Alfred Bester

I'm about four stories into Virtual Unrealities, a compendium of Alfred Bester's short stories, and I'm not sure if they are putting the best first, but they've been:

• Disappearing Act: the story of America's relentless war, evolution and specialisation toward finally establishing the American Dream, which is thrown into jeopardy when a small proportion of the walking wounded start walking right out of reality and into their heroic interventions in fantasy histories. For a science fiction short story that works well, its pretty message-heavy.
• Oddy and Id: A boy with a strange power over reality sets out to bring peace with surprising results. An amusement about the likely behaviour of a brain that can satisfy itself.
• Star Light, Star Bright: A boy at the center of a circle of powerful child savants is hunted by a doomed man - doomed because he sees only the upside of new powers. (The least arresting of the four.)
• 5,271,009: An evil old man puts a juvenile artist through the wringer to rescue him from flight into madness. Very Neitzschean - eternal return.