Пътят на марсианците

The Complete Stories

by Isaac Asimov, Айзък Азимов, Крум Бъчваров (translator)

Четири малки новели, четири перли от бащата на фантастиката Айзък Азимов, всяка от които съдържа свое специфично послание. „Пътят на марсианците“, „Младост“, „Дълбината“ и „Примамката“ грабват с вълнуващата си напрегнатост и очарователното си, винаги актуално чувство за хумор.


Съдържание:

Пътят на марсианците – стр.7
Младост – стр.63
Дълбината – стр.98
Примамката – стр.124

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy, Classics, Fantasy

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Genevan Way, a short story inspired by Isaac Asimov and some real events

"Oh fuck!!" wailed Not. "Our shower has no hot water again!"

"Don't worry," I said, and quickly assembled an anti-gravity device out of some spare parts we'd just acquired from a CERN friend who was moving house. Pausing only to put on my ex-NASA space suit and pack a laptop, a fondue set, some Gruyère and a bag of stale bread, I blasted off in the direction of Jupiter.

The trip was going to take a good half hour, so I passed the time reading the interesting book on pre-Ptolemaic astronomy that I'd started the day before. It was obvious at a glance that Anaximander's guess about the shape of the Earth had been wrong, and I posted a sarcastic update on Goodreads shortly before entering the Jovian system.

I was starting to feel a bit hungry, so I decided to take a break at Io. Balancing my fondue over a volcanic vent, I had a pleasant breakfast, then set off again for Europa. I landed without incident, hacked off a good piece of ice from one of the frozen seas, then went back to Io to warm it up in my fondue pot. When it was bubbling merrily, I put the lid on, increased my speed to Warp Factor 5, and headed back to Earth.

As I landed at Geneva Airport, I congratulated myself on my good planning. The water was still nice and hot! But then disaster struck. "Vous venez d'où, monsieur?" said the customs official. "De Jupiter? Il faut remplir ces formulaires, s'il vous plaît."

It took the better part of two hours to fill out the forms, and by the time I'd got home it was nearly one o'clock. Not looked in my fondue pot.

"It's barely lukewarm," she said disappointedly. "And it smells of cheese."

"I'm sorry," I replied. "But that's the Genevan way."

[Paul Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still thinking like an earthling?

Since time immemorial, Mars has always figured largely in Earth's mythology. And ever since the prolific imaginations of the likes of HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs first put pen to paper beginning the development of modern sci-fi as a genre, Mars, Martians, travel to Mars and life on a hostile Mars have continued to be favourite topics. With THE MARTIAN WAY AND OTHER STORIES, Isaac Asimov proudly continues this hallowed tradition with a series of four stories written in the good doctor's unmistakable and well-loved style.

Despite its brevity, THE MARTIAN WAY explores a myriad of topics including colonization of an extra-terrestrial planet, acclimation of human beings to space and space travel, the politics and economics of life on another planet and its relationship to "mother earth" and even the development of earth-side prejudices to a people that are now considered foreigners.

YOUTH tells the story of Slim and Red, two young boys, who have found two very strange animals. As any pair of young fellows might do, they hide the animals and feed and care for them to the best of their ability. They even dream about becoming wealthy by developing a circus act. The ending of the story discloses the surprise that the two animals are in fact the only survivors from a crashed alien spaceship (but ... and you'll have to trust me here on this one ... that is not a spoiler!) The REAL ending is a complete blind-side twist that only the likes of a twinkle-eyed fun-loving Asimov could imagine. I'll admit that the ending does seem somewhat artificial and forced but Asimov fans have long known that he loved his humour and always enjoyed tweaking his readers' noses. The joke is on us and even Asimov's silliness forces a reader to look into himself and investigate his self-centered notions of superiority.

Unfortunately, many sci-fi authors have fallen in to the trap of creating aliens that are simply humans (or humanoid, to use one of Star Trek's favourite aphorisms) with only a bizarre variation on their outward appearance. In THE DEEP, however, Asimov has departed from that mundane mind-set and created a technologically advanced species with telepathic abilities that lives underground on a planet with dwindling resources. Teleporting an advance scout to earth to explore the possibilities of establishing contact with us and sharing our space on earth, the species discovers that the cultural, linguistic, physical and sociological gap between humans and their species is so vast that it could never be crossed.

