issues behind him as he tries to communicate with and understand a native species, the fuxes. Then appears one "Virgil Oddum".

C.J. Cherryh's "Pots" was also rather intriguing as archaeologists in the far distant future who seem to be seeking their origin study the remains of what one soon realizes is probably the Earth. ( )