This is a rather uneven anthology. Which, to be fair, most anthologies are, but that "world's best" in the title does lead one to expect a certain elevated standard. Then again, maybe 1983 just wasn't a banner year for science fiction.

A breakdown of the contents.

"The Scourge" by James White: A first contact story in which a couple of humans are sent to assess a planet for Galactic Federation membership. Not an auspicious start to the anthology, I'm afraid. Neither the alien society nor the humans' approach to it made any sense, except in the most contrived and simplistic kind of way, and the result mostly just annoyed me.

"A Letter from the Clearys" by Connie Willis: A low-key little post-apocalyptic vignette with a nicely poignant feel to it.

"Farmer on the Dole" by Frederik Pohl: An odd little story about robots programmed to fulfill the role of a social underclass. I'm not entirely sure how well the social commentary works, but it's amusingly written.

"Playing the Game" by Gardner Dozois & Jack Dann: Very short piece about a boy who slips between different realities. Not bad, but also not terribly original-feeling, and unfortunately the specific details managed to snap my suspension of disbelief pretty badly.

"Pawn's Gambit" by Timothy Zahn: Aliens kidnap humans and make them play board games as a way to assess our ability to think strategically, and thus whether we're a danger to them. Not a very satisfying story. The premise is silly, the characters don't react in any remotely realistic way, and if there was an actual explanation as to how the protagonist got the information he uses to get himself out of his dilemma, I missed it completely. Plus, I've never been very fond of that whole "humans are super-special!" trope. Mind you, it could still have been a fun story if the writing were clever enough, but it isn't really trying very hard.

"The Comedian" by Timothy Robert Sullivan: A weird little piece about a man forced to kidnap children by... something. I'm not sure this one really works, but at least it was a nice change of pace after the alien board games.

"Written in Water" by Tanith Lee: The story of the last woman on Earth, and the spaceship that lands in her garden. An interesting combination of some familiar SF elements that probably wouldn't really work if it weren't so well-written. But it is, so it does.

"Souls" by Joanna Russ: This story of Viking invaders confronting an abbess who is more than she seems starts out looking very much like historical fiction, but definitely ends up as SF. I think I'd read this one before, actually, but it was very much worth revisiting, featuring great dialog, a memorable main character, and a strong sense of humanity.

"Swarm" by Bruce Sterling: A couple of humans come to an alien hive to study -- or to exploit -- the creatures that make it up. There's a little too much of characters speechifying at each other, but the aliens are interesting, there's a bit of world-building that's missing from a lot of the other stories in this volume, and, although the ending isn't quite as effective as it might be, there's a very nicely creepy idea there.

"Peg-Man" by Rudy Rucker: A goofy little story about those wacky video games all the kids are into. Very silly, not necessarily in a good way, and very, very 80s.

Rating: 3.5/5, although there's enough good stuff here that I might have rated it higher if it weren't setting the goal so high. ( )