SUCKER BAIT, the longest of Isaac Asimov's novellas, deals, in a nutshell, with the potential rigors and difficulties of space travel, exploration and planetary colonization. An expedition to Troas, an earth-like planet located in orbit around a binary star system in the Messier 13 globular cluster, met with a mysterious disaster and failed to return or report back in any way. We are told the story of the follow-up expedition that was mounted to determine the fate of the original exploration. Although his tongue may have been at least partially inserted into his cheek, Asimov also uses SUCKER BAIT to cleverly discuss the potential pitfalls of ever continuing specialization in scientific research and the alarming and ever growing dearth of generalists and polymaths.

The back cover of the edition I read asks, "Still thinking like an earthling? Get out of your rut, open mind - there's a whole universe waiting." I've got to agree. If you enjoy science fiction, then you'll enjoy this classic collection of four short stories from perhaps the finest author the genre has ever seen. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Asimov's first short fiction book and collects four novelettes and novellas; collections weren't thought by publishers to be profitable, but due to a book-club edition it did well enough for Doubleday to green-light a short-story collection a couple of years later, and they went on to print many, many more Asimov books. The stories appeared first in 1952 and 1954, two of them in H.L. Gold's Galaxy magazine, one in Space SF edited by Lester del Rey, and only one from John W. Campbell's Astounding SF. Asimov had been very closely identified as a "Campbell writer" early in his career, particularly through the Foundation years, but these stories show the beginnings of his break from Campbell. They're all good, thoughtful space stories, true sf in the classic tradition. The title story is my favorite, an anti-McCarthyism story with an unusually diverse cast of characters. Youth is one of his rare stories with alien characters, as is The Deep, which can be seen as a dry run for The Gods Themselves. Sucker Bait is the story from Astounding (though it was not originally intended for Campbell, but for a shared-world project which faltered), and is an interesting scientists-versus-politicians tale, with a warning against over-specialization. It was an important and intelligent book from a time when the field was still sometimes dismissed as "that Buck Rogers stuff."

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Пътят на марсианците“ съдържа 4 приятни фантастични новели на Азимов. Не са от най-силните му творби, но все пак е вложил в тях много любопитни идеи... Любимата ми история от книгата е „Дълбината“!




„Нищо не може да се придвижи напред, ако нещо друго не се придвижи назад. Това е старият принцип „Не можеш да получиш нещо за нищо“.


„Във всеки случай, сте прав в едно. Светът е живял в мир прекалено дълго. Загубваме трезвата си подозрителност.“


„Вън от лабораторията Рой срещна Уенда. Мислите й изразяваха концентрирано удоволствие.
Мислите на Рой също бяха приятни. Бе много успокоително да осъществяваш чист мисловен контакт с приятел.“

[Pat the Book Goblin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can never read enough Asimov! I loved The Martian Way and the other stories were fun as well. This book has:

The Martian Way 5 stars
Youth 3 stars
The Deep 4 stars
Sucker Bait 3 stars

The Martian Way was about trying to get the colony on Mars independent from Earth. Instead of relying on water and other resources from Earth, they looked elsewhere for their resources like the Astroid Belt, the rings of Saturn, and a couple of the moons. Earth was on the brink of cutting off its water shipments because they too need their water and the trickle on Mars was being used up. I really liked this novella. Like Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke, The Martian Way also seemed to inspire James SA Corey to write their Expanse series. Its interesting how many old sci-fi books are inspiring the launch of more popular modern sci-fi books. I just hope the authors recognize their stories are standing on the backs of classics like this one.

[Kat Gale]

The first story The Martian Way begs the unanswered question: what will happen to the rings of Saturn, its moons, and the planet itself as its ice rings are systematically cut away? Will its moons (especially Pandora and Prometheus, the shepherding moons whose gravitational forces are responsible for the confining, shaping, and gaps between the rings) break their orbit with Saturn to become dangerous planet-killer comets? To what degree will Saturn itself experience atmospheric or orbital changes? Unfortunately Asimov ends with a political victory and reverts back to the self-centered "take what we want from the natural world and not think about the damage we're doing to our solar system" way of life. Shame, Asimov, I'm disappointed. This first story annoyed me the most.

