My "best of the year" picks: 1963

For the background of this list, see opening remarks of my best of 1961 list. List below is in order of publication - earliest first, unknown dated last. All stories, of course, were first published in 1963. Download links are included where I'm aware of an online copy.

1. [ss] Rick Raphael's "Sonny"; download; Analog, April: US Army got too lucky with this draftee!
2. [novella] Rick Raphael's "The Thirst Quenchers"; download; Analog, September: Managing fresh water in an energy-rich but overpopulated world. I think the main reason I liked this story is: it's a water dystopia that focuses on engineering to actually solve the problem, unlike innumerable others that focus on showing human pain in a world that has adjusted to the situation.
3. [novelette] Murray Leinster's "Med Ship Man"; download; Galaxy, October: A gang of land sharks playing dirty games to reduce the local real estate prices...
4. [novel] Pierre Boulle's "Planet of the Apes": Story is both similar to & different from the movie. What if apes ruled a world that had moronic humans treated as animals by ruling apes...

Related: "Best of" lists; fiction from 1963, 1960s.