The Martian Way by ISAAC ASIMOV The Midas Plague by FREDERIK POHL And Then There Were None by ERIC FRANK RUSSELL Baby is Three by THEODORE STURGEON
They’re all fine, but the only one that’s absolutely spectacular is Baby is Three by Ted Sturgeon. And of that one, the middle story, the eponymous Baby is Three, makes it great. The idea of a gestalt being is so well thought-out. It’s really rough, and not just around the edges, but that’s Sturgeon at his best. For the record, I’m a fan of Killdozer, too — the story, not the TV adaptation from the ‘70s. Boy, that would be awesome if done exactly as Sturgeon wrote it. Today’s audience can take the gore.
Eric Frank Russell’s short stories hilariously deriding military bureaucracy — Allamagoosa and Top Secret being my favorites — don’t make the mistake of being too long. But whatever Russell writes is trenchant and sardonic; it’s just that IMO the shorter, the better.