The second story Youth was predictable. The alien's observation at the end is supposed to be an eye-opening zinger on the effects of atomic warfare but if you know Asimov, you're ready for that.

The third story The Deep once more attempted to surprise the reader with a fundamentally different physical and social characteristic in the main characters in order to view the characteristics of humans through the cultural lens of an alien species. Asimov probably jotted it down in half an hour.

The final story Sucker Bait is an exposition of the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration. Ignoring information outside the parameters of a specialist's chosen field can kill you, beryllium-style. Asimov shows both extremes-the scientists that know nothing and care for nothing but their own fields, and a boy that retains information on data spanning every field but does not understand it. Cooperation between disciplines and understanding are both essential to their survival. In this story, Asimov seems to be commenting on a personal complaint in the attitudes of specialists.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of three novellas and a short story from one of the recognised masters of the 'golden age' of science fiction. These 1950s stories demonstrate well both why this period was given this title back then - the quality was far higher than, say, the 1920s and 30s - and also why that gold has tarnished in quite a big way since. By Asimov standards, the characters here are slightly more three dimensional than usual, but still from the stock cupboard, while women only feature as part of the scenery.

Still, there's some good material. The Martian Way is a bit of a precursor for Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - space colony under pressure from the dominant Earth realises that it has to find a way to be truly independent. In this case, the problem is water and the solution is recognising the wider resources available to those with mastery of space. Youth has some of the feel of a Bradbury story with young protagonists (inevitably both male) - though Asimov can't capture the same sense of wonder. But it's a classic twist-in-the-tale piece of SF, nicely done. The Deep, the short story, tries to look at human culture through alien eyes and half succeeds. And Sucker Bait involves a mission to a failed colony where Asimov does what he does best - tries to find the solution to a problem of maintaining a galactic civilisation, in this case information overload.

The idea of that last story is that people are increasingly specialised and computers don't have insight, so there's a need in a widespread society (across thousands of planets) is to somehow have the ability to cross index and analyse knowledge. Now, of course, we would turn to computers, but we can't blame Asimov for not thinking of the advances we've seen in both software and hardware - so instead he proposes a human solution, individuals programmed from birth to be in the Mnemonic Service - remembering everything they see and able to link together forgotten pieces of information. Human Googles, you might say.

Clearly this isn't a realistic solution, but at least Asimov had thought about the issue. The story still has those 1950s faults. The captain and crew of the ship are straight out of marine central casting and regard the 'egghead' scientists as weirdos. And there's a sentence that beautifully sums up the period approach to women in the description of the origin of the settlement: 'In the next months, some of the unattached men arranged to have women brought in, so the settlement must have flourished for a while.' Yet despite these faults, this is primarily a story of ideas and Asimov was exploring an issue that most tales of galactic empire simply never considered.

I wouldn't say this short book is a collection to rush out and obtain - but if you come across it, it's well worth giving it a try.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: This collection of Asimov's stories and novellas contains 4 titles published in the fifties. The one I liked most was Sucker Bait, an interesting mystery story during space exploration, with a special and likable main character, Mark Annuncio. Another story, Youth, which seemed at first sight to be a standard story about contact with extraterrestrials, turned at the end to have a surprising twist, the same used by Richard Matheson in a chapter (The invaders) of the second series of The Twilight Zone. The story giving the collection its title is -for me- less interesting, being somewhat triumphalist.

