I read this @four years ago and put a review on Amazon:
This is the 1970 Pan paperback edition. There are 12 stories totalling 228 pages and a brief introduction by Frederik Pohl.
I have enjoyed this anthology more than others I have read recently. There isn't really a weak story (well, maybe one), and some are excellent.
I do not know enough about science fiction to give detailed comments on this collection. I'm also concerned that in the detail I might give away too much of the storylines. My main motivation for reviewing is to give an easily accessible list of contents to those browsing through anthologies on Amazon.
Here is a list of the contents together with a brief scene setting comment or quote (definitely not plot spoiling):
(1) "An Ancient Madness" by Damon Knight
First lines: "Thirty sisters, as like as peas, were sitting at their looms in the court above the Gallery of Weavers. In the cool shadow, their white dresses rustled like the stirrings of doves, and their voices now murmured, now shrilled."
Lovely story.
(2) "The King of the Beasts" by Philip Jose Farmer
Only two pages long, but remarkably effective.
(3) "The Watchers in the Glade" by Richard Wilson
First lines: " Nevins, who had been ill, did not rejoin the others for nearly two weeks, after they had been cast away by the mutineers. It was dusk when he walked into the glade of flame-coloured grass where they had decided to wait. Jeffries was the only one to greet him."
Surprisingly good story. Five journalists and two medics have been stranded on an uninhabited world.
(4) "Jungle Substitute" by Brian W. Aldiss
Third paragraph: "The city stood high on piers above the plain. The plain as yet would be dark. That was what gave Robin the thrill: the thought of that grim black land where no humans went, where terrors dwelt. Covertly he circled himself."
Excellent story of humanity/robots living in massive self-contained cities.
(5) "How the Old World Died" by Harry Harrison
First lines: " `Tell me how the world ended, Grandfather, won't you please?' the boy pleaded, looking up at the seamed face of the old man sitting next to him on the trunk of the fallen tree." Five page story.
(6) "The Children of Night" by Frederik Pohl
Odin Gunnarson, of public relations firm Moultrie and Bigelow, has jetted in to Belport to rescue a failing campaign. No other PR firm had been prepared to represent the Arcturan Confederacy.
Well-written story.
(7) "To Avenge Man" by Lester Del Rey
Hal Norman and Sam (an original Mark One robot) find three Earth spaceships parked by the Lunar Base Dome when they return over the crater wall in their cat-track vehicle.
Good story
(8) "The Monster and the Maiden" by Roger Zelazny
Excellent two page story of, as the title indicates, a monster and a maiden.
(9) "A Flask of Fine Arcturan" by C.C. MacApp
Arcturus V is ideal for producing the new hardwood whisky bottles.
(10) "Wrong-Way Street" by Larry Niven
Mike Capoferri has spent several years, along with thirty other scientists, researching the alien ship found next to the deserted alien base on the moon.
(11) "Wasted on the Young" by John Brunner
First lines: "The doorbell sounded. Hal Page had been attending to two final tasks: first, checking around the apartment and making sure everything was ready for this, which was going to be one hell of a party; second, trying to decide where to put the notice."
He's really worried about that notice.
(12) "Slow Tuesday Night" by R.A.Lafferty
First lines: "A panhandler intercepted the young couple as they strolled down the night street. `Preserve us this night,' he said as he touched his hat to them, `and could you good people advance me a thousand dollars to be about the recouping of my fortunes?'"
In SF I was only reading anthologies at that time (I got through@130 of them, all 1975 or earlier, before I stopped), and from the review I definitely thought it was worth reading. Without digging the book out of the garage, I can't remember too much of the stories, so I can't say which one specifically I thought was weak. Although the Lafferty is well-known, for me it's not one of his best. I can recall something of the Richard Wilson and Frederik Pohl, and remember liking them, but my memory would need to be jogged further to remember more of the others.
Anyway, I obviously liked it.