ESPAÑOL: Esta colección de cuentos y novelas cortas de Asimov contiene 4 títulos publicados en los años cincuenta. El que más me gustó fue Engañabobos, una historia de misterio relacionado con la exploración del espacio, con un atractivo y especial personaje principal, Mark Annuncio. Otra historia, Juventud, que a primera vista parece ser un relato estándar de contacto con extraterrestres, da al final un giro sorprendente, el mismo que utilizó Richard Matheson en un capítulo (Los invasores) de la segunda serie de Dimensión desconocida. El relato que da título a la colección es, para mí, menos interesante y demasiado triunfalista.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

প্রথমবার পড়ার সময় এই নভেল্লাটা আমার খুব একটা ভালো লাগেনি। কিন্তু যত দিন যাচ্ছে, তত বেশি করে বুঝতে পারছি, ঘৃণা আর সংশয়ের বেসাতি করা রাজনীতিকদের মুখে ঝামা ঘষার এই একটাই রাস্তা আছে: তাদের দেখিয়ে দেওয়া যে করুণা নয়, মানুষ সম্মান নিয়ে বাঁচতে চায়। সত্যিই এই লেখাটা অনন্য।
প্রাসঙ্গিক মন্তব্য: শেখ আবদুল হাকিম 'শক্ত পানি' নামে এটির যাচ্ছেতাই অনুবাদ করেছেন। ওটি এড়িয়ে মূল ইংরেজি কাহিনিটি পড়ার পরামর্শই দেব।

[Xabi1990 · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's quite fashionable to put Asimov down these days, and I don't recommend this without reservation. One doesn't read Asimov for characterization (For me, the best character he ever created was the robot detective in the "Naked Sun" and "Caves of Steel" novels), prose style, or insight about women (it's a male world in these two novelettes and two short stories). But before 1970 he was good at fashioning concise, hard science, idea-driven fiction. These are all from the early 1950's. The lean prose has aged better than that of some of his wordier contemporaries. The short forms are a better fit for his ideas than his late, padded "Foundation" and "Robot" novels. As a kid, I wasn't an SF nut but I did read some other Asimov works, so it was nice to pick up something sort of from my past but new to me. I enjoyed traveling to a past future and finding it still had some vitality.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains four different Isaac Asimov short stories, and as with any short story collection, some of them are better than others. The good news is that it starts off well with the titular story in which a Martian colony comes to realise that the water that they rely on from the Earth might not be as secure as they thought. In fact, they have to find an alternative source of water, and it even had a couple references to what Asimov called “the hot house effect”. He was including climate change in his stories as far back as 1955.

The next one was called Youth, and that was followed by The Deep. These two were just okay, and they weren’t particularly memorable. It’s not that there was anything wrong with them, it’s just hard to beat Asimov at his best. But he had a return to form in Sucker Bait, which included an organisation called the Mnemonic Service where people are basically employed just to know things. Cool stuff!

[Dagne567 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jutukogumik Asimovilt, ulme kuldajastust.

Mõtle nagu marslane - hea lugu Maa ja Marsi poliitilisest konfliktist. Natuke meenutas ülesehituselt esimest Asumi raamatut. Vajadus paradigma muutuse järele, ksenofoobse poliitika oht. (Hea tähelepanek teisest arvustusest - millist pikaajalist mõju avaldaks jää kaevandamine Saturnile ja tema kaaslaste orbiitidele?)

Noorus - läbinähtava puändiga lihtne lugu.

Sügavik - katse kujutleda inimkonnale hoomamatult ja teistsugust tsivilisatsiooni - tulemuseks muidugi ebaõnnestumine, aga ma usun, et seda tasub ikkagi üritada.

Neljas lugu mnemoonilisest geeniusest ja tühikargajatest eriteadlastest oli meh, aga kõlbas lugeda.

[Rebecca I · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something written in 1952 that still has relevance today? In science fiction? I can't believe I haven't read this before now. The paperback cost 60 cents when it came out. Not the 50s, probably the 60s when the paperback market started to flourish. All these stories got me thinking a bit more out of the box. It is just amazing that Asimov realized some things about our use and abuse of the planet so early on.

[Julia García Marañón · Rating 4 out of 5]

No sé que decir que no dijese ya con Nueve Futuros, pero el resumen es que me gusta esta ciencia ficción. El cuento que más me ha gustado ha sido el último, quizás porque es el que más fresco tengo o por la ternura que me provoca Mark Annuncio.

[Olga Pogynaiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Азімов - моя запізніла любов. Взагалі, в дитинстві я дуже любила фантастику, але попри непогану домашню бібліотеку і міську бібліотеку біля сьомої школи, куди я в тому віці справно ходила (цікаво, чи вона ще там є), Азімов якось пройшов повз мене. Взагалі пройшов. Перше знайомство - аудіокнига у статусі вже директорки книгарні (задооовго після того, як я любила фантастику). Я була вражена. Ідея "Кінця вічності" досі крутиться мені в голові. А цю книжку я взагалі знайшла на дачі на стриху. Попередні власники забрали з дачі якийсь стіл і грозилися забрати цвяхи, а про книжки навіть не заїкалися. Так мені попався Азімов 1966 року з передмовою Стругацьких, до того всього, судячи зі штампів, колись благополучно поцуплений з бібліотеки.
Знаєте, як відрізнити класну фантастику від посередньої? У класній завжди є глибина, така собі філософська складова. У Азімова вона скрізь, навіть в найкоротших і на перший погляд гумористичних. А от що мене здивувало, це те, як мало є екранізацій на сюжети Азімова. Я не могла нічого такого пригадати і мусіла аж погуглити. І що? Отак сходу Гугл видаст вам "Двохсотлітню людину", "Фантастичну подорож" і "Я, робот". Ще кілька загалом невдалих. і все. І це при тому, сюжети, як на мене, дуже кінематографічні.
Ну, коротше, читайте, на здоров'я :)

[Ali Berk Çetinbudaklar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Üstadın 4 kısa öyküsünün toplandığı bir derleme.Öyküler çeşitli alt türlere ait.Bu öyküler:

Mars Yolu: Politik tabanlı bir bilimkurgu diyebilirim.Dünya İnsanlığın'ın, Mars İnsanlığın'ın gözünün yaşına bakmadığı bir çağı konu alıyor.Mars'ın istediği suyu ancak ticari yollarla tedarik edilebileceğini söyleyen Dünya Hükümeti ve hükümetin bu davranışını öngören Marslı birkaç maceraperest kişiliklerin hayatların pahasına da olsa diğer soğuk gezegenlerden aşırı büyük buz kütlesinin getirme çabalarını konu alıyor.Sonunu da çok güzel bir mizahi üslupla tamamlamış.

-GEnçlik

-Derinlerde:Bu hikaye de çok hoşuma gitti.Bir bakıma günlük hayatımızdan koparılma eser gibi sadece ona temsili simgelerle anlatımı seçmiş yazar.SOsyolojik farklılıklardan dem vurmuş.


-Enayi Tuzağı:Bu hikayeyi de aslen çok sevdim. Karekterler çok derin olmasa da anlatmak istedikleri veriyorlardı.Bilginin sınırı olmadığına,kaynağının sürekli öğrenme hevesi olduğuna değinilmiş.Şayet günü(!) kurtaran da uzay gemisindeki kendini konusunda üst düzey zanneden bilim adamları değil, onların her türlü aksiyonunu an ve an izleyen ve kitaplarını okuyan Mnemonic arkadaşımız olmuştur.

[Mary Mimouna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent Novella. Written in 1952, it is timeless, dealing with all the same issues we are dealing with in today’s world: populism stirred up by politicians on the right who want to grab power; questions of human nature such as blaming outsiders as scapegoats; Colonization issues and taxpayers on Earth tired of subsidizing space travel and colonies; and looming water wars between Mars and Earth; human ingenuity in the humans on Mars finding a solution; everyday conflict in ongoing marital issues.

As someone who spent half my life in one society and then loved to another very different society, the issues for the humans on Mars feel similar to someone who has lived for years outside of their home culture facing new and different challenging situations that typical people back on Earth just wouldn’t understand.

The book has an extremely satisfying conclusion.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title story is one of the first SF stories I ever read. It was anthologized in some 50's collection lent to me by a friend. I never forgot that story. I even retold it to my stepdaughter (6 years old at the time and is in her twenties now) during a relatively long car ride. She retold it as a factual story the next day at school... She has never forgiven me for that.

The other stories in this collection are first rate Asimov.

[Vados · Rating 4 out of 5]

Шо тут казать. Перо майстра!
За такий короткий обсяг так тонко й глибоко все описати в напівтонах, встигнути зануритись в політичні аспекти та зробити вкотре складну науку популярною. Єдине, що концепція панува��ня людини над природою вже набирає обертів свого кінця, втім який не скоро станеться. Але акцент саме життя в гармонії, бути охоронцем природи, а не паном - саме це зараз зароджується на наших очах.

[Сибин Майналовски · Rating 5 out of 5]

Дори калпавият 90-арски превод не може да убие красотата на Маестро Азимов :) Поклон!

[Geoff · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's only 4 stories in this collection and I wasn't impressed by any of them. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone looking to check Asimov's short story work.

[Lucía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very good. Light and hopeful.

[Kshitij Khandelwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as it gets.

[Milky P. Cawai · Rating 4 out of 5]

วิถีแห่งอังคาร/ไอแซค อาซิมอฟ

รวมเรื่องสั้น4เรื่อง ถึงโลกจะก้าวไปข้างหน้าแค่ไหนย้ายถิ่นฐานไปดาวดวงอื่นเปลี่ยนวิถีชีวิตยังไง แนวโน้มความคิดพฤติกรรมมนุษย์ก็ไม่เคยเปลี่ยน หลักๆก็ยังเป็นเรื่องพลังงานกับทรัพยากรที่ร่อยหรอหมดไปเรื่อยๆ วิทยาศาสตร์ที่พัฒนาส่วนใหญ่ไม่ได้เพื่อชดเชยหรือสรรค์สร้างสิ่งใดให้แก่โลกและจักรวาลแต่เพื่อสนองความต้องการของมนุษย์เอง

วิถีแห่งอังคาร/ชนชาวดาวอังคารที่ดิ้นรนขยายขอบเขตสำรวจเพราะขาดแคลนน้ำ ชนชาวโลกที่โทษทุกอย่างยกเว้นตนเอง ความเป็นไปได้ของมนุษย์ในจักรวาลกว้างใหญ่กับโลกที่กำลังจะตาย ต่างฝ่ายต่างก็ดิ้นรนเพื่อการดำรงอยู่

เด็กหนอ/โลกอนาคตที่สร้างสรรค์คือโลกที่ให้พลังแก่แนวคิดใหม่ นักดาราศาสตร์และนักอุตสาหกรรมสองคนที่คิดหาวิธีเปิดทางให้เกิดการแลกเปลี่ยนสสารกับเพื่อนจากต่างดาว ความสัมพันธ์ของเด็กๆกับสิ่งมีชีวิตจากนอกโลก ถึงจะแตกต่างแต่ก็สามารถเป็นมิตรต่อกันได้ไม่จำเป็นต้องทำลายและหวาดระแวงกันและกัน

อาคันตุกะใต้พิภพ/รูปแบบการใช้ชีวิตของมนุษย์ต่างดาวของเรื่องข้าคือพระเจ้า การอาศัยอยู่ในหลุมลึกเพื่อขุดหาพลังงานความร้อน การออกสำรวจแหล่งพลังงานใหม่และสิ่งมีชีวิตในดาวโลก ความแตกต่างทางด้านสภาพพื้นที่อยู่อาศัย รูปแบบความสัมพันธ์ในชีวิตกับจิตสัมผัสที่ใช้ในการสื่อสาร

เหยื่อล่อ...รอเหยื่อ/เมื่อประชากรล้นโลก มนุษย์ขยายถิ่นฐานกระจายไปยังดาวต่างๆเพื่อหาที่อยู่อาศัยและแหล่งผลิตอาหารใหม่ๆ ปริศนาการตายของมนุษย์ทั้งหมดบนดาวเจ้าตัวเล็กเมื่อศตวรรษก่อนความหวังทางการเมืองของกลุ่มอำนาจทำให้ทีมผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านต่างๆถูกส่งมายังดาวดวงนี้อีกครั้ง แหล่งอาหารที่เชื่อว่าอุดมสมบูรณ์เหยื่อล่อที่รอมนุษย์เข้ามาหา ความแตกแยกภายในกลุ่ม เหล่าผู้เชี่ยวชาญหัวรั้น หนุ่มน้อยแผนกรหัสคลังข้อมูลเคลื่อนที่ที่ไม่มีใครรับฟัง ทีมจะติดกับดักทางธรรมชาติหรือกับดักทางความคิดที่เกือบจะทำลายกันเอง

ชอบหยิบอ่านไซไฟแต่ก็ไม่ได้เข้าใจทฤษฏีเทคโนโลยีอะไรมาก ใช้หลักเน้นจิตนาการไม่เน้นความรููู้้้

[Cristóbal Angulo Rivero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha sido un viaje muy apacible.
Asimov da en la clave de lo que es el género de la ciencia ficción: mundos paralelos que no necesitan de grandes fantasías para funcionar como sistemas totalmente independientes de nuestra propia realidad. Con pequeños cambios crea horizontes nuevos donde personajes sorprendentemente redondos para los relatos cortos tienen sentido.
Bajo la premisa de ¿Qué pasaría si...? el autor nos transporta a problemáticas imposibles en nuestro mundo pero que a la vez despiertan empatía por la conexión con sus personajes.
A la vez, creo que es importante destacar el cariz social de los mundos que construye. Pueden adivinarse alegorías y críticas al sistema en la manera que erige sociedades imaginarias, que al alejarse de nosotros nos hace poner en perspectiva dinámicas que pudieron (no olvidemos que es un libro de 1950s) pasar desapercibidas en primera persona.
Muy disfrutable, una lectura muy ligera y recomendable

[Bill Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of short stories, all from the perspective of space. Only 1 of the stories seems to partially take place on Earth (in an airplane, so technically over the Earth). The Martian Way is a story about politicians on Earth refusing to provide water to the colonies on Mars because of a made up fear of Earth running out of water (despite the majority of the Earth comprising of water). Resonates today with politically made up "problems" to divide our country - for example the fear of immigration actually being a problem. My favorite story is the last one, Sucker Bait. It is a sci-fi mystery focusing on a planet nick-named "junior" that is very Earth-like, but a previous settlement of a thousand people died without any direct reason. Will the group of scientists a hundred years later discover the reason their predecessors dies before they die as well? It also tells a story about compartmentalized knowledge; how the scientists only know about their chosen field - the chemist has no clue what the physicist knows, etc, and they seem reluctant or unwilling to learn anything they aren't already familiar with. The one person who can put together information from all the fields of study is hated by most of them, and vehemently ignored. Great stories, written in 1955. If you like your science fiction with some substance, this is for you.

[Horus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is really not Asimov at his best writing. The concepts of the stories however, and how they make you think, are definitely up there. There are four shorts included in this book and they are much more about human prejudice and hubris in many ways, than they are about space travel. There are great twists of perspective in two of the stories, which invite us to check our own assumptions at the door. The first story, The Martian Way feels like it could have been an inspiration for James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series. It reads like a really really early prequel. A nice addition for Asimov fans, but probably not the most engaging read for those who’ve never read his works before.

[booksbyg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Asimov's writing. He is plain talking and his stories have a lovely twisty feel to them. I can imagine him grinning to himself as he writes them out. I wish I'd discovered my love for this author years ago but never too late - I've amassed a fair collection to keep me going via ebay and I think I will start with the Robot books next! This was a collection of short stories - hmmm which one did I like the most ? Weirdly I started with the second story - it drew me in and it was very very clever! Although the last one - Sucker Bait was very clever too... they have a way of making you chew over things in your head! If you are a Sci-Fi fan and haven't read any Asimov - what are you waiting for???

[Irene S. Cuenca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho. En esta ocasión, A lo marciano está compuesto por cuatro historias.

Cada cual, me ha gustado más que la anterior, su narración era de más fácil comprensión y estaba más desarrollada.

He disfrutado mucho entre especies, espacio, marcianos, planetas y descubrimientos.

Estoy contenta de que haya sido mi última lectura del año.